|
 The “Minneapolis miracle”: Churches and companies respond to Hope Initiative
By Jonathan Miller, Senior Writer
MINNEAPOLIS, April 3, 2003 – Touched by passionate messages from a series of speakers including an HIV-positive Zambian woman, hundreds of Minnesotans resolved to support AIDS prevention efforts in the world’s worst-affected countries.
A crowd of more than 900 people, buzzing sociably over dinner in a Bloomington ballroom, fell silent as a video began to display horrifying AIDS statistics over the faces of emaciated children. Five people die every minute because of AIDS, according to U.N. figures. The video footage included an African woman wailing in sorrow next to her loved one’s wooden casket.
In an outpouring of compassion, the guests pledged more than $450,000 in support of World Vision’s Hope Initiative, a comprehensive program designed to help reduce the incidence of HIV. Dozens of churches and companies agreed to provide support. The response helped fulfill what one speaker prayed would be a “miracle in Minneapolis.”
 |
|
Princess Kasune Zulu, an HIV/AIDS educator for World Vision in Zambia, shared how millions of innocent people have become infected, and sometimes also have lost their parents to AIDS. |
Princess Kasune Zulu speaks to more than 900 people in Minneapolis. |
|
“When I was 14, my mother told me she was dying. She asked me to be strong,” Princess Zulu said.
The request became doubly urgent when Zulu discovered that she herself was HIV positive. Her faith in God helped restore joy in her life. “There’s no point in dying before I’m dead. Hope changes everything,” she said, receiving a standing ovation as she ended her message.
Richard Stearns, president of World Vision United States, thanked churches in the Twin Cities area for their long history of sponsorship of children in Africa, especially in Uganda. Uganda’s Rakai District, where the first case of AIDS was diagnosed, was the site of Stearns’ first field visit after becoming the organization’s president five years ago.
The visit to Rakai marked the genesis of Stearns’ passion to combat AIDS, he said. Since then, he has proudly seen HIV infection rates in Rakai decline thanks in large part to World Vision’s “social vaccine”—an emphasis on teaching children about abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage.
Most Americans are blind to the magnitude of suffering occurring in Africa, said Dr. Bruce Wilkinson, founder of Global Vision Resources, an Africa-based church ministry. Wilkinson himself was ignorant on the subject until a year ago, he said.
Friends had been praying that Wilkinson, author of the best-selling book, “The Prayer of Jabez,” would help create a video on God’s response to AIDS, he said. After a co-worker approached him with the request for the third time in three years, something inexplicable happened. “My heart broke,” he said.
Not entirely sure what God’s response to AIDS was, however, Wilkinson prayed for God to show him how he felt about AIDS. A short time later, Wilkinson received an e-mail with stories from African pastors about how AIDS was affecting their communities. Before he could finish reading the first few paragraphs, he was on the floor heaving with uncontrollable sorrow.
“I wondered, ‘God, why is this happening?’ and then I knew. He was saying, ‘You’ve been asking me how I feel about AIDS. This is how I feel about AIDS.’ ”
Wilkinson told the guests that God wants others to feel that way, too.
In a breakfast meeting the following day, Wilkinson urged 30 Minnesota pastors to challenge their congregations to adopt an AIDS-affected community in Africa. Rev. Paul Salfrank of Elk River, a rural community 45 minutes north of Minneapolis, was among those ready to do so. |
|
 |
|
Minnesota pastors learn about how God feels about AIDS. |
Together with a group of other Elk River pastors, Salfrank is hoping to persuade all the churches in Elk River to jointly adopt an African community. “Now we’ve got to go tell the others about this,” he said.
|
|
