Massi Community Road Trip

I had the amazing privilege to visit the Maasi community with social workers from the Holy Family Center.  The social workers go out into the towns and villages to visit clients in their homes.  The clients who receive these home visits have shown some difficulty in complying with the treatment regimen given to those with HIV. 

Getting to the Maasi community was quite a hike, taking two hours in a Toyota Land Cruiser.  Eric, the social worker from Holy Family, had been making visits to this community for about eight months.  He explained that the incidence of HIV is on the increase amongst the Maasi due to a number of reasons, including lack of understanding about the disease, a reluctance to receive HIV testing, and the insular nature of the community.  Unfortunately, even when someone has received a positive drug test and begins treatment, the rate of noncompliance also is high.  And so Eric’s job this day was to try and encourage the patients to take their pills as prescribed, reminding them of their good prognosis if they do.

The first patient we saw was a widow in her 30s. Her husband had died a year before of diseases related to AIDS.  She had a young son and a teenage daughter.  And it was clear during the interview that she hadn’t followed through on her previous promise to take her pills faithfully.  She even told Eric she couldn’t locate her treatment card, upon which she was supposed to be recording her daily drug taking ritual.  After the visit, Eric remarked that the Holy Family Clinic is hoping to find someone in the Massi, preferably a male, since it is a very male-dominated society, who will be open about their HIV status and encourage others to get tested and treated.  Eric noted that another Maasi would have much greater success in helping other Maasis do what is necessary to combat the realities of HIV.

In reflecting on my experience, I was deeply touched and impressed by the commitment of the social workers at the Holy Family Center who go out into these homes several days each week, trying to do what they can to help save lives.  The social workers clearly are committed to their work and deeply care for their clients.  I am so glad that Tree of Lives makes the work of the Holy Family Clinic possible through its ongoing support.

At another level, Eric’s example and comments got me thinking about how God has responded to the deadly condition we all share, no matter where we live or how much we have.  In the Old Testament, we find God setting before His people the ways of life and death.  “If you honor me and keep my commands, you shall live a blessed life; but if you turn away from me, death rather than life shall be the result.”  And yet, despite God’s repeated attempts through the law and the prophets to impress upon us the importance of maintaining faith and obedience, we habitually were noncompliant to what the Lord commanded us to do.  We did not do what would lead to life, but followed the ways of death instead.

And so God did in a grand and universal way what Eric hopes might happen medically in the Maasi community—God came to advocate for us as one of us.  In Christ, we see God no longer sending messengers; He himself came to us in human form, offering us something even more important than medical intervention for an incurable disease.  He came that we might come alive in the fullest possible way as we become eternal sons and daughters of God.

In Christ!
Bryan