Drs. Anita and Rick Gutierrez serve in Durban, South Africa, together with IM partner the Baptist Mission of South Africa. They train and equip local churches, pastors and missionaries to combat life-style related diseases like HIV/AIDS, heart and artery disease, diabetes and malaria.  Portable rapid screening tests for these conditions are offered by trained health builders.  The doctors continue to develop a health education DVD series that can be studied individually or in small groups. A holistic approach from the Christian perspective is offered in order to help people achieve their health and life goals.

The vision is to train two or four health builders in each participating church.  They would like to see this model of health building become a part of local church missions throughout Africa and other resource-limited settings.

They share the following update and prayer requests:

HIV Video Update

Five years ago, we produced a series of HIV videos in con-junction with the Health Economics and HIV AIDS Re-search Division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in English and Zulu with a grant from the Regional AIDS Training Network. The videos on the topics of HIV testing, Stages of HIV and Anti-Retrovirals continue to be invaluable in our HIV screening, education and referral activities.

Google and YouTube rank videos by the view count and amount of time spent per view. Five years later, our videos are still among the top ranked videos. Our Understanding HIV Testing video is currently ranked #1 on a YouTube search on the term “HIV testing” at #3 on Google video search. It is good to have this objective indicator that we have met a need for this vital health information and are effectively stewarding the resources that God has entrusted to us.

•    Pray for health builders as they minister to people living with HIV/AIDS in their communities.

Health Builder Training in Amaoti

Some thirteen years ago, we trained Amaoti’s first health builder Siyabonga. He ended up working for a clinic, an early success story of skills transfer as well as a spiritual journey of discovery for him as he left ancestral worship of his father’s tradition. Take it forward and this year we trained another five in health building. Besides doing health building here in Amaoti they hope to get work experience in a neighboring hospital. We never know what the seeds of training we plant will grow into– but the Lord sees and makes his plans with our efforts. Thank you for yours!

•    Please pray for each health builder as they seek to minister to the great needs of their community.

Health Builder Training in Phoenix

We graduated another nine health builders through Baptist Mission partner church Emmanuel Church. They received most of their clinical training at Phoenix Baptist Church (PBC). PBC has held a screening clinic for the past thirteen years. Phoenix Baptist has a team of five health builders that volunteer every Tuesday morning when the church opens its doors to the community and offers Body-Mass-Index, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and HIV screening.

•    Pray for health builder screening in Phoenix through Phoenix Baptist and Emmanuel Churches.

Seventeen percent of people living in our province have HIV. Praise God that effective treatment HIV is widely available in South Africa and free.

•    Pray for government, businesses and medical providers as they combat this epidemic.
•    Pray for our health builders as they test and refer people for treatment in their communities.