I was raised in a fairly protected middle-class, Christian, home-schooled home. While I’m grateful for that foundation, it meant that things like “AIDS” were not something I grew up knowing much about. By the time I entered nursing school in Fort Wayne, I knew about AIDS as a disease process and social issue, but had yet to encounter it personally.
That all changed during my pediatric clinical. During my time on the pediatric unit, I came across a seventeen year old girl, who had been HIV positive from birth (she had inherited it from her mother). All the nursing staff knew her because she had been in and out of their unit since she was a baby. During this most recent hospitalization, she was diagnosed with a form of pneumonia which meant she had advanced from being merely HIV positive to having full-blown AIDS. She turned eighteen, signed a do not resuscitate order, and by the time I came back the next week to finish my clinical, she had died.
It was jarring for me. This issue that had been a problem somewhere over there or with that lifestyle that I don’t associate with had suddenly become very present and real. I saw firsthand how devastating AIDS was and more importantly how hopeless those dying of it without Christ really are. In my profession, a “sin-sick and dying world” is not just a cliché; it’s a reality.
That was the encounter that started me down this path that has lead me to Global AIDS Partnership. I knew after that, that at some point in my life, I wanted to help reach those affected by AIDS around the world. Now, I’m so close. I have my training, an appointment with a great ministry, and the hope of Christ to empower me. All I need is the rest of my financial support, and I’ll be able to start!
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