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		WASHINGTON, DC, June 11, 2003 – Twenty-two pastors and church leaders locked onto the gaze of the Reverend Gideon Byamugisha who unashamedly shared his journey as a minister to those affected by AIDS and as an HIV carrier himself.
Reverend Byamugisha (left) from Uganda and Pastor Jon Good from Minnesota answer questions from Washington, DC area pastors about fighting the AIDS criis in Africa and how local churches can get involved.

An AIDS program specialist with World Vision, Byamugisha, challenged the attendees of this World Vision-sponsored breakfast to enter into what God is doing through His people, to curtail the spread of this deadly disease that has claimed 22 million deaths worldwide and left 13 million children orphaned in Africa alone.

A featured speaker for the Washington, D.C. stop on World Vision’s 15-city Hope Tour, Byamugisha described the depth of compassion necessary for a Christian response to HIV/AIDS. “We can’t preach, ‘come to Jesus and you won’t get AIDS.’ People who know Christ already have AIDS and some people contract the disease in biblically lawful ways,” he stressed. “In Africa today, unfaithful husbands give it to their faithful wives. Unmarried virgins get it from their new husbands, who have never been tested. Some contract it from dirty syringes in the local clinic.”

Steve Haas, vice president of Church Relations at World Vision, shared his shock in encountering child-headed households in Malawi for the first time. Yet AIDS was not only making millions of children orphans, but also attacking the good community development work that World Vision has already accomplished. “Our own sponsored children, our staff, our progress empowering the poor, are being threatened.”

World Vision fights back at AIDS through its Hope Initiative, which implements messages of prevention (focused on abstinence, fidelity, and overcoming stigma), acts of compassionate care for the infected and affected, and advocacy activities—all integrated with a spiritual message of hope in Christ.

Much of its strategy is borrowed from the success of programs in Byamugisha’s own country, Uganda. The rate of infection has fallen dramatically there, from 21 percent in the early 1990s to 6 percent today—attributed to a national campaign that stresses abstinence for youth, faithfulness in marriage, and condoms for high-risk groups unwilling or unable to change their situation.

“Our church has had a HIV/AIDS ministry in the city since 1998,” said the Reverend Anthony Motley, pastor of Redemption Ministry in Washington, D.C. “Now that I’ve heard this today, we want to explore how we can connect with World Vision programs in Africa.”
		Pastors mingle together after hearing a presentation from World Vision at the breakfast event in Washington, DC.

“I didn’t realize the magnitude of this problem,” said James Bell, another local pastor. “Our church will be interested in getting involved, especially helping vulnerable children.”

“The real challenge is to find ways to collaborate with other Christians to tackle this issue,” said Janie Jeffers, a lay leader of Metropolitan Baptist Church in D.C.

World Vision is poised to help forge links with churches. Each attendee was offered a Hope Tool Kit that includes materials on how to get personally involved. For example, there are opportunities for churches or individuals to sponsor children and help communities address AIDS. Monthly giving goes toward things like paying a child’s school fees, seeds and tools to grow vegetables, or provision of health care.

The kit includes a description of One Life Revolution—an avenue to challenge youth groups and help them raise money for AIDS projects. Another tool is Pastors’ Vision Trips, which enable church leaders to visit World Vision projects in Africa and develop a vision for AIDS ministry to take back to their congregation.

In closing, Haas encouraged participants to not allow the enormity of this crisis to stifle their response. “We can’t do everything, but we can do something.”