Update from Johnny

Today was a special day, an important day, and one that will stand out as one of my proudest moments of my life in Zambia in 2010. I was very proud of the Zambians who worked to make this activity happen and I was also very proud of what it represented. The activity I’m referring to was the field day for the Mufulira and Ndola adolescent HIV support groups. Despite only knowing and working with these groups for the last 3 months, my passion for HIV support groups has its roots in my work at UCLA’s Center for Community Health in 2006. I also have fond memories of my time volunteering with the Botswana Baylor Teen Club in 2009, also a support group for adolescents living with HIV. Of the many programs, organizations, and issues I have engaged with over the past 5 years, working directly with persons living with HIV has been the most fulfilling.

These groups existed before I came to Zambia, though they might never have met if I had not taken the initiative to bring them together. Bringing people together is in fact one of the most powerful tools we have in fighting the HIV epidemic. This ministry has always found its strength in the community of believers. Africans living with HIV often have an unmet need for community because others discriminate against them because of their HIV status, though some also internalize this attitude and count themselves unworthy of the intimacy that comes from disclosing their HIV status to others they love and trust. It was my vision and my hope that as these groups came together during this field day, the sports, small group discussions, entertainment, and meal would not just be remembered as an enjoyable weekend, but the beginning of the realization that there are many people just like us, feeling the same fears, wishing for the same futures, needing the same acceptance as part of a family. I really will miss these guys and gals a lot but it gives me a lot of happiness to know they have met and will be able to grow closer to each other even in the time that I must be away from them. I am reminded of the Passport messages by Louie Giglio in which he asserts that our enjoyment of Heaven will not only be found in the presence of God, but the reunion with fellow believers whom we knew, loved, and poured our lives into. If that is true, and I think it is, then I know that I have much to look forward to even if my days in Zambia in this life are shorter than I expect.