South Africa 9 - Thief

Yesterday I went out to creche run by a church and sat in a meeting that was done entirely in Zulu - so I had no idea what was going on!
The highlight of the morning was holding a one month old baby from the creche. She was a tiny scrap of life; light, warm and cuddly with the most beautiful face! I wanted to sit there forever.

On the way to a school to do a HIV/AIDS lesson I couldn't stop thinking:
Are her parents still alive? And if so, how much longer might they be?
What will happen to her in the future?
Does she have a future?
Does HIV already limit how long she can live?

I wanted to run back and scoop her up and take her far away from the reality of a packed out creche with no where near enough workers/volunteers to look after the number of children there.
And yet I knew that I couldn't and that I never would.


Occasionally one of the workers swaps into English when they're teaching the children; at one point later on that day one of the workers said that HIV "steals, kills and destroys"

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10

HIV is the thief.