It is never quiet
on the AIDS floor.
It isn’t that there is always noise,
but there is an audible anticipation that is ever-present. I don’t know if
everyone can hear it, but I hear it. Sometimes, it becomes louder. I
shrink into my bed and try to press the pillow around my ears so that I
won’t hear. It is hard to do because of the IV’s.
I think that when the anticipation
grows loudest everyone on the floor breathes more rapidly, almost as if
they are having difficulty breathing themselves. I hold my breath, afraid
to exhale, waiting for the anticipation to peak. Just as I think I can’t
hold my breath anymore the anticipation fades. I breathe.
I know that someone has died.
I am alone most of the time. My
friends don’t come to see me anymore. I can’t blame them. My flesh has
melted off my skeleton. I have difficulty breathing now. The pneumonia
that has settled in my lungs leaves little room for air. I am drowning in
my own phlegm.
My family doesn’t come to see me
either. I guess they don’t know what to say.
Doctors and nurses come and go. They
check my pulse and listen to my chest. They look at the chart hanging from
the end of my bed. They leave without saying anything.
A big man, an orderly, comes in,
pulling on latex gloves. No human hand has touched me in six months that
has not had on latex gloves. The orderly helps me on to the bedpan. He
bathes me. I hate when he bathes me. He sees me.
Once, a chaplain came to see me. He
didn’t come too close to me. He stopped at the foot of the bed. He asked
me how I was doing. I said, “How do you think I’m doing? I’m dying!” The
chaplain stood silent for a minute. He said he was sorry. Then he left. He
has never come back.
“Why?” I used to ask myself. “Why me?
I made one mistake. One mistake. Why should I have to die for making one
mistake?”
I don’t ask “why” anymore. I just lie
in my bed, and wait. And listen to the anticipation build.
From “The Man In The Ditch,” by The Rev.
Charles R. Traylor, Presbyterian Survey, January/February 1993, P.
24
In the past 20 years over two million people in
Kenya have died as a result of AIDS. Four hundred people die of AIDS every
day. One hundred fifty thousand per year. Throughout Kenya, a country with a
population of 33 million people, there are two million orphans as a result
of AIDS.
The number of people in Kenya living with
HIV/AIDS includes:
· 1.3
million adults between the ages of 15 and 49
· 60,000
adults age 50 and older
· 100,000
children
It has been over two decades since the first AIDS
case was diagnosed in Kenya. The pandemic remains a huge problem, hindering
the country in its efforts toward social and economic development. Even with
heightened awareness and more effective treatments, death rates for those
suffering from HIV/AIDS are likely to continue to rise as a result of the
large number of people who were infected in the 1990s.
These staggering, and horrifying, statistics were
solemnly stated to members of the Chogoria Partnership Ministry Team - the
Rev. Dr. Steve Shive, pastor of First Church-Fargo, Sharon Secor of First
Church-Fargo, the Rev. Dr. Matt Stith, pastor of Community Church-West Fargo
- and me on May 31 by the Rev. Dr. John Gicheru Macharia of the Presbyterian
Church of East Africa (PCEA).
Dr. Gicheru had left his ministry, and his wife
and two children (one of whom is attending the Chogoria School), to travel
to the United States on a mission of mercy. His objective was to visit
Presbyteries of the PCUSA which have partnerships with Presbyteries in Kenya
in hopes of generating financial assistance to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic
in Kenya.
In the 1990s the PCEA began to recognize that the
predictions of horrific health and socio-economic consequences caused by the
HIV/AIDS pandemic were coming true, Dr. Gicheru said. He said that the PCEA
has been in the forefront in confronting the scourge by means of various
programs. However, he added, the task is quite challenging and “we need
partners to effectively fight the scourge.”
To raise broad community awareness and to
encourage HIV/AIDS prevention through behavior modification, the PCEA is
proposing a radical plan, which is entirely consistent with the foundational
principles of the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition. Dr. Gicheru said the goal
is to train 5,000 Presbyterian elders to be HIV/AIDS peer educators. The
task of these elders will be to visit Kenyan households over a four-year
period to teach all people (not just Presbyterians!) to change their
behavior so as to prevent themselves and others from contracting the HIV
virus, while at the same time encouraging those already infected.
Dr. Gicheru shared that PCEA elders are
influential and accepted community leaders. They organize families over
which they have oversight to meet once a week for prayer. These elders also
regularly make visits to families in need. These relationships provide a
wonderful forum for the elders to disseminate HIV/AIDS information and to
influence behavior change.
Elders trained to perform this service will be
educated using a format previously used to train clergy regarding HIV/AIDS
prevention. This training is based on the successful program developed in
Uganda by the Anglican Church in the early 1990s, commonly known as the
“Uganda ABC Plan:”
· A
– Abstinence from sexual activity until marriage
· B
– Be faithful once married
· C
– Condom use for those who do not follow church teachings, for couples
estranged from one another, or in a marriage where one or both partners are
HIV positive.
The initial training of elders will occur this
year, Dr. Gicheru said. One hundred elders will be trained in July, another
100 in August, and another 100 in December. Elders from the three Chogoria
Presbyteries will be among those in the group trained in December.
The training will take place at the Presbyterian
College in Kikuyu, Kenya. After their training, the elders, under the
supervision of clergy, will be required to visit at least one family per
week for 50 weeks each year for four years, sharing with the family
life-changing information regarding HIV/AIDS prevention, and praying with
and for the families. To facilitate their travel from family to family, each
elder will be given a bicycle upon the completion of their training, or soon
thereafter. A permanent staff will be established at the Presbyterian
College to oversee and implement the elder training and the four-year
visitation program. The effectiveness of the program will be measured using
the statistics gathered and reported by the local districts of the Kenyan
government.
We asked Dr. Gicheru how we could present this
opportunity to our constituents in the Presbytery of the Northern Plains. He
replied, “60 plus 60.” The cost to train each elder is $60. The cost to
purchase a bicycle for each elder is $60. $60 plus $60 equals $120 per
elder.
We were dumbfounded at how cost effective this
training program was going to be, even counting the purchase of bicycles to
allow the elders to get around more freely. Sharon, with her usual
exuberance, exclaimed, “We can do that!” I started thinking about how we had
raised money at the church I served in LaSalle, CO during VBS to send cows
to families in Uganda, the parents of whom had succumbed to HIV/AIDS.
“Instead of cows, our VBS offerings could buy bicycles!” Matt had a
calculator out and was nodding his head as he punched in numbers.
Just imagine…if every member of the Presbytery of
the Northern Plains, all 7,000 of us, were to contribute $120 toward this
life-saving project, why we could cover the cost for all 5,000 elders to be
trained and have money left over the next training opportunity!
We in the Presbytery of the Northern Plains
already have a soft spot in our hearts for our sisters and brothers in
Kenya. What could be more important than to give to an effort that may have
the potential of saving 150,000 lives per year from a slow, agonizing death
due to HIV/AIDS.
If the Holy Spirit is leading you to contribute to
this effort, I urge you to make a gift through the PCUSA Extra Commitment
Opportunity (ECO) program. The ECO number for the PCEA is E053505 AIDS
Crisis in the PCEA.
Much of what we do in regard to our relationship
with our sisters in brothers in Kenya involves prayer. On Sunday, October
14, designated HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday by the PCUSA, I urge all of our
congregations to use that day as a day of prayer, asking God to end the
HIV/AIDS pandemic in Kenya.
But we, sisters and brothers, can also
make an effort to help make HIV/AIDS a thing of the past by remembering Dr.
Gicheru’s simple formula – “60 plus 60.” $120 isn’t very much if, given in
the name of Jesus Christ, it will help to save a life.
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