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Saddleback members persist in HIV/AIDS ministry
By Manda Gibson
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“If you think God has given you this heart [for HIV/AIDS ministry], go ahead and explore it. Don’t be afraid. ... You’ll be challenged on levels you’ve never even realized; you’re going to run into people very suspicious of the evangelical Church. But the best thing you can do is be yourself and be genuine.”
Duane Paulson, CARE team member at Saddleback Church |
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As Saddleback Church challenges churches around the world to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Saddleback members are working quietly behind the scenes to serve individuals living with HIV in Orange County, where Saddleback is located.
Vincent Khristov and Duane Paulson are two of those men. Uncertainty about his own HIV status led Khristov to care for those with HIV, while Paulson began his ministry almost accidentally.
Building trust through serving
Khristov lived a risky life before he became a Christian. Drug use, partying, and sex outside of marriage were just part of what he refers to as his “wild time.” Then God changed his life. “God was my last resort, and he saved me from all that,” he said.
Still, his previous lifestyle made him nervous about his own HIV status. Ultimately, a friend took him to get tested, and he learned he was negative, but he didn’t forget the feeling of thinking he might have HIV.
“You start thinking about everything that would change,” Khristov said.
Those changes would have included a lifelong medication regimen and the decision of whether or not to disclose his status to various people. He believes God let him experience all those feelings for a reason: so he could help and comfort other hurting individuals.
He’s started by serving an agency in Orange County that assists people who are HIV positive. As he’s worked to win the agency’s trust, he’s met whatever practical needs they have. “I talk to them about what they need,” he said. “It’s always different.”
For instance, when someone donated fountains to the agency, he stored them until agency staff could sell them through a consignment store and use the proceeds for their work.
When Saddleback started its HIV/AIDS initiative, small groups were encouraged to form CARE teams to minister to those living with HIV. Khristov has joined a CARE team, but the work has been slow, mostly because of the HIV/AIDS community’s distrust of Christians – whom they believe to be more interested in condemning homosexuals than caring for the sick.
Though the agency has hesitated to give his team access to their facility, recently the CARE team did get to clean the agency’s floors and meeting rooms. “Just by serving you can show your love of Jesus,” Khristov said.
Personal ministry: Movie night
Paulson has a personal ministry at the same agency where Khristov has volunteered. Every Friday, Paulson hosts a movie night at the agency building. A regular group meets him there. They spend time catching up on each other’s lives, and once a month they share a potluck dinner.
A couple of years ago a group of volunteers from Saddleback started the movie night. But when the agency hired a new director, movie night was put on hold until the director could affirm the church volunteers were trustworthy – and able to host a movie without pushing an agenda. Having earned trust as he built relationships at the agency, though, Paulson began leading the movie nights as a personal outreach.
At movie night, people can be themselves without being judged, he says.
“When you have HIV/AIDS, there are two kinds of people – people who know and people who don’t. People who know tend to go away, except for family and very close friends,” Paulson said. “With a ministry like mine, it’s someone who knows but who doesn’t have close emotional ties. They can be normal around me and not worry about judgmentalism.”
A slow relationship
Paulson didn’t plan to become involved in HIV/AIDS work, but when he was volunteering in a Saddleback office, he went to one of the first meetings of the Saddleback HIV/AIDS Initiative. Soon after, his small group decided to become a CARE team. Hear Paulson's small group's prayer for those considering HIV/AIDS ministry >>
They were introduced to a man with HIV who needed the support of a group like theirs. The relationship has been slow to grow, though. In two years, they’ve met with the man less than a dozen times.
For months the team won’t hear from him. Then he’ll call, and team members will take him to doctor’s appointments, shop with him, or just sit in his apartment and talk.
“It’s a tentative, tenuous outreach. We’re racing against the clock,” Paulson said. “He’s on and off ARVs [antiretroviral medications]. They make him debilitated and ill. It’s a tough place to be. I can’t even imagine what he’s going through.”
Though the CARE team has invited him to their small group meetings and given him a copy of The Purpose Driven Life, he’s hesitant to get too close to Christianity. He once visited a church that made him unwelcome after learning he was HIV positive. “This has made him alienated from Christianity and wary,” Paulson said.
But the team is determined to keep up the relationship and see what God has planned.
Ready to get started?
More Christians need to build relationships with people who are HIV positive, Paulson said.
“If you think God has given you this heart, go ahead and explore it. Don’t be afraid,” he said. “You’ll be challenged on levels you’ve never even realized; you’re going to run into people very suspicious of the evangelical Church. But the best thing you can do is be yourself and be genuine.”
Khristov encourages fellow Christians to go to HIV/AIDS agencies in their communities and ask how they can volunteer. “There aren’t a lot of people who want to help people with AIDS,” he said. “Keep your eyes open, and opportunities will come available.”
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