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Our overseas commitment has had another unexpected benefit. It has prompted us to share God's love in seemingly impossible places next door. For instance, we have committed ourselves to the well-being of an impoverished neighborhood of Durham, a city next door to Chapel Hill, and we have developed a relationship with an African American church in that neighborhood, Antioch Baptist Church. Our churches have formed a nonprofit organization, Antioch Builds Community, to benefit families affected by incarceration. The pastor of that church, Michael Page, accompanied us on a trip to Kenya last year. He was inspired by our time with the children of Beacon of Hope and Kware, and he, too, returned home with ideas for new ministries to offer the children of his neighborhood.

While development and relief organizations can put our cash donations to good use, nothing can shorten the distance to another continent like a relationship, and few things can nurture a relationship as well as mutual learning and commitment to a common goal.

We've discovered that making a difference in people's lives, including those affected by AIDS or other world tragedies, grows out of fostering those relationships.

Jim Thomas is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina and pastor for cross-cultural mission at Chapel Hill Bible Church. He is working with others to develop a track on "Mission Through the Lens of AIDS" for the December 2006 Urbana mission conference.

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Beacon of Hope's website tells more about the ministry.

UNAIDS released its 2006 AIDS epidemic update and announced that the epidemic continues to spread in Africa.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article on some encouraging data from Africa and an editorial on the church's role in influencing the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Christianity Today's 2006 articles on AIDS include:

The AIDS Team | Principled collaboration by churches is urgently needed to help defeat HIV. (August 1, 2006)

Rift Opens Among Evangelicals on AIDS Funding | Dobson targets Global Fund, which helps Salvation Army, Youth for Christ, and World Vision. (June 2, 2006)

Finally, Some Overdue Good News in the Battle Against AIDS | "Global slowing" is about as good as it gets when you're talking about this disease. (June 1, 2006)

Close Encounters with HIV | Local churches should network in the war against the virus.—A Christianity Today editorial (Jan. 19, 2006)

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November 2006, Vol. 50, No. 11