Concerned about reputation?

One of the phrases I absorbed growing up was “What will other people think?” Those are powerful words, and they have influenced many of my thoughts, decisions, and behaviors through the years. When I became aware of the vast suffering that HIV brings to millions around the world, I have to confess that those words floated through my mind once again – I wondered how other people would react to my new-found passion. Would they criticize me? Would they reject me if I became an advocate for people with HIV? Read more >>

Kay Warren, co-founder, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., and executive director of Saddleback Church's HIV/AIDS Initiative

AIDS walk provides witness for Christ

More than 100 volunteers from Saddleback Church's HIV/AIDS Initiative participated in an AIDS walk at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., May 12. "Ordinary believers walking alongside those who are HIV positive is the goal of our ministry," said Elizabeth Styffe, director, Saddleback Church's HIV/AIDS Initiative. "Do you want to make a difference in someone’s life? Show up. Being with and alongside people is what we’re all about." Learn how your church can make a significant difference through HIV/AIDS ministry at this year's 2007 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church >>

Saddleback students working to stop AIDS

Saddleback calls its student HIV/AIDS ministry 8K, representing the 8,000 people who die from AIDS-related causes every day. The students meet monthly for training and learning about HIV/AIDS and how they can respond to it, and they’re starting to engage their schools. Read more >> | Youth Summit follows Global Summit on AIDS and the Church >>

HIV/AIDS ministry requires going to the 'other side'

John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, near San Francisco, challenges Christians to follow Jesus' command to go to the “other side” and care for people. In this video from the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, he asks believers to examine their hearts and respond as Jesus would to the global AIDS crisis. Watch video >> | Read transcript >> | New resource! Summit on DVD >>

Evangelical leaders point to church as answer
to orphan crisis

During the Evangelical Orphan Care and Adoption Summit, Rick Warren joined other Christian leaders looking to the Church as the body large enough to help the world’s 143 million orphans. Warren tied the orphan crisis to the world’s most urgent problems – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, poverty, pandemic diseases, and illiteracy. “The only thing big enough in the world to solve these problems is the massive distribution network called the Church,” he said. Read more >>

I just wanted to share with you what God has been doing here with the AIDS/HIV Ministry since I attended the AIDS/HIV conference.

God sure tugged at my heart strings when I was at Saddleback. I left knowing I could no longer sit and do nothing. I too became emotionally disturbed. Our Christmas series was tilted "The Power of One." Every message was full of statistics, videos and a count down of how many children were dying from AIDS by the minute.

We now have an AIDS ministry and God has opened the flood gates. We now are in partnership with the AIDS Resource Center here in Dayton, Ohio.

Our ministry meets once a month. The ARC (AIDS Resource Center) has come and taught HIV/AIDS 101. We now open our Food Pantry the 4th Friday of each month and the clients of the ARC are welcome to come and select food of their choice. We also have partnered with case workers to provide for the various needs of their clients that are not being met by the community.

We provide emergency food supplies to the clients and also have assisted in moving and transporting clients to Doctors appointments.

This has given us an opportunity to build relationships with families in our community that are living with HIV/AIDS. Our lives have been transformed.

On our first food pantry day one of the clients called their case worker and said "they had hope for the first time" simply because someone said we will see you next month. This has all happened since December. Wow! God is good!

This weekend we plan to have a HIV/AIDS Awareness Weekend. The worship service will have a testimony by someone that is living with HIV and special music will be by one of our ministry servants who wrote a powerful song. The ARC Director will also be here to share.

God bless you!

Karen Seiter
Executive Director
Stillwater United Methodist Church
Dayton, Ohio

Tell us how your church is responding to HIV/AIDS >>