Story number 1 for 14 Jul 2000

We begin the newscast in South Africa where the thirteenth annual International AIDS conference wraps up today. Global health officials are saying that the virus that causes AIDS infects more than 10-million young people around the world, making it the largest crisis facing the world’s children today. Evangelical Baptist Mission’s Dr. Paul Jackson says it’s a problem they’re working to tackle. “We’ve targeted South Africa for a number of reasons, as a place where we would like to prototype a ministry that could begin to address these numbers of children. Our real desire is to see a Christian community, a village of homes established that would provide a place where children can be brought in. In fact, we’re in the process right now, of looking at some property that might meet that need.” Jackson says because of the epidemic, their vision has clarified and they want to: “…provide a place where children can be evangelized, can be brought to Christ, can be nurtured, can be cared for, can be trained. It’s going to involve some education and some job training as well.”