Three Years of Ministry…

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Adora Iris Lee – South Africa

I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! In 2003, the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) asked Global Ministries to support the coordination of HIV/AIDS ministries within the denomination by sending an HIV/AIDS Coordinator. I have been blessed to serve in this capacity for the past 3 years.

Adora Iris Lee – South Africa

My primary responsibility has been to establish an HIV/AIDS Desk that promotes and supports AIDS ministry efforts in the 5 countries comprising the UCCSA: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In addition to my work with the UCCSA, I also assist, when needed, other Global Ministries missionaries assigned to Partner Churches in Southern Africa: the KuKhan’ya Okusha Zion Church of Swaziland and the Lesotho Evangelical Church. However, this letter will only give an update on my work with the UCCSA.

During the past two years, I have visited each Synod, or country, of the UCCSA where I ‘listened much’ and ‘learned more’. While I have witnessed great suffering in the midst of the AIDS pandemic that has hit Southern Africa the hardest, I have also seen great examples of progress and hope. Many days I am reminded of Paul’s words to the church of his day: “I planted, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase. “ The assurance that it is God who “makes it all happen” has provided me with renewed faith and strength when witnessing tremendous needs and dire circumstances. However, one of the ‘lessons learned’ from the people of the Southern Africa region is that “hope, even in the midst of this awful disease, still does spring eternal!”

A focus of the HIV/AIDS Desk between 2003 and 2006 has involved building relationships with the members of various congregations that are actively involved in implementing HIV/AIDS initiatives, or wish to become involved. A significant part of the work has kept me engaged in the ‘ministry of presence’ – walking and talking with clergy and church members who are doing amazing AIDS ministry on the ground. And often this is being done with very few human and financial resources. I am thankful for the ways that God has used me to provide spiritual nurture and technical assistance to UCCSA congregations, Synods and church organizations that are attempting to live out their motto of “showing their faith by what they do”.

Over the past two years, the UCCSA HIV/AIDS Desk has received invitations to make presentations at church meetings, workshops and conferences held in the 5 Synods. A lot of time has been devoted to assisting those on the frontlines to find resources for their projects, while challenging those on the sidelines to get involved in concrete ways. It has been my privilege to accept over 50 invitations to conduct educational workshops about HIV/AIDS, prevention, treatment, testing and care which deepen the knowledge base of AIDS and encourage church members to become more bold in their response to AIDS. Not to mention, many invitations to preach!

I have especially been blessed during these past three years by visitors from United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ/Christian Church congregations, seminaries, colleges, and national staffs. These visits have provided folks at home with first-hand insight into the ways that HIV/AIDS is impacting people on a day-to-day basis. Believe it or not, your visits and mission trips have provided ‘strength for the journey’ for those who are serving here on the ground. Your presence has encouraged people here, in the words of a Negro spiritual, to “go on and see what the end’s gonna be”. So to the many groups and individuals that have come to visit and to serve as short-term volunteers (more than 100 people, at last count), I want to say thank you. Or, better yet, “Siyabonga” ( in Zulu), and “Re Aleboha” (in Setswana)! Your visits also ‘made my day’ and offered support and encouragement at times that I needed it most.

Just so that you know, the primary aim of the UCCSA HIV/AIDS Desk has been to provide hands-on, technical support and advice to existing church-based (or supported) HIV initiatives. Or to individuals and/or church groups that have decided to launch a specific AIDS-related project. Many UCCSA Synods, Regions, congregations and church organizations are faithfully responding to HIV/AIDS in many different, yet important, ways.

Some of their faithful responses have included, but have not been limited to:

a rural medical clinic caring for people living with HIV/AIDS;
a hospice for those who are dying from an AIDS-related illness;
weekend camps addressing the needs of children affected by AIDS;
income-generating sewing and craft projects operated by unemployed, HIV-positive men and women;
orphan care projects that reach out to children who have lost both parents and guardians to the pandemic;
a hospital milk fund for babies that are HIV-positive;
a fund to pay for Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment for people living with full blown AIDS;
Synodical and Regional AIDS ministry teams that educate churches;
after-school abstinence programs targeting youth;
coffin making projects that provide caskets for the poor;
support groups and counseling for caregivers; as well as
the establishment of Regional HIV/AIDS desks;

When unmet needs are identified by the HIV/AIDS Desk, we try to respond as quickly as possible. One instance, which comes to mind, resulted from visits made to several AIDS projects during 2004. On these visits, the staff and volunteers would say that what they needed most in their AIDS project were food packets for HI- positive people and their families because most are unemployed and unable to buy food. This concern clearly demonstrates the link between poverty and HIV/AIDS. Even in countries where Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARVs) are available, a person cannot take these medications on an empty stomach. Hence, the initiation of the new Food Packet Project that local Disciples of Christ/Christian Church and United Church of Christ congregations in the U.S. have recently begun to support. Many thanks to you for supporting this new initiative of the Africa Office!

The “Good News” that we can all celebrate today is that the UCCSA is responding to HIV/AIDS! And much of that is because of the great support coming from African congregations themselves, not to mention congregations in the United States. Again, thanks for your prayers and continued interest.

What I have learned most in the past 3 years that I have been working on the AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa is that HIV is calling us to “do justice”! And not only against the disease of HIV infection and AIDS, but also against the diseases of poverty, disparities in wealth and income; hunger, gender disempowerment, and sexual violence against women and children. When we, as Christians, respond to AIDS, we are also responding to many of the underlying social justice issues of our contemporary times.

As you can tell from this letter, the Lord is truly blessing our Partner churches with many meaningful ministries that respond to what, I believe, is the greatest health, social, economic, gender, and justice issue of our time —- the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I feel fortunate to “journey with” Brothers and Sisters of the UCCSA as they seek ways to bring the Matthew 25:40 scripture to life: “…Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brother and sister, you have done it unto me”.Please keep us all in your prayers.

Sincerely,
Rev. Adora Iris Lee
Adora Iris Lee serves with the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa. She serves as an AIDS consultant for the Southern Africa Region, which includes Lesotho and Swaziland.