Responding to the AIDS Crisis

“The church of Jesus Christ needs to provide the leadership in this [HIV/AIDS] crisis,” declared the Rev. Franklin Graham at the Prescription for Hope Conference, held February 17-21, 2002, in Washington, D.C.. Sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, the conference drew Christians from 87 different countries for the purpose of responding to “God’s call to reach out to the hurting and dying world” and “to issue an appeal to Christians worldwide to join in the battle against HIV/AIDS.” Among the attendees was The Mission Society’s Chairman of the Board, Terry Wortz, M.D. “During the conference, I fasted and prayed most of the time, repenting on my behalf and on behalf of the Mission Society that we have done nothing to strategically fight the HIV/AIDS crisis. I prayed that God would give me a vision for how we can help.” 

“We believe that the HIV/AIDS pandemic offers one of the greatest challenges and opportunities in history to demonstrate the compassion of Jesus Christ and to share the Gospel,” declared the 928 attendees of the Prescription for Hope Conference. Among other resolves, those gathered declared their intent to “urge Christians everywhere to pray earnestly for a solution to this crisis; to seek to provide, equip, and encourage leadership in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness of this pandemic disease; to educate clearly by communicating information about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and how it can be prevented; to partner with churches, governments, and organizations around the world to allocate resources for education and effective outreaches and programs.”

On the attack
“The percentages of people dying of HIV/AIDS are so high, it makes the bubonic plague look like the common cold,” says Dr. Terry Wortz. Here Dr. Wortz discusses dynamics of HIV/AIDS that might surprise you, and some ways you can help fight it that you may never have considered.

HIV/AIDS is the worst plague ever to hit the earth. And yet, strangely, it is really a difficult disease to contract. The virus being produced in humans happens right after they get infected with AIDS, before their immune response begins to kick in. So AIDS is often being transmitted in the first few months after a person is infected, before he or she knows they have it. 

Not only is it a difficult disease to get, but HIV/AIDS is 100 percent preventable. We can prevent it through education that cost absolutely nothing, like getting people to be monogamous in relationships and to stop using intravenous drugs. If just one generation would do this, the disease would disappear. 

So often “prevention” programs consist of needle exchange and condom distribution. Those programs, although somewhat effective in some places, are a mistake. They are incredibly expensive, and condoms in most of the rest of the world are not like condoms in America. The failure rate is astronomical. That means that when people in these countries have sex, it is as if they are playing Russian Roulette. So condom distribution is not only ineffective as a prevention method, it is dangerous.

There is a great deal of money being spent to promote a vaccine, treatment, and cure for HIV/AIDS. A cure is a long way down the road. There are almost no viruses which we can cure. Once a person gets a virus, the immune system must rid it. And since AIDS attacks immune systems, finding a cure will be incredibly difficult. I am not saying a cure is not possible, but it is very, very unlikely in my lifetime. 

A vaccine is a possibility. But it will not help the generation of people already affected. With a vaccine, too, we have the problem of how to administer the vaccine. Who will pay for it? We have had a vaccine for polio since the 1950s, and for the last nearly 20 years, there has been a concerted effort to completely eradicate polio. Still, polio exists in many places, particularly in the developing world. So, I don’t see a vaccine as an answer that will to help any time in the immediate future. 

What is the solution?
In February, I went to the Prescription for Hope Conference, sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse. There, I had the opportunity to hear speakers and talk with people from all over the world who are dealing with the AIDS epidemic. During those days, I fasted and prayed most of the time, repenting on my behalf and on behalf of The Mission Society that we have done nothing to strategically fight this epidemic. I prayed that God would give me a vision for how The Mission Society can help. 

As I listened to speakers, I heard about a variety of programs. Some of them focus on AIDS education and prevention. Some programs focus on helping the orphans and older adults. (This is a big need. There are entire generations of between ages 15-40 who are completely dying out. Consequently, there are villages that have no one left but old people and their grandchildren or great grandchildren. In these places where just daily living is a survival battle, these older adults are forced to provide for a whole new family and train a whole new generation.)

So I learned about many different programs, all of them useful. But over and over I heard that, because AIDS affects people and communities in so many different ways, the most effective approaches to fighting HIV/AIDS are multi-faceted and holistic.

I realized that the programs being described were similar to the program for preventative health care to which God has already been leading The Mission Society, namely Community Health Evangelism (CHE).

Attacking AIDS from every direction
CHE stands for Community Health Evangelism. It combines preventative medicine (including access to curative care, like to clinics and doctors), education, agricultural education, family services (i.e.,helping widows and orphans), and small business development. CHE was actually designed by Stan Roland, who did his research and began his initial programs in Africa.

Today, CHE is successfully being used in most of the developing world. A couple of years ago, The Mission Society began organizing CHE programs on some of our fields.

Basically CHE “throws in the trash” the Western idea that the spiritual and physical are unrelated. Instead, it defines good health as living in harmony with God, nature, others, and yourself. So, for example, CHE teaches that if a person is not living in harmony with God, if he or she does not know Jesus Christ as Savior, and is not living in obedience to God’s Word, that person cannot be in good health.

According to the CHE model, someone from outside the village (a missionary, a national trained in CHE, someone) goes into a village, and sits down with the people. Together, they identify the community’s most serious problems.  hen the CHE trainer helps the villagers find solutions, and offers to teach them preventative ways to improve the health of their people. CHE allows the people of the community to steer the direction of the program, according to their particular needs.

For example, the greatest need of a community may be a hygiene/AIDS prevention course. Children in developing countries often do not know the basics of AIDS prevention or how washing their hands, digging latrines, and not drinking dirty water can prevent diseases. Education courses like these are invaluable to the health of a community.

The greatest need of a community might be preventing the maternal transmission of AIDS. If a pregnant woman has AIDS, her baby has a 50 percent chance of also having the disease at birth. But there is a pill that can be taken around the time of birth that significantly reduces the transmission of HIV/AIDS to the baby. Still, if that AIDS-infected mother nurses her baby, that child’s risk of contracting AIDS in the first six months goes back up 50 percent. This is a difficult situation, because in most places in Africa, the cost of buying formula is astronomical—up to $3,000 a year. 

But for that same $3,000, the cost of feeding one baby for one year, a village could purchase a machine called a “soy cow.” It takes a mixture of soy beans and water and heats it to 2,000 degrees (which, of course, sterilizes even impure water) and makes soy milk. This machine opens up a world of opportunities. A village could buy such a machine, and provide soy milk for all its babies. Leftovers could be turned into soy flour. Some of the villagers could start a small business, making soy cheese, tofu, anything that is made of soy. Others could make an income by raising soy beans for the soy cow. So an AIDS prevention program (introduced by CHE trainers) could easily provide for a village’s high-protein diet, lay the groundwork for a small business and encourage agriculture.

CHE is a paradigm shift. Historically, medical missions efforts have relied on importing expensive clinics, or building hospitals and diagnostic centers in order to treat diseases that had already begun. Obviously we still need hospitals and clinics. People still need curative care. But most of the people in the developing world who are dying are dying from preventable disease. Preventing disease is relatively inexpensive, and prevention is what CHE is all about. 

What you can do
Every day that we do nothing is a day that thousands of people will die. Not only will they die miserable deaths, but many of them will die without the knowledge of Christ and the hope of eternal life.

The number-one way someone can help The Mission Society in the fight against HIV/AIDS is to respond to God’s call. If you feel He may be calling you to missions, listen. By far, our biggest need is more people.

The medical missionaries we need are not just doctors and nurses (although they are important). If you have any inclination to minister to children or families, you could be an important part of a “medical” missions team, because family ministry workers are critical to tackling the HIV/AIDS problem. We also need educators, agriculturalists, businesspeople, ministers. Nearly any skill or training can be useful in fighting the affects of AIDS.

In addition, in just five days, I can turn almost any American into a “medical missionary” by teaching him or her to be a CHE trainer. The average Americans already knows more about preventative medicine (i.e., the importance of washing hands) than most people in the developing world.

The second thing we need is funding. CHE workers only need $150/month. That covers their training, their salary, their travel expenses, their materials and some pocket money (so they can immediately respond to people who have urgent needs). So for $1,800 per year - about one-tenth the cost of a mobile medical clinic - we can employ a full-time CHE worker.

The “impossible” dream
Dr. Terry Wortz tells why he has hope in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis:
When I think about the enormity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it reminds me of the story of Jesus’ feeding the 5,000. When the disciples saw so many people needing fed, they basically saw a health problem. And they knew they did not have the resources to care for so many people. With their human minds, they concluded the problem was impossible. So when Jesus told them, “You feed them,” I imagine that the disciples felt the same way I feel when I look at the HIV/AIDS crisis. How can we take care of this? We cannot do it; it is impossible.

But then, someone offered Jesus what he had - five loaves and two fish.

You might be reading this, thinking, “That’s how I feel. I am only one person. I’m just a nurse; I’m just a doctor. I have no medical training. What can my little ‘five loaves and two fishes’ do to help such a big need?” But remember what happened when those few resources were put in the hands of Jesus? There was enough; there was abundance. 

This HIV/AIDS pandemic look - and I - overwhelming. Still, rather than being paralyzed by the enormity of it, we must look to Jesus, who is the Answer. But we have to be willing to bring whatever we have in our hand - our skills, our resources, our availability - and say, “Okay, Lord, as far as I can see, this problem is impossible. But you take what I have. I am willing.”

Interested in helping The Mission Society's fight against HIV?AIDS?
The opportunities for missionary service with The Mission Society are many and varied. In Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Tanzania, we have immediate needs for medical personnel. We need CHE trainers; we need family service personnel, small business entrepreneurs, teachers, and agriculturalists to serve with CHE programs; we need medical personnel to serve in hospitals and mobile medical clinics; we need nurses and doctors to teach in medical schools. In addition, we need those who will partner with us financially to provide for CHE workers and medical supplies.