The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ Martin Luther King Jr
Kenya is a nation struggling – more than 110,000 of its children live with HIV. Only 4,000 of them have access to antiretroviral therapy. What would Jesus do?
I often wonder why Jesus hasn’t returned. I thought he would come back when the going got impossible and the pain got unbearable.
A hidden 1.2 million people across Kenya have HIV.
People living with HIV have an abundance of fear instead of a warm embrace; they suffer stigma instead of receiving love; they experience rejection instead of being drawn by compassion.
Photo: Tearfund/Richard Hanson
And in spite of the tremendous advances made in treatment and prevention, the reality for people in poverty who are diagnosed HIV-positive is still death. It is unacceptable.
How far we have moved from the message of grace, from the example of Jesus. Wasn’t his an inclusive message? How come we live within boundaries, lines drawn by interpretation, denomination, judgment and ignorance?
A modern-day heroine
Esther gives hope to women with HIV as she offers them practical, emotional and spiritual support.
There’s one lady who restores my faith. Just 15 minutes’ drive into the busy suburbs of Nairobi lives Esther, a woman who is responding to the pain that confronts her people.
Esther isn’t bound by stigma. She works with 42 women who have HIV, giving counselling and skills training and offering optional Bible studies. Far from suffering in isolation, these women have grown close and support each other. Because of Esther’s commitment, they have a free life-saving drug called hope. This has brought them back from the brink of death and restored their strength and dignity.
Esther has a smile that lights up her face, an inner strength that makes many people feel safe, and compassion reminiscent of Jesus’. She is remarkable, astute, bold and full of faith – like the Esther we know from the Bible. Esther has lifted my faith and has shown me heaven on earth.
You cannot ignore those exceptional stories, where children shine with resilience, women overcome impossible situations and men stride forward in the face of a devastating pandemic. This is evidence of God in us. Esther believes in that, lives for that. I have to as well.
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