Many people around the world are still experiencing the long-term impacts that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has had on different regions. Communities continue to experience ongoing issues such as addiction, trafficking, exploitation, trauma, poverty and displacement.

SIM’s Hope for Life (HFL) Projects continue to help bring prevention training and other initiatives to help vulnerable people most at risk of HIV and the communities they are connected with. Jacqui, SIM’s global lead for Hope for Life partners with the local church to provide holistic care for these least reached communities all around the world.

Equipping Holistically in Our Changing Times

Jacqui shared, “Our team has been looking at different factors underlying HIV that we are aiming to combat and address. This includes brokenness in families such as separation, divorce, relational brokenness, the question of identity, teenage pregnancies, exploitation, sexuality and dissatisfaction in life.”

Hope for Life works to bring hope in the brokenness. These underlying issues that come to the surface are a testament to the evolution of HIV ministry in our changing times. The teams aim to bring discipleship and hope & resilience amongst people in these places.

Society is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. Having a diagnosis of HIV is still very disappointing even today. Regardless of our changing world, the real hope of Christ is what people need time and time again.

Equipping The Church to Serve the Vulnerable

Part of Hope for Life’s purpose is to equip local churches to be partners in their work to vulnerable communities. “We are coming alongside churches and local pastors where they can bridge natural connections to hear about Jesus and experience His compassion through our work. We then provide training to church pastors in educating them to bring Jesus’ love and hope into people’s lives in practical ways,” Jacqui said.

Hope for Life looks for ways to equip and train the local church to be outward and missional focused to reach the vulnerable.

One of the ways that a Hope for Life Team in Southeast Asia has been working with the church has been through English teaching at the local school. The pastors of the local churches would then join the classes with a desire to make themselves available to share Jesus with the students.

A Hope for Life Team has also recently started a badminton sports ministry where young people can come to this community space with others in the church. The church opened up their grounds after service on a Sunday afternoon so that the youth could play badminton on-site. This has been especially encouraging as the church grounds have become an open door for families to have a community space that can feel more like home for them.

“We have been working with the church to create spaces that help them become more of a focal point for families and young people in the local community. It is a chance for young people to hear about Jesus and be invited to church. My hope in equipping the local church in doing mission is not that our Hope for Life Team would run and facilitate things, but rather a person from the local church would have ownership in their community,” Jacqui said.

The plan for Jacqui and her team is to duplicate this strategy in other locations around Asia.

Chai’s Story

Jacqui recently shared how her team is praising God for one young student in their English class who has accepted Jesus and has continued to be a regular attender of the team’s partner churches. Jacqui spoke of a young boy named Chai* who started coming along to these weekly English classes. Chai was recruited as a young child to the military in a difficult context in South Asia. His vulnerable state meant he had a childhood of hardships.

“Having connected with Chai through our school’s ministry, we invited him along to our Christmas outreach event last year. Chai even volunteered to help us with setup for the event. Our Hope for Life Team invited Chai and a few others to attend church the following day, It was there that Chai heard the Gospel and accepted Jesus in his life,” Jacqui said.

Chai has since been regularly attending this same local church, where the members have continued to welcome him in. The Hope for Life team is supporting Chai with a heart to see him be discipled well. He is now being mentored and discipled by an older worker and the team are looking at ways to support his family and share Jesus with them too.

“God enabled this to happen through our team by equipping the local church to be on mission for Him. As a team, we helped equip local churches so that they would be ready to welcome those outside into God’s family and community. We are so thankful that Chai gave his life to Jesus at Christmas time,” Jacqui said.

As SIM continues to serve the most vulnerable in our changing world today, Hope for Life continues to equip more local churches for mission in least reached communities. By engaging people with Jesus’ love and compassion, more doors will open and enable the church to share the Gospel all around the world.

“We are there to equip the church. Equipping the church for mission in a changing world is important so that we can stay relevant to the changing times,” Jacqui said.

PRAY

Pray for SIM Hope for Life equipping churches globally to serve in vulnerable communities. Find out more at sim.org.au/hopeforlife

GIVE

You can support Jacqui’s Hope for Life work in Thailand. Visit sim.org.au/hopeforlifethailand

GO

Do you want to be involved in sharing the hope of Jesus with those most vulnerable? Talk with a mobiliser today by visiting sim.org.au/talktous