Last year 3.1 million people – adults and children - died from AIDS.

AIDS kills 1 child ever minute.

Every 15 seconds a young person contracts HIV.

50% of all new infections occur in young people between the ages of 15-24. Most of them don't know they carry the virus.

15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS – that’s the equivalent to every American child under the age of 5.

This disease doesn’t care about age or race or economical status. Here’s
a site with more stats and more ways you can educate yourself and/or get involved.

Free HIV testing
Friday, December 1
Columbus AIDS Task Force
1751 E. Long St.
Noon - 3:00 p.m.

AIDS Vigil
Friday, December 1
Columbus Health Department
240 Parsons Ave.
5-7 p.m.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed in the Columbus Health Department auditorium located at 240 Parsons Ave. This display will be part of a week-long commemoration of World AIDS Day which is this Friday. There's no charge to see the Memorial Quilt and its available for viewing at these times:

1 – 7:30 p.m. today
9 a.m. – noon and 2- 5:00 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Friday

And here's the my first post of stats and info for the week.


There have been 7,860 Ohioans killed by AIDS and 1,486 of those were in Franklin County alone. There are currently 14,823 people in Ohio living with the disease.

There have been 529, 113 Americans killed by AIDS.
There are currently 1.2 million Americans living with the disease.

The numbers are over 25 million people who have died of AIDS-related illnesses around the globe. There are over 39 million people living with HIV or AIDS globally today.





These stats are since 1981 and are from the Ohio Department of Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Last night it was a few friends sitting on a church pew at the Canal Street Tavern for an Over The Rhine show. Their music enters my ears, intoxicates my auditory nerves, and proceeds to set up residence somewhere deep in my chest. No, not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.


(These are someone else's thoughts, but I really couldn't put it any better than this myself.)

My brother I miss you, oh know that I miss you...

I think about you almost every day. There are so many things that remind me of you. There are even more things that remind me that you’re not here.

Last night I got to hang out with our good friend Ben – a friend that you had a hand in introducing me to. Our time together was fun and meaningful and good as usual, but this time so much was different. You weren’t there tapping your foot or singing along and for that reason and a host of others, the night was painful. Though in the company of friends and in the arms of the one I love I found comfort and beauty in the sorrow that hung over the place.

You’re now living where soul meets body, where the sun wrap it’s arms around you and you know what it's like to be new.

Walt Whitman once said "I have learned that to be with those I like is enough." and I couldn't agree more.

I've known for a long time that the friends I have are stellar - that's just all there is to it. For whatever reason, I have been extremely blessed with quality people in my life who offer me their love, attention and encouragement. They challenge me, listen to me, share my burdens and they rejoice when I rejoice. In many ways, it has been through my friends that I have most consistently seen the most tangible examples of who Christ is.

Last night I was reminded about what good friendship is. For the first time in a long time I got to hang out with some of my girls from college - just the girls and we shared a meal, laughed til we cried, shared old stories, shared new stories, and just connected in ways that I don't often get to connect with people. If for no other reason, I am thankful for MVNU for the incredible relationships it provided. It was good to be with you Mandy, Heather, Garber, Summer, and Holly Pre. To my other JALMBAKS (and then some) girls - you are missed.

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

--Frederick Buechner

His kindness falls like rain, it washes me away...

And I'm beginning to change my mind.

These seconds when I'm shaking leave me shuddering for days it seems and I tend to think I'm not ready for this sort of thing.

But I'm beginning to change my mind.

How is it that a person I have never met, a person I've never seen a picture of, talked to on the phone, or received any kind of correspondance from... How is it that my heart aches for her so deeply that I am moved to tears? There's a tightness in my gut that won't go away and a sadness in my being that is unlike any other sadness I've known. We are connected in some way and when we do get to meet I know we'll embrace, maybe even kiss one another and breathe a sigh of relief, almost to say "At last. We're meeting at last."

He's dear to me and so expensive, but I'm not talkin 'bout money.

Do you know about Product (RED)? You should.

Do you know that you can make a difference? You should.

AIDS is no longer an immediate death sentence. Just two pills a day will bring someone on the brink of death back to health. Doctors are calling it 'the Lazarus effect'. The meds cost less than a dollar a day, but the poorest people in Africa earn less than that. They can’t afford them, and so they die. It's unnecessary. Its not fair. BUT I can afford them. I bet you can too.

Did you know:
Every year 3 million people die from AIDS and of the 40 million people infected by HIV/AIDS, Africa (which has just over 10% of the world’s population) is home to 60% That’s approximately 25 million people. If we don’t act soon this disease will be the leading cause of death in Africa.

Women comprise the fastest growing population group living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and the result of their illness on children is staggering. Every time a man or woman is started on anti-retroviral drugs, the survival of children becomes less uncertain.

An estimated 13 million children in Africa have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS already and this number continues to grow. Almost 2,000 children are infected with HIV each day and most of those children are located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Here are just a few ways you can help bring an end to the deaths directly linked to HIV and AIDS.

Hotel Café Tour It will be in Columbus at The Basement on October 24th.

Interact Worldwide

Montana de Luz Firstgiving site

Its interesting what a little silence can do to/for you. Why are we so afraid of quiet? And I’m not talking about just literal quiet here, but being quiet from the world, from our fears, from one another…

In the last four years or so I’ve grown more and more comfortable with silence and at times, I even crave it. Its been a quiet few days for me and although somewhat painful, hard and even a little scary, its been good for me. I think I should force myself into these situations more often – or rather, get to the point where its not something forced at all.

Its been said that there’s hope in the midst of hopelessness…that death doesn’t have to mean losing the fight… that the onset of hopelessness is “the great defeater”. I’m urged to allow hope to rise up within me. I’m encouraged to whisper this alleged hope when I go to sleep and then shout it aloud in the morning. (That’s assuming of course, that I still have a voice or the will to even use it.) They say that I should live with hope as if it’s the only thing that sustains me and that upon doing so I will not be disappointed.

Riiiight. Easier said that done.




I picture you in the sun wondering what went wrong
and falling down on your knees asking for sympathy
and being caught in between all you wish for and all you've seen
and trying to find anything you can feel that you can believe in

May God’s love be with you always.
May God’s love be with you...

If I find my own way, how much will I find?
If I find my own way, how much will I find you?...

I don’t know anymore what it’s for
I’m not even sure if there is anyone who is in the sun
Will you help me to understand
’Cause I've been caught in between all I wish for and all I've seen
Maybe you’re not even sure what it’s for any more than me...

I think every morning should start off with time spent at the table with Kyle, Kelsie & Maggie.

Eric’s posted some good stuff today. Its indicative of where my head and my heart have been the last few days. Lately I’ve been realizing that apart from God I'm not only incapable of community, but I’m incapable of any kind of relationship. I’m moody, I’m selfish, I don’t always have compassion, I seek attention, I feel like I need a lot more than I actually do, I don't often put others first … and yet there is a Grace and a Love that comes in and cancels all of my crap out. At any given moment of any given day, I really don’t know where I stand with Jesus anymore but one thing I am sure of – I need Him. And that’s really all I can process at this time. Maybe that’s all I need to process ever. Who knows.

To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of a child,
to earn the appreciation of honest
critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
to appreciate beauty,
to find the best in others,
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch…
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

I’ve been listening to this song for the past month or so since the Boston trip.
Kyle freaking hooked up my brand new ipod (which deserves a post all its own but I’ll spare you) and one of the random songs on there was this one – an old Caedmon’s Call tune. Derek Webb is a stud, that’s all there is to it. His words ring true to me too many times I think. This song came played on my way in to work today. I don’t really like that I relate so much with this song, but I do. Here ya go.


The Truth
I've been putting on and putting off too many people
And I'm getting old to live like an injured man
Ailment and unfilled prescription like the nose on my face
Like a broken boat safety raft and a love for the water
And I just can't decide to sink or swim it's me or them
Should I save myself or go back for the others because

Maybe there's no gray and I was wrong to tell 'em so
And maybe all that I've to do was done a long time ago

'Cause there was life before my life
There was provision before my need
There was redemption before my sin
For the sake of the world I thank the Lord
That the truth's not contingent on me

I've been dressing up and dressing down for too many people
And I'm a little young to live like a troubled boy, a troubled soul
A fish out of water, 'cause we're all just the same
We're all just as good and just as bad and just as distracted
By the corners of our eyes as our fathers were and theirs before
And all those before them and still I glance around

And with the way I stare you'd think I'd seen through a two-by-four
And with the way I walk you'd think I'd never seen grace before

But I've been putting up and putting down too many things
That I know nothing about but I'm jealous of
Holding pride as tight as I can like she was my only daughter

And then Over the Rhine’s Happy To Be So came on and this part stuck out to me:

…If I try to pray, it's like a game of red rover.
I take a real good run at it, but I can't break through…

Yeah, so that’s sorta where I’m at these days. I don’t know if it makes any sense to anyone else, but I don’t really care.


Hmm. What’s a girl to do with all this? Hmm.

In a little over 24 hours I'll be on a plane getting ready to take off for Boston with the one I love - only him. We've been planning this trip for months and getting so excited about our time away together. I can't wait.