A Celebration!

Over the past few days, I have grown increasingly familiar with ins and outs of exactly what CARE for AIDS is doing on the ground in Kenya. All of the models, visions, and processes that seem so simple from the comfort of America become so much more complex when you add in the reality of Africa and the individuality of every person involved, from the workers to the clients to the church members. During this learning process, though, I have heard many amazing stories, and I want to share with you about a celebration that CARE for AIDS held earlier this month.

Last summer, CARE for AIDS began working with Koinonia Baptist Church to begin operating a CFA center with their church for their community, Ruaka. Over the course of a few months, our CFA staff worked with the church pastors to find and train a Spiritual Counselor and a Community Health Worker to serve full time in the center, and a whole team of staff members and volunteers began reaching out to the community to find people who would benefit from from the CFA services. It's not an easy process, as one's HIV status is extremely private in this society. It is a paradox that this culture will embrace and shake hands with a man who is sick with the flu, which is easily communicable by touch, but will not even think about associating with a man who has HIV/AIDS. Over time, a group of clients were found who were willing to be honest with the church staff about their status and begin receiving the CARE for AIDS services.

After nine months of coming to the center each week, receiving CFA staff members for home visits, attending seminars, and being slowly transformed from a resignation to death into a life of hope, the 75 clients were deemed ready to "graduate" from the center a few weeks ago. All of the CFA staff joined with them on a Saturday for a send-off celebration, where each client was given some food, a Bible, and the gift of enrollment in the National Hospital Insurance Fund for three months, at which point they will begin paying for their own insurance coverage. The clients were able to stand up and share about their lives to everyone present, and they gave testimonies of how how CARE for AIDS helped them to understand their HIV status and talk about it with other people. They told of how they feel empowered to make money to support themselves and their familes and how they have been given a reason to go to church and become a part of the community there.

Perhaps even more exciting than what these people said, though, is what they have done. I got to sit down with Pastor Bernard, the head pastor of Koinonia Baptist Church, and hear his thoughts on the CFA program partnering with his church. He told me how incredibly exciting it was for the church to have about 25 of the CFA clients regularly attending their service...people who were not involved in any church before. He told me that on the Sunday after the send-off, 8 of our clients stood in front of the church and publicly revealed their HIV status. This is incredibly significant, as the Kenyan stigma toward AIDS is overwhelming, and this was their way of challenging the church further to accept HIV positive people as brothers and sisters in Christ, a step they would never have considered a year ago. Pastor Bernard told me that he sees, "health improvement, social and spiritual growth" in all of the CFA clients. He also told me how exciting it was that the now-graduated clients are becoming agents of change in the community themselves. Not only have they taken steps like publicly expressing their status, but they are the ones who have reached out to other needy people in the community and brought them to register for the next round of clients.

This is just an example of why I am here and why I believe in this ministry. Pastor Bernard told me that "CARE for AIDS has definitely helped us move forward in our vision as a church," the vision of transforming a community in the name of the Lord. I am continually thankful for the chance to be a part of this and to hopefully see this kind of impact expand to communities all over Kenya!