world AIDS day december 1st!

one of the most impactful pieces of the national youthworkers convention was the ONE LIFE experience. it is experiential learning at its finest! the folks at world vision, youth specialties, the international justice mission and a couple of other groups helped put together this amazing walk through the life of a child affected by HIV/AIDS. if you weren't at nywc this fall, this interactive experience is 3000 square feet and 20,000 pounds of information, emotion, and action. after reading the stats on AIDS around the globe, you enter the experience with an mp3 player and become a child. i lived the life of beatrice and heard her story and learned that at age 7 she became a parent to her infant niece when beatrice's sister died in childbirth. wow...i cannot imagine taking care of a baby at age 7, much less have to find food each day and have no money, no medicine and no one to care. as the experience continues, you find out if you have AIDS when you go to the clinic, then you have a chance to pray and remember those who have died of AIDS in a chapel filled with photos. there is a prayer wall where we wrote our prayers and letters to those with AIDS in africa. and finally you make a bracelet to take home with you.
i'm still wearing the bead bracelet i made and it daily reminds me to pray for africa and all those suffering from the affects of HIV/AIDS.

tomorrow (december 1) is world AIDS day. it's a chance for all of us to remember and reflect on this crisis...across the globe and around the corner. tomorrow the ONE LIFE experience will be up in seattle for one last time. it will be down at the waterfront on one of the piers. if you're in the seattle area, call world vision and find out where and what times it is open. it will be worth your while.

everyone can pray for donations so that this powerful experience can be rebuilt and used in many places in the near future. i really believe it should be taken to college campuses around the country.

check out the world vision web site for other resources for world AIDS day. and the urbana.org website has short video clip you can download. oneliferevolution.org is also a great resource for getting yourself or your students involved. let's pray for open hearts and open minds in america...that we won't be numb to the suffering of others and that this christmas we decide to live out matthew 25.

Comments

[Jonathon Norman]

that's pretty powerful. thanks for posting this. i want to get my kids involved with 1life.

[KC]

Not one person in my church all last week made mention of world aids day. It made me sad and it makes me think I need to get on the ball and make them more aware.