AIDS

Day 2

Definition Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a serious , fatal disease of the immune system contracted through blood transfusions, sexual contact or contaminated needles. There is no known cure for it.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since 1981 more than four Jewish holocausts or 22 Rwandan genocides. 

Africa has 12 million AIDS orphans.
 This book was published in 2005 so these numbers are even higher now.

Did you know that today in America HIV is considered more manageable than juvenile diabetes?  We have come a long way in the war on HIV.  Today people living with HIV can have a long and full life with the proper medications, diet, and care.  I don't want to over simplify because it can't be a cake walk to live with HIV, but it is a drastically different story for those who contract HIV in Africa or other countries where money is scare and medical care is hard to come by.  In those countries HIV is a death sentence.  Unfaithful husbands give it to mothers who give it to the unborn and nursing children who will all die without our intervention.  It creates a society of the very old and the very young.  Can you imagine whole villages where grandparents are caring for their childrens' ,children.  There are few young adults who are not sick or dieing, so there are very few workers to bring in the crops, carry the water, or tend the livestock.  This disease to wiping out an entire generation in some places and in others in has become a manageable chronic disease.  We have the resources to change these statics, but we must care about these people the way that we care for ourselves.

A small portion of the book:  "She didn't know that 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." (30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless, forwarded by Loren Cunningham)

Pray for those infected with HIV all over the world.  They face challenges in all areas of their lives that we can't even imagine.  Pray that others would educate themselves concerning this disease to help fight the stigma and misconceptions.  Pray that God would raise up doctors and missionaries to help fight this virus in the most remote villages.  Pray that people would be educated so that young virgin girls would not be needlessly infected.  Let you heart be broken for their needless suffering.