The Heart of a Warrior...

I think this is almost too much for my heart to take. Morris, our Ugandan Angel (excuse me, Warrior - I mean, he has 5 Muno moms now.... what do you expect for us to call him?) just now left our house to stay the night with Pastor Walter. We picked up this 12-year-old orphan boy on Tuesday from one of the camps we go to, to take him to a hospital in Lira. Shau and Rachel presumed he had AIDS and were confirmed today after receiving his test results.
But on the way home to Lira, Walter and Drew were in the back with him, loving on him, talking to him, playing with him, and telling him how much Jesus loves him. While Morris was struggling to understand all of this new stuff these strange people were telling him, the rest of us were praying together that he would understand and accept Jesus as his savior. In the midst of our prayers, we heard Walter praying in Luo, and the smallest, most angelic voice you've ever heard repeating what Walter prayed.
As soon as they finished praying, he opened his eyes to everyone clapping and so excited for him. Then, as requested, he began to sing and teach us a church song in Luo... and the tears started coming.... and they wouldn't stop. I felt an unspeakable joy mixed with an equal amount of sorrow for this beautiful little boy whose parents and brothers and sisters had all died, and whose grandmother didn't care enough about him to come to Lira as his caretaker, but in one minute and one whisper of a prayer, his eternity changed forever because of Jesus' unfailing pursuit of his little soul. In a country of thousands just like him, I felt God say "but this one's mine".
So for the past couple of days, we have had the privelege of spoiling him rotten, and just a few minutes ago, right before he left, he was repeating all of our names, and then said "Amaro Wu", which means "I love you all". I mean, talk about a heartache, seriously - am I still breathing?
So I'm sure that everyone has their own version to tell of this angel who swooped into our lives called Morris, but I just ask you all to join us in prayer for his healing, that his sick body would receive a supernatural touch just as he received a spiritual touch.
(Added by Rachele to let you know of the medical stats...) After we received his positive test results we took him to the clinic to determine what his CD 4 count was... Unfortunately his count is 18 which is incredibly low and representative of full blown active AIDS. 200 is the normal number classifying someone as having AIDS, anything above this figure is considered HIV infection. Please pray for our wisdom in knowing where to send him for treatment and that his body would ultimately handle the treatment and start to see a decrease in his viral load. He has Kaposi's Sarcoma and many other opportunistic infections...but "by HIS stripes we are healed!!" In the west we always speak of the AIDs epidemic, hearing of the millions of children that die, orphaned and sick. It's a whole new reality to the pandemic when you look into the eyes of a twelve year old boy and realize that he is HUMAN. He is a child who deserves none of this. A pandemic is made up of a million tiny individual souls. We must never forget that each one of these children is created in the utmost image of our God. How he must weep on behalf of his people. Especially a child like Morris. But let us fervently pray for miracles, never ceasing in our intercession.

Thank you for your prayers and your hearts poured into these people... your prayers are making a difference.

MariAnne