Sawyer shares story of hope

Thursday, February 4, 1999

Sawyer shares story of hope

AIDS: In face of death, speaker educates others about finding
strength in the Christian faith

By Joy McMasters

Daily Bruin Contributor

Everyone has seen the banners, flyers and newspaper ads
proclaiming, "Steve is a 23-year-old hemophiliac. Dying of AIDS.
Living with hope."

Chalkboards announced, "Steve is coming." The word now is,
"Steve was here."

Under the umbrella of the Inter-Christian Council, a dozen
campus groups united to bring Steve Sawyer to UCLA to tell his
story. He spoke to over 1,500 students in Ackerman Grand Ballroom
Tuesday night.

"My ultimate goal when I speak on college campuses is to offer
people a chance at the hope Christ is offering," said Sawyer. "I
want to break down stereotypes about Christians and what they
believe."

Sawyer admitted he once held stereotypes of Christians as
"condescending, condemning hypocrites" but this perspective now
baffles him. True Christians, he says, admit they aren’t perfect
and that they have done wrong.

These stereotypes and his stubbornness kept him away from
accepting Christianity until 1994, four years after doctors told
him he was HIV-positive and had contracted the deadly Hepatitis
C.

"I didn’t come to the decision lightly. I’m stubborn and
everything has to be proven to me logically beyond a reasonable
doubt," Sawyer told the overflowing crowd.

For almost an hour, Sawyer talked about his life and three basic
principles he now holds true.

"The vast majority of circumstances we encounter in our life are
beyond our control. We let our circumstances control our lives and
behavior but we can have hope anyway," he said.

Before his conversion, Sawyer’s circumstances were well beyond
his control. He contracted HIV and Hepatitis C in the early ’80s
through a contaminated blood product used to treat his
hemophilia.

Already suffering from hemophilia and associated arthritis,
Sawyer said he wondered why he was being punished further.

He ignored his circumstances, living in denial until his senior
year in high school in 1993. At 5 feet 9 inches tall and only 113
pounds, Sawyer at one point looked in the mirror and saw death
staring back.

Hopelessness then set in. Sawyer’s father had never really
believed in God but through Alcoholics Anonymous learned the
necessity of relying on a higher power. He suggested that Steve do
the same.

The next year, as a freshman at Curry College in Massachusetts,
Sawyer converted to Christianity at a Campus Crusade for Christ
conference.

Sawyer illustrated the hope his faith has given him with the
story of two lab rats. A science teacher put the first rat in a
bowl of water. It swam in circles until it sank and drowned, Sawyer
said.

The teacher put the second rat in the water. It swam and sank,
but this time he pulled it out just before it drowned to give it a
small breath and returned it to the water.

This rat resumed swimming and continued throughout that day. It
was still circling the bowl when the students returned to class the
next day, according to Sawyer.

"The difference between the two rats and the reason the second
rat kept swimming," Sawyer said, "is that it had hope."

At the end of his talk, Sawyer answered the audience’s
questions. One person inquired why Sawyer had not committed suicide
to escape the physical pain he endures daily, since he is confident
that he will go to heaven.

"I gave my life to God a long time ago, and it’s not mine to
take," he said. "It’s better to stay here and offer hope to those
who don’t have any."

In 1995, doctors told Sawyer that the cirrhosis caused by
Hepatitis C had entered its final stage and he had three to six
months of life left.

Since then, Sawyer has traveled to more than 100 campuses to
share with over 40,000 students his story of joy, peace and the
hope he says that can be found through faith.CHARLES KUO/Daily
Bruin

Steve Sawyer has HIV and dedicates his life to providing hope
through faith.

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