There are moments in life that force us to do things we once believed were meant for other people and not for us.
Prayer was never part of my daily routine before 1999, when I was admitted at St Luke’s Hospital suffering from a severe bout of tuberculosis (TB).
Around the same time, I had also tested HIV positive.
At that point, I was not sure whether I would live long enough to see my two children, Simba, then eight years old, and Rutendo, about five, grow into adulthood, let alone meet my grandchildren.
The day I received my HIV-positive results, I asked my wife, Mai Simba, to take me to a secluded place near the male TB ward and leave me alone for a while. That night, I prayed to God in a way I had never prayed before.
I confessed my sins, asked for forgiveness and pleaded with God to heal me and allow me to see my children grow up.
I also made a solemn promise that if I survived, I would spend the rest of my life telling people about God’s goodness and helping others living with HIV regain confidence and live positively. That is a promise I continue to keep today.
Since then, prayer has become part of my everyday life. I pray every morning and every night, and I continue to encourage others living with HIV to never lose hope.
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Hardly a day passes without me speaking about HIV and how God’s grace saved me from imminent death.
Recovering from TB was a long and difficult journey. Even after returning to my teaching job at Mkoka Secondary School, full recovery took nearly seven years. Along the way, I began to drift back to my old habits of drinking and smoking, something that deeply worried Mai Simba.
Then in 2010, during a weekend conversation at home, my wife reminded me how close to death I had once been.
She spoke about the three months she spent sleeping under my hospital bed in a ward full of coughing TB patients while our young children stayed with relatives in the rural areas.
She then asked me a question that changed my life forever: “Do you not think God has kept you alive for a purpose?”
Her words struck me deeply. That very day, I resolved never to touch alcohol or cigarettes again.
I also committed myself to prayer and decided to get baptised.
Although I had grown up in the Roman Catholic Church, I had never been baptised.
After searching for a spiritual home that suited our needs, we eventually joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In August 2013, I was baptised at Kana Central SDA Church.
Many people came to witness the occasion because they could hardly believe someone with my past could genuinely turn to God.
Some joked that it was like “the Devil himself” was being baptised. But by God’s grace, I have never looked back.
Since my baptism, I have never consumed alcohol or smoked cigarettes again, and in 13 years I have never missed a Sabbath service.
Today, I remain grateful to God for sustaining me and my family through more than three decades of living with HIV.
We have reached a point where HIV no longer controls our lives. Instead, it has taught us resilience, faith and gratitude.
Mai Simba remains my greatest companion after more than 37 years of marriage.
Together, we have shared our story in churches, on radio and television programmes organised by the National Aids Council (NAC), and at workshops with media practitioners and other stakeholders in the HIV and Aids sector.
We still hope to fulfil one dream together — to have a proper white wedding, something Mai Simba has wished for since our marriage in 1990.
I continue working towards making that dream a reality, after which she also hopes to be baptised.
Living with HIV has taught us to value life differently.
We are no longer afraid of Aids. Instead, we have embraced life fully and continue to encourage others that being HIV positive is not the end of life.
Next week, I will share some of the good and difficult moments we have experienced while living with HIV.
