Around the world, 4,900 people die of AIDS-related illness every day, and ACET (AIDS Care Education and Training) is working with church leaders to provide a Christian response to the pandemic – demonstrating God’s love to all. ACET believes that each country requires a distinct solution: in Nigeria, the main obstacle is the stigma associated with AIDS that stops people coming forward for treatment; whereas, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest issue is rape.

More than 1,000 women are raped every day in the DRC. ACET’s Dr Patrick Dixon, says, “The answer to HIV… is about mobilising entire villages, towns and cities.” The Church in the DRC, and all over sub-Saharan Africa, is ideally placed to achieve this with its responsibility for running parishes, health facilities and schools.

This was seen recently in Nigeria where, after a week-long ACET training event for 20 church leaders, one leader had reached over 16,000 people with prevention messages within weeks of the programme ending. 10 per cent of these church leaders had tested HIV positive! “When parents talk to their children, church leaders to their congregations, teachers to their pupils… then behaviours start to change,” Dr Dixon says.

Source: IDEA – The Magazine of the Evangelical Alliance

BIBLE STUDY: Luke 10:25-37

PRAISE: God for the unique role of the church in Africa. Pray for love towards sufferers and a clear message leading to a fall in the rate of infection.