BIRMINGHAM, England (ABP) — There are 39.4 million HIV-positive people in the world, about one for every Baptist.
With this fact in mind, a focus group at the Baptist World Congress yesterday called upon the Baptist World Alliance to make HIV/AIDS and related issues a priority in the next five years.
The group asked the BWA to support the initiation of a functional network of AIDS-related ministries, to facilitate a sharing of resources, and to collect and disseminate information about the best practices in HIV/AIDS work among Baptists.
The focus group heard from some of those practitioners.
“The key thing is in-reach; you have to talk about controversial issues in the church,” said Sally Smith, a former Baptist Missionary Society missionary to Nepal who now works in Geneva with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, a UNAIDS initiative.
She urged Baptist churches to end three things: ignorance, stigmatization and isolation.
“We have to teach people how to be abstinent and faithful, and to protect themselves,” she said. “We have to create a loving welcome for everyone with AIDS — including the pastor. We have to care for people with AIDS and their families. Then we will have credibility to move out into our community with our outreach ministries. We have up to 40 million Baptists in the world. Think what an impact we can make!”
The group heard from six Baptists who already are making an impact in large and small ways.
Fletcher Kaiya, general secretary of the Malawi Baptist Convention, said he and his wife have taken 15 AIDS orphans, age 6 to 13, into their home. The Kaiyas, who have 6 children of their own age 14 and up, have received help from friends and members of their small church in Blantyre. “We have no privacy any more,” Kaiya admitted with a broad smile, “but we are young again.”
In Zimbabwe, churches have taken an approach that says: “No condemnation but compassion and counseling,” said C.H. Chiromo, president of the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe and the Association of Baptist Denominations in Zimbabwe. He reported that his convention has encouraged people in positions of influence, such as pastors, to take counseling instruction and to encourage people in their churches to be tested and seek treatment for HIV/AIDS.
In India, AIDS is treated like leprosy, said Leena Lavanya, founder of Serve Trust. “People think the disease is transmitted by touching AIDS patients.” People with AIDS are cut off from their families and communities. Lavanya said she attempted to break this isolation by visiting people with AIDS. For the first year, no one from her church would go with her. Serve Trust now provides food and diet supplements to 177 people with AIDS and operates a hospice for four AIDS patients.
David Goatley, executive director of the Lott Carey International, explained how the mission organization works in partnership with indigenous communities around the world in grassroots-level projects. The goal is to engage in comprehensive, replicable and sustainable models of prevention and care for persons impacted by AIDS, he said. They educate communities, support widows and widowers, strengthen health workers and assist health-care facilities.
In Kenya, more teachers die of HIV/AIDS each year than graduate from teachers college, said Carla Nelson, educational facilitator for Canadian Baptist Ministries. At the same time, teachers are in a position to influence thousands of people. For this reason Canadian Baptist Ministries and Carey Theological College have added an HIV/AIDS component to their professional development courses for teachers in schools operated by one of CBM's Kenyan partner churches. Acknowledging the difficulty, but absolute necessity, of teaching behavior change, the Kenyan teachers developed their own curriculum resource.
In South Africa, 90 percent of hospital in-patients have HIV/AIDS, said Credo Mangayi, director of development work for the Baptist Union of Southern Africa. He showed a video of how Baptist churches are providing holistic care for people affected by HIV/AIDS. He said he would like more congregations to make creative use of their space — to make each church a place where sick, hungry people receive practical help, and then seek spiritual help.
“Beyond relief and beyond reform, it's about transformation,” he said. “Using the power of the Word of God, trusting the Holy Spirit to work, so that if a person dies of AIDS, he or she has heard the word of God, and will die in peace.”