May 4, 2005
Dear Friends in Christ!
Our warmest greetings to all of you in this Eastern season of
Easter. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Our Russian brothers and sisters (both Baptist and Orthodox)
celebrated Easter this past Sunday. In some years, we celebrate
Easter on the same day, as we did last year, but in most years
we do not. We do not find it difficult at all to celebrate Easter
twice.
You have not heard from me this past month, because I (Ellen)
was on the road again. Some of you are aware that I was in the
United States for three weeks in April, followed by several days
in Italy with Al and the girls to renew our visas. It is good
to be home.
I began my visit to the United States with family in Philadelphia,
where one of my brothers lives. Our daughter Allison flew in from
Minnesota, taking leave of college for a few days. Another brother
came in from Massachusetts with one of my nieces, and my third
brother and his wife came in from Virginia. It was good to be
together.
My primary purpose in traveling to the United States was to attend
the Medical Benevolence Foundation’s conference at Valley
Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference was sponsored
by both MBF and the International Health Ministries Office of
our denomination. It was an opportunity for me to deepen my understanding
of the denomination’s response to the AIDS crisis in other
parts of the world and to talk with people in both organizations
(MBF and IHMO) about the crisis in Russia and Belarus. I felt
and feel that it was an important next step in our journey with
colleagues responding to the pandemic.
Just before the conference, we received the good news that a
new Extra Commitment Opportunity (ECO) had been approved for HIV/AIDS
projects in Russia and Belarus, ECO 053500. We now have a place
to direct funds for this work, and we hope the ECO will also help
raise awareness of the crisis these countries face. At present
our focus is on the three projects that we have lifted up to you
over the past year: (1) the rehabilitation center for drug addicts
in Svetlogorsk, Belarus, where 10 percent of the population is
registered as HIV positive; (2) the rehabilitation center in Kaliningrad
that I visited in March—a harbor city with high rates of
prostitution and despair; (3) a training seminar that would bring
together prima prevention teams from five or six regions in Russia—training
trainers with much-needed strategies for reaching young people
and preventing drug abuse and infection in the next generation.
The epidemic is more recent in Russia and Belarus and those responding
need good models. If you'd like to make a contribution online,
click the "give" button at the bottom of this page.
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