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Justice in the Waiting Room
A few years back, when I lived in Nashville, I went with a friend to a low-income neighborhood clinic. The idea of the clinic was to provide people with medical care at low or no cost. Some had Medicaid, while others had Medicare, but for others this one trip would mean the difference between how many and what kinds of meals their entire family would have for the rest of the month. It would mean the difference between paying all the bills or choosing the most important ones. Read more...
Ashamed to Die in the South
While the world’s attention has mostly turned to the AIDS epidemic in other parts of the world, cases of HIV and AIDS continue to rise among the African-American community in the South in the United States. In fact, of the top 10 states with the highest percentage of African-Americans who have AIDS, eight are in the South. Journalist Andrew J. Skerritt tells the story of some of the major players in the fight against AIDS, as well as the stories of those who’ve succumbed to the disease, in the South in his book, Ashamed to Die. In this excerpt, he describes leaving the hospital room of Carolyn Starr, a woman who led a troubled life and died of AIDS far too young, and he gives some background on this lesser known issue. Read more...
Rejecting the AIDS Stigma
I’m 22, and I care about AIDS. Nothing shocking there, right? Wrong. Working with World Vision, one of the biggest Christian humanitarian organizations in existence, has shown me that things are not so simple. Read more...
Diagnosing the Roots of AIDS
Underneath every injustice and crisis are layers of root causes. These complexities can often be paralyzing and overwhelming. My wife has become obsessed with the proliferation of crime and detective shows that clutter prime-time television, including CSI Miami and New York, NUMB3RS, Cold Case, etc. While I'm far from an expert or avid watcher, I'm amazed by our culture's infatuation with crimes and solving mysteries. Most of the shows are adaptations of real-life cases, modified and often exaggerated for a television audience. In almost every show we see a crime take place, then a flashback that provides clues around the motives behind the crime and who the culprit may be. Apprehending the criminal requires careful questioning of witnesses and suspects, meticulous analysis of evidence and an often elaborate mapping out of the connection between seemingly disparate clues. Read more...
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A More Potable Existence
Slipping out of my shoes, I step over the bare, concrete doorframe and into the modest home. I notice my surroundings—a single room with a concrete floor, a few baskets cast about filled with daily rations of rice and posho, a small clothesline hung displaying the day’s washing, and two young boys standing proudly next to their water filter, as if it was a trophy recently won. Read more...
African Aids Crisis
There’s been plenty of talk, pages of ugly statistics and volumes of gut-wrenching stories about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Swarms of people have made efforts to bring attention to the problem—people like Bono, Senator Jesse Helms, South African leader Nelson Mandela and Franklin Graham. But what can the average person do to help? Read more...
Creating Lasting Change in Hosanna
Failure. It can happen despite all efforts to make a difference in people’s lives. God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and yet we can often hurt more than we help. Amanuel Sherifaw faced this dilemma. Through Lifewater International’s WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene education) trainings, he discovered the importance of engaging the community to traverse the minefield of deeply rooted cultural and behavioral norms. Read more...
Hope Amid the Helpless
Sexual promiscuity is the norm in Swaziland. One pastor shook his head and said his church focuses on people 18 and younger, trying to give them an alternative, a way of respect for their bodies and the bodies of others. "It's just too late fix the older people," he said sadly. But Jesus wants His love in us to continually reach across our thresholds and away from our easy chairs. It would be easy to lump together all those who have contracted AIDS through their own choices and call them "an issue" or "a problem.” Read more...
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