In Zambia, BIC churches reach out to AIDS patients

November 30, 2004

Along the route from Zambia's capital Lusaka to the famed Victoria Falls and the Zimbabwean border, where prostitution and AIDS are common, a fledgling Brethren in Christ (BIC) congregation is living the Gospel edict to care for orphans and the dying.

Chisekesi BIC Church, which began in 1997 and is mainly comprised of older women and schoolchildren, now helps orphans with school needs, in part through an MCC grant. Pastor Mwiya Likukela offers a listening ear to a growing number of people who are affected by AIDS, and women from the church buy their own supplies to care for patients in the community.

Vital in helping the church live out its mission are MCC-supported BIC workshops to train pastors and church members in counseling patients and in home-based care techniques.

"Pastors rush to lead people to God without understanding their problems first. From the course I learned to let people talk," said Likukela, who attended the counseling training. As he counsels someone, he "may not even mention God, but people themselves turn and change their morals."

He said after the training he felt more comfortable with HIV-positive patients. Despite the prevalence of AIDS in Zambia, the disease still carries a stigma. "These people need to feel loved. If they feel they are somehow pushed aside then that pressure will harm them. People are scared to talk about being positive. They think others think they are already dead."

As Zambia, and indeed Africa, faces increasing deaths from the epidemic, the burden of caring for the sick and dying increasingly falls to family members, many of whom have few financial resources themselves. And the toll of caring for the dying is high.

Maureen Mundia, a member of Chisekesi BIC who visits patients in their homes, said she works to encourage families and to pick up some of the tasks that must be done.

She brings water that would be difficult for patients to haul for themselves. She is able to provide small amounts of food. She cooks and cleans.

The BIC training in home-based care that she attended "gave us new ideas to know how to care," she said.

She learned about the importance of nutritious food for patients and how using gloves can protect caregivers.

Mundia, like many other volunteers, is not paid for her work. She often uses her own money to buy food and soap for the patients she sees. Yet she enjoys reaching out so much she finds it hard to go three days without seeing patients. "We are visiting people in the community because we are sharing the love of God," she says.

Moving forward with tools from trainings, driven by Christian faith and overwhelming needs in the community, the small congregation continues to reach out — an instrument of God's grace beyond the confines of the church.

"We shouldn't have boundaries as Christians, we should go flat out and not limit ourselves — visiting everyone, BIC and non-BIC," Likukela said. "It would be wrong for any church to say BIC, not BIC. These denominations should not confine us in taking care of the sick."

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