‘How I felt called to help
the Church fight AIDS’

by Linette Masiga, HIV/AIDS Desk Coordinator, based at the UBS Eastern & Southern Africa Area Service Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Prior to her present appointment, Linette Masiga was UBS Regional Scripture Procurement Officer, in Nairobi. In 2002 she was asked also to co-ordinate the publishing process for the UBS HIV/AIDS booklets. This involved working closely with the authors, the translators, the illustrator, production staff and various Bible Societies. She was formally appointed HIV/AIDS Desk Coordinator in February 2004.

Linette Masiga, the UBS HIV/AIDS Desk Coordinator Eastern & Southern Africa Area Service Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: UBSESAASC (KEN05DJ-2.JPG)

KENYA — The moment it occurred to me that initiatives of the Bible Societies and the Church could overcome the enemy of HIV/AIDS, I began to see myself as strategically positioned to work with others equipping the Church with the weapons it needed.

All around me I saw publicity brainwashing the world into believing that condoms could successfully prevent HIV/AIDS infection. Meanwhile, the Church’s own prevention toolkit, 2,000 years old, wholesome and tested, remained on the periphery.

Since the media was successfully misleading the masses, could the Church not present its own message to counter the deception? Frankly, many condom users use them neither consistently, nor to prescription, and as a result expose themselves and others to the virus; and that is a critical weakness. I wanted to be part of the team addressing this anomaly.

Vast problem

I realised that the problem was vast, requiring different teams to develop their own response to different aspects of it.

Then I remembered David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17:32-51) and how an extraordinary confidence in God and a determination on the part of one young lad brought down a huge giant.

I also remembered the two teams of spies sent out by Moses and Joshua to look over Canaan and Jericho (Numbers 13 and Joshua 2). Moses’ team of spies registered that the land indeed flowed with milk and honey, but was full of intimidating giants who made them seem like grasshoppers. Joshua’s team of spies, on the other hand, realised that a “grasshopper” faith would do them no good. They decided instead to trust in God’s supernatural power, based on his promises and their past experiences, and finally overcame the giants.

Grasshopper

This made me realise that it was time to shift from a “grasshopper” vision to an “on my Father’s shoulders” vision. I saw how, by drawing on God’s resources, the Church could provide the appropriate response to the HIV/AIDS scourge.

Furthermore, just as Esther was challenged by Mordecai not to sit comfortably in the palace while her fellow Jews were under the threat of death, I felt as though these words were directed at me: “… maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen…” (Esther 4:14 GNB).