The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do

Over forty million people today are living with HIV/AIDS. In 2005, three million people died of AIDS, and half a million of them were children. The reality is dark. But in darkness, even one small flame of light makes a difference. And the church of Jesus Christ is bringing light into the darkness of the AIDS crisis all over the world.

In Cambodia, the Way of Hope church is helping communities understand how AIDS is transmitted. And through their "Hope for Teens" program, small groups meet with a mentor to talk so that teenagers can make responsible choices about sexuality and education.

In Rwanda, a church pairs up skilled workers in the congregation with children orphaned by AIDS to train and equip them. In Kigali, Rwanda, Pastor Augustin has taken in Tatu, whose extended family refused to take care of her when her parents died of AIDS. A Good Samaritan support group for men and women with AIDS also meets at their church.

Like these churches, this book is a flame. Deborah Dortzbach and Meredith Long offer personal stories, up-to-date statistics and their years of international experience to give us the global portrait of AIDS: the roots of the problem and the role of the church. They teach us to listen. They allow us to observe. They help us become informed so that we can become involved, partnering with brothers and sisters already at work around the world loving, lobbying, caring, praying.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:5). Here is a book to help us see how the light of Christ shining through his church can change the course of the current AIDS crisis.

Deborah Dortzbach is World Relief's International Director for HIV/AIDS programs. She provides strategic leadership to World Relief's Mobilizing for Life AIDS programs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Through the programs, she mobilizes and equips the local church to promote and provide AIDS awareness, sexual education for youth, orphan support and much more. Debbie and her husband Karl first served as missionaries in Eritrea where she was abducted by the Eritrean Liberation Front in 1973. The story is chronicled in their book Kidnapped.

W. Meredith Long is Vice President for Planning and Integration at World Relief, where he previously served as Director of International Health Programs. Dr. Long has worked with churches to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa since the early 1990s. His overseas program implementation experience includes 14 years in Kenya and Bangladesh. He is the author of Health, Healing and God's Kingdom, which examines the interplay between health and traditional religious beliefs.

In a world shaped by sin, where tragedy and crisis have controlling grasps on society, HIV/AIDS has spiraled into a powerful disease that more than forty million people are living with (and dying of) today.

In the book The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do, authors and World Relief missionaries Deborah Dortzbach and W. Meredith Long attempt to help readers understand the reality of AIDS, and then give them the means by which to do something about the crisis. They succeed in doing just this.

Because the writing style is simple and not heavily into medical or scientific jargon, readers will be informed and moved to do something to fight the war against AIDS and poverty. Through the true testimonies of AIDS victims, the retellings of well-known Bible stories, and the use of graphic pictures, the statistics and facts of the AIDS epidemic become realistic and frightening.

Another great aspect of the book is the “Taking the Next Steps” section at the end of each chapter. The questions for personal reflection and the action steps included allow readers to pause for a moment and process what they have read. Then the book gives them thoughtful, practical suggestions to help them take action and put the information on AIDS to use. Along with this, there are also discussion questions and a list of online resources found at the back of the book for those who want to dig deeper.

Whether reading The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do within a small group setting or on one’s own, readers will find the book both informative and practical. They will come away from it with a deeper understanding of one of today’s most serious global issues and will find themselves easily desiring to stand up against the power of AIDS. – Amy Nickerson, Christian Book Previews.com

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Reviewed by Heather McDaniel (Polacca, AZ), February 01, 2007

The AIDS Crisis is an excellent and unique resource for a Christian who wants to understand AIDS and respond to the devastation it is causing worldwide. The authors of The AIDS Crisis have been involved in the heartbreaking and messy work of responding to AIDS for two decades. Through statistics & stories, they communicate the magnitude of the worldwide AIDS disaster, as well as the complexities involved in prevention and care. They teach us that AIDS ministry is more of a journey than a project. They challenge us to listen, build relationships, and share the burden with those who are already involved in AIDS ministry, before we leap to the task of designing programs and strategies. As Christians, the authors are honest about their struggles to balance grace and holiness in their efforts to prevent HIV spread and provide sanctuary to those infected. You may be surprised or disturbed by their conclusions. In my opinion, however, this book’s challenge to Christians to engage with people or viewpoints they do not agree with, as they work together to address AIDS crisis, is one of its greatest strengths. Another strength of The AIDS Crisis is its interaction with Scripture. Through its retelling of Bible stories, it addresses the interaction of grace and holiness, as well the violence (on different levels) caused by sexual sin. The authors challenge us to look inward as well as outward, examining our own views and practices concerning AIDS, sex, sin, and forgiveness. The AIDS Crisis clearly calls us to respond, providing excellent reflection questions and action steps at the end of each chapter. It make it clear that involvement in AIDS ministry will involve personal distress and suffering. “AIDS ministry is painful, it is long, and it has few tangible rewards (p. 133).” Only through dwelling in the sanctuary of God, and responding to his leading, can Christians persevere in this calling.

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