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The Joshua Project offers free dental care to kids with HIV/AIDS

Journal Entry for Thursday, February 12, 2009

I woke this morning with great excitement at the prospect of visiting our teens with HIV/AIDS in a city about 2 hours’ drive away. I hoped that many of the kids we met last year would once again visit the day center so we could see them again. I was not disappointed. Nineteen teenagers showed up, about a dozen being the ones we met last March!

Some speak English; some don’t. Some are embarrassed to speak it around us. In an effort to build relationship despite the language barrier, I invited a half dozen to play “Uno.” It worked. We had great fun together at our end of the table while Gene played “Connect Four” with others.

Tony and Claudia Udrea are Romanian IMers who helped found “The Joshua Project” with Andy and Tresha McKnight. They spent the day with us, acting as translators. When Gene stood to share a devotional, the kids asked him why we returned. Aren’t you afraid of us like everyone else is? they asked. And why do you always tell a lesson from the Bible when you come? What a perfect lead-in to explain that God loves them (and so do we) and wants to communicate with them through His Word.

A highlight of this ministry is that the government has finally approved their application to hire a dentist who’s willing to treat these kids. Thanks to an American donor, the day center is equipped with state-of-the-art dental equipment, and finally…after three years of wrestling with bureaucracy…a dentist has arrived. What an answer to prayer!

Our drive home was anything but fun because it had snowed all day with no let-up in sight. Roads were slick, and many cars were either parked off to the side or in the ditch. “Thank you, God, for a safe return to River of Life, and thank You for loving the kids at The Joshua Project. Please draw each one to Yourself so they won’t go into a Christless eternity.”