Empowering the local church

conference pictures 075Central to ACET's vision is the mobilisation of the local church. Most of our work  is carried out by church-based volunteers who provide care to the orphaned and housebound, education about sex, relationships and lifestyle choices in local schools and training to community and other leaders to overcome the stigma and ignorance that so often surround HIV and AIDS.

 

The church, rooted in the local community, is often the most effective agent of change in the fight against HIV and AIDS.


There is nothing like the local church when it’s working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed and offers belonging to the marginalised of this world. Whatever the capacity of human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness. Still to this day the potential of the church is almost more than I can grasp. No other organisation on earth is like the church. Nothing even comes close.

Bill Hybels in ‘Courageous Leadership’