Confession: I never intended to write this article about responding to the AIDS crisis. For weeks I tried to find someone who would. But today is my deadline. I am still hoping for someone to e-mail me some great last-minute article, but it just isn’t happening.

I wondered what I had to say that might make any difference. I am not as far along or as involved as others in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Like many of you, I have been inundated with information and images about HIV and AIDS. I have been moved to pray, to serve and to contribute to efforts that seek to educate people and to eradicate these diseases.

I have more questions than answers and a resistance to making room for any more complications in my life. My days, hours and minutes seem to always be full. I am married and have two sons, one in high school and one in middle school. I serve part-time in two organizations. I have the privilege of serving on the Willow Arts team. And I teach a class at the high school. I spend an average of 2 hours a day in the car driving my boys to school and various activities. My youngest son is on the autism spectrum— this brings a whole level of complexity to life. It is easy for me to think there is no room in my life to do any more. You might feel the same the way. Truthfully it is scary to ask questions like, “What can I do about the AIDS crisis? What if God is asking me to do something more? What if He messes up the routine I am trying to establish?” A small voice speaks in my head and says, “I do enough. Can I do anymore?”

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Our congregation looked up at the video screen and saw their senior pastor carrying a heavy bag of meal across a dirt path to a hut in South Africa— food to feed a family ravaged by AIDS. I served as a host for that service a few years back. It was early December, and Bill and Lynne Hybels were on the ground in Africa, communicating to our congregation about the devastation of AIDS on one small village there. As our people watched the video screens, I stole a look at their faces. For many of them, this was the most personal and up close encounter they had experienced facing this pandemic. It was a huge wake-up call for our community and provided one of the primary catalysts for us to take action. After the service, many people echoed the phrase, “I just had no idea. ”

The first Sunday in December for the past several years has been declared “World AIDS Day. ” Our church has chosen to focus on that weekend, for at least a portion of our service, on this vital issue. Why? Certainly there are many other significant concerns in the world, and we recognize that we all can’t highlight all of them. But the HIV/AIDS crisis is a massive global crisis, one that arguably dwarfs other key issues with its level of devastation and human suffering. Just a few facts:

• Over 15 million children have already been orphaned by AIDS around the world, with 12 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
  
  
• Fewer than 1 in 10 of those orphans receives any external support of any kind. In other words, 90% of those children are suffering all alone.
  
  
• By the year 2010, experts predict there will be at least 10 million more AIDS orphans.

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