Are You HIV Positive?

By Phyllis DeSmit

Positive about addressing the challenge of the pandemic, reaching out with love? John Ortberg writes,

"People who live deeply in community learn to discern and express the value of other human beings. They see that, in addition to the "as-is" tag every human being carries, is another sticker from God: 'Made in My image. Worth the life of My Son! My prized possession whose value is beyond calculation!' "

The "as-is" tag for millions around the world is "infected or affected by HIV/AIDS." In response:

• Matt Vaselkiv orchestrated a school project that resulted in sending scholarship monies for an orphan in Rwanda.
• Sandy Boucher is raising funds to transform a wing of a former factory building in Malawi into a 30-bed hospital ward for AIDS patients.
• Kim Roth at Hopkins School of Public Health is involved with an HIV research study of affected men in the United States.
• Kathy Vaselkiv and Steve Simms are Board members with World Relief, an agency that encourages churches to have a meaningful ministry for AIDS-affected people.
• Mark Vaselkiv is on the Board of Governors of Opportunity International, an organization committed to improving the lives of AIDS victims through micro-enterprise trust bank loans.
• Julie Hindmarsh, an international Board member of Opportunity, travels around the world bringing hope to those infected with AIDS.
• Lori Anderson of Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns has initiated AIDS testing at their facility.
• Rick Boucher conducts pro bono legal seminars at HERO, an agency for housing options for persons with AIDS.
• Stephanie Duncan gives talks to small groups and to filled high school auditoriums about claiming abstinence as a way of life until marriage.
• Dale Bourke returned from a visit to Africa to launch the AIDS bracelet project, paying women caring for AIDS orphans in Africa to make bracelets and sending back the money from United States sales to alleviate the suffering of AIDS orphans.
• Barbara Porter, Youth for Christ International, has established pregnancy centers in several African countries, helping to stem the epidemic of teen pregnancy and the suffering of HIV/AIDS victims.
• Michelle Tuttle, a grad student at Towson University, is encouraging support for the Children of Zion Village in Nambia, a home for 52 children orphaned by war and the AIDS crisis.
• Beth Ann Mack, an ER nurse at Hopkins, willingly treats AIDS patients in spite of the daily threat of infection.

If your name is missing from this list and deserves to be mentioned, God is thankful. If your name could be on this list, God is waiting. If your name will be on this list, God will be celebrating.

Returning to words from Ortberg,

"Every society adopts ways to honor and value people whom we treasure, or to ignore and hurt those we choose to demean... So, value what God values. The greatest command is the command to love. The greatest sin is a heart that will not break, a soul that will not love. We complicate our faith and lives in many ways, but at the core, our purpose is simple: We are called to love."