HAITI
Joel Sainton | A Preacher’s Story
Joel Sainton is an itinerant preacher who formed a grassroots agency called APIA (Association of People Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS) to serve the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. He does his work in Port-au-Prince and has continued to serve these people despite the challenges caused by the earthquake.
Sainton's work involves counseling those with the disease about how and where to get treatment, supporting families who find it difficult to find basic necessities of life, visiting the sick and shut-in who are living with the disease, and creating a community of people who can support each other while keeping each other's confidences.
Most of the people I met who were part of the organization had not gone public with the fact that they are HIV positive. Indeed, some of them admitted that the only people who knew they were carrying the virus were those in the APIA organization.
Joel Sainton relies on public transportation and his own feet to get around the city to visit the sick. He lives in a small room with his mother in Carrefour. Simply put, he is poor.
But he continues to do the work that he believes he has been called to do each day.
Joel Sainton is a tall, lanky man whose smile is a sudden brilliant thing. His eyes reveal the fatigue that must consume him each day, yet it is hard not to see resilience and uncanny faith in those eyes. He enjoys philosophical banter, especially when it comes to questions of theology and faith. He seems like the kind of man who would be happier in a theological college discussing the complexities of the divine.
When he was faced with the news that he was HIV positive, he turned to his theological training for a way to cope. Sainton speaks with the calm concern for detail and clarity that we expect from a man who trades in language and in speaking of the word of God.
On both occasions when we met he was dressed in formal slacks, proper shoes worn from much use, a dress shirt, sleeves buttoned down. He had his bible in hand. His voice was soft but firm, and he was filled with opinions. I was struck by his conviction that he was still married and would always remain attached to his wife even though they are no longer together.
At times, he was impatient with his memory of her, and yet he seemed to hold on to this conviction about her place in his life. When Sainton told his story, it moved with the fluid cadence of a fully realized narrative that reveals the arrival at deep understanding.
He serves as a pastor to his congregation. It is made up of the sick and broken people who are struggling to make a life for themselves while they carry the secret of their illnesses and their HIV status.
Sainton is a confidant and a constant presence for them.
