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AIDS didn't even make the list of concerns for World Vision in a 1999 urgent-issues report. But according to Ken Casey of the ministry's new HIV/AIDS hope (Hope, Orphans, Prevention, and Education) Initiative, World Vision "woke up" about three years ago to realize that the plague of the 21st century was unraveling all its other work.

"The AIDS pandemic is the greatest humanitarian crisis," Casey said. "It just begs a reaction from the church."

The church is now in full reaction mode. More than 2,000 Christian medical professionals, church leaders, and students gathered for the ninth annual Global Missions Health Conference, November 11-13, at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. They spoke not only of statistics that confirmed the extent of the pandemic (43 million people living with HIV/AIDS; 8,000 deaths each day; 14 million orphans), but of working together.

Christians and churches are forming partnerships to prevent, treat, and care for affected people. Last fall Authentic Media published a book—The Hope Factor: Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis—that brought together the presentations from the 2003 conference.

In the last three years, World Vision has trained 491 pastors in 359 churches in 19 countries to take a biblical perspective on the pandemic. "When you actually are able to sit down with church leaders in the United States or Africa and go through the reality of what's going on and bring in scriptural principles, hearts warm up," Casey said.

World Vision, citing a Barna poll it commissioned, said American evangelical support for AIDS ministry is up significantly. The new poll found that 14 percent of respondents are willing to donate money for AIDS prevention and education overseas—compared with 5 percent in 2002.

Florence Muindi, a doctor, spoke of her work with Christian Missionary Fellowship International with a church in Ethiopia, where she cares for orphans and people living with AIDS. She said the strong U.S. church response to Africa has been an encouragement. "We feel embraced as we sit with our loved ones sick in bed and lose our workforce and see the damage. You have come alongside us."

Carl Stecker, senior program director of the aidsrelief art project, said former polarization over using condoms in prevention has given way to an emphasis on treatment. The $335 million ART (Anti-Retroviral Treatment) project brings together Catholic groups with a policy group and a research school to deliver treatment to 137,600 Africans and Haitians in five years.

According to Clydette Powell of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which will oversee the program, what distinguishes the Christian response to HIV/AIDS is the balance of prevention, treatment, and care.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani recently asked "Why don't more evangelicals care about AIDS crisis?"

A press release for the World Vision/Barna poll on evangelicals' support for AIDS work is available online. A 2002 poll laments evangelical support.

Another poll finds that faith drives support for AIDS and poverty relief. A press release for the poll is available online.

The Hope Factor: Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

Other Christianity Today articles on AIDS include:

Q&A: Deborah Dortzbach | The international director of HIV/AIDS programs at World Relief talks on our progress, and regress, with AIDS. (Aug. 16, 2004)

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January 2005, Vol. 49, No. 1