STEWARDSHIP

Special Sundays

World AIDS Day

December 1 is designated as World AIDS Day. This year's theme is “Universal Access & Human Rights.” Materials for use in local congregations will soon be available on the UMC Global AIDS Fund website 

For additional materials, visit the website of Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA). EAA is an international network of churches committed to campaigning together on common concerns. 

For three years a woman in rural India went from hospital to hospital and clinic to clinic hoping to get relief from her discomfort and suffering. But when they learned she was HIV-positive, they rejected her, fearful of the surgery required to correct a prolapsed uterine. But when she arrived at the C.A.R.E. Women and Children’s Center, initially started in rural Namakkal by a grant from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund, the women doctors, nurses and staff welcomed her without prejudice or stigmatization. Today she lives life without pain thanks to the medical care she received, and thanks to unseen United Methodists who generously contributed to the Fund. 

In Meru, Kenya, a little girl living with disabilities couldn’t go to a special school because as her HIV-positive mother declared, “I am too poor to even buy her a toothbrush.” But she got into school, thanks to gifts made possible through the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund that were generated by volunteer Ambassadors in our churches. 

Today 220 vulnerable children are being helped in a community-based, Christ-centered outreach program.  Amid a cornfield in Mzuzu, Malawi, a little crudely built wooden church with only dirt floors, appears in my mind as a great cathedral of hope.

Dr. Donald Messer reports, “When I preached there, I discovered the pastor was helping almost 100 AIDS orphans get nutrition, education and support, thanks to a grant from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. Without Ambassadors, speaking in our churches and raising funds, those little children would be in the streets, subject to pedophiles and who knows what else. 

Sometimes when we are pressing the pastor for a special Sunday, or making a poster, or sitting for hours addressing envelopes, or asking for just a little money to help, we can despair and think we are not at the heart of God’s mission. But in reality, we are! These initial steps make a world of difference, and I can assure you that the woman healed in India, the little children in Kenya, and the many AIDS orphans of Malawi join thousands of others in 33 countries to say “thank you” for caring for what Christ called “the least of these.” 

Donations to the Global AIDS Fund can be made by your local church treasurer through the conference treasurer’s office marked for Advance Special Fund #982345.