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Plans to Stem the Tide in Togo

Brenda Mastin, Togo

A Togolese woman waiting at the Karolyn Kempton Memorial Hospital in Togo

A Togolese woman waiting at the Karolyn Kempton
Memorial Hospital in Togo

Isabelle knew something wasn’t right with one of her children, a fraternal twin. The baby had hardly gained any weight since her birth ten months ago, especially in comparison to her sister. There had been a long wait to see the doctor because most of the family’s resources had been spent on fetish ceremonies and herbs. There was also fear and denial—who would want to find out she has a child with a devastating illness?

But find out she did. The day she came to the white man’s hospital, the Hopital Baptiste Biblique, in Adeta, Togo, West Africa, Isabelle found out that not only did her little girl have AIDS, but she did as well, and that she had passed it on to her own child while giving birth. Why one baby would contract the disease and not the other is a mystery to the medical world.

Why she had been chosen to bear this cross was also a question for the God she came to know that day. Isabelle learned that not only had she been led to this hospital to hear of her illness, but also to hear that she could have forgiveness of her sins and become a child of God. She had never been told that there was a God who loved her, unlike the gods of her culture who constantly demand sacrifices, payment, and works, leaving her in bondage and fear. She realized that although she and her child had essentially been given a death sentence, she was free to choose to live eternally with this God who loves her.

The change in her soul and on her face was remarkable to all of us who witness edit. You would never have known that the news of having AIDS was so heavy and so sad, because her face radiated Christ! She knew now that she could face whatever isolation, persecution, or mistreatment that would come her way from the stigma of AIDS. She had the one, true, and living God in her life who would give her all she needed by His daily grace.

All over Africa, people isolate or shun those infected with AIDS, for fear of catching the same disease or for fear of not knowing what to say, how to act, or how to help. But think of what the Church can do! What if the Church reached out first to dispel the myths, teach prevention, and care? What a difference it would make in the lives of people like Isabelle, who have such devastating illnesses. There are some churches in the United States that are reaching out to care, but we need even more help. In Africa, there are approximately 25.8 million who are living with AIDS, and every day 6,600 people die, 8,500 people are newly infected, and 1,400 newborns contract it by birth or through maternal milk. The HIV prevalence rate in Togo, a country of five million people, is estimated at 8.2 percent, but many believe it is currently closer to 10 percent and it continues to climb.

God has opened our eyes to the huge need here in Togo, and He is stirring us to do something to stem the rising tide of HIV/AIDS. We plan to do that by educating our churches on prevention. Through education we will combat the stigma and hopelessness associated with AIDS and help our churches develop volunteers to reach out to meet the needs of those affected. In 2008, seminars on transmission, prevention, compassion, Christian responsibility, and end-of-life care will beheld for pastors, leaders, parents, and teens. A pilot program in one church will start in 2009 with volunteers providing home based care. Teens will be taught to be peer educators in their churches and schools. We need prayers, expertise, resources, and support for this new project. Would you ask God how you could be involved?