Dear Friends in Christ:
Last month I marked one year in Africa. This year was a gift from God, whose grace has sustained me during difficult times. Diettrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "God is closer to suffering than he is to happiness." And, in James we read, "Draw close to God, and He will draw close to you." By confronting despair we draw near to God and walk with Him.
Several months ago I cared for a man whom we believed had a cancer pressing on the blood vessel draining his head. There was little we could do except give morphine (which is more than many Kenyan hospitals are able to offer). His face swelled and his breathing quickened. I met with the man's wife and explained the terrible situation through a translator. A conversation ensued in Kikuyu, at the end of which she said: "I wait on the Lord."
Dealing with such advanced illness is a constant challenge at Kijabe. Many Kenyans remain in denial about HIV, refusing to believe that "I could be having that disease." In August a young woman originally from northern Kenya came to us from a nearby flower farm, where her husband worked. She looked like a concentration camp victim. She was also pregnant. She and her husband had blamed her condition on hydatid disease, a liver problem contracted from dogs which is common among their people. Finally, we confronted her with the obvious. (She also had TB.) She finally relented, allowing us to start the medicines needed to save her life—and the life of her unborn child.
A 16 year old with HIV-related dementia, a three year old HIV-positive girl weighing 10 pounds, an eight year old weighing 30 pounds, a 22 year old admitted yesterday with HIV and TB: The endless parade of the sick overwhelms. Is it possible for one hospital—or ten, or a hundred—to make a difference in this broken world? Recently, when back in the States, I had the opportunity to meet a young author who is writing a book about the American reaction to the global AIDS crisis. He remarked that the catastrophe in Africa is the central moral question of our time. We as a people will be judged by our response. Or, as one missionary put it, if we do not act we will someday be indicted before the throne of Christ. Jim Kim, a Harvard doctor with extensive experience in South America and Haiti, has observed that "it is almost as if we are morally asleep."
Although we strive to provide effective and compassionate care, in order to heal the sick and to glorify our Lord, we frequently fall short of this goal. In fact, we can anticipate the situation in Africa getting worse before it gets better. Still, as Christians we are called into solidarity with the poor, the weak, and the sick, even if our efforts on their behalf are too often inadequate. While not neglecting the physical circumstances of their lives, we have a message of spiritual redemption to live and to share.
North Korean refugees flee their homeland for food and a better life in northern China. As reported by National Public Radio, the Koreans have learned to look for one thing: a building with a cross on it. For in such a place they know they are welcomed and assisted. This is the church which we must be, standing for truth in a world which echoes Pilate: "What is truth?" Truth is the light of Christ, the light in the darkness, the light the darkness cannot overcome.
Before making a decision to come to Africa, I spoke with a missionary surgeon who worked on the other side of the Rift Valley from Kijabe. He had started his pre-medical courses at the age of 27 with the intention of becoming a missionary. At age 43, sixteen years of schooling and training later, he finally began his career with Africa Inland Mission. His simple words to me I will never forget: "Jon, it all comes down to this question: Are we who we say we are—children of God?"
Grace and Peace, Jon
| If you would like to contribute to the Kijabe HIV project, make checks payable to "Africa Inland Mission" and designate that the money is for the "Kijabe HIV patient fund." Checks may be given to Christ the King Church, which will forward the funds to the project. |