Presbyterian Today JUNE 1999

A Presbyterian lost her brother to AIDS and sparked a church and community ministry.

A I D S :
From Fear
To Compassion

"I believe this horrible monster AIDS-which knows no age, race, sex, or religion-can be brought to an end. Education is the key…It won't be easy, but I think-with a little help from God-the job can be done." These words were written by Jeremy, a member of the 1998 senior class at Midland (Texas) High School, to Judy Warren after she spoke to his health class.

In 1987 Warren lived a double life in Midland, a city of 100,000. She put on a cheerful "community face" at First Presbyterian Church, serving as president of a women's group and as a Stephen Minister, trained in lay pastoral care.

But she wore another face at home-one of love and fear as she cared for her brother, Larry Yates, who had been diagnosed with AIDS. Warren kept the illness a secret. "I would hear about houses being burned and families of persons with AIDS being run out of town in other cities. I was told someone called the AIDS hot line in Odessa demanding the names of people with AIDS so they could kill them. I was scared to death."

But in 1989, when Warren had cancer surgery, she says she "hit rock bottom" and confided in on of her pastors, Dick Braun. Some church members and Stephen Ministers rallied around her and her brother, providing spiritual and emotional support.

Yates died in 1990. The following year Warren and Braun organized a small support group in the community for people with AIDS and their family members.

From that small beginning developed the Midland Area AIDS Support (MAAS) ministry. The organization offers support groups for people with HIV/AIDS and separate groups for their families in Midland and Odessa; a program to teach AIDS awareness in the secondary schools; CARE Teams that provide spiritual and emotional support to people with AIDS in their homes; and grief recovery groups. It also brought the then reigning Miss America, 1998, Kate Shindle, to speak about AIDS education to more than 3,000 high school students at two Midland high schools.

Texas has ranked fourth in the number of diagnosed AIDS cases, with 42,185 reported cases in June 1997. That translates to hundreds of family members and friends in the area touched by AIDS.

The road to acceptance has not been easy. Initially some church members and employees feared people with HIV/AIDS. "The custodians didn't want to touch their coffee cups," says Drew Anderson, business administrator. He decided it was time to offer AIDS education, and Warren presented an AIDS awareness seminar to the entire church staff.

It took the death of a high school friend to alter Anderson's own feelings about assisting people with AIDS. "It took a face that I loved to die of that disease," he says, "before it really hit home for me."

Braun, who is now retired, still serves as a part-time pastor at First Presbyterian Church and as MAAS chairman. He has witnessed the congregation moving from fear to compassion in the course of seven years. "There are still folks in the church who move away when they hear or AIDS, but now we have members volunteering to assist in many phases of the organization's work. Now we have an attitude that is more of compassion that of condemnation or saying AIDS is God's judgment on people for doing the wrong things."

"People's attitudes toward others say something about the nature of the God we serve and worship. If God is a God of love, then that determines how we treat people."

"Ministering to people is what the church is about," says First Presbyterian Church pastor Jerry Hilton. "Jesus Christ reached out to anyone in need."

"Our church has come a long way," Warren says, "but it has been a struggle." Other churches also initially "didn't want to have anything to do with an AIDS ministry," she says, "but now a number of other churches from different denomination have donated to MAAS. Other ministers have also participated in First Presbyterian's annual World AIDS Day memorial service.

Last summer a Midland social worker and well-known actor in community theater, G. Thomas Harlow, publicly announced that he had AIDS. Although he had strayed from the church, Harlow found solace and spiritual guidance from the ministers of First Presbyterian Church. "From the way people talked about homosexuality, I started believing God was vengeful, condemning and judgmental. Having HIV has changed all of that. I'm back to where I started as a Presbyterian, believing God is a loving God."

Harlow says AIDS "is not God's curse on me." Rather, "it is God's gift. It's a unique opportunity. I believe you grow from adversity, and in God's wisdom there is a reason for this."

The gift, he says, is that he wakes up every morning and realizes he has one more day to treasure. "I don't know if I've got one month or two or ten years to live," he says. "I'm not going to spend the time I have left cursing God. I don't understand why some churches want to spend time being angry with people instead of helping them."

Harlow gets daily comfort from Bible verses, friends at First Church, and the belief that a cherished aunt and uncle are watching over him as guardian angels. "I would hate to be in (paralyzed actor) Christopher Reeve's shoes. But look at the difference he has made.

"I'm not afraid of sickness or death. God has put this into my life for something good to come out of it."

"People come to us when they are ready to die and want to talk about God," Warren says. When they need spiritual guidance, MAAS and First Presbyterian will be there for them.

For Urgent Inquiries:
1-800-299-AIDS
Texas AIDS Hotline
( 800 ) 299 - 2437