AIDS awareness campaign launched

Through a new national campaign called the Hope Initiative, World Vision is asking American churches to mobilize and take action to combat the global AIDS epidemic.

The initiative includes a 15-city U.S. tour featuring well-known Christian music acts and speakers.

The tour’s first event was held in Chicago on April 1. Speaking to 400 people in suburban Chicago, World Vision president Richard Stearns called HIV/AIDS “the greatest weapon of mass destruction in the world today.” He told the audience that AIDS claims the lives of 8,000 people every day.

Bruce Wilkinson, author of “The Prayer of Jabez,” shared with the crowd how a recent experience in Africa led him to start a new career focused on teaching AIDS prevention in Africa. “Probably like you, I didn’t want to deal with this issue of AIDS because I was thinking, ‘If they didn’t do what they did, they wouldn’t have it,’” said Wilkinson. He explained that while in Africa, he met many women and children who became infected with HIV by no fault of their own.

Another featured speaker on the Hope tour is Princess Kasune Zulu, an HIV-positive mother of two healthy children. Zulu is now an educator for World Vision in Africa and encourages the people of Africa to listen to the organization’s message of abstinence and fidelity. “Because of the involvement by organizations like World Vision, the incidence of HIV among teenagers has declined in countries like Uganda and Zambia,” said Zulu.

On the tour’s second stop in Minneapolis on April 3, the crowd of 900 pledged more than $450,000 in support of the Hope Initiative. There, Wilkinson shared with the crowd that he felt most Americans are blind to the realities of suffering of AIDS victims in Africa.

The tour will now head to 14 other cities in the coming months including Charlotte, Knoxville, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Boston, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, New York City, Houston, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta with similar programs.

In addition to the Hope tour, the Hope Initiative project includes a Global AIDS Forum in Washington, D.C., June 11-12. According to a press release from World Vision, the forum will “bring together evangelical leaders from throughout the U.S. to demonstrate to President Bush, Congress and the nation that the American evangelical community is concerned and mobilized to care for AIDS victims and help prevent its spread.”

A national Hope worship tour is also under way featuring the group 4-Him and other national Christian acts including Anointed, Joy Williams, Kelly Minter and Among Thorns. All proceeds from the worship tour go to fund the Hope Initiative.

— E.P. News