WORLD AIDS DAY
Jubilee Centre December 6th, 2008
In June 1981 the first AIDS case was discovered. Dr. Samuel Broke, then of the National Cancer Institute in the USA, made this statement, “We don’t know what this is, but we hope we don’t ever see another case like it again” (UN Report on the Global AIDS epidemic 2006 p3). Today marks 27 years since the world saw the earliest cases of AIDS in hospitals in the USA and on the shores of Lake Victoria, East Africa. Much has changed since the first cases of AIDS were recorded. Instead of not ever seeing another case like it again, the infection has taken a foothold in this peaceful Christian nation.
This evening as we commemorate World AIDS Day, we Christians have a lot of explanations to make as to how we justify calling ourselves a Christian Nation and yet have one of the largest HIV/AIDS infection rates in Africa. How can a nation with 80% of its population claiming to be Christian have a faith that has not penetrated the structures of society, reforming and transforming cultures to reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS?
This and more unsettling questions of why our nation has been shadowed by political tension, poverty, economic regression and unemployment must provoke Church leaders (pastors, apostles, prophets, teacher and evangelists) to equip every Christian in works that stop and ultimately, put an end to AIDS. What then should we Christians be doing to help future generations be free from AIDS?
First, the church must engage in prayers of intercession. We must agonize through prayers that God might deliver us from the dominion of HIV and AIDS. Men and women of God like Daniel, Hannah, Esther, Nehemiah, and James are known by their prayer lives, and they were used by God to change the course of the church and their nations through prayer. All of these people had one thing in common: they were ‘anguished’ by situation that confronted them. When Nehemiah heard that his people were in great trouble and disgrace, he “sat down and wept, mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” God is calling today’s leaders to a similar anguish because of HIV and AIDS.
Second, the church must take the lead in exposing the real causes of the AIDS crisis in Zambia . “He who conceals his %20(Small)1.jpg)
disease cannot expect to be cured,” says an Ethiopian proverb. Yet for much of the fight against AIDS, exposing the problem has been difficult. Apart from former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, who revealed in 1986 that his son had died of AIDS, to date no single public official has ever come out in the open. In the book of Joshua we see that problems cannot be solved in a culture of silence characterized by blaming external forces. Israel failed to overcome Ai because of an internal problem. Israel eliminated the root cause for failing to overcome Ai when it exposed the sin publicly. The church must take the initiative in exposing the root causes of our failure to overcome AIDS. The issue of AIDS must be discussed in small groups, couples fellowship, men’s fellowship and youth’s ministry. God forbid that people should die from HIV and AIDS when the government has medication to prolong life. In this 27th year of AIDS, success is in sight, but securing it will require an unprecedented response from the church in the next few years. We cannot afford to rest until we are successful. May God have mercy on Zambia.
Lawrence Temfwe
(Extracted from a speech given at World’s AIDS Candlelight service at United Church Of Zambia, Chifubu).
