What if We Don't??? It's easier not to.  Most don't even want to know about the problem. Bring up the subject in a group conversation and the reaction is predicatable:  it gets very quiet, some people slip away, someone will abruptly try to change the subject, yet sometimes a few will wipe away a tear and ask to know more. I'm talking about a Christian response to the exploding crisis of AIDS orphans in Africa. Grieving children are hopelessly dying without Jesus. If we believe that the first ones we should tell about Jesus are those closest to death, these 7.4 million children and youth could be called the church's most urgen mission. Official statistics tell us that there are 12,000,000 children in the world whose parents have died of AIDS - 10,000,000 are in Africa. Health officials estimate that in ten years there will be 42,000,000 children orphaned by AIDS. The Zimbabwe government states that in the Masvingo province alone there are 100,000 AIDS orphans.  They say that within ten years 45% of all Zimbabwean children will be orphaned by AIDS. Can you even let your mind hold that thought?  If you do, something inside you will never stop weeping. Up to half of these orphans are themselves HIV positive.  They will die.  The other half will get AIDS if Christians don't do something. How can any country that is already struggling to stay alive financially ever cope with this massive welfare problem? Caring African officials have weepingly told us, "All we can do is try to isolate them and hope the international community will help us feed them." Translate that to mean "death camps."  One of them is called Chambuta. One kind official said, "Food is not enough, they must be given spiritual help.  Their only hope is the Blessed Hope of Jesus." What if we don't?  The dollars we don't give to minister to them now will be taken from us later as taxes to pay for our anti-god government's international bail out of third world economies. What if we don't?  The sons and daughters we don't send as missionaries will be conscripted to go as soldiers to fight and kill as Gospel-haters recruit these youth for rebellion or Jihad. What if we don't?  We disobey Jesus' command in Mark 16:15, "Go everywhere and tell everybody." We Must! Because We Did...   Tongogara was a "death camp" for refugees from the war in Mozambique.  I worked with Zimbabwean David Van Rensburg to reach into the camp of 55,000 (and four others like it) with thousands of tons of food, medical care, vocational training, and most of all the Gospel. It worked! The first time I was in the camp they sent a government agent with me to be sure I didn't give anybody a Bible.  Now they have given us our choice of buildings for churches and pastors!  The church has grown so fast that they now have to use as the sanctuary the large former storehouse where we once unloaded hundreds of tons of food.  The word "storehouse" takes on a new meaning, doesn't it? Because we did, so many of the Mozambican refugees found Christ that when peace came they went back and started 16 new churches in their homeland. It worked! Now the infrastructure of the camp (including the maize grinder 'Cup installed) has made the former sink-hole for cash into a market center that is nearly self-sufficient in providing food and training for war orphans and Zimbabwe's own AIDS orphans. It is a success model referenced by international relief organizations. Because we did, the Zimbabwean official in charge of all the camps--has asked us to do it again in Chambuta and other camps.  The problem just keeps growing.