Walking the Word

It never seems like ‘such a big deal’ when you get comfortable with the culture you’re living in; it’s what gives we Americans the audacity to justify tearing each other apart as we go up our ‘corporate ladder’ as ‘friendly competition’ . . . Even so, here, sometimes I have to sit back and think about the stats—1 in every 5 people here are HIV positive, the other day I was in a neighboring village where I got to talk with a local doctor who was grieved about the epidemic “Women come to get tested by the droves, but men would rather not know”, he quoted his village to be 75 percent HIV positive. How right he was; I’m not sure—I do know it was one of the darker villages spiritually. Normally, I’m pretty comfortable with doing most things independently in a rural setting-- in this village, I do think twice. Anyway, I was shocked when only one word could turn up in my natural mind: extinction. Something needs to happen, spiritually, because in the natural it really is impossible—The gardens—The “Life Project” has been trying to set up garden committees amongst neighboring villages to provide food for the villages family’s who have taken in orphans. It’s so much easier said then done, in doing much research with and for the workers, I find so many variables that are against the villagers at times… If it’s not the pumps to the wells breaking, it’s the elephants stampeding the gardens, if it’s not that, it’s some other odd thing. Opportunity is so scarce… Who could survive but with the Lord?? The salvation message isn’t enough, these people need the Holy Spirit to guide them in their ways… The Holy Spirit is strategic to the trinity, he moves the hearts of the people, and He’s what causes us to think beyond the natural, He is strategic, and therefore believers can and will be strategic WITH Him. Only then can we have a God given idea that can outsmart the stupid elephants, or work around for the good of God’s people. The villagers are so willing to try, but they just feel like they’ve tried in vain over and over again. In America we’re taught to dream big, dream big, but in other countries; that’s not hammered in, they see dreaming as a good way to get your hopes up, only to lose them all over again and for that reason loose site of one of God’s most powerful tools given to us in the natural realm: VISION. How can they live by vision if they have not dreamed, and how can they dream unless they know how too? The other day I sat with a Zimbabwean friend of mine, and tried to help him ‘DREAM’, “Write down all the things you want to do…Write down all the things you can see yourself doing”. He wrote down like 3 pages. “THAT’S VISION!!” I got so excited he must have thought I was going to burst.
The former (and first) president Kenneth Kuanda has been heading up the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, this week Laura Bush was in the country to help with the campaign—Rumor has it she was staying at a resort near our villages, and it’s been all the buzz on the streets… Anyway along with her coming, came all these free AIDS testing centers all put out by the US, they’re all around the area in tents. I had really thought about seeing how it was inside the tents for the last week or so, and the other day I was waiting by the trucks long enough to find out. Standing with two “friends” at the market (who were indeed trying vigorously to get me to by little things from them) I decided to set an example … I told the men I was going to get tested for HIV, and I invited them to come, again, (as I’ve gotten used to getting these) I got the look like are you crazy. I went into the tent to find a nice looking sterile environment. I told the lady all the stuff she wanted to know about my “history”, she pricked my finger with a needle (that I did make sure was sterile) and then she ran it through this little test machine, and she gave me the result in less then 5 minutes (negative, of course). It was so simple; she then gave me a card that told me I had a 2 counseling sessions, she said it’s for ANYONE whether they are positive or negative, and she practically begged me to get all my friends to come. I then got a wrist band stating “I know my Status”. So when I left the tent I told everyone around the area I got tested and encouraged all the locals to go. One guy (who knew me, because he worked on the base) actually went in and got tested. . . I know it sounds crazy, but how do you eat an elephant?? One bite at a time… The only way I can think of fighting this AIDS curse is to be an example. The tents were totally American run, and the quality of the testing was just as it is in America: excellent. So, I did it… I can only pray that it proved to those people that America is trying to help... Not hurt.