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It was a privilege to be at the ONE Campaign luncheon on Monday, October 15, at Noah’s Ark restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa. The guest speaker from Kenya, Fidelis Gathoni Wainaina, is a remarkable woman of faith, courage, and hope. Her faith has led her into direct ministry in her homeland with mothers who are living with HIV/AIDS and their children. God has also given her the oppotunity to give voice to the voiceless with dignataries such as the General Secretary of the United Nations, and the Canadian Parliament.

I can’t imagine the slightest division for Fidelis between her inward faith in Jesus Christ and her ministry among people living in extreme poverty. They are not two parts of her faith. She knows only one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of us all.

In meeting Fidelis I was reminded for Christians there are not two Churches, or at least should not be — the church of the global north and the church of the global south. There is only one Body of Christ, of which we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. Fidelis’ witness is a call from God to greater compassion, greater prayer, greater faith, and greater action together until with God’s help we make poverty history and eliminate HIV/AIDS completely.

-Gary Nims, Pastor, Immauel United Methodist Church, Des Moines, Iowa