Local resident, IMPACT 360 graduate helps launch AIDS ministry in Kenya

Squatting over a small bucket of water while taking a sponge bath may not be the way some college students would want to spend their summer, but Zach Fallon wouldn’t have it any other way.

A member of the first graduating class of Impact 360, a gap year program that takes students (graduating high school seniors and first/second year college students) on a nine-month odyssey designed to equip and challenge the leaders of tomorrow, Fallon spends his academic year studying at Wheaton College. In the summer he exchanges the refined environment of DuPage County, one of the nation’s most affluent areas, for poverty-stricken villages tucked into the countryside of Kenya.

The Peachtree City, Ga., resident never envisioned that he would be involved in a cutting-edge ministry that reaches out to AIDS patients half a world away. And he certainly did not think he, along with a friend, would be the driving force behind the life-saving venture to families who have never heard the gospel.

While the idea was a vague concept for a while, he credits a year at Impact 360 with helping him to flesh out the ministry and realize it could become a reality. The blossoming of that vision was about as unlikely as his ever agreeing to enroll in the gap year program in the first place, he says in retrospect.

His first thought about Impact 360, when he learned about it from his father, was one of timid resistance.

“I thought it would be like going to Bible camp for a year and that didn’t interest me at all,” he says in retrospect. “My gut response was, ‘No way I’m going to do that. It just sounded too lame. Spending a year in a small school with a dozen students just didn’t sound right to me.’”

Fallon’s hesitance was grounded in the fact that in 2005, Impact 360 was a new program “and was just getting off the ground and there was not a track record to really see how it was going to flesh out,” he explains.

But after talking to staff over the course of a few months, he began to change his way of thinking and “began to see the wisdom of what they wanted to do. From that perspective, it seemed like it would be kind of nice to be on the ground floor of the experience.”

Graduates of Impact 360 receive a leadership certificate from Chick-fil-A University and gain insight into discovering how their God-given gifts can be used in the marketplace. This unique program started with a dream to empower future leaders.

For program founders John and Trudy Cathy White, developing future leaders with a biblical world-view is their passion. The program’s goal is to impact the lives of those student leaders who are already making a difference in their community.

Now, looking back at those nine months spent in Pine Mountain and being a member of the first graduating class in 2007, he has a different perspective.

“For me, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

Fallon says he grew in ways he “never would have imagined. The sense of community was so strong. Because of the close living conditions, being around the same people 24/7, we learned the value and virtue of being totally honest with each other – and that is so rare to experience.

“I once went two days without talking to my roommate, but once we were able to explain our differences and learn to accept each other, we became best friends,” he adds.

Fallon credits the Christian values and the biblical world-view that were reinforced at Impact 360 as being largely responsible for his spending parts of his year working for free, raising funds to provide medical assistance for many people he has never met.

Because of that experience, Fallon, who is a member of Dogwood Church in Tyrone, along with friends Justin Miller and Josh Titus, founded CARE (Church Alliance for the Relief Effort) for AIDS (www.careforaids.org) and work to link churches in the U.S. and Kenya to combine their resources to minister to those living with HIV/AIDS. About 25 million of the world’s 40 million HIV/AIDS population live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“I am totally convinced that if Christ were physically here today, he would be ministering among those people, just like he did among the lepers of his day. That’s why we are trying to convince U.S. churches that they need to be the hands and feet of Christ in this effort,” he explains.

The ministry, still in its infancy, has launched an initial outreach between U.S. churches and like-minded congregations in Kenya.

A three-year, $1,500 partnership between the two groups of believers will provide care for 100 families a month.

The care covers a variety of needs – providing transportation to treatment centers, providing a monthly in-home follow-up visit and teaching skills in becoming self-sufficient since so many are shunned by society. By teaching farming and other skills, such as crafts, entire families can be strengthened.

“We don’t want to operate clinics because many already exist. What we want to do is provide food, weekly counseling, teach them how to take their medicine regularly, and provide transportation to the clinics and help with the paperwork once they get there.

“In Kenya you’re either infected by the disease or affected through friends or family who are living with the illness. Few are exempt from its impact on their lives. The treatment is there but many don’t have access due to transportation issues or don’t know how to administer the drugs; most don’t know Christ. That’s why we are there.”

The agency operates out of local churches so individuals become used to going to the church for assistance. Eventually, it is hoped that the individuals would express an interest in attending worship or Bible study with other believers in the congregation.

“The biggest need we have right now is convincing U.S. churches that this is a legitimate ministry; that they can, in fact, make a difference. We are non-profit, and 100 percent of the funds from those churches goes directly to the partner Kenyan churches to implement the program,” he states.

None of the money donated from partner churches funds the overhead costs. That’s why Fallon spends much of his stateside time working on personal fund-raising projects to cover overhead costs.

The 2008 budget is $70,000, and he expects to need $100,000 in 2009 to meet the growing demand. He spends three weeks each summer in Kenya working with three staff who implement the ministry at the grassroots level.

“Most of our work is in the small villages 30 miles or so outside of Nairobi. It’s not glamorous; during our first visit we slept in huts, walked the dusty roads with the locals and bathed out of a bucket every few days,” he explained.

Fallon has endured bouncing buses for up to seven hours when, he says, he is convinced that only two wheels were ever on the road at a time due to the hardened ruts. But that hasn’t slowed him down in bringing healing and hope to that corner of Africa.

Care for AIDS currently serves 100 families in the first linkage; others are expected to follow.

“The harvest is real and people are ready to see what Christians can do in this crisis,” he says. “We’re willing to be Christ’s hands and feet to those who need to know that He loves and cares for them.”

For more information on Fallon’s organization, visit www.careforaids.org.

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