Alabamians called to ‘care’ for HIV/AIDS victims

Alabamians called to ‘care’ for HIV/AIDS victims

Kay Warren carries a lot of grief — not for herself or her immediate family but for the more than 30 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Seven years ago, when through a magazine article God opened her eyes to the global pandemic, Warren did not know anyone with HIV/AIDS. “How could that be?” she asked herself.

Today Warren knows plenty of sufferers.

“I carry an enormous amount of pain. When people are suffering, my heart is broken. My heart gets broken on several occasions,” said Warren, who started the HIV/AIDS Initiative in 2004 at Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., where her husband, Rick, serves as pastor.

Already in the spotlight because of Saddleback’s story, size and ministry portfolio and Rick Warren’s best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” she smoothly stepped onto her own platform and cause with the HIV/AIDS ministry megaphone.

Along with serving as executive director of the HIV/AIDS Initiative, Warren also helped launch in 2005 what has become an annual event at Saddleback — the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church. She also began the HIV/AIDS Caring Community at PurposeDriven.com/HIV (now www.hivandthechurch.com) in 2006.

Warren travels the world speaking and leading conferences on the HIV/AIDS issue. In 2006, she was one of eight women recognized by the CNN Inspire Summit, which highlighted women who were positively impacting the world through political, social and humanitarian efforts and inspiring others to get involved.

Warren has been featured in several news articles and is currently promoting her latest book on the issue, “Dangerous Surrender.”

“When God broke my heart seven years ago, He hasn’t put it back together again,” she said of her calling to HIV/AIDS ministry. “I carry this grief.”

It is that grief, that call, that passion that keeps Warren striving to see HIV/AIDS extinct in her lifetime.

“This is not a flavor of the month or one of several items on a menu,” she said. “(For me), it is a call. God has not released me from it. It is no longer my decision.”

But it should not be only her call, Warren explained, pointing to James 1:27 in which God calls Christians to look after widows and orphans.

So many of those with HIV/AIDS are widows and orphans, she said. “God’s litmus test to me was, ‘What do you do with widows and orphans?”

So her question to critics of HIV/AIDS ministry is “What does God say?”

“Does He say there is grace and mercy for all sinners or not?” Warren asked.

Noting that while the number of critics of the ministry and victims of HIV/AIDS has decreased in the years since she began her ministry, some criticism still remains, Warren said.

“Some people misunderstand our motive. They are critical of the people we are trying to help and toward us for doing it,” she explained. “Some ask why the church is involved.”

As Christians, “in general, we have not taken seriously the physical needs of people,” Warren said. “We have let the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and parachurch organizations go after those needs.”

But “one-third of Jesus’ ministry was spent healing people,” she said. “He cared about people’s bodies, illnesses, the alone, the rejected, the weak. Those with HIV fall into these categories.

“We must care about those God cares about. … If anyone wants to walk like Christ, they must do as He did,” Warren said, pointing to 1 John.

“Jesus set the bar for us,” she said, noting He never asked how someone got sick, just how He could help.

Still a stigma remains attached to people suffering from HIV/AIDS, especially in the Christian community, Warren said. “People are afraid. They assume the person did something wrong.

“So many times, they did not but even if they did, it doesn’t matter. … Jesus’ response to the outcast is so clear for us,” she said. “We (as the Church) must get rid of the stigma and be a spiritual home for the people, a place where we can love them and care for them.

“There is always time to circle back around to the journey, to how someone got there, how their lives can be changed, but don’t start there,” Warren explained.

Many churches are catching on to this ministry idea and getting involved, she noted.

“When we started the (early stages of the) ministry in 2002, we were the only church I knew of that had an HIV ministry,” Warren said. “In 2003, I attended a conference on the subject and hoped to find other churches to use as models.”

But she couldn’t find any.

Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association participated in that conference and talked with Warren about Saddleback’s ministry. When he could not think of another church with an HIV/AIDS ministry, Graham told her, “You be the model.”

And “we’ve spent the last six years trying to do that,” she said. “Now there are dozens of churches looking for ways to connect.”

While Warren said she did not know about Southern Baptists’ response to this type of ministry specifically, she said evangelical Christian churches as a whole are responding.

“We have gotten great response with churches wanting to start ministries,” Warren said, noting she recently worked with a church in Nevada launching an HIV/AIDS ministry. “We are helping them start these ministries. It is fabulous.”

It is fabulous not only to watch more and more churches get on board with the effort but also to be a part of what God is doing, Warren said.

“It is the most incredible feeling in the world,” she said of partnering with God to be His hands and feet in this ministry. “I am sharing in the fellowship of His suffering. This is the place I find comfort, knowing every time I cry, it is because God wept first and His tears landed on my face.”
For more information, visit www.kaywarren.com or www.
hivandthechurch.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE — The Alabama Baptist interviewed Kay Warren while she was in the state to lead the Christian Women’s Conference on Jan. 13 at Judson College in Marion. The event was co-sponsored by Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union.

___________________


HIV/AIDS Resources in Alabama

► AIDS Alabama www.aidsalabama.org

► Birmingham AIDS Outreach www.birminghamaidsoutreach.org

► Cheaha Coosa Valley Community Planning Group www.geocities.com/pha6cpg/

► The Health Services Center Inc. www.hscal.org

► Montgomery AIDS Outreach www.maoi.org

► South Alabama Cares www.masshelps.org

► West Alabama AIDS Outreach (Tuscaloosa) www.waao.info

Source: The Body — The Complete HIV/AIDS Resource (www.thebody.com)