EUTAW SPRINGS, S.C. – It’s talked about in the news and at school. But when it comes to discussing HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in church, it’s a subject that’s often taboo.

In an effort to raise awareness about the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, members of Springhill Missionary Baptist Church near Eutaw Springs donned red apparel Sunday in recognition of World AIDS Day on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

“The church must be open to talking about this issue,” said the Rev. Byron Wilson, pastor, “The church must also understand who we are and where we come from – we are a people who have problems. There is no perfect person; we must be (accepting) to all people.”

Connie L. Johnson, an Orangeburg native and 1994 graduate of Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, shared her first-hand experiences about living with AIDS.

“I was raised by a single mother. My parents divorced when I was 3 years old ... ,” she said.

A long-distance relationship with her father in Ohio and the absence of a consistent father figure in her life caused her to feel angry, particularly by the time she reached middle school, Johnson said.

By high school, her grades were slipping and she began “being promiscuous,” she said.

In 1994, her senior year came to a close, and she and her sister began packing for the longed-awaited senior trip. In the midst of preparing for the trip, Johnson and her sister got some shocking news.

“Our mother took us aside. She needed to tell us something,” she said.

“My mother had been dating a man for three years,” Johnson told the congregation, and the couple had made plans to marry. Johnson and her sister had noticed their mother’s fiancée “wasn’t coming around anymore.”

Johnson’s mother told her daughters she’d contracted AIDS from the man she planned to marry. The man had never told her he had AIDS, she said, and he later died of the disease. It wasn’t until the man’s funeral that Johnson’s mother learned his death was AIDS-related. She decided to undergo a simple blood test to determine if she was infected and was diagnosed with AIDS.

A year later, Johnson’s mother died.

“That took more out of me than the daily routine of living without my father,” Johnson said.

She said her grief led her to “more promiscuity, more marijuana and more alcohol.” Johnson said she eventually became “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

She enrolled at Allen University and maintained grades high enough to put her on the Dean’s List.

“I was finally getting myself together,” Johnson said.

While she was at Allen, HIV/AIDS awareness representatives were on campus giving out prizes to anyone who voluntarily underwent HIV/AIDS testing. Johnson took the quick blood test. Fifteen days later, she received a phone call asking her to report to the Department of Health and Environmental Control for further information. She had tested positive for HIV.

“My immediate reaction was balling out tears, crying. I was sad for my sister because we had lost our mother,” Johnson said.

She said she fell into a depression.

“I didn’t want to have anything to do with the disease,” Johnson said. She was hospitalized for a while but eventually was “sent back home, ready to die.”

“While I was on my sickbed, everybody came to see me and I could see tears in their eyes, and it was like they were looking at my mother and not me,” she said.

Johnson said that’s when she turned to her faith in God for strength and promised God she would serve him if he would allow her to live.

Her outlook on life changed for the better, she said.

Although her diagnosis and subsequent depression forced her to withdraw from Allen University, she later enrolled at Columbia College and graduated in May with a degree in family and childhood studies.

Today, Johnson is program administrator for the 21st Century Clubhouse After-School Program that is associated with Columbia College.

“I get up and I have a job, and I love it,” she said, “it’s just a blessing.”

Johnson takes four pills twice daily to treat her HIV/AIDS. She said her “viral count” is now so small it doesn’t “register on the charts.”

Sharing her story with her church family was difficult, but they “overwhelmed me with love,” she said.

“Decisions you make when you’re a teenage have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are deadly,” Johnson says.

For more information about AIDS/STDs, call DHEC’s hot-line at 1-800-322-AIDS.

T&D Correspondent Martha Rose Brown can be reached by e-mail at marfawose@aol.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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