e-holiness

world AIDS day 2009

as you may have noticed this blog has been silent for around a year now, this is mainly due to the fact that we have moved to south africa to work with those infected or affected by HIV and AIDS, the other fact is that we now have a daily blog for the project that we run, you can follow the village of hope blog here

 

today i can justifiably speak about HIV and Jesus without too much complaint.....the 1st of december marks two important dates on my calendar.

firstly we think of Jesus as we celebrate the first day of advent, the time where we prepare ourselves to remember his first coming as a baby born to a virgin in a stable in a poor occupied nation in the middle east.

secondly we think of those infected by the virus, HIV, which can lead to full blown AIDS, we live in a town where the known infection rate is over 30% and with children who already know their status...however many thousands of people are living with this virus without full knowledge of why they are feeling sick. today we will match through our streets to encourage people come to be tested at the various places around our town where they can find out their status and make a start on the road to stabilized health.....

...they say knowledge is powerful, it certainly is with HIV as the treatments now available to many can make a real impact into the health of those infected.

as we look around us, read our newspapers or listen to the news, we may claim that we live in a dying world, a world where our natural resources are being drained at an alarming rate, where violence and lawlessness rule our streets and schools, where governments think that having more nuclear weapons will bring peace....however my belief is that this world is heading towards restoration, the bible says that nature groans with expectation of this event (romans 8) we therefore look forward to Jesus second coming with great excitement, when, as i believe, Jesus will restore the earth to it's perfect created state, when all men will live in harmony with each other, their will be no more death or disease and peace will reign forever.......

today some of us are sick with a virus that we can see in the physical, others of us are sick with a virus that only affects our soul....its important to know your status and from that point you can make a choice, either to take the medication that will stabilize the problem and lead to new life or if you chose not then it may lead to your destruction.

my HIV test

on Saturday we hosted the 2008 AIDS day in grabouw, the small town we work in over here in south africa, the day was set up to be a fun day for all the family, we had games, face painting and entertainment on from 9am till 4pm and although the weather was a little overcast the day went really well.

today 1st december is world AIDS day and as part of our day we tried to encourage as many people to have a HIV test as possible, in a town where as many as 34% are already infected we still need people to know their status and it was wonderful to see so many people take the test, me included!

why did you take the test i hear you cry, well for one i wanted to set an example and second i felt that i needed to know the procedure that people go through so at around 3pm on saturday i started my 15 minute counseling, with one of the thembacare nurses who was going to guide me through the test and my results....the whole process was so well conducted, if a little embarrassing for me and her as she asked some very personal questions regarding my sexual activity.

whilst i was pretty sure that i knew my status, i was struck by the fact that those people sitting around me were not and some were going to receive some news that would change their lives for ever. after my blood was taken i waited for another 15 minutes to receive my results, of which i would receive some further counseling dependent on my status, those around me also waited for their results and without giving anything away i was fairly happy in comparison to some of those who were tested with me.

having HIV isn't the end of the world and what with the treatments that NGO's like thembalitsha provide these people can live a 'normal' life, however those who tested positive will certainly have to change the way they live and the stigma attached to this disease will also prove hard to live with, if they disclose their status to their family and or employer they may be kick out of home and maybe even lose their jobs.

please pray for the people that were tested on saturday and those many millions who live with HIV and AIDS in south africa and across the globe today.....

bbc on aids

just thought that those supporting the work thembalitsha are doing, or those looking to find out more about AIDS, might like to have a look at this bbc page which is following the lives of people living with AIDS in lesotho for the next 6 months, should be a good site to learn more about how this disease hits people and communities alike.

in the leaving

i'm sorry that i have been so slack in posting on e-holiness over the last few weeks, what with leaving work, moving house and packing up for south africa, and the fact that  haven't really had to get up early to do anything, other than saying goodbye to friends, sorting all those direct debits, insurance policies (that you wonder why you had them set up anyway), and making sure mr tax man knows that i am no longer drawing a salary and driving round in a company car....

anyway as we spend time saying our goodbyes the leaving seems almost normal...maybe that's because we know where we are going and who we are going to be working with, but there are still so many unknowns with all of that, but what seems to be the hardest is to watch those who we love and respect, both friends and family getting upset....there's a line a the REM song 'leaving new york' which says, 'it's easier to leave than to be left behind' and that's what we feel like...we know God is going before us, calling us into His plans, but those left here are struggling to letting us go as there is an amount of 'the unknown' in their minds, it's great that they are concerned but we just wanna say to those who are feeling that way, we are only a skype call away, so please let us go in the knowledge that we are only following our Heavenly Father and He has everything sorted!

last day at work...for a while

today is my last day of work, paid, here in the uk, but as i say my goodbyes to friends, customers and colleagues the news from south africa that dr beetroot has lost her job is much more important, please read the article to understand the background and how this news should be good for those 5.5 million people living with AIDS in south africa.

bill's about

if you are staying in england and not joining us on our exciting adventure to south africa, which is everyone except me, maz and arron, then you might wanna check out bill johnson when he comes to england in november. i know that a few of you enjoyed his teaching at new wine this year and along with me have been listening to his podcasts, however this might be a chance to see him in the flesh and hear his wonderful insights into kingdom living here and now 2008 style!

good news but keep praying

the news channels from around the world yesterday was filled with the state of the current economic situation in the united states which is having a knock on effect on financial markets around the world, this could affect your pension and endowment funds and will perhaps make it harder for you to gain credit from your bank...

this is something we need to continue to pray into, however the good news that happened yesterday was the power sharing agreement that was signed in zimbabwe, now this is something that we need to pray into, the people of that country have been living in a dire financial situation for many years and whilst the news out of america will make a difference to us here in our safe western world where we have the opportunity to save for tomorrow (and i am not saying we all can due to our employment status etc but we have the safety nets in place which allow most of us to live with a roof over our heads and place food on the table) zimbabweans are now looking to a more secure future with a balanced government, we need to thank God that there has been an agreement reached but also pray for unity in a country so divided.

finding God

yesterday the news was full of the cern collider experiment which was switched on for the first time, for those of you who missed the news and the build up which has been covered for the last few years scientists have created a 17 kilometre tunnel where they will eventually crash together atomic particles in the hope of creating the event that took place just after the 'big bang' millions or billions of years ago.

what they are looking for, as with so many unanswered questions, is the missing link or what some scientist are calling the 'God particle', that element which they can't find or is missing from their scientific knowledge or experiments, and it's also known to be the 'let there be light' moment! this story has been covered well on the bbc but here is another take on that same experiment still on the bbc web page, the use of words like cathedral is also interesting and i hope you enjoy the read.

this whole news story, the search for the unknown, the unseen, the missing link and mankind's attempt to find God reminds me so much of the story of the tower of babel found in genesis 11. however as much time and effort we make to try to understand God He is so much bigger, mightier, 'other' than us that we cannot capture Him or even have the words to explain or comprehend Him.....this is captured so well in the book of job 38 and 39, who is man that we can try to understand our God, were we there are the beginning of creation.....whatever man seeks to prove God is beyond all understanding, all He asks of us is to have a child like faith and He will reveal Himself and His plans for our lives to us, all we have to do is ask Him.

china thoughts

i don't often get chance to listen to bbc radio 4's thought for today but this morning as i was driving i heard catherine pepinster's thoughts on the Olympics which was very good, have read here as she makes the comparison of pauls call for us to run the race and also eric liddells call to china after his athletic career.

however as we celebrate all the human sporting endeavour let us also remember those christians being persecuted in china and other countries in the world for their faith in Jesus.

ramping it up....

each day we are getting closer and closer to the time when we move out to south africa and we are needing to ramp up the exposure of our charity thembalitsha, please visit their web site which now contains further info on the work that we are doing from the uk side and the projects that we are going to be involved with when we move over, if you feel that you would like to support this work then please follow this link to their donations site.

in this bbc report about HIV AIDS you can watch a short video clip of a home for children in south africa, where over 5.7 million people, or 11% are living with this disease, however there is hope and through organisations like thembalitsha we can make a difference.