Death & Hope
HIV/AIDs. It’s not a happy subject. But it affects millions. Thirty-five million people are living with HIV/AIDs and countless more are affected by it.
Of those 35 million, 23 million live in Sub-Sahara Africa. Only one (Haiti) of the top 20 countries in the world with HIV/AIDs is not Africa. Nine of the top ten are from Zambia southward – 1. Swaziland; 2. Botswana; 3. Lesotho; 4. Zimbabwe; 5. South Africa; 6. Namibia; 7. Zambia; 8. Malawi; 9. Central African Republic; 10. Mozambique. South Africa while 5th in % of people living with HIV/AIDs, is #1 in terms of vast numbers of people people living with HIV/AIDs.
It affects everything. AIDS & poverty have a symbiotic relationship. The poor have AIDs are more likely to not be able to afford the anti-viral medicine or proper medical care and AIDs creates poverty, orphans and despair. Fifteen million children are orphaned in Africa because of AIDs. It leads to a life of hopelessness. Why live for the future when the future may never come?
This trip, we will dive headfirst into this issue. We will go where those who suffer live. We will interact with kids who live on their own or whos’ only parent lies at mom sick and dying. We will serve alongside those who care for those dying of AIDs. Not sure what we will do. Maybe it will be preparing & delivering a meal. maybe it will be helping administer medicine. Maybe it will be holding a hand comforting them and praying with them.
My prayer is that we will serve and extend love as Jesus. And I know the promise that we will be doing it to Jesus too. (Matt 25:36-40)
There was a book I read last year called – No Place Left to Bury the Dead: Denial, Despair and Hope in the AIDS Pandemic. The book frustrated me and yet gave hope. Yet it put a name and a story to the numbers. That’s what I want to happen too. I want to know names and faces who are suffering and yet whom God loves who need to experience his care and hope.
