Loving South Africa (LSA) is currently having a significant impact on the AIDS sufferers in Kwazulu Natal (KZN), South Africa, through our five incredible grass-roots partners. It is now time to increase LSA’s impact on this side of the Atlantic, so that we can effectively awaken the ‘sleeping giant’ of the local church, and in doing so, have an exponential and sustainable impact on those suffering in KZN.

Haile Selassie once said: “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

Yet, the latest Barna Group survey shamefully reveals that the group least likely to get involved in the AIDS crisis is “Evangelicals”.  Furthermore, the report reveals that 86% of Evangelicals say they will NOT get involved in the crisis (through any form of financial donations). Why is there such indifference among ‘those who should know better’?

At LSA, we have personally witnessed the human suffering that is allowed to run rampant through this “inaction”, because in Southern Africa alone:

       o Every 18 seconds a child is orphaned because of AIDS

       o Every 14 seconds someone dies of HIV/AIDS, and

       o Every 8 seconds someone is infected with HIV

We must NOT be found among those whose inaction allows this “evil to triumph” – No, we are the very hands and feet of Christ, and scripture implores us in innumerous ways to ‘seek justice’ and to ‘take care of the orphans and widows in the their times of distress’.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered this confession of guilt on behalf of the Church of his day, shortly before being hung naked from a piano wire:

“By her own silence she has rendered herself guilty; because of her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows is right”

Thus LSA believes NOW is the time to sound a clarion call to the church to get involved, before our ‘silence renders us guilty’.  Indeed, we must help the church climb off the bench of cold indifference, lest History place us alongside the disgracefully complacent ‘Christ followers’ who sat on the bench during the Civil Rights movement, the Holocaust, and Apartheid in South Africa.

LSA’s commitment to stemming this pandemic is both STRATEGIC and EXPONENTIAL:

As Lao Tzu, a 6th century B.C. Chinese philosopher once said:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

At LSA we are currently ‘giving the AIDS sufferers a fish’ (we have helped feed, clothe, teach and provide medicine directly to the sufferers during our 3 Mission Trips); Furthermore, we are ‘teaching them to fish’ (we have significantly empowered our 5 LSA Partners to build leaders/ ‘fishermen’ in KZN).

Yet our heart for these sufferers leads us beyond the above idiom and hence beyond both of the above important ministry strategies, to the final stage in our strategic plan:

To establish a local LSA CENTER that effectively awakens an entire ‘village of fishermen’ (the local church in Indiana).  The sheer magnitude of this humanitarian disaster demands this response!

And at LSA, we believe that the Church is the hope of the world; we are not God’s B plan, we are His A plan, indeed His ONLY plan.

It is thus, for the purposes of establishing this strategic presence in Indianapolis, that we raising $250,000.00. This amount includes the purchase of a building (already identified by LSA), the costs for minor building adjustments, painting etc. and HIV Positive Experience setup costs.

We are convinced that this is the most strategic, exponential and sustainable way to truly bless ‘the least of these’ during this awful humanitarian crisis.

We and our partners in South Africa believe that investing in this LSA CENTER will not only continue to impact many hearts, but it will also result in exponentially greater donations being leveraged for the AIDS suffers during the greatest humanitarian crisis ever.

LSA Center Vision

This LSA Center will provide a centralized space whereby the Body of Christ can experience the pandemic ‘up close and personal’.

The most simple way to articulate the impact this multifaceted Center will have is:

When people visit the Holocaust Museum in the USA, or the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, they most often emerge with two common emotions:

1. “DEVASTATION at the magnitude of the injustice/calamity”

2. “REGRET that there is nothing than can be done to undo the injustice”

Imagine an LSA CENTER where people can encounter this humanitarian crisis in powerful ways and leave saying: “I am devastated at the magnitude of the injustice/calamity” (as above), only now they can also say: “I CAN do something about it!”  - Deep impact - activating hearts - to live missional lives!

This LSA CENTER will achieve three vital goals simultaneously:

1. It will be a powerful heart-wrecking tool (see “HIV POSITIVE EXPERIENCE”);
2. It will draw together the various facets of LSA’s output into one centralized space;
3. It will empower LSA to fulfill our exciting Strategic Plan for 2008 and beyond. 

Some of the practical specifics that the Center will achieve are:

• Provide the Body of Christ a heart-wrecking experience through the “HIV POSITIVE EXPERIENCE” (the ‘Capstone’ of the center)
• Provide practical office space for our LSA (and it's parent organization LAM) staff;
• Provide both space and practical opportunities for our LSA interns;
• Provide a space for our existing network of 55 LAM pastors to engage the pandemic;
• Provide a mechanism to sustain the passions of our growing “LSA volunteer army”
• Provide a suitable space to host small, strategic AIDS Conferences;
• Provide multiple ‘on ramps’ for people to get practically involved with LSA;
• Provide a forum to train our Mission Trip attendees;
• Provide a continually erected display room for fund raising endeavors;
• Provide an interactive, educational forum whereby the Church can learn about HIV (including a library of materials to check out);

The HIV “Positive” Experience

LSA’s multi-faceted Center in Broadripple, Indianapolis, will incorporate as it’s ‘Capstone’ an experience we have aptly titled:  LSA’s “HIV Positive Experience.” 

This interactive sensory experience will be an invitational only and appointment based experience.

This is a multi-station, multimedia, educational, experiential, interactive, action-provoking experience. It will ‘wreck hearts off the bench of cold indifference’, provoking them to live missional lives,  and in doing so, awaken a village of sleeping fisherman. This will in turn have an exponential impact on the AIDS sufferers in Kwazulu Natal.

This 90 minute experience will simultaneously bring 10 individuals face to face with the HIV/AIDS pandemic by taking them through the 7 Stations. Each session will begin with a brief introduction and a time of ‘Prayer-paration’, whereby hearts are prepared and the participants spend 2 minutes in silent meditation;

THE 7 STATIONS:

1. LSA’s Full Perspective DVD

2. Tactile Experience

3. HIV Informational DVD and Quiz

4. LSA Vision and Strategy
5. South Africa Dichotomy

6. Through My Eyes

7. Activation Station

One of LAM’s and LSA’s core values is to remain lean and keep ministry expenses to a minimum and to continue to utilize technology to leverage the assistance of our volunteer army. To this end, the LSA center will primarily be staffed and supported by volunteers, interns and LAM existing staff members.

Since the inception of both LAM and LSA, peoples hearts have been moved to support this ministry which is offered at no cost to the body of Christ at large. While we are diligent in planning and soliciting funds to ensure the sustainability of both these ministries, we are also confident that they are birthed out of God’s desire to see the church moved and the orphans and widows taken care of and that he will ensure the funds needed are provided.

Conclusion

“Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.”  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now is the time to get involved and to partner with LSA in sounding a clarion call to the church to ‘get off the bench’. We are, together, providing an environment whereby our people’s hearts can be radically impacted, resulting in a ‘village of sleeping fishermen’ engaging in the battle against AIDS; and ultimately, we are strategically, and exponentially impacting the worst humanitarian crisis the world has ever known.