Heartache Turned to Hope

By Rebecca Madden with Stella Kasirye  

In 1992, one of Stella Kasirye’s brothers was very sick with AIDS.  He was so hurt by the associated stigma and discrimination that he checked himself into a hospital in London and told the staff that he had no family.  

At the time of her brother’s death, Stella was working for the UN Global Program on AIDS, but she was powerless to him.  Her youngest sister died when she was 24 years old, and she had also lost two of her older brothers.  One of those brothers died from shock and guilt upon hearing of the death of his young daughter to the same disease.  They had two funerals on the same day representing two generations.  

 All of Stella’s siblings died in the prime of their life and three of them left orphaned children. Because of all the pain and suffering from the death of Stella’s own flesh and blood, her life was never the same. 

In the midst of the pain, God broke Stella’s heart over an issue that breaks His heart too.  She has turned that heartache into hope for some special children, for the nation of Malawi, Africa and for mission teams from the US.  

Stella has personally adopted five children – Chisomo, Kisakye, Stella, Sarah, and Hezekiah. Two of those children had AIDS.  One was a little baby named Hezekiah.  He brought such joy to their family, but only for a while.  In 2006, he went to be with Jesus.   Another child that she adopted was given a name at birth that meant “death.”  Stella renamed her, and she has fought a hard battle with AIDs.  She is now a teenager that loves to dance, sing, read and wear the latest fashions.  Having access to life giving medicines has given her a chance to be all that God created her to be.   

Professionally, Stella gave up her lucrative job with the UN eighteen years ago to pursue her passion to equip the local church in Malawi to be the physical body of Christ in their communities addressing issues of poverty, HIV and AIDS.   Her vision is to come alongside churches to help their communities open up health mini-clinics, gain access to clean drinking water and fight hunger by providing seed to enable people to grow their own food.  Currently, she has established a network of over 350 churches with about 10 volunteers per church that are providing these life giving resources and skills.  

Recently, Stella Kasirye “hosted” my husband, Jay, and a team of others from Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.  Together, they helped serve some of the 350 churches in Malawi by training pastors and youth leaders, by providing medical training to the volunteer health care givers, and by restoring several water wells.  Stella’s work and passion has ignited the passion of others as they serve alongside her and get a glimpse of her vision. 

 Stella says that if she hadn’t been obedient to the voice of God, she would have been a ‘fairly wealthy, well-educated, selfish African women’.  Her valley of pain and brokenness has brought her to the mountaintop of fulfillment by engaging others in the body of Christ to serve alongside her and turn heartache to hope.  Please join me in prayer for Stella and her ministry of hope for the people of Malawi.  

 Questions to Ponder: