"The whole life of the Christian is to be a work of art. We are to speak beauty and truth into a lost and dying world."--Francis Schaeffer
One of the easiest and most threatening dangers to fall victim to is to isolate ourselves, and begin to think that our world is the world. We very often seal ourselves in our bubbles and deafen ourselves to what's going on out there.
Odds are, if you're reading this, you've got a pretty good life. I'll admit that I do. My biggest problem today was that my coffee got a little cold, and I was tired from framing an internal wall at the Francis Schaeffer Institute yesterday. Those were the worst things about today, so I really have no problems. Not to say life is perfect and all.
Odds are if you're reading this, you know where your next meal is coming from. Odds are if you're reading this, you don't have to worry about mosquitos infecting you with Malaria as you sleep. Odds are you haven't lost a family member to HIV/AIDS.
We have it good, while many others do not. For example:
- 33.4 Million people are Living with HIV/AIDS. That's more than the population of the states of Illinois and New York combined.
- Every 15 Seconds someone dies of diseases due to HIV/AIDS
- 14 Million Children are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. That's the equivalent of the states of Nebraska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, Alaska, DC, Vermont, and North Dakota.
A virus doesn't care about who you voted for. Poverty doesn't follow party lines. Injustice doesn't discriminate according to skin colour.
Christ cleansed the lepers and gave sight to the blind while He was here. People who have suffered from AIDS, injustice, poverty are the blindmen and lepers of our day. To help and share the Gospel is to bring light into our fallen world.
But there's hope as you'll see at the end of this post. Some of the good news is that the number of HIV infections has dropped 17% since 2001. In the past 12 years over 200,000 lives have been saved by preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children.
At church this past Wed, Dec. 1, our youth learned about some of the people who have been infected with HIV/AIDS and what their lives are like. They have far more to worry about other than their coffee being cold. Their lives are on the line, and we cannot back down now.
Petition cards
Lives are on the Line display
Another close up
Our youth learning the stories of those whose lives are on the line.
for more information, or to take action, please go to
http://worldvisionacts.org
http://one.org
Aside from learning about some of the lives that are on the line, we got to see how progress is being made. There is hope to live a vibrant life though infected, and HIV/AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was a few years ago. Still, now is the time to keep pushing through.
See lives that were on the line return from the dead by watching The Lazarus Effect Film from (RED) and HBO
