wfn.org | Mission trip focuses on Zimbabwe's AIDS crisis

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 5, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
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By United Methodist News Service

United Methodists in the Baltimore-Washington Conference are responding
to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe through a new covenant relationship,
providing medicine and other relief to the African country.

"The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe is fast reaching disastrous
proportions," wrote Zimbabwe Annual Conference Bishop Christopher Jokomo
in a recent request for medicine to the denomination's Board of Global
Ministries.

Bishop Felton E. May of Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Marcus Matthews,
council director, left  Aug. 3 for a 16-day mission to Zimbabwe with
more than 40 members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

"The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe is experiencing great spiritual
revival, and as a result (it needs) increased resources for ministry,"
May said.

One out of every four citizens in Zimbabwe is HIV positive, according to
the national director of the country's AIDS control program. Thirty
percent of the pregnant women are HIV positive, and by the year 2000,
AIDS orphans are expected to number more than half a million. 

The average life expectancy has dropped from 68 years to 45 years, and
more than half of the deaths in villages are attributed to AIDS, with an
expected reduction in agriculture of 50 percent.

While in Zimbabwe, the Rev. Joseph Daniels, chairman of the
Baltimore-Washington Conference Shalom Zone Committee, will work with
conference staff to help the impoverished community of Sekoudva
establish a Shalom Zone, bringing together community and church
resources to focus on this situation. Known as the Jesus Project - for
Joint Effort to Save and Uplift Sekoudva - the Shalom Zone will be based
in Hilltop United Methodist Church.

"We are resourcing needs, not imposing what we think they need,"
Matthews explained. Already, the Baltimore-Washington Conference Council
on Youth Ministries has sent supplies to the United Methodist orphanage
in Old Mutare, which cares for many HIV-infected children. Other areas
of joint effort include drug abuse rehabilitation, short-term missionary
support and communication.

HIV/AIDS education will be provided by Africa University, which will
receive a financial gift from the Baltimore-Washington Conference to
help in offering resources on the illness.

While in Africa, the delegation will attend a convention in Harare,
Zimbabwe, where May will be a featured preacher, the Queen's Chapel Male
Chorus will perform and several members will have teaching
opportunities. More than 10,000 women are expected to attend the event.

# # #

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/