Every Christian community has a responsibility to seek positive ways to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, said Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, during a four-day pastoral visit to Kenya, April 25 to 29.
Every Christian community has a responsibility to seek positive ways to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, said Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, during a four-day pastoral visit to Kenya, April 25 to 29. Recognizing that AIDS has become Africa’s number one killer, and the efforts of Kenya in fighting the spread of the disease, Paulsen said that Adventists are joining others in responding to the AIDS epidemic.
It is estimated that 200,000 new cases of HIV are recorded in Kenya each year and that 700 Kenyans die from AIDS-related diseases every day.
“We are committed to being a community of grace, where care and restoration of those who are affected by AIDS is an evidence of our beliefs,” he said. “The Adventist faith community is committed to family values, to a healthy lifestyle, to education; in short, to a wholistic way of life.”
Paulsen met with Kenya’s president, Daniel Arap Moi, on April 27, just hours after the president’s return from the Organization of African Unity’s summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and related diseases in Abuja, Nigeria. Referring to President Moi’s initiatives in combating AIDS, the Adventist world leader said that “we cannot allow ourselves to be defeated by the scourge of AIDS.”
Responding, Moi said the Adventist Church is a “church that understands the meaning of service to God,” and that “strictly adheres to the Bible.” He commended Adventists for “following exactly what God wants” and “observing the moral way of life.”
For a Christian believer, “Faith is to be constantly related to life,” said Paulsen in a statement to the Nairobi press. “The Christian faith and the influence of Seventh-day Adventist lifestyle is to be felt in the communities where we all live, work, and worship.” Paulsen, who was accompanied by Matthew Bediako, the church’s general secretary, and leaders from the church’s Eastern Africa region, referred to practical Christianity, saying, “The best way to live is in the service to other people in making life better.”
Paulsen also said the world is “full of uncertainties, tensions and social ills. We are surrounded by hostilities, injustices and pain. But, it is in the same world where Christian believers live, and where they bear witness to the values that express their convictions. Young people are challenging the adult world for consistency of words and actions, for leadership with integrity, for evidences of social peace and justice.”
“As Christians we must continue to be concerned about the well-being of our planet and the communities in which we live,” said Paulsen. [Photos: Ray Dabrowski/ANN]
