Sad news

Thursday night a child we knew and loved became one of the 563 children under the age of five that die everyday in Kenya. Baby Diamond who lived in the rescue center at CT died from AIDS at Kenyatta Hospital. Nick had found Baby Diamond under a tree at one of the Mathare IDPs during the post-election violence. His mother had gone to search for food. When Baby Diamond became sick Nick took him to be tested. He tested positive for HIV/AIDS. For a over a year Nick and Charles have cared for Baby Diamond and his mother in the rescue center. Nick and Charles have taken him to the hospital throughout the year for treatments, found food for him and his mother and prayed for him. They loved him as their own. So did the 33 other children in the rescue center. Keeping with what they believe is their calling to see all the clients of CT who die are properly buried, Nick and Charles began the preparations to see Baby Diamond was buried. Nick had his uncle make a baby coffin. Taking the coffin to the morgue they received Baby Diamond. Hiring a transport company they placed the baby coffin on top of the vehicle and late Friday nigh they left Nairobi traveling far interior to the village where his Baby Diamond's father was from His father had died from AIDS. When they arrived they found a grave dug. As Baby Diamond's body had not been prepared properly for burial they had to remove him and clean him and rewrap him in a cloth they had brought with them.

Few people were there to bury the baby so Nick and Charles had to play major roles to see Baby Diamond was buried. No one from the family or the village would step into the grave to place the coffin for the burial. Nick got into the grave to receive the coffin. Covering the coffin with dirt they placed 0n the grave a wooden cross the transport driver had made. Baby Diamond became the 78th person the 23rd child they have lost to the disease of HIV/AIDS. When I met with them to hear the story of the death and burial of Baby Diamond I offered to get them some counseling but they told me what I could do is pray for them - God was their counsellor. When they told the children in the rescue center the children were very sad They thought of Baby Diamond as their sibling They couldn't understand and ask when Baby Diamond would be returning home Nick and Charles are 27 years old - young men called to do mighty work for the Lord.

Praying for Nick and Charles,
Connie