Richly, Richly Deserved

First, belated Easter wishes to the tens of people who happen upon this blog. To those who celebrate Christianity, He is risen!! He is risen, indeed!! To those who don't, Hooray for an annual excuse to gorge on chocolate!! :)

To the meat of this post. I'm incredibly excited about this news, and after the horrendous misstep that was my last blog, have made sure to verify that this is actually happening (though I'll be in no way ranting about anything).

For those that don't read either of my wife's blogs, she has been selected to take part in a two-month rotation that essentially seconds as a medical mission in Eldoret, Kenya. There, she'll work with Joe Mamlin, a native Hoosier, graduate of IU, and member of our church. Joe and his wife founded and still run a network of hospitals there, which provides testing and treatment for AIDS in one of the areas of the world that has been hit the hardest.

Recently, though, it's gone far beyond the nobility of treating this modern pandemic. The hospital treats not only the disease, but the patient as well. So often in Kenyan culture, women are abandoned once they are known to carry the AIDS virus as they are seen as virtually worthless. Mamlin's hospital often provides ways for these women to get back on their feet despite their outcast status, sometimes even overcoming it.

Mamlin's program, known as AMPATH, now helps feed thousands of Kenyans and clothe many Kenyan orphans. He has provided for the entire world a way, and more importanly an easily-replicated example of how, to fight AIDS as well as how AIDS affects culture and the human condition in bleak conditions. And now, he has been nominated for one of the ultimate recognitions in the world.

The Mamlins have been supported for so long, not just by their church, but by so many public and private offerings (including the Gates Foundation). The support they've received from home, though, still pales in comparison to what they're able to do with it. They've taken that love and support and shared it with people they'd never met, and are actively changing the world by doing so. Now, they're finally receiving recognition for it in the form of this Peace Prize nomination.

Sharing the love of God and taking it to strangers that search for hope under circumstances where there is so often so little to be found. Truly, I say, these two are people of God.