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“What if one community came together…”
By Dr. David Swanson
Both Swanson and Andrew were presenters at the 2007 Global Summit
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| Photo by Dennis Flanigan | In the summer of 1990, I met the first person I had ever known who had AIDS. I was a young hospital chaplain intern and he was a 51-year-old man named Tom. Over the course of the next nine months, Tom and I grew to be great friends as he neared death. I would meet with him almost every day. After about six months, it finally dawned on me: no one else was coming to see him. His Mom and sister lived out of town and came occasionally, but that was it. He was essentially alone.
It wasn’t just Tom, many others that year died alone in that hospital; and it was then that God planted a burden for HIV/AIDS ministries in my heart. When I moved to Orlando three and a half years ago, it was that burden that led to conversations with others about what was happening in this area, and more importantly, what COULD happen. Roughly 18 months ago I sat with two people in my office: a woman who led the only Christian HIV/AIDS ministry in our city and a black pastor who served a church in a neighborhood with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in our city. They were both tired and they needed help. We prayed and we said, “What if…..”. We dreamed of a time when the community would come together, and we set some goals:
• Increase awareness in the community.
• Reduce the “stigma” by encouraging communities and their leaders, especially churches and their pastors, to talk about HIV/AIDS more openly.
• Increase the number of people being tested.
• Provide inspiration and resources to help faith communities create ministries that address the needs of HIV/AIDS sufferers and their families, including connection with and access to public health systems.
• Unify the faith community around a common goal of ministering to people with HIV/AIDS. This would help remove the barriers that tend to separate us; thus preparing us to deal with future needs more effectively.
• Create a positive response to what the church is doing in the community.
Then, we got busy. Pastor William Andrews came to be one of my closest friends. Roxanne Nordquist, the director of Haven of Hope ministry, became a tireless advocate and encourager. Together, we made phone calls, gathered leaders, raised money, and prayed – a lot. The end result was the Orlando Consortium on HIV/AIDS held January 11-12, 2008. With Kay Warren as our keynote speaker, we asked the community to come together, and they did. Hurting people, lonely people, grieving people, confused people – came. Caring people, faithful people, gifted people – came. And for some, it was the first time they had felt comfortable talking about HIV/AIDS in a church. Some had never even been in a church. And there was healing.
In addition to emotional healing, there was racial healing. When you get into HIV/AIDS, you are immediately put in the context of racism and distinctions of classes. Thanks to a number of leaders who helped me open doors, and thanks to the friendship shared by me and William; the black community, the Latino community, and the white community joined hands, helping to cross the racial divide and the barriers of HIV/AIDS. As much as anything I have seen in Orlando, the community came together: civic (both Mayors and both U.S. Senators), corporate/public (Walt Disney World, University of Central Florida, Servant Investments, Abbott Labs), medical (Orlando Regional Health Systems), and religous (many denominations representing more than 100 faith communities).
God was also faithful in helping us to raise $52,000. We now have $35,000 to give away in grants to other churches who want to start HIV/AIDS ministry in their communities in Central Florida.
As a result, leaders in Jacksonville, Ocala, St. Cloud, and Ft. Myers are meeting to replicate this event in their communities. Churches are applying for funding to help get ministry started. An Orlando HIV/AIDS network is being formed. It’s tremendously exciting to see it all happen, but rest assured, it has also been hard work. HIV/AIDS ministries are not easy. There is still a social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. There are still community and civic reluctances to be associated with such a thing. Even so, the church is called to be about what is right, not about what is easy – and so that is what we are doing.
It’s far from a completed work. There is much to be done, but even today, I had one more person tell me their story of how their son died from AIDS. They told me, “I finally shared this because, for the first time, our church felt like safe place to tell it.” The church has been slow to respond – too slow to get involved – and many have suffered for it. The time has come for us to step up, be involved, and go stand in front of someone and say, perhaps for the first time, “I care about you. How can I help you?” That’s what we have tried to do in Orlando. God bless you in doing so where you live, too!
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