The President of Compassion International, the Christian child-sponsorship charity, Dr. Wess Stafford has called out to churches and Christians to make greater use of their unique position to help tackle the AIDS pandemic sweeping the world.
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“The church is in place everywhere where AIDS is ravaging the people. The church is in place,” said Dr Stafford.

Dr Stafford called on non-Christian organisations to recognise the capacity of the global church network for large-scale outreach: “The church has the heart to do it; the church is doing what it can. And it’s a golden opportunity for even governments, even multi-lateral organisations, to recognise that in the church, in the people of God in these communities, is a viable, credible, grassroots delivery institution.

“And we need to challenge those who have the financial resources to recognise the need to reach out and enable the church to be the church.”

Dr Stafford praised the work of churches and the sacrifice of their members in the developing world, particularly in AIDS-ridden countries such as Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

AIDS is the “leprosy of our generation”, says Stafford, who urged all Christians to engage with the problem. He said the church in the West, particularly in the United States needed to reawaken the feeling that “we need to do our part”.

He said: “We cannot simply look at this and walk away as if it’s not our problem. If our brothers and sisters in Christ are willing to put their lives on the line to minister lovingly in the midst of this huge pandemic, then we in the West need to do our part.”

Dr Stafford also rebuked Christians for their often negative attitude towards AIDs sufferers: “We as Christians have kind of looked at that and kept our distance from it as if the people who have that somehow deserve it or are guilty of some sort of behaviour that brought that about. That’s simply not the case. The greatest victims, the most serious victims of this are the little children.”

Stafford called upon churches to take on head-to-head the challenge of the current global AIDS pandemic: “And I would just call on the church to awaken to this moment in history, our moment, to reach out and to live out our faith in a hurting world, in a very tangible problem like this that is a golden opportunity for us to really be what God called us to be, and that’s salt and light in the midst of a hurting and confused world.”