 HIV/AIDS
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children. During 2006 some 4.3 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.
Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about
raising money, but also about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice
and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding
people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still
to be done.
The 2007 theme of World AIDS Day (December 1st every year),
“leadership”, highlights the need for innovation, vision and
perseverance in the face of the AIDS challenge. The campaign calls on
all sectors of society such as families, communities and civil society
organisations - rather than just governments - to take the initiative
and provide leadership on AIDS.
This is where the Church comes in, or at least is supposed to make a
difference. But why, you ask, should the Church of Jesus Christ care
about the HIV/AIDS pandemic? Here are a few reasons:
- Because we are blessed to bless others.
“Much is required from those to whom much is given, for their responsibility is greater.”
Luke 12:48b (LB)
“Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the
untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so
live generously.”
Matthew 10:8 (MSG)
If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God? 1 John 3:17 (TEV)
Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. Proverbs 3:27 (NLT)
- Because Jesus modeled compassion.
Jesus went everywhere in Galilee, teaching in the
synagogues, preaching the Good News about the kingdom of heaven, and
healing all the
people’s diseases and
sicknesses. Matthew 4:23 (NCV)
A vast crowd brought him the lame, blind, crippled,
mute, and many others with physical difficulties, and they laid them
before Jesus. And he
healed them all.
Matthew 15:30 (NLT)
. . . he had compassion on them and he healed their sick.
Matthew 14:14b (NIV)
[Jesus] sent them out to announce and teach the
kingdom of God and to bring healing . . . they went from village to
village, preaching the Gospel
and restoring the afflicted
to health everywhere.
Luke 9:2, 6 (Amp)
- Because the problem demands it.
If you see your neighbor’s ox or donkey lying on the
road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it to
its feet!
Deuteronomy 22:4 (NLT)
It’s criminal to ignore a neighbor in need . . .
Proverbs 14:21a (MSG)
“You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”
Luke 6:36 (NLT)
You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick
or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or
searched for the lost
. . . therefore, O shepherds . . . this is what the
Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them
accountable for my flock.
Ezekiel 34:4, 9–10a (NIV)
“ . . . Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others . . . ”
Matthew 9:13 (CEV)
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NLT)
Inspired by material used at the Saddleback Church HIV/AIDS Conference 2006.
Here is a quote from Tony Campolo:
“On Judgment day, we will not be asked theological questions.
Instead
we will be asked, as it says in Matthew 25, how we responded to those
who were poor, diseased, downhearted and alone.
Jesus will ask us
on that day if we reached out to the stranger in need with loving care
and if we treated the sick with true compassion.
It is not that
theological convictions are unimportant, but rather that true
commitment to the beliefs we espouse will be manifested in
compassionate action on behalf of those who are writhing in the agonies
of AIDS, even now.”
Excerpt from The WAKE Project
And here is what Bono, the activist rock star says:
“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.
God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a
virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under
the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and
lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”
From Bono’s speech –National Prayer Breakfast, 2006
At the Life Church it is not okay to ignore the HIV/AIDS problem,
recently described as the greatest humanitarian crisis in the history
of the world. We are actively engaged through our support for the
following ministries and missonaries who are fighting this disease on
the front lines in Africa where the pandemic has wreaked the worst
havoc and destruction:
Acres of Love
Through the Life Church/Albertyn Forever Home in Johannesburg, South
Africa, we care for 8 beautiful girls who have been rescued from a life
of certain disaster. They were either orphaned or abandoned because
their parents died or could no longer care for them. They are now in a
loving, secure, nurturing family environment…
Learn more…
Evelyn Komuntale / Outreach to Africa
Through her work in Uganda, Evie is actively engaged in the battle
against HIV/AIDS through her work with medical clinics, orphanages and
providing education opprtunities for those in her native Uganda…
Learn more…
Camille & Esther Ntoto / Light of Africa
The Nototo’s are a blessing to many as they bring the Light of the
Gospel to the Congo through a thriving radio ministry and by
ministering to the women who have become the victims of rape used as a
weapon of war. Many of these womwn contract the HIV virus as a result
of the atrocities inflicted upon them by the warring factions in
Eastern Congo. The Ntoto’s are in the middle of a war zone ministering
hope and healing to those in their home country…
Learn more…
HIV/AIDS Support Small GroupKathi Winter & Carolyn Libby will be hosting a small group that will focus on connecting with and helping those in our community who have been affected or infected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It will also be a place where people can come who just want to reach out and find out more about the problem and be a part of the solution. For more information, contact Kathi Winter.
Your support for these ministires and missionaries allows them to reach
more of those whose lives have been devastated by this horrific
disease.
If you are interested in taking action to be a voice for those impacted
by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, consider hosting an “Evening with a Purpose."
It is a low key way to engage your friends and neighbors and actually
do something tangible to create awareness and generate support. For
more information, contact
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