When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

The lyrics of this familiar hymn came to Steve O’Neil in the midst of a difficult experience. Serving with his wife, Denae in Tanzania, he has found himself wrestling with a tremendous, exhausting challenge known as AIDS.

"These last few weeks I’ve really been stretched and taken out of my comfort zone," he writes. "I’ve seen the ravaging effects of AIDS and it has become personal."

On a recent trip to the market, Steve saw a woman lying on the side of the road. She was in great pain and unable to walk.

"I knew that I had to stop and help," he says.

AIM missionary Steve

O'Neil serves with his

wife and family in Dar

es Salaam, Tanzania.

The O'Neils recently

began to care for a

woman with Stage

4 AIDS. Says Steve,

"Pray that our hearts

will break for the

things that break

the Father's heart."

The woman’s name was Rachel and her leg was swollen, the skin purple and peeling away. After transporting her to a nearby clinic and waiting to see a doctor, he was informed that Rachel had Stage 4 AIDS.

As he went through the process of admitting her to the hospital, Steve I thought I could get by with observing AIDS from a distance.learned that Rachel is the first of three wives of a man who abandoned her. She had come to Dar es Salaam from a great distance seeking medical treatment. A female relative is her sole support.

Since she lives within walking distance of the O’Neil’s, they became involved in her care after she was released from the hospital.

"Her situation at home has deteriorated," Steve writes, "as she is poorly cared for and is struggling with fever, diarrhea, and mouth sores."

Steve and Denae have been trying to nurse her back to health in order for her to travel back to her home region. In her present condition, however, the doctor predicts that the trip itself would hasten her death.

"Never did I realize that I would be put in a situation where I would be a caregiver for a stranger - that I would have to make life and death decisions for someone. I knew that AIDS was marking its 25th Anniversary, and that sub-Saharan Africa suffers from an AIDS pandemic, and that Tanzania and Dar es Salaam more particularly have high HIV/AIDS rates, but little did I realize it would so directly enter my world. I thought I could get by with observing AIDS from a distance."

Faced with tough decisions and awkward, even painful situations, Steve and Denae take comfort in the hymnwriter’s description of God: even in darkness His face remains, his grace unchanged, His presence an anchor in every storm...

"Please pray for Rachel," Steve writes. "And pray for [us] as we humbly attempt to meet her physical and spiritual needs. Pray that our hearts will break for the things that break the Father’s heart."

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