Story number 2 for 19 Jan 2001

(South Africa) — Meanwhile, AIDS groups forecast that up to seven million South Africans could be living with HIV within 10 years, making the disease the biggest economic threat to the country. Pat Luffman works as a missionary to South Africa. He explains the concern. “The majority of those people who probably will die within about 10 to 12 years are the productive people, which means that they’re going to leave more and more children as orphans, and more and more older people who are no longer able to work that productively, but who are still going to have needs.” Luffman says they’re looking forward to sharing the love of Christ in a new ministry. “The Lord, in an unexpected way, opened the door for us to become involved in children’s work. We want to launch training programs around Southern Africa, hopefully, bring in some visitors from the States, as people are able to come and help us, and train as many people involved in children’s work as we can.” Luffman and his family are staying at D Missionary Homes in Florida while in the United States.