Written by: Heather Djunga
Article source: Supplied
A large group of dedicated pastors and community leaders recently gathered in the Cross Care School of Missions conference room to join hands with national and international initiatives to combat the ‘raging fire’ of HIV in South Africa.
The main focus of the meeting was to mobilise leaders of the church to bring truth to the congregations they represent, acknowledging that residents of Ekurhuleni look to their pastors for guidance and that pertinent information concerning HIV treatment and prevention should also form part of this guidance.
The Cross Care School of Missions centre is on the premises of Beula Park International Conference Centre in Meadowdale, which houses the Mount Zion Prayer Hill, well frequented by the area’s Christian fraternity.
Mount Zion visionary Dr Nico Landman explained the name of the facility, ‘Beula’, meant married, as explained in Isaiah 62. “We want this marriage to expand this morning,” he said, explaining that he referred to the partnership between Cross Care Missions, the Aurum Institute and the Centre For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and that standing together as a team was imperative for both the nation and the control of the spread of HIV in communities.
“If you go up the prayer hill at any time, you will see delegates from all over Africa coming together, different races and backgrounds, to pray. We are married to each other and we need to be married to this cause, to bring forth results.”
Dr Landman had with him a copy of Landbou Boereplanne magazine, which he held up for meeting attendants, to show them the cover on which a white and a black man were standing together to tackle agricultural and farming challenges. The headline read: ‘Die Toekoms Is Saamspan.’
“’Saamspan’ is the way forward,” he said, asking pastors present to translate this in the different African languages for those present, in a gesture acknowledging the cultural diversity of the audience and multiplicity of the nation represented by those present.
Dr Dave Clark, CEO of the Aurum Institute, said that while the meeting was being held, not far away, they were holding a memorial to honour three brave firefighters who had died defending the building of the Gauteng Department of Health. “But there is a fire that hasn’t been brought under control and which needs our urgent attention,” he said.
This, he explained, was the fire of HIV.
“You are probably asking, ‘I am a pastor, what has this got to do with me?’” he said to the pastors who listened intently to shocking statistics given reflecting the extent of the scourge of HIV in communities. “You represent 2.5million people in the Ekurhuleni region,” he explained. “As pastors, they look to you for guidance and eternal hope, and listen to the truth you have to share.”
Dr Nico Landman, speaking on behalf of Cross Care Missions International, addresses delegates at the meeting.
He encouraged the church to get involved with creating awareness of the problem and providing a vehicle through which communities can be directed to reach for assistance in terms of testing, treatment and health care. “We have the challenge of bringing hundreds of thousands of people onto medication to break the epidemic. Thousands have started with treatment but have stopped and we need them to continue with it to bring the fire under control.”
Todd Wilson, deputy country director from the US CDC, said that South Africa had the single biggest problem of HIV infection in the world, with 8-million people currently living with the virus, and thousands contracting it every day. “We have a house fire,” he said. “What’s more, the Ekurhuleni region is behind, compared with other regions, in tackling this issue. If we don’t educate on HIV and on testing and treatment for the virus, statistics show 12-million people will be affected by 2030, which will have a huge impact on South Africa’s already struggling economy.”
Cross Care in partnership with the pastors and The Aurum Institute and CDC seek to continue their efforts to control the spread of HIV in South African communities, and to care for those living with the virus.
For information on how to be tested for HIV or treatment for the virus, contact 010-590-1300, or visit the Aurum Institute’s offices at Queens Road, Parktown, Johannesburg. Information can also be found on the website at www.auruminstitute.org. For more information on the Cross Care School of Missions, contact 011 974 1771.
Click here to KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE weekly newsletter.
Date published: 24/09/2019
DISCLAIMER
JOY! News is a Christian news portal that shares pre-published articles by writers around the world. Each article is sourced and linked to the origin, and each article is credited with the author’s name. Although we do publish many articles that have been written in-house by JOY! journalists, we do not exclusively create our own content. Any views or opinions presented on this website are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
