| As I spoke with Reverend Ayongwa
and with that first woman, “G,” (I’ve promised
to keep the members’ names confidential) they told me about
their “family” (this group) and how it began. G said
she is a single mother with three children and six grandchildren.
Though it is unusual, she has never been married. She was a regular
churchgoer, but she said she wasn’t a Christian. She lived
a life of “freedom” and “not as God called [her]
to live.”
When G was diagnosed with AIDS, she was well for a while but
then she became quite sickly. “I was gripped with fear and
was panicking.” G went to Rev. Ayongwa knowing she would
die and wanting to be “spiritually prepared.” But,
as G met and prayed regularly with him, she was uplifted and began
to see both physical and spiritual changes in her life. She began
to have hope. As time went on other people who were HIV positive
started approaching Rev. Ayongwa. He would meet and pray with
them regularly. And one by one he started sending them to G for
encouragement and advice. After some time she was convinced that
they should start a support group. They tried often but people
would come one week and not the next. “Shame and shyness”
kept them away. Then after attending an AIDS seminar together,
G and Rev. Ayongwa began to give concrete help to people in addition
to praying with them. As they started helping with education,
food and nutrition, and some medications, people started coming
more regularly. And now the group of young and old, men and women,
has reached over 50 in just under a year.
To join the group each person must meet with the pastor first.
“We want to get to know everyone one by one. We are a family
and we talk like family.” Though most are members of Azire
congregation, three or four have come from outside the church.
The group is open to all. Together they have written a constitution.
Confidentiality is primary. Each member must contribute 1000 Cameroonian
Francs or about two dollars. And Azire congregation has taken
offerings called “solidarity fund” to buy food and
medicines for those who can’t afford them. They meet weekly
and use the time for prayer, worship, meditation on “God’s
word of hope,” and for sharing experiences and resources.
The pastor says “many times after the meeting we eat and
sing and dance together.”
This group is rare. Normally, people in Cameroon or other places
I travel to don’t talk about AIDS except with words of despair
and hopelessness. Yet the members of this group walk into the
room with hope in their eyes, thanksgiving to God in their hearts,
and words of encouragement, compassion, and challenge for each
other on their tongues. There were one or two who were having
physical problems and in distress. But they shared about those
problems with the group, and the group came up with solutions
to meet those problems. Another member had died the day before.
The group had decided to go as a group to mourn with the husband.
There was sadness, but they rejoiced that this woman had not died
alone, and had died knowing Christ, knowing that she would live
forever with Him.
G told me that before she had AIDS she never really knew God.
Nowshe loves Him dearly and knows He loves her and wants others
with AIDS to know that too. She said “I used to spread AIDS
before I knew God.” But “I’ve promised I’ll
never go back to that lifestyle again. We all promise that. We
leave our old lives behind and start again.” What would
happen if everyone with AIDS had a group such as this to be part
of? What would happen if everyone not yet HIV positive had this
experience as well?
The group has named itself “Hope.” Its motto is:
“Hope in God who heals and saves us both directly and personally
or through others near and far to live a life in all its fullness.”
Please be in prayer with me for this group, for their pastor,
and for all of those with HIV/AIDS, that all will know the Hope
that leads to life in all its fullness.
I end by quoting from their group anthem:
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay….
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Edward Mote
Yours in Christ,
Caryl
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
38
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