From staff writer Emily Belz: I worked late Monday and Tuesday talking to sources to try to nail down the details of what was happening with the freeze of PEPFAR, the US-funded HIV treatment program keeping 20 million people alive. Then the State Department issued a memo on Tuesday night exempting life-saving assistance from the overall freeze. 

So it was time for a rewrite, but when I talked to people again on the ground on Wednesday, the situation for them was unchanged. No HIV treatment, no services. The basic reporting remained true even if the exemption might filter down to these organizations eventually. 
 
In my interviews, I wasn’t expecting the leader of one of those treatment programs that had to shut down, Circle of Hope in Zambia, to make an argument for PEPFAR from the Great Commission. 

“For the gospel to be spread, there must be an audience,” Gibstar Makangila said. “And that audience must be healthy and alive. You are giving people the opportunity, firstly, to experience the love of God.”