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Speaking points

Use this script or create your own for presenting “AIDS: A Generation to Save” to your church congregation.
  • AIDS is uncomfortable to discuss. Many of our images of the AIDS pandemic are likely to be informed by what AIDS is in the United States, entwined with issues of intravenous drug use, homosexuality, and sexual infidelity. But, in developing countries, the pandemic is affecting faithful wives who are infected by unfaithful husbands, and children born to HIV-positive mothers. When parents die, their children are left with few options, and they often spiral even deeper into poverty.
  • The reality of AIDS can be overwhelming. Today, in many developing nations, AIDS is leaving wives without their husbands. Children are watching their fathers and mothers die. Millions of orphans worldwide have been left on their own because of AIDS. In many cases, the children themselves are not infected. But they must either fend for themselves, or be taken in by relatives or neighbors whose resources are already strained.
    • Nearly 40 million people are living with HIV.
    • In 2006 alone, more than 4 million people were newly infected.
    • 8,000 people die every day because of AIDS.
    • Another person dies every 11 seconds.
    • Right now, there are more than 15 million children who have lost one or both parents
    • because of AIDS.
    • Today, and every day, 6,000 children will lose a parent to AIDS.
  • The AIDS crisis demands a God-sized answer. The problem seems overwhelming. How does God call us to help? By praying, getting involved, and connecting with people, churches, and communities in AIDS-affected regions around the world. As Christians, we are called to respond beyond what government agencies and secular charities can do, by calling upon the power of God. James 1:27a tells us that “pure and faultless” religion is to “look after orphans and widows in their distress.” The Church has the opportunity to lead. Chuck Colson has said, “The crisis of AIDS orphans cries out for the kind of response only Christians can deliver: one that combines compassion with a respect for the truth.”
  • We can turn the tide. We can be Christ’s hands and feet by caring for orphans and widows through programs that provide food, health care, economic development support, and spiritual nurturing. We can help the next generation escape infection by teaching them the best keys to prevention: abstinence and marital faithfulness. And we can advocate for compassion for the suffering.
  • Here’s what our church is doing. We’ve set up a table in ____________ and urge you to stop by after the service to find out how you can get involved.
Because World Vision is on the front lines of the HIV and AIDS crisis in many of our projects worldwide, we are available as a resource for you. Call the Hope Line at World Vision, 1.888.303.2003.
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