By Brian Nixon

“It’s amazing to me how the church responded,” Tim said. “Not only did we get enough food for Thanksgiving, but Christmas and Easter as well. I was absolutely blown away!”

During our interview, Tim Ramirez, a man with the HIV virus, shared his feelings with me after learning that Calvary of Albuquerque donated enough food and services to assist the New Mexico AIDS Service (NMAS) - an outreach that was supposed to be only for thanksgiving.

The outreach began when Tim walked into the office of NMAS and met with the director. Apparently, NMAS had just lost its corporate sponsorship for its Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter food outreaches known as Necessities of Life. Tim thought he had a great idea: Why not let a church sponsor the event?

The Director wasn’t too keen on the idea. But with a little help from Tim, they agreed.

According to Pastor Dave Row of Calvary of Albuquerque, “Our ultimate goal with the NMAS outreach was to reach out and bless a community of individuals usually not associated with the evangelical church. Our heart was to show God’s love and demonstrate His love in a very concrete fashion.”

Dave continued, “I first met Tim three months ago. After a meeting with him, I discovered he had the HIV virus. Tim had so many questions about the church and Christians.

“After a few meetings together, Tim shared with me his idea about having the church sponsor the food outreach. I said that I believed it would go over very well. Tim was surprised by my answer. He confided that he would be shocked that an evangelical church would assist in an area like this. And I told Tim, ‘Be prepared for a shock, for when God wants to demonstrate His love - it sometimes happens with a bang.’”

According to Skip Heitzig, Senior Pastor of Calvary of Albuquerque, “We’ve always yearned for an outreach within this community, but we needed an open door. With Tim, we had our ‘door’.”

On the day of the food distribution, I met Pastor Dave, Tim, and several other church members in the Calvary parking lot. They had just finished packing 167 bags of groceries for the Thanksgiving meals. The bags contained butter, biscuits, corn, stuffing, cranberries, a roasting pan – and a turkey.

One Calvary volunteer, Chris Gibson, said that, “It was a blessing to serve. In this, I found a purpose for helping others during the holiday.”

After loading the cars and vans, we headed down to the NMAS Wellness Center in Albuquerque. Once there, we unloaded the bags and met the group of volunteers.

The people weren’t scheduled to arrive until around 11:30 a.m. to pick up the bags, so we had a little time for a tour of the facilities. Dave Row, Rebekah Hanson and I joined Brian M. Brown and Kathleen Kelley for a tour of the impressive NMAS center.

The NMAS serves about 612 people. They offer free HIV screening, vaccinations, and other basic medical help. The facility even includes a gym for their many clients.

Additionally, they provide psychiatric assistance, counseling, and insurance help to all their clients. The insurance assistance is an enormous help to the individuals struggling with HIV - the basic costs associated with treatment of the HIV virus run between $16,000-$20,000 per year.

According to Executive Director, Kathleen Kelley, NMAS is the largest HIV and AIDS assistance group in the state of New Mexico.

Founded in 1985, the NMAS center is broken up into two major areas. In the Prevention and Assistance division, a dozen or so employees help the clients. According to Brian Brown, it is the caseworkers that comprise the “heart” of NMAS.

Going above and beyond the call of duty, NMAS also provides housing for six chronic individuals in a home called the Stanford House. The Stanford House provides 24-hour care for those in further stages of the HIV virus. As Kathleen Kelley said of many conventional nursing homes, hospitals and centers: “The [AIDS] patients weren’t maltreated – they weren’t treated.”

Right around 11:30 a.m., Brian led us back to the Wellness Center where the lines began to form. As I glanced at the assortment of the old and young, Hispanic, white, black, and Native American, male and female people lining up for their Thanksgiving dinners, I rejoiced that Calvary of Albuquerque came alongside the NMAS to provide a meal for those in need.

I looked over at Tim and Dave and thanked the Lord that He had impressed it upon their hearts to take this significant step in showing the true love of God in Christ.

According to Pastor Row, “Serving others is at the heart of being a Christian. There are many ways to preach the Gospel: with our lives, with our mouths, and with our hands. With an outreach like this, we were able to use all three ways. I was honored to be a part of something as beautiful as this AIDS outreach.”

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