LoveAIDS
  • Home
  • About
    • History & Mission
    • Financial Information
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
    • Frequently Asked Questions >
      • General FAQs
      • Operations FAQs
      • Medical FAQs
      • Finance FAQs
      • Volunteering FAQs
    • Ethical Obligations
  • Our Work
    • People of Faith
    • The Disadvantaged
    • HIV/AIDS in the Body
    • How We Work
    • Medical Workers We Send
    • Current Project
    • Director's Blog
    • Field Videos
    • Photo Gallery
  • Work With Us
    • Medical Workers
    • Operations Workers
  • Donate
  • Contact
Director's Blog

"I'm SO Jealous of You," I've Been Told, Countless Times.... 

11/19/2014

Comments

 
PictureDealing daily with suffering, death and dying in the face of limited resources was part of my regular work.
This is phrase I have heard numerous times regarding my work in Costa Rica--my ten weeks spent there this summer, and my upcoming three and a half weeks for our Christmas trip. 


How does one respond? 
I wonder, when told that, if I should share about the gigantic brown cockroaches that would scuttle across my legs in the middle of the night. 


Or about the constant terrified wailing of the baby next door I could hear through the paper-thin walls for ten entire weeks and the harsh mother's voice next door raging constantly at the newborn who was just needing to be held. It was after this summer that I realized that yes, I can tell the difference between a baby just crying and the fearful, tormented sobbing of an infant who both longingly cries for its mother and is utterly scared of her. Recognizing this type of suffering in a baby for ten weeks can do strange things to your mind. 


Or how I was experienced hunger pangs daily, because my  host mom could not afford to give me enough meat (or any milk) to satisfy my body's need for protein, and I learned a new definition of what it means to "go without." 


Or perhaps I might share that I only had two Saturdays off the entire summer, one of which was the only time I went to the beach. 
Because I was studying through countless academic research journal articles every Saturday...as a part of my summer's work. 


Or perhaps I should share about my 10-14 hour days I kept 5 days a week, every week. I WORKED. 


Do I share about how I gained weight, because it is very dangerous to run on the streets in Costa Rica, with a very high pedestrian fatality rate, due to drivers' disregard for those on foot, and so I couldn't go running? 


Do I share how I spent my Sundays at multiple church services...because I was working on building relationships with the local churches? No sleeping in for me, because I have to wake up early and it will take me an hour to take the bus to church.... 


Or do I share about how while my pre-medical and nursing student peers worked during the summer to make some kind of income, I gave my summer away, a poor pre-med student who really needs funds but gave my labor away? 


What is is people are jealous about? 
Please hear my heart. I do what I do out of love: "Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore, all died. And He died for all, that whose who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:14.) 


Christ's love compels me. 


My prayer is that I would hear instead, 
"That is so awesome. I am praying for you." 


At the director of LoveAIDS, I am working very long hours and slowly, with my team members, building a vessel the Christ-loving church in the United States desperately needs: a vessel that Christian health care workers can utilize to travel globally to love the AIDS patient in Jesus' name. 
And I am stepping out to love and serve those neglected and stigmatized the most in countries where it is most needed: resource-poor countries. Costa Rica is only a gateway to further work in other, much poorer countries. 


That is my prayer. A coming-alongside of me with a "How may I join in?" and a "I am praying. I am
praying for you." 

Picture
My bed and shelves in my half of the bedroom where I lived all summer, in San Jose, Costa Rica. I had new experiences regarding what gigantic brown cockroaches on your legs at night and paper-thin walls--where you can understand everything your neighbors say in Spanish--are all about.
Comments

Bars on the Windows and Gates on All the Homes.... 

11/3/2014

Comments

 
There are many approaches to global work. I have been on trips, and I know many who have been on trips. Recent conversations have sparked an awareness that it might be beneficial to share about LoveAIDS' approach. 
PictureMy community I lived in the duration of the summer in San Jose, Costa Rica. A quiet, calm neighborhood. Every house on this street was gated and had bars on its windows....
In my understanding of the biblical text, and in my understanding of ministry and cultural effectiveness, "I have become all things to all people..." and "Run in such a way to get the prize...." refer to specifics when the apostle Paul penned them two thousand years ago.... (1 Corinthians 9:22, 24) 

What are those specifics that Paul is referring to? What does it mean to run in such a way to get the prize or to become all thing to all people? Is Paul suggesting that there are ineffective approaches and methods to go about one's work? 

Recently I had someone bring up, "You mean you use the public buses?" [Everyone uses the public buses in Costa Rica.] 

"You mean there are bars on all the windows?" [Yes, there are bars on all the windows, and all the homes have bars/gates in front of them. That does not mean it is not safe. It is just a cultural normal for every home to be gated.] 



"You mean, you don't want to be out past 8 PM unless you a taxi/car?" [Yes. Of course. In almost every country outside of the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Western European countries, you do not want to be out past 8 PM unless you use a taxi/automobile.] 


The assumption was that because we do not take our U.S. American lifestyle and live the same way in Costa Rica, that it is not safe in Costa Rica to do the work we do. [Anyone who has spent a bit of time in Costa Rica knows that, while it is always wise to be vigilant, to make assumptions like that which aren't based on reality only harms the good work we seek to do.] 

  • At all times, we seek to be lovers of truth. We seek what is accurate to reality in our operational planning. We seek to be wise about safety issues. We seek to be completely transparent with our finances. We seek to partner with those with whom there are high levels of established trust. 
  • We acknowledge that inaccurate information can be harmful to accomplishing the work we seek to do. We seek to partner with those who want to partner with us based on information that is true about what's going on on the ground. 
  • LoveAIDS is not for the weak. But it is for those who rely on God's strength. We are a young organization, and what we are doing is pioneer work. We seek to integrate the best of global health research with superior medical care and a loving, discerning application of the Word of God. In this work, we seek to work with trailblazers with a pioneering spirit, those are are comfortable helping create an organization in previously uncharted territory. 
  • We work with the local people and we live among local people. We do not isolate ourselves or live lifestyles the local people can not afford to live. We ride the buses, the public transportation in the big cities that the majority of people use. We eat the foods the local people eat. We seek to dress the way the local people dress. 
  • We do what we do because "the love of Christ compels us." (1 Corinthians 5:14) 

PictureBars. Yes. Costa Rica has many bars. Many beautiful bars and beautiful steel fences and beautiful steel window dressings....
 

  • Go into all the world.... (Matthew 28:19.) 
  • The harvest in plentiful, but the workers are few.... (Matthew 9:37) 
  • Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.... (Romans 12:15) 
  • Greater love has no Man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends. (John 15:13) 
Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2018
    June 2017
    September 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014

    Categories

    All

    Ingrid Anne Stavrica

    Director

    Patient Confidentiality

    LoveAIDS would like to remind our partners & public that we are limited in both the stories and photos we can share do to needing to protect patient confidentiality, complying with patient privacy laws originating within both the U.S and the countries we work with. 

Our Location
​
​

Picture


 
Seattle, Washington, USA
​P.O. Box 281

​Redmond, WA 98073-0281, USA  
206-612-1768 
​

ContactUs@loveaids.org 
A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. 
Federal Identification Number (EIN): 47-2131886.

Vertical Divider
Donate
100% of our funding comes from donors like you. 
  • Home
  • About
    • History & Mission
    • Financial Information
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
    • Frequently Asked Questions >
      • General FAQs
      • Operations FAQs
      • Medical FAQs
      • Finance FAQs
      • Volunteering FAQs
    • Ethical Obligations
  • Our Work
    • People of Faith
    • The Disadvantaged
    • HIV/AIDS in the Body
    • How We Work
    • Medical Workers We Send
    • Current Project
    • Director's Blog
    • Field Videos
    • Photo Gallery
  • Work With Us
    • Medical Workers
    • Operations Workers
  • Donate
  • Contact