A NIGHT SECURITY guard in Lusaka tells of a story where he was once attacked by robbers and was forced to lie down while covering his face with both hands.

 

While lying down, he could hear the thieves haul the house of whatever they could without hearing a human voice. This made him at one point to raise his heard in order to just have a glimpse at what was taking place while he lay there, unfortunately one of them saw his head moving and fired a warning shot. This forced the guard who believed he was already dead to bury back himself in his hands. The only hope of survival he had was a miracle to happen.

 

30 minutes after the thieves were gone, the guard was still lying face down and neighbours who came out after they were awakened by the noise found him face down, motionless which made them think that he was dead. One of them kicked his legs to be sure he was just not hurt, but the guard could not move, he thought he had already been shot at. His name was then called and he struggled to just lift his heard until one of them reassured him that the assailants had already gone.

 

“Mr. Banda, wake up! You are no longer under gun point,” said one of the sympathizers.

 

He slowly removed his hands from his teary face and stood up.

 

This story relates to the stance the church has continued to take on the HIV/AIDS pandemic besides been assured that the disease is not a curse, has channels of transmission, is not only for immoral people, people with the disease still need to be respected and appreciated because they are still people, they are not worse sinners that those who are not infected.

 

The Church has continued to refuse that this is its biggest problems it has a stake into, it is not for people in the healthy and research sector alone but all. It is a health, social and most of all a spiritual issue.

 

Like the Guard mention above, the church still has covered itself with both hands and fails to believe that what is needed at hand is a disease, a physical disease in which people need redemption and not only death. Very few church leaders have been bold enough to tackle the real issues surrounding HIV/AIDS yet even church members are among the people who are infected with the Virus.

 

According a UNICEF report on HIV and AIDS statistics about 710,000 children lost a mother/father or both parents due to HIV/AIDS in the year 2005.

 

98,000 deaths due the disease were reported in the year 2005 what of those which were not reported, those who were not tested?

 

 

Many years have passed since the HIV/AIDS pandemic came sweeping among human kind. The early sure tag for every person who had HIV or AIDS was that the person was surely immoral, got it through sex and it was and is still difficulty for one to completely feel free to say that they have the HIV virus. Stigma simply starts from the church.

 

However, as days go on and further truths start to unveil, it is common knowledge that not all who have HIV are immoral. And it is a known fact that some immoral people do not even get infected because they do know how to protect themselves through the use of condoms or by luck, they simply don’t get infected. Someone once said just because your sins do not manifest does not mean you are  better than those whose sins manifest within the shortest possible time.

 

During all this period, the church which is supposed to be a place where people should rush to for hope, encouragement and healing has decided to take a back bench, watching or merely putting up a face that they are doing something. Still others have continued to live in denial that there is no cure and have instead killed them faster by asking them to pray until God answers. Yes miracles still do happen but these only do when God is doing it and only in his time and plan, not on man’s command.

 

Most churches have taken the support and care mentality while the pulpit has remained  strictly for “spiritual matters” while the infected and affected are further crucified as they are told that they need to pray for healing and if they can not be healed then their faith is not sufficient.

 

However, this is not to water down the efforts of some churches who are doing all they can to ensure spread of the disease is prevented, the sick are being taken care of and the orphans co-opted into community homes and offered education and other basic needs.

 

The point I am still hammering on though is the little or no attention being given to the pandemic in the church. Who else can help the physically and spiritually sick if the church does not have room for them? Some church leaders have reported to have had been dropped from their positions (so as not to dent the image of the church) just because they are infected with HIV/AIDS.

 

Home affairs minister for Home Affairs Ronie Shikapwasha’s message for the church to stop shying away from the disease and face it could not have come at the right time than this.

 

Mr. Shikapwasha at the indunction of the Bible Society of Zambia Board member Evangelist Esther Odani said the church should call a spade a spade and not a spoon as it was evident that many lives were being lost due to the HIV and AIDS. The church should first accept that there is a problem among as which needs moral, spiritual and physical effort in order to combat it.

 

Mr. Shikapwasha said vices like the HIV/AIDS pandemic could only be overcome if we turned to God. “We need people to understand from the Word of God what is right and what is wrong,” he says.

 

The public declaration by Rev. Odani that she will give the give the disease centre stage among other issues in her work is not only good news to the infected but to the church. Efforts should surely be joined and since about 76 percent of the 12 million Zambians profess Christianity, the church is better placed to strengthen its voice on this issue.

 

The Bible in the Book of Mathew 7:21 says that “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

This is to say prayer without practical action to the problems facing mankind is a sheer waste of the faith. In this case not addressing the HIV/AIDS or shying away from it because it was earlier associated with immorality does not help matters.

 

Let us see a Zambia where people will be comfortable to turn to the church for practical support when they need issues concerning this disease to be addressed.

 

Indeed a lot has been said on prevention, living positive, care for the orphans but the numbers still leave much to be desired on whether the fight against this disease is somewhere near to be won.

 

It has always been true to try God when all human effort has failed but we are not taking it as such a burden probably God would have already removed it among us.

 

AIDS indeed is among us, in our homes, in the neighbourhood, in the church or simply all places thus combined efforts should be campaigned for in order to see the results and not continue hiding thinking we will be infected through the earlier wrong ways as mentioned above.

 

\ends