How CARE for AIDS has Changed My View of Ministry: Age is Just a Number

A year ago if you had asked me if I would be in ministry when I graduated, I would have definitely said no. For the past 7 years I have been a volunteer Young Life leader, but never did I think I’d be working in the nonprofit world. I’ve always thought of myself as the type of person who couldn’t make a difference in the lives of adults until I was older and wiser.

Working for CARE for AIDS has completely changed how I view my ability to impact the lives of others. Running our college program, CFAU, I definitely am making a very direct impact on college students. Being a part of CARE for AIDS as a whole though, I am realizing the impact I am getting to make on those older than me as well. Our ability to impact the lives of others is not limited by age. This has been most clearly exemplified for me through watching the influence our 25-year-old CEO, Justin, has had on people of all ages, not only in Kenya, but among seasoned adults here in the U.S. as well.

Not only have I begun to realize the potential I have to impact people of all ages despite only being 23, I have also been learning that ministry is about loving all people, not just people you have the opportunity to influence face-to-face. While I have not yet visited Kenya, there is a love I have for our clients and staff I’ve never met that I cannot explain. I just get excited when I think about how the work I am doing from Atlanta, Georgia is impacting the lives of hundreds of Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS. Maybe it’s that I am fully bought into the vision of CARE for AIDS or that I know the impact HIV/AIDS can have on not only an individual, but their entire family. Whatever the reason, I now know that, through being  a part of CARE for AIDS, it is possible to love and impact people whom you may never personally meet.

I have only been part of the CARE for AIDS’ family for a little over 6 months now and I am amazed at all God is teaching me about the potential I have to make a difference now, as a recently graduated 23-year-old. While ministry is not the career path I imagined, I wouldn’t trade a single moment of my time with CARE for AIDS for any other job. Knowing that I am getting to impact and love people locally and globally makes each day that much more worth it.

Faith, Works and Synergy

The following is a guest post from Kevin Adamson, who was a part of the Impact Trip visiting Kenya last week. 

“As I reflect on my time here in Kenya, my second trip with CARE for AIDS, I am seeing this Biblical mandate of faith and works played out very clearly in my day to day. I am being challenged that maybe there is more to this idea of faith and works than we commonly think about in Christian circles.

A few weeks prior to my journey here in Kenya, I was reading through James 2:22. It says, “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” I was stopped on this phrase “working together.” As I searched deeper as to the intent of what James had written for us over 2000 years ago, I found that my eyes were being opened in a new way.

The people suffering here in Kenya from HIV/AIDS need many things. They must have the prescribed drugs along with a proper diet and medical counseling provided by CARE for AIDS working together to regain strength and live healthy. They need the spiritual counseling working together with the power and love of Jesus to begin to have a hope for the future. They need love and support, prayer and encouragement, all working together as their lives are restored.

The problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa is great. No one person or one organization can solve this problem. But, we have the opportunity to be a part of the solution, working together with CARE for AIDS to accomplish the mission God has given them, “To mobilize the church in caring, both spiritually and physically, for families affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya.”

The word James chose to use to describe, “working together” is “Synergos.” I am sure you recognize this word, synergy, as translated in English. Webster, or dictionary.com as we might say today, defines this word as the “working together” of two things to produce a result greater than the sum of the individual.

I am beginning to realize now how God was speaking to me when I read this verse in preparing for my time in Kenya. Of course it would be easy to just stop at James’ example of faith and works, which seems simple enough, right? If we just do these two simple actions we will be living as Jesus followers. I am trying to be more conscientious of this each day, and I am thankful God is opening up my heart and mind to this. After all, that is one of the reasons that I am in Kenya now.

What I am seeing unfolding now in front of me is how this working together, this synergy, is such a vital component of not only the spiritual transformation we as believers seek but also the mental and physical transformation so desperately needed in the clients which CARE for AIDS serves.

I hope you will consider joining us in this mission.”

Thank you to Kevin and the other Impact Trip participants for serving our ministry with their hands and feet. If you’d like to join us on this mission, come visit Kenya this summer!

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Conference Call on the Road in Kenya

This past week our 1st Impact Team traveled to Kenya to learn more about, encourage, and serve the CARE for AIDS ministry.  It has been an incredible week and our trip participants were able to respond on a conference call on Tuesday about what they’d experienced. After they pulled off on the side of the road, we got them on the line with 25 callers from the United States who were able to listen in and ask questions.

Justin Miller spoke about how CARE for AIDS has changed in the last five years since the organization first started their work in 2007.  It’s amazing to see what God has done. The main question we originally asked, and are continuing to ask is, “How can we as the American church respond to this need in Kenya?”  When we first began, ”There was no one supporting these parents with HIV/AIDS, and consequently, many were dying and leaving behind their children as orphans.” Now, five years later, we’ve seen almost 2,400 men and women claim their lives and are raising beautiful families. To date, almost 100 HIV- children have been born to HIV+ parents which is a huge success!

Here is some of what our Impact Trip participants said was meaningful to them thus far on the trip: