'WHO IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF MY CHILDREN AFTER I DIE?'
Kay Warren, wife of Pastor Rick Warren reveals how this question posed to her in Africa by a mother dying from AIDS impacted her life and confirmed her new mission in life to wake up the Church to this pandemic
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
PHILADELPHIA, PA (ANS) -- The emaciated mother who was dying from the ravages of AIDS in Africa, was asked by Kay Warren, mother of three and wife of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, and the author of the
Purpose-Drive
Life, how she could pray for her.
(Pictured: African AIDS orphans).Like so many mothers she has spoken to in Africa and other countries around the world, this mother didn’t ask for money or food or medicine, but with tears in her eyes, she said, “Please pray for my children. Who is going to take care of my children after I die?”
It is a question that has haunted Kay Warren ever since and now she says she has committed the rest of her life to bring help and succor to those dying in this pandemic around the world and to wake up the Church to this terrible pandemic.
In an extraordinary phone interview on Saturday, July 2, when she was backstage at the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia with her husband Rick, she revealed how she first got involved with the HIV/AIDS tragedy.
12 MILLION ORPHANS IN AFRICA FROM AIDS
“It
was one of those epiphanies in life when you are minding your own business and
God invades your life when you least expect it,” she began. “It began three yeas
ago when He just removed the blinders from my eyes as I read a magazine article
on AIDS in Africa. In it, the writer said at that time there were 12 million
children orphaned in Africa due to AIDS. That statement shocked me into
senselessness. I had no idea that there were 12 million orphans anywhere in the
world let alone in Africa. I was completely clueless at that time.
(Pictured: Children orphaned by AIDS in Africa -
UNICEF picture, Gicomo Pirozzi).“So what I had just read began to haunt me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and after a month of wrestling with and wanting to go back to my comfortable life and forget about what I had just learned, I surrendered and I said ‘yes’ to God and I will let my heart be engaged with HIV/AIDS and all that it encompasses.”
Kay revealed that occurred about 18 months before she was herself diagnosed with breast cancer.
“My first trip to Africa in March of 2003 and then I went again in May of 2003 and then I was sick with the cancer and I was out for almost a year and then I went last summer to Thailand, Cambodia and then in October to India and the Philippines. And then in March of this year, I went back Africa to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.”
BURNED OUT OF HER HOME BECAUSE OF AIDS
Kay
said that her heart almost broke during that first trip to Africa while she was
in Mozambique. “I met this woman under a tree who had been kicked out of her
village with her husband when it was found by the people in the village that
they were both HIV positive,” said Kay. “The woman told me that they had an aunt
who was willing to take care of them and so they had moved to the little aunt’s
village but then they were burned out of their home there when the villagers
there found out that they were HIV positive.
(Pictured:
Rick and Kay
Warren - picture Dan Wooding).“When I met her, she was homeless under a tree and was about a week away from death. She was suffering from relentless diarrhea and was emaciated, with stick-like arms and legs and yet she showed me the common African courtesy of coming to greet me as a visitor.
“Her aunt spread out a piece of plastic in front of this tree and this woman dragged herself towards me on her knees and her elbows. She was too weak to stand and yet she somehow got herself onto a sitting position on this little plastic mat and then rose up to greet me with dignity in her face. I will never ever forget her; the gracious, the warmth, the hospitality that she offered in the middle of her near death.”
THE POOR HAVE SO MUCH TO TEACH US
As we talked I recalled that back in 1975, as a young reporter, I went to India to interview Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta. During the interview, Mother Teresa, told me, “The poor have so much to teach us.”
This was echoed by Kay Warren who said that her overseas visits with the poor have also taught her so much.
“Many people around the world do live in abject poverty and the suffering I have seen that comes from poverty; the early deaths, the painful diseases that could be cured in an instant here in the United States; is tragic, but I tell you it’s not all suffering,” she said. “I have learned so much from these people. And it has made me seriously disturbed and gloriously ruined.”
Kay then explained what she meant by this usual statement.
“I am seriously disturbed about the pain and suffering that I have seen around the world, but God has gloriously ruined me because I have grown as a person,” she said. “I have seen real people of faith. These people know God in ways that I don’t know Him. For instance, in Africa, they dance and sing in their services about life being hard and there being a lot of pain, but God, they say, has never left them and Jesus is their hope and heaven is ahead of them.
“MY SOUL IS THE SIZE OF A SHRIVELLED PEA”
“I watch them and look at my own spiritual life and I think my soul is about the size of a shriveled pea in comparison with the joy they have and there knowing God in the hard times that they do.
“So they have taught me so much. I have learned so much from them about community. People around the world are much more dependent about each other and they understand the need that we have for each other in ways that don’t in America. We are so independent and so isolated from each other and so yes, I have seen hardship, but it’s not all tragedy and hardship. I’ve seen joy. I’ve seen community. I’ve seen a caring for other people and a sacrificial love and I learn every time I go and visit these people.”
She then spoke about The PEACE Plan that her husband Rick recently announced. Through the PEACE plan, he wants to mobilize a billion “foot soldiers” in small groups from hundreds of thousands of churches, who he said will attack the giants of the world, armed with "five smooth stones" of (P) - Planting Churches, (E) - Equipping Leaders, (A) - Assisting the Poor, (G) - Caring for the Sick and (E) - Educating the Next Generation.
“I think that God is going to use The PEACE Plan to revolutionize and bring hope to millions of people,” she said. “God has given me an opportunity to be an advocate and so use my voice wherever I can and in almost any message that I deliver anywhere around the world now comes back to AIDS. I think God has called me to be someone who builds awareness because I think that most people are as blind and deaf and dumb as I was three years ago. And AIDS is not even in their consciousness. So I have the opportunity to open their eyes and their hearts and let them to even begin to understand that they have got to do something about it. So my role is advocacy. To be a prophetic voice that says, ‘God cares for these people, so we must also care.’”
When asked if there were churches already involved in the PEACE PLAN, she replied, “There are churches around the world who have already responded and we have met some of them at our Purpose Driven Conference in May. At that time, I did a message on AIDS and when we asked people who are already involved to stand. There were several hundred who did and indicated that they are already caring and have a ministry within their church to people who are HIV-positive. So that was really thrilling to see.”
I then asked Kay how she was feeling and if there was any sign of the cancer?
“I am in remission,” she said. “I just had my check up a few weeks ago and all is well. God is graciously allowing me to be longer here on this earth and I live every day more passionate than ever to fulfill the call that He has given me.”