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Witness to joy and hardship in the face of AIDS

June 9, 2006

By debraf

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Diocese of Ontario team reflects on their experience in Kenya

It was a whirlwind of a week for the Diocese of Ontario team.
They had traveled to Kenya on an AIDS awareness trip during Ontario’s March Break. And they experienced it all: potholed roads, flat tires, incredible scenery, heartbreaking stories, deep faith, warm people.
The 11 members of the team joined three Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) staff. They visited two Christian Community Services organizations covering eight dioceses in the Mount Kenya and Mount Kenya East regions. (The organizations are partly funded by PWRDF.)
The team visited homes of people living with HIV; they helped plant gardens; they listened to widows’ stories at a support group; they heard women speak frankly about their struggles with unfaithful husbands; they met dozens of adorable children; they prayed with the sick, the poor and the ostracized; they gave out baby blankets and school supplies.
They gave, but they also received: a stalk of bananas, a bag of freshly picked mangoes, a welcome in song and dance.
And at the core of so many encounters with caregivers and their loved ones, they witnessed an inexplicable Christian joy in the midst of hardship and a faith that God would see them through their trials.
The 11 individuals from the Diocese of Ontario will carry the experience with them for the rest of their lives. Now they have stories to tell – in words and in pictures. Read their impressions in the Diocese of Ontario Newspaper, Dialogue May 2006. Homily by Debra Fieguth

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