Ministry and Development

You may ask, “Caleb, why in the world are you choosing to work in Kenya with CARE for AIDS?” First, let me tell you it’s not for money, comfort or recognition. In fact, I can testify that living overseas is often draining, uncomfortable and thankless. However, I know this is exactly where I want to be. Let me tell you why!

I knew I wanted to work overseas after college, so I decided to study Global Development. While at Virginia Tech, my roommate told me about this organization called CARE for AIDS. I was intrigued, so I decided to send an email that went something like, “Hi! I am interested in what your organization does. How can I get involved?” Soon, I was leading the second CARE for AIDS textbook drive ever. After, I was given an internship where I continued to raise support and promote the vision of CFA.

When I graduated, I had the opportunity to serve in Ethiopia with another large organization. I must admit that I started very naïve. My time there was both eye opening and challenging. Despite the normal difficulties of adjusting to work overseas, after three months, the Ethiopian government made unjust accusations against the organization. The organization’s bank accounts were frozen, our communication was monitored, I was taken to court (along with other staff), we were wrongly accused and fined, our passports were taken, the organization was shut down and we were forced to leave the country. Talk about a great first time experience! When I left, I was absolutely drained emotionally. However, I was immediately sent to continue work in Haiti. For over five months, I was apart of earthquake rebuilding and rapid cholera responses. During the cholera outbreak, I worked long days and was on call at night. Sometimes, I had no days off during the weekends.

So why did I decide to continue working overseas? Well, despite the craziness and challenges, one critical idea became clear to me; the local church is the answer to the worlds need. The Lord gave me a passion and vision for this: the church is the hands and feet of Jesus and it must be the avenue used to touch the world. As I began thinking where God wanted me after Haiti, I found out about a job opening with CARE for AIDS in Kenya. It lined up with what the Lord had been teaching me about ministry, the church, and development. I decided to move out of Haiti and I began work with CARE for AIDS in June 2011.

How I got to where I am was certainly a journey, but I know God was in all of it. In future posts, I hope to expand upon the ideas I have talked about. I want to share with you about CARE for AIDS and what the Lord continues to teach me. If you want to know more about how practical faith meets ministry and development, you’ll just have to keep reading!

Adventure

Why did I become a part of CARE for AIDS?

I wanted an adventure.  In complete honesty, I didn’t get on a plane to Kenya after my college graduation in 2009 because of a heart for the continent or because of a lifelong desire to be a missionary.  I didn’t sign up to work for CARE for AIDS because of a rooted interest in HIV/AIDS or a deep conviction about poverty in Africa.  I didn’t even choose this job because one of my best friends was devoting his own life to it.  I became a part of CARE for AIDS because I wanted to go somewhere exciting in the world and live an adventure.  What better place than the “dark continent” for mystery, unpredictability, and excitement?  What better opportunity than an organization that was young, growing, and would give me the freedom to innovate, experiment, and lead?

At the rehearsal dinner for my wedding this past July, I found out that most of the people in my life have identified my thirst for excitement.  My parents told stories of how I pushed the limits of our collective comfort zone on roller blades, ski slopes, and anything else with an element of danger from the moment I was big enough to get in trouble.  When I launched into my four years at Vanderbilt (recovering from a severe concussion at the time), the desire for adventure led to a reputation for taking my friends out of their comfort zones and into road trips and mischief all over the country.   I was blessed to spend time in Central America, East Asia, and Europe, where I discovered that being far from America presented a wealth of exciting opportunities.

Thankfully, I was learning through this same time that living an adventure could dovetail perfectly with a growing longing to produce an impact for the Kingdom of God.  John Eldredge’s “Wild at Heart” philosophy resonated strongly with my desires, and I began to search for a post-college opportunity where I could change the world and get my adrenalin going at the same time.  After coming face to face with the vision and the people of CARE for AIDS in Kenya during my spring break in 2009, I knew I’d found the answer.

The two years I spent in Kenya did include quite a bit of adventure, adrenalin, and excitement.  They also held a great deal of learning and maturing.  In future posts, I look forward to sharing about both of these aspects of my first two years with CARE for AIDS.  Though I went to Kenya, in many ways, for what the experience could do for me, I soon learned that God’s incredible work there was much more about Kenyans.  I was there to enable Duncan, Cornel, and the rest of our staff to live out their passions and change their own country, and now I am doing the same thing from the other side of the ocean.

I’m looking forward to this blog as a venue to share stories and lessons from my life in Kenya, to talk about the collision of development and ministry, and to discuss in more detail the reasons that I continue to be a part of CARE for AIDS here in the States.  At first, it was about the adventure, but now it is about the vision.  You might find that the vision plays out in ways that could take you out of your own comfort zone, and I hope you will join with me in exploring those together.

The Beginning

“Why do you work for CARE for AIDS?” I get asked that question a lot. Most times it is accompanied by a somewhat quizzical look. I guess that people think a Vanderbilt degree would be better utilized in a more lucrative position or career. However, when I came out of school two years ago, there was only one place I could imagine myself working and that was with CARE for AIDS.

So, you may ask, “How did you know?” It started five years ago next week when I attended a conference in Chicago called the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Basically, it is a conference that helps the local church be more effective here and around the world. That particular year, Bono gave a compelling interview about the church’s role in the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. I was there with a friend of mine Zach Fallon, and we were captivated by the presentation. Yet, at the end, we found ourselves asking, “But how?” “What can we actually DO about it?” So, with our youthful zeal and passion, we began to lay the groundwork for a trip to Kenya in the summer of 2007.

Nine months later, myself, Zach Fallon, and Josh Titus were on a plane going to Kenya with very little direction or purpose except we knew we wanted to capture footage surrounding the issue of AIDS as it relates to the local church. The short 5-minute documentary that resulted was hardly what we had envisioned, but God had other plans. Through God’s divine intervention, he had arranged, just weeks before our departure, for us to be escorted throughout Kenya for a month by two Kenyan guys, Cornel and Duncan. We didn’t know them from Adam at the time but a good friend of a friend spoke highly of their character and their interest in HIV/AIDS. Without knowing it, God had intersected us with the two men that would become the co-visionaries and future country directors for a new non-profit called CARE for AIDS.

If God hadn’t already done enough to bind my heart to this cause, I really believed two things to be true, and I saw these manifested in the vision of CARE for AIDS, and I still see them manifested today.

• First, if I really believed that the church was the hope of the world, then why would I not do everything in my power to make them more effective in their ministry? Why would I not resource them, train them, and equip them to reach more people with the good news of Jesus Christ. I saw CARE for AIDS as a unique opportunity to mobilize local churches.
•  Secondly, Jesus came to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and help the orphans and widows. The people living with HIV/AIDS are all of the above, the outcasts and lepers of our generation. I know for a fact that if Jesus were alive today in the flesh, he would spend his time with these people. He would care for them and love them, and then ask them to come follow him. I wanted to be a part of a ministry that was imitating that same model, and I believe CARE for AIDS does just that.

So, people may still ask, “Why do you work for CARE for AIDS?” and I can say that I have been an eyewitness to lives and eternities being changed, and I couldn’t imagine a higher calling or a more challenging one for a 23-year-old guy from Atlanta, GA. I look forward to sharing more of my story with you in future posts.
In the meantime, you are going to hear the stories of a few other guys who God has handpicked to be part of this incredible story. Our team is going to take this first month of the new CARE for AIDS blog to answer the question, “Why am I a part of CARE for AIDS?” I hope the stories will encourage you, inspire you, and even move you to join in the CARE for AIDS journey with us.