Ann and I are in Zimbabwe for a short period doing an assessment on the impact of HIV/AIDS on people’s lives at the request of one of our church partners, United Baptist Church of Zimbabwe (UBC).

 UBC is a denomination focused on outreach in a country with significant needs.   The majority of their work is not within churches but among the community.   One such outreach is in the mining camps where tens of thousands of people live in hopeless conditions;  where 3-4  families share small shanty-type homes,  where poverty gives rise to prostitution (as young as 12 years old) and as you can imagine, where HIV/AIDS is endemic.  

 Yesterday we accompanied a UBC pastor, Patience Chinugoro, to one of these camps.  Rev Chinugoro agreed to leave his job as pastor of a large urban church in Harare several years ago and move his wife and children to live amongst the poorest of the poor because of a calling from God.  He told us, “The young people in these mining camps are dying quicker than we can reach them…and someone needs to share the Gospel and tell them that Jesus loves them and gave his life for them”.   He took us to the home of a 68-year old widowed woman who shares a 3-room dwelling with two other families. 

 The woman’s son and daughter both died from AIDS several years ago (along with their spouses), and left the widowed grandmother to care for their five surviving children. The youngest of these, a two-year girl named Dorcas whose mother died three months after her birth, has AIDS herself, and without treatment, it is unlikely she will see her 3^rd birthday.

 One could say that the health system failed young Dorcas twice:  (1) by failing to screen her mother for AIDS when she was pregnant so she could receive drugs to prevent the transmission of this fatal disease to her unborn child and (2) by failing to provide HIV drugs to the mother after delivery which could have kept her alive for years and able to care for her children.   Now without access to HIV medicine, young Dorcas will also die.

 Pastor Chinugoro is determined that the church will not spiritually fail this mining community of 18,000 of which up to 5,000 are known to be HIV positive and need to hear a message of forgiveness, redemption, and salvation.   His passion for sharing the Gospel is preeminent for us as mission workers…but as health workers, we have the obligation as well to provide healing to those who are in need of care like young Dorcas, so we will not fail her a 3^rd time.  

 Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the needs and the obstacles in bringing the Kingdom of God to places such as this mining camp of 18,000.   However when we look at the commitment of national servants such as Rev Patience Chinugoro, his team of volunteers, and the faithful prayers and support of our partners and churches back home, we know that God provides the means, the opportunity, and the desire …so we will not fail Dorcas a 3^rd time.