When This War is Over

When this war is over it will be a better day
When this war is over it will be a better day
But it won't bring back those poor boys in the grave

When this war is over, it will be a better day
When this war is over, it will be a better day
But it won't bring back those poor boys in the grave

Lyrics by J J Cale
from the CD entitled Escondido by JJ Cale and Eric Clapton

Latest numbers from Iraq:

• Iraqis killed 139,000+
• American soldiers injured and back in the USA 73,000+
• American soldiers killed 3,240+
  

When this war is over, it will be a better day
When this war is over, it will be a better day
But it won't bring back those poor men, women and children in the grave.

The AIDS Crises: What We Can Do -- Deborah Dortzbach and W. Meredith Long

This book is an excellent introduction to the AIDS pandemic. If you need AIDS 101 -- this is one of the books for you. If you already have basic knowledge the AIDS epidemic, this book is an excellent refresher.

The authors do a good job of talking about the broader issues related to HIV/AIDS, outlining the history of the AIDS pandemic and providing some basic statistics.

An old friend of mine (Winkie Pratney) once told me that a book was worth it if you came away with at least one good idea, concept, or new piece of information for every $1 you spend. That was a number of years ago, and with inflation, it is now probably one good idea for every $3 you spend.

Based on that, I would recommend this book for the following reasons:

1. The excellent retelling of Biblical stories that illustrated the response Christians and the Church should have towards AIDS. In particular I thought the retelling of Christ's encounter with the woman caught in adultery was very effective.

2. I thought Chapter 6 entitled Avoiding the Violence of AIDS was excellent -- perhaps worth the price of the book alone. The chapter starts out talking about David and Bathsheba and Amnon and Tamar and the long-term implications of bad choices. But the real focus of the chapter is the lack of rights that the majority of women have in the developing world. Women in most of the world have little choice in relation to marriage, sex, and almost everything else in everyday life. The way that Dortzbach and Long talk about this major issue related to the spread of HIV/AIDS is simply outstanding.

3. Chapter 9 on AIDS, Sex, Sin and Forgiveness. Simply an excellent discussion of the issues.

Bottom line -- if you want to get a good introduction to the AIDS Pandemic and how the Church should respond -- this is one of the books to get.

I'm Off to South Africa

Tomorrow morning bright and early, I head to the airport for a brief visit to South Africa. I, along with 2 colleagues will be joining others from Canada, the UK, Australia, and South Africa in the annual meeting of Hands@Work. Hands@Work is a South African NGO working with more than 10,000 orphans in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Congo and Nigeria.

We'll be spending our time meeting with African leaders of Hands@Work and with others, who like ourselves, are attempting to walk alongside African Christians and churches working in communities devastated by the AIDS pandemic.

In the next 3 years Hands@Work will be taking care of 100,000 orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa -- so there is a lot of work to do.

I'll be back in about a week - jet-lagged and tired, but hopefully feeling like our trip was significant and accomplished the purposes of God.

Pray for us as we go. I especially need prayer for my health, as I am battling a bad cold/flu like thing.