Indiana-Based Ministry Reaches Out to South Africa's AIDS Orphans
by Allie Martin
April 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - An Indianapolis-based ministry is trying to make a positive impact on the lives of AIDS orphans living in South Africa, where the deadly epidemic has left 10 million orphans in its wake.Evangelical Baptist Missions (EBM) has ministered in South Africa for nearly 80 years. Now the Baptist organization is developing a ministry known as Bethesda Village to provide housing, education, and Bible studies for children.
Paul Jackson, a spokesman for the ministry, explains that the ultimate design for Bethesda Village is for the program to care for 300 to 400 children. However, he says the country's economic situation is presenting some challenges. "We are right now fine-tuning our strategy; with the drastic fall of the dollar in South Africa, obviously what we can build, budgetwise, is significantly less," he says.
According to Jackson, the dollar has lost almost 40 percent of its value in the last year. Nevertheless, EBM is working to serve many of the most vulnerable and needy children. "We're seeing the village as being an opportunity to take care of kids who totally fall through the cracks in the system," he says, "and there will be a number of those."
Meanwhile, Jackson says there are many opportunities for the spread of the gospel in South Africa through the project, as team members live side by side with the children to whom they are ministering. "We have kids coming in from all different kinds of backgrounds," he says, "and we're seeing the kids who we're caring for now come to Christ and begin the 'discipling' process."
Jackson says the ministry workers also are developing strong relationships with the social agencies in South Africa, the bureaucracy he says is necessary for a childcare ministry to function. Currently plans call for Bethesda Village to be operational by mid-June 2004.
