HIV / AIDS

Definition(by Mayo Clinic) :AIDS is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight the organisms that cause disease. HIV is a sexually transmitted disease. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood, or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. It can take years before HIV weakens your immune system to the point that you have AIDS. There's no cure for HIV/AIDS, but there are medications that can dramatically slow the progression of the disease. These drugs have reduced AIDS deaths in many developed nations. But HIV continues to decimate populations in Africa, Haiti and parts of Asia.

I grew up in Indiana, and one of my first memories in regards to the emergence of AIDS in the United States was the Ryan White story. As time went on, I remember the media frenzy surrounding other well known individuals such as Greg Louganis and Magic Johnson who had contracted the disease.  It even became personal to me as I had a first cousin with hemophilia who contracted the disease through a blood transfusion at 6 months of age.  The one thing that the individuals referred to above have in common is that they all live in America; therefore, they had access to some of the best medicines and health care in the world.  The disease could not be cured, but in most cases the lifespan was greatly lengthened. While I am aware that there are still many new cases of this disease in our country, we don’t hear the media ‘buzz’ about it like we used to.

Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS is virtually an instant death sentence and a social pandemic for those who live in the world’s poorest countries.  In the past year, I have read the book “The Hole in Our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision.  This amazing book sheds a new light on the social injustices in our world, and encourages Christians to fulfill our responsibility to act as change agents.  As I have a passion for orphan care, my heart broke as I read the chapter discussing HIV/AIDs and the impact it has had on our world.  Here is an excerpt from his book:

Perhaps the most disturbing fact of all is that AIDS has now left 15 million children behind as orphans.  Again, this is a number that is incomprehensible.  Picture a chain of children holding hands and stretching out across America.  This chain, starting in New York, would stretch all the way to Seattle, back to Philadelphia, back to San Francisco, then east to Washington DC, back again to Los Angeles, and finally to about Kansas City – more than five and a half times across the United States! Do you now see why I have called HIV a “doomsday virus”?  These are the grim statistics of AIDS, but they do not tell the story of the men, women, and children whose lives have been destroyed.  In Africa they say that when it comes to HIV, everyone is either infected or affected – no one escapes completely

Now that we are made aware, I don’t think we can turn a blind eye and pretend this doesn’t exist.  So what can we do? I don’t think there has ever been a time more appropriate than now to bring us to our knees in prayer for these children orphaned by this terrible disease.  Another way we can respond is through supporting the HIV/AIDS initiatives of Christian organizations like World Vision or Compassion International who are working to supply the resources needed to both prevent new cases and provide care and treatment to those living with the virus, as well as care for affected orphans and vulnerable children.  Finally, for those of you considering adoption, you can pray about whether God is leading you to open your parameters to include children affected by this disease.

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12