** Note: Something that keeps going over & over in my head is that as we pray, we should also be willing to be the answer to our own prayers. **
So, one of the first issues in the book is AIDS. I've become more passionate about this injustice. If you don't see it as an injustice, let me explain why it most definitely is, at least in other countries. We all probably know by now that AIDS is mainly spread through sexual contact. In Africa, because of their cultural beliefs and the shame (and often ignorance) that comes with this disease, it continues to spread rapidly. There are approximately 12 million orphans in Africa as a result of AIDS. The older generation is quickly dying off while the younger one is still in the dark as to what has been killing off their families and how it can be stopped.
Now, I'm no African, but as I learn more about this I've discovered some reasons that make this such an injustice, particularly for women. In most of Africa, at least rural Africa, there is a cultural practice in which a man with the AIDS virus has sex with a virgin (who is most likely under the age of 18) to "cure" him of the disease. The girl has no say in this. No protection is provided. She gets AIDS.
Even between married couples, sex is something that does not have to be mutual. It is often forced. It is rarely talked about. And for the wives... rarely enjoyed. Faithfulness in marriage is pretty slim. Often this is another access for AIDS to enter a family. When the mother gets it, the children get it. And the disease keeps spreading.
Here's a story to help you understand:
"In a small village in Mozambique, Zorah wakes up early to begin her work; caring for her three children, her aging father-in-law, and harvesting the fields. Since her husband's death a month ago, responsibility has fallen entirely on her. She is tired, but she says nothing, only gathers up a basket of dirty clothes before heading down the riverbank to wash. A doctor who visits the village every week told Zorah that her husband died of AIDS. She didn't know her husband was infected with a virus called HIV when she married him. She didn't know that he knew he was sick. At the time, she was 16 and he was 31. She didn't know he believed that sleeping with a virgin would cure his disease.
She didn't know that using a condom might have protected her from infection, and if she had known, what difference would it have made? She and her husband never talked about sex; he simply demanded it from her. Sometimes he was rough with her and she would bleed. She didn't know that this increased her vulnerability of contracting the disease.
The sun is coming up over the horizon, glinting on the slow moving ripples that mark the river's constant current. Zorah washes a shirt. Her chest hurts, and a dry cough has been troubling her for the past week. This morning she feels feverish and her body is aching. Her husband's illness started out the same way. Within a year he was dead. Zorah wrings out the last shirt as she gazes across the water. She didn't know about AIDS before, but she does now. She knows that it will kill her, too. She knows there is currently no cure. She knows that her family will be left alone. She doesn't know who will care for them.
The tears on her cheeks catch the light of the rising sun. She does not cry for long-- her family is waiting and they are hungry. She picks up the basket of wet clothes and begins the long, slow walk over the dirt road that leads back home."
-- A Voice for the Voiceless
I know this is not a great thing to read about. I know this is not comfortable, it does not make you and me feel good. But this is our reality. And it is a reality that God pleads for us to be aware of and to do something about.
Something that we've talked about in almost every week of lecture is the fact that over 300 verses in the Bible talk about the poor. (Compared to about 4 that refer to the antichrist-- why are so many people obsessed with end times? Just saying.) It seems that in all of our reading, we should get God's perspective and heart for those who are oppressed and rejected from society. Why don't we see this more often? Why haven't I seen this more often? I think it has a lot to do with our culture, and the fact that we've honestly and genuinely gotten lost in our self-improvements and encouraging sermons. Those are not bad, but why have we almost completely forgotten to mention those in need all over the world and that it is our biblical mandate, not suggestion, to do something to help them.
This is long already, and I don't mean to exhaust this subject, but it's been ignored for too long. One scripture study we've done is on James 1:27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." An interesting fact is that in the Greek text, "and" is not present between those two thoughts of caring for orphans and widows & keeping yourself unstained from the world. So if we read it as it should be understood, it would mean this: True worship that the Father accepts is to help the vulnerable TO be unstained. Truthfully, for our worship to be pleasing to God and for our lives to be lived purely and holy, we must serve the poor. All of us.
I would like to tell you that this is easy, but it's not. I wish I could give you a step-by-step list, but I think we all should just ask the Lord what He would have us do. I want to be physically present in their lives-- the literal hands and feet. Maybe you are to be an intercessor, or a financial supporter, or a home that welcomes families in need. There a bagillion things we can do to practically help. Find yours!
Isaiah 58:10
"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."
