Africa & AIDS: Day 3

May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
Psalm 67:1-3

HIV can spread silently for many years before the infection develops into symptomatic AIDS and becomes a cause of recurring illness and death. Africans as a whole have received little of the health information Americans have readily available. In the absence of scientific knowledge, rumors and stories have ranged from the assurance that an injection from the clinic will cure an AIDS victim to witch doctors' advice that an infected man sleep with a virgin.

A missionary from South Africa shared with us at a recent WMU conference that for many Africans, the only way they feel they can know for sure that they are sleeping with a virgin is to rape a young girl, some as young as 3, 4, or 5 years old.

Pray that Africans will understand the seriousness of AIDS and what the disease is doing to their families.

Pray that this knowledge will lead them to change their behaviors and seek God's direction for their lives.

Pray for the young, helpless victims of this disease.