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Upper Room Ministries Offers Hope and Prayers in Multiple Languages; Targets Persons Suffering with Serious Diseases

Click on the black arrow icon to hear portions of the press conference at General Conference.

(FORT WORTH, Texas, April 28, 2008/GBOD) -- As delegates and visitors to the United Methodist General Conference arrived at the Fort Worth Convention Center on the first-ever World Malaria Day, April 25, volunteers passed out a small, but powerful book of prayers published by Upper Room Ministries, a ministry of the Board of Discipleship, and written by real people suffering with serious diseases.

Prayers for Encouragement: Hope for Persons Suffering with HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Serious Diseases is available in French, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Kiswahili, Xhosa and English.

According to the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive for the Board of Discipleship, "the motivation, compassion and perseverance to care for those infected and affected by serious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria must come from prayer as we look, ultimately, to God for a solution."

At an April 25 press conference announcing a $5 million grant from the United Nations Foundation with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bishop Thomas Bickerton, said that the grant funds would support a fundraising and educational campaign to help end deaths of children from malaria, with an ultimate goal of raising $100 million over the next several years for programs in Africa to fight malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and to support the Global Fund.

Responding to a question about the inclusion of faith and spiritual formation resources like Prayers for Encouragement in the upscaling of Nothing But Nets, Bickerton said "we ought to have a posture of expectation that really can result in something as simple as issuing a challenge to this General Conference and to the people of the United Methodist Church to get involved and find their expression in the midst of the global health campaign.

"Don't wait for someone to ask you to get involved and that may lead to spiritual formation resources -- books that are published from those who have the gifts of doing that," Bickerton said.

Don Messer, author of Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis and executive director of the Center for the Church and Global AIDS, believes that Prayers for Encouragement is an example of this "posture of expectation" and is helping to lead the way forward in this effort by this year adding Spanish and Korean to editions developed last year.

The Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive for United Methodist Communications, says that upscaled efforts with Nothing But Nets will include an integrated program in Côte d'Ivorie that involves faith and spiritual formation information being shared with coordination of bed nets distribution through United Methodist Clinics at health systems that are in place, and in coordination with the Board of Global Ministries' Health and Welfare Ministries staff.

"What we are hopeful of seeing is that we are so inclusive that those people who, for reasons of prejudice or lack of information, are excluded (particularly) because of the stigma of HIV/AIDS that the information that we provide is informing and changing attitudes to allow for the whole community to be served and to be included in the work of health and ministry in the church."

After discovering battered copies of the Upper Room Daily Devotional Guide in the waiting room of Maua Methodist Hospital in Kenya, Messer was led by God to contact Upper Room Ministries about publishing a special collection of prayers for persons suffering with HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

Realizing that people had repeatedly read the 10-year old devotional guides while seeking biblical counsel and strong spiritual advice inspired Messer to suggest to the Upper Room that a book like that would be helpful for all 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Rev. Stephen Bryant

"Where there is human suffering and crisis, Upper Room Ministries wants to provide openings to God's healing and reconciling grace. When Dr. Messer contacted us, we knew this was consistent with who God has called us to be."

"The HIV/AIDS pandemic is bigger than our human capacity. We must make the very best use of medical research, medicine, social work and education. They all play a part in solving the crisis," said the Rev. Stephen Bryant, world editor of The Upper Room.

Although many health and service organizations offer information and support regarding prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, resources from a Christian spirituality perspective are scarce.

"There are many different avenues of faith formation that will be a part of this program," said Hollon.

"And there are indigenous religions on site that when they hear who we represent, who we call Lord move in our direction and say, 'this is what we've been talking about all the time but we've been using a different name,'" said Bishop Felton May, interim top executive for the General Board of Global Ministries.

"I find that more often than not, we feel that we have to place in their hands exactly the way we do it rather than discovering what is there indigenously and taking advantage of that."

"I think you're going to see a lot of planned events and a structure that will evolve, but I would just also issue the challenge that one should feel it in your heart to help us develop the resources to meet the need," Bickerton said.

What is unique to Prayers for Encouragement is that a number of meditations are written by persons who are HIV+ -- persons seeking God's healing presence while living with stigma, discrimination, and rejection by family and friends.

Prayers for Encouragement editions in Japanese, Thai, Khmer, Setswana, Sotho, IsiZulu, and other languages are planned. The Spanish edition has been printed at several points in Latin America, while the Korean translation is printed in Singapore. African language editions have been printed in South Africa.

The United Methodist Global AIDS Fund has contributed over $30,000 to the total project and made possible all the funds to print Spanish and Korean language editions.

For more information, contact, Dale Rust Waymack, Upper Room Ministries' Africa region coordinator for the U.S. at 877-899-2780, ext. 7236 or dwaymack@gbod.org.

The General Board of Discipleship’s mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, The General Board of Discipleship is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at (877) 899-2780, ext. 7017.