An open letter from the Rev. Dr. John Clarke to the First Congregational Church of Meriden

Mercy Touch - YOUR Orphanage...

I recently had the good fortune to talk with my colleague in ministry and founder of Mercy Touch, The Rev. Dr. Bernard Mukwavi. We were discussing where we had been in our short history and where we hoped to be in a few years. But, our entire discussion kept coming back to the fact that Zambia and surrounding countries in that part of the African continent are being decimated by the AIDS Pandemic.

In parts of Africa, the life expectancy has sunk from 65 to 37 years of age! Researchers predict that in some countries half the people under 15 will die within ten years. Bernard made the observation that a teacher walking into a freshman class of students knows that half will soon be dead! Bernard told me that the stigma of having this terrible decease is so great that when free medication was offered in Botswana, a country with the highest infection rate in all of Africa (38%!), only about 1% of those who needed the medication showed up. .

Why do I bring this up? I bring it up to once again point out the good work we are doing in terms of helping our orphanages to help some young people find life. I bring it up to communicate again that the AIDS crisis in Africa is a crisis of compassion that requires changed lives, not a bunch of new laws. Mercy Touch provides the love and nurture that young children need in order to discover there is a better way to live and a safer way to live.

We are able to feed both physically and spiritually. It is that combination that quite literally allows these children and those watching to see that life can be lived and lived fully when human life is valued.

As Philip Yancey says in a recent article in Christianity Today, "We can look at the children with stolen futures, at an entire continent whose future hangs in the balance, and ask questions of God. Or we can look at the same problems and realize these are God's questions to us. Who cares about AIDS in Africa? "

I am happy to say, the First Congregational Church of Meriden cares.

We will continue to have all church collections for our Mercy Touch Orphanage project. Be sure to prayerfully consider what you can give. Remember, I am Mercy Touch USA. Every dime of your money goes to the children, every penny! There is no overhead cost. NONE.

Yours His,
 
John Clarke
Pastor, First Congregational Church of Meriden, CT