"Though I have fallen, I will rise"

This morning I went with Rosemary, the physical counselor from the Imani CFA center, to visit one of our clients named Peter Kimani. We drove down some tiny dirt roads and pulled into the compound, made up of a few tin and wood buildings, where Peter lives with his parents, sisters, nieces, and nephews. After speaking with his parents for a few minutes, Rosemary and I sat down in the small room where Peter lives for about an hour, getting an intimate look into the struggles and joys that have made up his life thus far.

In 2002, Peter was a truck driver with a wife and two children. That year, though, he discovered he was HIV-positive, and over the next few years his health deteriorated rapidly. His wife and kids left him, and by 2005 he was completely bedridden, living in a small, dark wooden room at his parents’ house. For over three years, Peter did not move from his bed under his own power. At first, his parents and other family members were supportive, but over time they grew tired of taking care of him. He remembers that in his third year of being bedridden, the door to his dark room would remain closed for the entire day, except for the times when a family member would drop off a plate of food for him. Before he was totally stuck in bed, Peter raised chickens and found a lot of joy from taking care of them. Once he could no longer get out of bed to feed them, though, Peter killed and ate all of the chickens, a move of resignation which hurt him deeply.

In 2009, a newly-recruited client at the Imani CARE for AIDS center, Judy Waithera, told Rosemary and Humphrey about Peter and his condition. They visited him and decided to take him on as a client, even though he couldn’t move from his bed. At the beginning of her visits with Peter, Rosemary recalls the horrible state of his living conditions. Everything was extremely dirty, Peter’s bed was never cleaned of his own excrement, and his body was covered in sores from staying in bed all the time. His family was struggling with the drought, and he would oftentimes only eat once in a day, which made his ARV’s ineffective. At this point his whole body was in pain, to the point where he did not even want someone to shake his hand because it hurt so badly.

Over the past year in the center, though, Peter has improved on many fronts. The center workers counseled his parents extensively, instilling in them a new passion to help Peter. Physically, the nutrition from the weekly food supplement he receives, along with physical therapy from Rosemary and Humphrey and his parents’ efforts to take him outside daily, have left him in much better shape. He has almost no pain in his body now, and he is able to sit up and talk with people on his own, an activity that brings a certain dignity along with it. He has also received a wheelchair from another NGO, and he goes outside each day in the chair to get a change of scenery, which is great for his psychological health. The sanitation in his living area changed dramatically as Rosemary provided supplies and training on cleanliness, and he was provided with clean clothes through the center.

To help with this transformation, Rosemary worked extensively with Judy, training her to be Peter’s caretaker. Over the last year, Judy has visited Peter once a week, washing him, cleaning his bedding, and spending time with him. Peter is extremely thankful for this fellowship, in addition to the visits from the CFA staff, and he has received a new sense of hope from this sense of community. This hope is a significant part of major spiritual growth that has occured in Peter over the last year – he is so thankful for the visitors and fellowship, and he says that the CFA staff are the first people to love him and share Christ with him since he got sick. They show him God has not forsaken him, and they inspire him to a sense of optimism about the future.

Peter is faithfully believing and hoping that he will be able to walk again this year, and he also wants to start keeping chickens again as soon as possible, now that he can move outside in his wheelchair. His face lights up in a huge smile while he tells me about his goals for the next year, and I truly believe that he will do everything in his power to reach them!

Please join me in praying for Peter - that his health would continue to improve, that he would find the means to start a project like poultry keeping, that his family would have patience and love in helping him, that his faith would grow even stronger, and that he would find joy and peace each day.

Before we prayed with Peter and left the house, he insisted that we read a few Bible verses with him. The first verse he requested, and the one that speaks so powerfully from someone in his situation, is Micah 7:7-8. It reads:

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
My God will hear me.

Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be my light.