World AIDS Day chapel advocates selfless compassion for the HIV positive

Hope + Love = Freedom. So learned LLU students and faculty during a special World AIDS Day 2005 chapel on November 30.*

Chapel speaker Jonathan Craig, an advocate for people living with HIV and AIDS, put forth this equation. He argued for living lives that liberate people infected by HIV from stigma and judgment.

Mr. Craig has been HIV-positive since he was a teenager. Today, more than 20 years later, he has never been hospitalized  due to  his infection. As chancellor of the organization Global AIDS Ministry Network, he uses his experience and good health to improve the status of people infected by HIV.

Mr. Craig said that if he could, he would not change his HIV-positive status. Problems we experience, he said, are opportunities to help others.

“Your illness, no matter what it is, is a gift,” he said.

After chapel, various HIV and AIDS organizations were present in booths on the lawn outside University Church to provide information and volunteer opportunities to interested students, faculty, and staff.



*Editor’s note: World AIDS Day is officially observed on December 1.