Faith Healers

Earlier this week I made a trip out to Kisumu, in Western Kenya, to check on the progress of the first CARE for AIDS center in this area. Over the course of two days of meeting with staff and observing the center in action, I came to a new understanding of the unique challenges facing people living with HIV/AIDS in this area. One of the biggest and most heart-breaking problems is the way in which the "church" has contributed to the massive devastation caused by HIV.

Several decades ago, missionary movements from most major denominations came to Kenya in force and helped to establish hundreds of churches in even the most remote areas. Unfortunately, many missionaries picked a pastor, spent a short amount of time training him, financed the construction of a building, and then packed up to leave. Without a strong foundation or a full understanding of the gospel, many of these pastors slowly mixed the truth of the Bible with the cultural practices, beliefs, and superstitions that have characterized East African religion for centuries, resulting in all sorts of sects and "churches" with bizarre and un-Biblical practices.

Geofrey, the regional coordinator for CFA in Kisumu, told me the story of a client named Grace who had a terrible and unfortunate experience with this type of church. Grace found out last year that she was HIV-positive, and doctors prescribed a regimen of ARV drugs for her to take daily. These drugs are very effective in combating the effects of HIV on the immune system, but they must be taken on a strict schedule and can have difficult side effects. After taking ARV's for a few months, Grace heard of a "faith healer" at a local church who supposedly could cure HIV/AIDS. Not knowing any better, Grace attended a service at the church, where people made a great show of "praying" for her healing and "casting out" the sickness within her. After collecting the fee for the service, the leader of the church told Grace that in order to demonstrate true faith, she should burn all of her medication and believe that she was healed. She did this, but she definitely wasn't healed. A month or so later, Grace's condition started to deteriorate again rapidly, and she soon found herself in a much worse condition than she had been in at any point before. Because she stopped taking her medication against the doctor's orders, thus "defaulting" on her treatment plan, the medication would no longer be effective and the hospital refused to take her back.

It was at this point that Lazarus and Elizabeth, the CFA center workers, found Grace. They were able to go with her to the hospital and explain her situation, promising that they would maintain close supervision of her treatment if the doctor would give her another chance with an alternative drug. Thankfully, she is now back on an effective treatment regimen and is committed to sticking with it. Through meeting with Elizabeth, Grace has been educated on the reality of HIV/AIDS and now understands how the infection affects her body and how she can live positively with it. Her health has improved significantly in the past few months of proper treatment, and she is moving in the right direction towards self-sufficiency.

Few things make me more angry or heartbroken than the way in which desperate people are being taken advantage of and lied to, all in the name of Christianity. It is a sad reality that the people who are most affected by HIV/AIDS don't have the education or the understanding to recognize these schemes, but stories like these make me even more thankful for the work that CARE for AIDS is doing. Not only are we able to educate individuals on the RIGHT way to live with HIV/AIDS, we are getting the opportunity to work with church leaders and congregations, helping to produce churches that can welcome HIV-positive Kenyans with the REAL love of Christ and with advice that really does help. I am so thankful that God has blessed CFA with the opportunity to start working in Kisumu, where problems and misunderstanding like this are rampant, and I pray that He will bless us with the resources to increase our scope to every part of the country as time goes on!