HOW HIV/ AIDS AFFECTS NAMIBIA AND NETS
(NAMIBIA EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY)
for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, by the Revd Hugh Prentice
NETS \ NetACT \ HP’s Address on NETS for NetACT Conf 070803.doc
“THE EFFECTS OF THE AIDS PANDEMIC AND POVERTY ON CHURCH LIFE IN
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: STEWARDSHIP IMPLICATIONS”
INTRODUCTION
I greet you all in the glorious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both your Lord and mine. I pray that you
and I may be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith, as Paul wrote to the Roman Christians.
My main occupation for which I have a Namibian Work Permit is to teach students in the Namibia
Evangelical Theological Seminary in the capital, Windhoek. These students have a calling to serve the
Lord as Christian leaders such as pastors, ministers, priests, Bible teachers, chaplains and youth leaders.
My wife, Dorothy, works in NETS with me as the Administrator and Treasurer. We are Australians, and
all our children, in-laws and grandchildren are in Melbourne, Australia.
MY TESTIMONY
I preface my talk with my testimony about my Christian faith. Dorothy and I served in a theological
college in Kongwa, Tanzania, for 20 years before we came to Namibia. The Tanzanian church has a
custom regarding a speaker who is addressing Christians for the first time, such as I am doing now.
Before the speaker gives his address, he must tell his listeners his testimony about his Christian faith. The
reason behind that custom is this: the congregation needs to know whether this speaker is a friend and
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. If so, good – the message is coming from a spiritual brother or sister. If
not - then of course the Word of God will still have its power, but other parts of the address may lack the
spiritual wisdom that God gives to those who have His Holy Spirit.
So let me say clearly I am definitely a friend and servant and disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus is my Saviour, He has redeemed me from the hell that I deserve because of my sins, and He has
brought me into His Holy Church and given me His Holy Spirit.
For me, to live is Christ. It is Christ who lives in me, and the life I live now here on earth, I live by faith
in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Every day Dorothy and I thank God for choosing us in Christ, for calling us by His grace to repent of our
sins, to receive and trust in Jesus, to be born again of His Holy Spirit and to know and love Him. We
thank Him for redeeming us through Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, for justifying us by His grace, for
His Holy Spirit in us, His Holy Bible we read, His Holy Church we belong to, and our Hope of Glory.
I am grateful for many people who taught me to know and love the Lord in my childhood and my youth,
including my own parents and leaders of the youth groups at my school and in Melbourne. I cannot
remember a time when I did not know and love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I count many times when God has touched my life and inspired me and guided and called me in His
service. I particularly treasure His call to me 46 years ago to be an ordained minister of the gospel, and to
be a missionary teacher of His word to theological students. That has been my life’s calling from God,
and the task that the Lord Jesus gave me. Now as I retire from it, I look back, as Paul did, with thanks to
God for His grace at work in me to fulfil this calling and ministry.
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 2
MY THANKS
1. My thanks to God for the privilege of being a theological teacher in Africa since 1974, except for 7
years in the 1990s in Melbourne to bring our three children to independence;
2. My thanks to God for the prospect this month of our returning to Australia for our Final Home
Assignment with CMS Australia before retirement;
3. My thanks to God for NETS, the staff, students and employees, who send their greetings to you, their
Christian brothers and sisters;
4. My thanks to you, Prof Jurgens Hendriks, for your role in organising this Conference;
5. My thanks to you, our hosts at Justo Mwale Theological College, for your hospitality;
6. My thanks to you all who have left homes and families and pressing duties to come to Lusaka and
make t his conference a success because, without delegates like us, this conference could not happen;
7. My thanks to all who have provided the funds to enable me to attend this conference as a
representative of NETS – that is, the Dutch Reformed Church of Windhoek East;
8. My thanks to the Revd Prof Buz Myers for his visit to NETS as part of the NetACT programme of
cooperation between seminaries in Africa and the USA, and for the fellowship in Christ that we have
enjoyed over his week as our guest in NETS.
The first part of my address is about the institution at which I serve, that is, NETS, the Namibia
Evangelical Theological Seminary.
1. THE BACKGROUND TO NETS
The founding of NETS in 1991 out of a merger of
(a) a Dutch Reformed Church seminary and
(b) an African Evangelical Fellowship (predominantly Baptist) college.
The Dutch Reformed Church built the buildings that we use in the 1980s, and offered theological courses
there in Afrikaans. It was a good, evangelical seminary, with not many students. The staff knew of
another institution, called WEBCOL, and these letters are an abbreviation for the Windhoek Evangelical
Bible College. It was also clearly evangelical, run by the African Evangelical Fellowship, which has
Baptist foundations. The medium of instruction there was English; they had several students but cramped
accommodation in the Evangelical Bible Church in Katutura. So discussions between these two
institutions led to the merger in August 1991, and the first classes began in January 1992.
2. THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION AND SPIRITUALITY OF NETS
Let me explain the essence of NETS’ evangelical foundation, and the main features of the evangelical
spirituality that we seek to live by and nurture. I quote from David Bebbington’s book on Evangelicalism
in which he notes the four emphases which characterize it. He writes that evangelicals emphasize:
"(a) the need for individual conversion to Christ;
(b) activism, seen in the evangelical preoccupation with evangelism and missions;
(c) the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible;
(d) the centrality of the Cross of Christ to Christian life and thought."1
Now this definition does not mention the Holy Spirit. Many of our students and one of our lecturers
belong to the Pentecostal tradition. They give more attention to the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit
than we traditional evangelicals do, and they are a vital part of the Seminary’s life. In our community life
we seek to honour Christians of all traditions, to see Christ in each person, to assist each person to grow
in personal devotion to Christ as well as in knowledge. This leads me to share with you the vision we
have of the kind of Christian leader that we desire to produce through our programmes -
1 D Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London: Unwin Hayman, 1989), 2-17,
quoted in D Paproth, Failure is Not Final: A Life of C.H. Nash (Sydney: CSAC, 1997).
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 3
3. THE THREE MAJOR GOALS OF THE MINISTRY OF NETS
(a) Sound and accurate theological knowledge
(b) Deep devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, and growth in love, obedience and holiness
(c) Good ministry skills, including preaching, teaching, counselling and leadership
I think that you may be familiar with the dictum that our Christian lives should be effective in the
three areas of the head, the heart and the hand. The head stands for our first goal, academic study and
knowledge, loving the Lord with our minds. The heart stands for the second goal, spiritual devotion
and piety, the sanctification of the character, which is loving the Lord with our soul. The hand stands
for service and ministry, loving the Lord with our strength, which is the development of ministry
skills.
(a) The first goal of NETS is academic, building our students’ knowledge. We believe that it is the
duty of all Christians to love the Lord their God with all their mind. What a blessing it is to have the
ability to understand God’s great revelation to us in Scripture and the theology, history and other aspects
of Christian knowledge! We thank God for the education that our students have received in their schools
and other places, so that they can read and write, study and comprehend, argue and express propositions
and evidence. We regret that none of them speaks English as their first language, and so we always have
that difficulty to overcome. Our first aim is to impart good, godly, spiritual wisdom to our students,
because they also have the Holy Spirit. We want them to have assurance of salvation through Christ,
to be able to discern truth from falsehood, to know their Bibles really well and be able to expound the
message accurately.
Paul writes in Col 1:28 that his great aim was to proclaim Christ, “admonishing and teaching everyone
with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” When he said this, part of his aim
was to edify them to maturity in knowledge, using the gifts that the Holy Spirit had given to the Church.
(b) The second goal of NETS programmes is in Christian character, the development of each student’s
devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, to love Jesus with all our hearts. It is the spiritual side of life,
learning to love others, to show the fruit of the Holy Spirit in all our relationships, learning to pray with
faith and discipline and persistence. Here we are talking about development of each student’s character to
be conformed to the likeness of Jesus, the Son of God, so that He may be the firstborn among many
brothers and sisters. The process of sanctification is different from that of salvation, for in sanctification
the hard work and self-control of the Christian is just as essential to growth in holiness as the anointing
grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that we should not call Him “Lord, Lord”, if we do not
obey Him. So, this goal includes an emphasis on obedience to Jesus as Lord.
(c) The third goal is ministry, loving the Lord with all our strength. We will explore in greater depth the
way that this is implemented regarding the HIV/ AIDS pandemic in Namibia. Just as the servants
were entrusted with talents or minas in Jesus’ parables, so the obligation for each Christian is to discover
and use the gifts that the Risen Lord Jesus has entrusted to us for the common good. Christ wants these
gifts to be used to prepare God’s people for works of service and to build up His body, the Church. His
aim is that we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So we train our students to preach, to teach, to
evangelize, to explain Christian truth apologetically, to counsel, to organise and administer their churches
and to reach out compassionately to those who are suffering, especially PLWHA. We urge them to help
the members of their congregations to discern their own spiritual gifts and to offer to use them in the
fellowship of the Church firstly, and also in the wider community. “Therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all men, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal 6:10)
We teach our students to avoid the two wrong attitudes in Paul’s metaphor of the church as the Body of
Christ in 1 Cor 12. The first wrong attitude is excessive humility that despises the spiritual gift one has
received from the Lord because it is not the same as what another Christian has. The second wrong
attitude is arrogant pride, that is, to despise the spiritual gifts that others have received because they are
not the same as one’s own.
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 4
4. THE NETS STAFF
As at 1 September 2007, NETS expects to have
(a) 7 full-time lecturers in the Residential Programmes
We are a United Nations and World Council of Churches at NETS, both in the staff team and in the
student body. Most of us are ordained ministers in our denominations. In deference to the sensitivities
some of you may have, I will omit each one’s ethnic origin, only mentioning our nationality and our
Christian denomination. Our Principal is a Namibian Pentecostal (MK). Another (GO) is a Namibian in
the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The founding Principal (GB), soon to be Acting Principal while the
Principal is on study leave, is a Namibian in the Dutch Reformed Church. So there are three Namibians
among the 7 full-time lecturers. One is an Australian Anglican (PR). Three are Baptists, one American
(VK) and two British (PG and JH). This list excludes me, as I will have left by September.
We are also blessed with 7 part-time lecturers, and an American Baptist who is the full-time director of
the NETS Department of Youth and Community Development. He initiated the seminar with the
Salvation Army that I will explain later..
(b) 3 full-time teaching staff in the Distance Education programmes and 1 secretary
The Director of the Department of Distance Education is a Dutch man, his assistant is a Namibian, and
the coordinator for the North of Namibia is Australian. The secretary is Namibian.
(c) There are 3 other full-time and 2 part-time staff, who handle the seminary’s Administration and
Finances, care for the Campus, and work in the office. All are Namibians except for an
Australian.
5. THE STUDENTS OF NETS
In First Semester 2007, there were
(a) 27 full-time students in the Residential Programmes
NETS is a relatively small seminary, from a global perspective, with only 27 students last semester. But
let us put those 27 into proportion. Namibia is a country of about 2 million people. So, if you could
translate those 27 into the population of a country like South Africa with 45 million, NETS might expect
a student enrolment of over 600.
18 of our students are Namibians, and the others are from Burundi, the DR Congo, Angola,
Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
(b) about 450 students in the Distance Education Programmes. We have several groups of prisoners
serving sentences in their jails, and keen to study the Christian faith. This does not reduce their
sentence for their crimes, but we hear great testimonies of men and women whose lives have been
transformed by Christ, and who are actively studying and serving the Lord in their prisons.
6. THE STUDY PROGRAMMES OF NETS
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
The Bachelor of Theology degree programme
The Diploma in Theology programme
The Certificate in Theology programme
The Children’s and Youth Ministry Certificate Programme
The Bridging Course (by Distance Ed) for entry to Diploma and Degree Programmes
The Other Distance courses in English, Afrikaans, Herero (“Otjiherero”) and Ndonga
(“Oshindonga”) and Kwanyama (“Oshikwanyama”) in the Oshiwambo language group
7. NETS’ ACCREDITATION SITUATION
(a) When NETS was formed, the Government of Namibia granted NETS a charter to offer
theological training towards a certificate, a diploma and a first degree. The Original Agreement
with the Namibian Government was expanded to include Potchefstroom University in South
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 5
Africa (which is now part of the University of the North West). Currently our main affiliation is
with the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.
(b) After about 12 years of independence, the government of Namibia formed the NQA. This
authority then required NETS to make an application for accreditation. So in 2003 and 2004 we
worked hard to produce all the documents necessary for this.
(c) In 2004, NETS submitted its application to the NQA for accreditation. But this course of action
was not successful as the NQA said that it did not have the expertise to assess whether a
theological institution met the criteria for accreditation.
(d) So, in 2006 NETS set up NATREP to meet the need for body that could assess institutions for
accreditation with the NQA. This is the “Namibian Association of Theological and Religious
Education Providers”. We hope that NATREP’s work will result in NQA accreditation.
8. THE PRESENT AND PROPOSED SPACE FOR TEACHING AND STUDY IN NETS
A new Library and Computer Centre is expected to be built by November 2007.
9. THE DENOMINATIONS INVOLVED IN NETS
(a) The mainline churches – the Dutch Reformed, Rhenish, Anglicans, Pentecostals, United Reformed
Church and Baptists (our students from the Lutheran or Roman Catholic churches are not recognised
by their denominations as being validly trained – they have to study in their denominational
seminaries to be accepted in their churches)
(b) The African Independent Churches, including Evangelical Baptist Church, Apostolic Faith Mission,
Christ’s Love Ministries, Gospel Mission Church;
(c) The “Distinctives Courses” to equip NETS students with skills and knowledge specific to their future
ministries in a specific denomination
10. THE OUTREACH PROGRAMMES OF NETS
(a) Regular Practical Ministry
Every student is required to fulfil a range of different ministries in his or her church, or in another one if
that is a better arrangement. These include youth and children’s work, adult worship services, holiday
activities and teaching in a Sunday School.
(b) Ministry Trips and Outreach
Every year the students and a staff member go on one or two Ministry Trips. We plan the activities with
host churches and work with their leaders. When we went to Cape Town, for example, we took part in
many activities, such as hospital visiting, ministry in an old age home, children’s and youth programmes,
ordinary church services and visiting in people’s homes. We learned a lot from the pastors and leaders of
the Calvyn Protestant Church there.
(c) Reflection on these activities with a view to enhancing ministry skills
We encourage students to write a report on their ministry experiences, to evaluate them and seek to learn
from them. A certain number of reports is mandatory for graduation.
11. STEWARDSHIP OF NETS FUNDS
Sources of Income:
(i)
Students’ Fees – Residential: Tuition about US$1,900 per year, depending on the programme;
Distance programmes cost about 10% less. Accommodation in the Students’ Hostels: US$
1,000 per year – all students cater for themselves. Fees are largely subsidized from within
Namibia and international donors;
(ii)
Donations to the General Budget, most of which come from the USA;
(iii)
Hire of our facilities, such as the Devotions Hall, Classrooms and Hostel rooms (if any are
not needed by students)
Main expenses:
Staff salaries and municipal charges (water, electricity, etc)
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 6
12. THE SITUATION REGARDING HIV AND AIDS IN NAMIBIA
We now turn our attention to the second part of the presentation. This section concerns the plight of
the nation of Namibia in the face of the terrible disease, which is caused by the Human ImmunoDeficiency Virus known as HIV, and which leads to the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome,
known as AIDS.
(a) Current statistics and projections regarding the prevalence of this disease
The most recent information I have found of the percentage of Namibians who are HIV + is from
May this year, which gave the figure as 19.9%. This is based on the government data from pregnant
women coming for ante-natal checks at government clinics. The nation has not yet been able to
reduce the spread of the infection through any of its programmes. The example of Uganda is not
being followed yet in Namibia.
(b) Government and Parastatal Initiatives to combat the spread of the disease
The Namibian Government urges safe sex and provides free condoms at its hospitals and other outlets.
The idea of abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage has not really been believed or promoted
by government agencies, according to their advertising campaigns. The current promotion is on
cooperation between couple in love and consideration as a means of helping cope with the associated
illnesses and weaknesses of PLWHA.
However, President Pohamba has made a call to parents and community leaders in a speech at the launch
of the National Policy on HIV/ AIDS. Let me quote from the report in the Namibian Economist for 27th
July, page 29. “Pohamba called for the engagement of parents [and] community leaders to encourage
youths to refrain from pre-marital and promiscuous sexual activities. The President believes that through
appropriate behaviour change, Namibia can reverse the spread of this epidemic. He added that Namibia
can learn from other countries [presumably referring to Uganda] and adopt the best practices from those
who have succeeded in reducing infection rates substantially.” [We can see the Powerpoint slide show if
time permits.] The President also referred to the success of other countries in “eliminat[ing] the stigma of
AIDS and strengthen[ing] knowledge about the need for self protection and protecting others.”
(c) Social customs and situations that frustrate attempts to limit the spread of the disease
The most serious social custom in Namibia that frustrates attempts to limit the spread of this virus is SIN.
Virtually all Namibians know that sex outside of marriage is sinful from God’s revelation in the Bible,
but most of them apparently do not honour God sufficiently to obey Him. Some Namibians’ tribal
cultural heritage disapproves of pre-marital and extra-marital sex. However, other groups reckon that a
man has a right to sex with women and girls in his extended family, and the females are not expected to
object. This is why the government and other bodies are keen to promote gender equality, to give women
and girls the power to refuse unwanted sex.
A certain nonchalance and fatalism also prevent adults from taking a responsible attitude to sexual
activity outside marriage. The Swahili saying, “Acha inipate, madogodogo siachi” applies to Namibian
attitudes also. The saying means, “Let it get me, I’m not giving up my little sins.” Even though
information on the way by which HIV is transmitted is widespread, there is little obvious change in
behaviour.
(d) HIV and AIDS is not yet a notifiable disease in Namibia
In most countries of the world, a disease such as tuberculosis or syphilis is a notifiable disease, because
they are spread through contact between people. The idea is that the government wishes to limit the
spread of these diseases, so it makes it a legal obligation for any doctor who finds that a patient has such a
disease to notify the government. They government officers investigate who the patient has had close
contact with and test those people and treat them if necessary. The officers give instructions to the patient
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 7
and all the contacts about ways to stop the disease spreading. It is not of course a guarantee that the
patient and the contacts will cooperate, but it is a sensible initiative to seek to limit further infection.
So far, Namibia has not made HIV and AIDS a notifiable disease, so this particular means of restraining
the spread is not used. We have Voluntary Testing and Counselling Centres across the country, but even
if the staff at a centre know that a person is infected and therefore infectious, they must keep that a secret
from all but the patient. Part of the reasoning is to avoid the stigma that is widely attached to this illness.
Each government needs to balance the social responsibility to preserve a patient’s dignity with its
responsibility to the community to use the normal method of combating the spread of a dangerously
infectious disease by making this illness notifiable. But if Namibia does make it notifiable, it will be the
first country on earth to do so.
13. SPECIFIC TRAINING FOR NETS STUDENTS FOR THIS CHALLENGE
(a) THE SALVATION ARMY SEMINAR ON CONNECTING CHURCH AND COMMUNITY
In June this year, we at NETS facilitated a Salvation Army Seminar on “Connecting Church and
Community for Transformation.” The NETS Director of Youth and Community Development orgainsed
this seminar, which involved all NETS students and several Christian leaders from in and around
Windhoek. The concept was “to analyse belief and behaviour for Integrated Mission through Human
Capacity Development as a faith response to HIV/ AIDS”. Integrated Mission has its foundation in the
ministry of health, healing and wholeness, and in many parts of the world health-related community
development has presented an ideal entry-point. The Church can see more profoundly how healing and
wholeness extends beyond a ministry of mercy and compassion into the fullness of the gospel. The aim is
the transformation of individual lives, of families and of neighbourhoods.
If we as the church focus on needs and deficiencies, this can debilitate and depress people. If we focus on
concern and vision, we motivate people to sustained action. Relationship is the key to neighbourhood
transformation. So the Salvation Army staff came and taught us about care, change, hope, community,
kingdom, redemption and grace as the foundations for our practical outreach. We learned how to
stimulate a community response to HIV/ AIDS, and then in the following week all the students went out
in three teams to put into practice what they had learned.
(b) THE NETS COURSE ON CARE AND COUNSELLING, PLUS THE PHILIPPI TRUST COURSE
The NETS curriculum includes the course, “Care and Counselling” (P1103). Subsections of this course
are, “Counselling of HIV/ AIDS patients” and “The Christian Response to the HIV/ AIDS Pandemic”.
The 4th Year students also do an intensive study course on counselling with the Philippi Trust, a group of
professional trainers of counsellors in Namibia. Let me leave aside that course, and study our NETS one:
In the study of “The Christian Response to the HIV/ AIDS Pandemic”, the course follows teaching
prepared by MAP International in Nairobi, Kenya, called “CHOOSING HOPE”.
The modules of the course are
(a) Understanding Hope through Knowing Facts about HIV/ AIDS: This module deals with the
medical facts about the disease and its normal course through to death; the ways in which people get
infected with the virus, and the meaning and appropriateness of testing for the HIV virus.
(b) Discovering Hope in the HIV/ AIDS Epidemic through our Biblical Foundation: This module
explores the African holistic view of health and wholeness, then proceeds to the biblical instructions
for God’s servants to show compassion to all sufferers. It also has a study of different types of
judgement in the Bible, and the relationship between violating God’s law and the consequences of
doing so. The concluding section of this module is a clear statement of God’s moral law about sexual
purity, expounding 1 Cor 6 and 7.
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 8
(c) Spreading Hope through Mobilizing the Church to undertake HIV/ AIDS Ministries: Here the
students learn about the biblical commands to be active in bringing people to be reconciled to God.
They learn the 3 relevant P’s – for the church to be Pastor, Priest and Prophet. This means to get
involved sacrificially in caring pastorally for people in need, to intercede as ‘priests’ for sufferers, and
to serve as ‘prophets’ in the community to warn people of dangers as well as of salvation through
Christ. In this module is sound teaching on human sexuality and how to guide young people towards
fulfilment and faithfulness in marriage, and to build strong caring families.
(d) Developing Hope through Changing Feelings and Attitudes about HIV/ AIDS: This module
studies the common feelings that HIV positive people have, such as denial, shock, anger, fear,
bargaining, guilt and depression. Similarly, students look at how the family of an infected person
would feel, with discussion on how some identify this infection as a sign of evil, feel shame, deny the
infection and fear of getting infected. This last feeling of fear is particularly applicable to an HIVnegative spouse who fears catching the virus through intercourse with his or her HIV-positive spouse.
(e) Sharing Hope through Pastoral Care to Families and Communities affected by HIV/ AIDS: At
this stage in the course, students define what pastoral care is and learn to describe the ways in which
this kind of care can be given in the context of HIV/ AIDS. Some of these aspects are visiting a
sufferer, praying with this person and their family, offering spiritual encouragement and counselling
(see Module (f)), and, when the situation seems right, to seek to bring these people to God through
Christ. This module goes on to discuss support through Home-Based Care, which is further
developed in Module (h).
(f) Offering Hope through HIV/ AIDS Pastoral Counselling: This module introduces the role of
biblical counselling as it relates to both preventing the virus from spreading, and also helping families
that are already affected by the virus. It deals with the cultural context and goals of counselling, as
well as the particular issues in HIV/ AIDS counselling such as loss, grief, alienation, and protecting a
spouse and changing behaviour. This module includes pre-marital and marriage counselling.
(g) Giving Hope to Parents and Youth for AIDS-free Living: This module holds out hope for guiding
and supporting young people to be sexually pure and free from HIV. It recognizes the cultural
traditions that can encourage sexual immorality, and sets out some guidelines for parents and other
influential people to teach young people good attitudes towards sex, and godly, pure behaviour in
relating to others. It includes a discussion of local initiation rituals and tribal instruction on sex.
(h) Ministering Hope through Home-Based Care (HBC) to People with AIDS: The final module
focuses on the biblical mandate to care for the sick and their families. It covers the importance of
Christians assisting in the safe care of people living with AIDS (PLWA) in their homes, to comfort
them and to prolong their lives as much as possible. Each HBC team aims to provide palliative care
for sufferers as they draw nearer to death. This module raises the crucial issue of opportunistic
infections, especially tuberculosis, and the serious implications of discontinuing treatment because of
cost or because the patient is feeling better.
14. ATTITUDES REGARDING SEXUAL ACTIVITY
(a) The “Choose to Wait” programmes for Pre-Marital Abstinence
In NETS and the Namibian Christian community generally, there is strong encouragement for the
Scripture Union campaign called, “Choose to Wait”, that is, wait until marriage before beginning sexual
intimacy and intercourse. This is based on obedience to the biblical teaching that sexual activity belongs
only in the marriage bond.
The primary aim of the campaign is to please God by holy living, and a secondary aim is to keep all
unmarried Christians free from the virus so that they can go into their marriage uninfected, and, through
faithfulness in married sex, remain free from the virus all their lives.
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 9
(b) Clear teaching on Sexual Faithfulness in Marriage
In NETS we teach that God ordained sexual activity in marriage to be a great joy and blessing to the
husband and the wife. Time and again the Bible stresses that God’s will for married couples is complete
faithfulness to each other. “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God
will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Heb 13:4). We require that all students and staff
adhere to Christian moral standards in sexual relationships as a condition of remaining in the seminary.
(c) The value of condoms where Christian sexual morality is ignored or flouted
In the debate about the value of condoms in preventing infection with the HIV, we recognize that the
community includes many people who do not agree with Christian moral principles. Even some church
members can have a flexible approach to sexual abstinence and faithfulness. We acknowledge that
condoms may prevent some infections, whether in married sex or in immoral sex, but we note from the
statistics that the more condoms are distributed, either freely or by purchase, the greater the HIV infection
rate. Condoms seem to promote immoral sex and not reduce infections at all.
In a study in South Africa, a group of about 40 married couples agreed to take part in an experiment
regarding condoms. All these couples knew that one spouse was HIV + and the other was HIV negative.
They agreed to be fully faithful to the marriage bed, and always us a condom whenever they had sexual
intercourse. They were warned that there was a risk involved for the HIV negative spouse. After an
agreed time of about a year, these couples were tested, and as I recall, 80% of the HIV negative spouses
had become infected. Whatever the exact figure, and also noting that there were less than 100 people
involved, the message was that condoms do not give effective protection from the virus.
(d) Assessing homosexual orientation and sexual activity
In Namibia, homosexual activity is generally regarded as inappropriate, as far as I have been able to
gather. It is certainly true in the Anglican Church in Namibia. The issue of homosexual orientation has
been discussed in our seminary, with the same standard of holiness applied to those who feel homosexual
attraction as to those who feel heterosexual attraction. The guideline for both is that God declares that all
sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage is sinful, so the unmarried need to exercise the same selfcontrol and obedient control over their bodies by sexual abstinence, whatever their orientation. We do
not regard a committed sexual union between two men or two women as a “marriage” any more than we
reckon that cohabiting is marriage in God’s sight.
(e) The national disgrace of rape in Namibia
The nation of Namibia suffers from a high prevalence of rape. It is a disgrace and brings terrible
suffering, especially when men rape little girls. It is another way in which the virus is transmitted. Men
have this folklore fantasy that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, and this falsehood adds another incentive
to a man who does not control his sexual lust.
15. ATTITUDES TOWARDS THOSE SUFFERING FROM AIDS OR AFFECTED BY IT
(a) Christian Compassion and Assistance, such as Home-Based Care
The Anglican Church is a member of NANASO, the Namibia Network of AIDS Service Organisations.
This umbrella organisation coordinates the efforts and research of 124 NGOs, 88 community-based
organisations and 26 Faith-Based Organisations.
(b) Counsel regarding care and risks in assisting HIV positive people
Within the counselling courses, students receive excellent guidance about how to assist HIV positive
people without contracting the disease themselves. There are risks in serving PLWHA, but normal care
for a patient can be done without infection. We teach about using surgical gloves when handling blood
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 10
and wounds, etc, and how to be careful not to give oneself a needle-stick injury after injecting a positive
patient.
(c) Counsel about future sexual activity for HIV positive people
It is clear that a person who is HIV+ presents a definite risk of transmission of the infection through
sexual intercourse. What can a married Christian do in this circumstance, if the spouse is HIV negative?
The kindest thing is to refrain from any sex, with or without a condom. However, a condom provides
some protection, especially if used also with the Femidom female condom, so the HIV negative spouse
may agree to continue with married sex on this condition – “If it’s not on, it’s not on.” There is no reason
for a married couple who are both HIV positive to refrain from sex, except that they may wish to practise
contraception because any baby born to them would have to be brought up by others in view of their short
life expectancy.
(d) Accessing ARV drugs and motivation for consistency in using them
ARV drugs are reasonably widely available in the main towns of Namibia. The challenge to get patients
to use them is very difficult. There is a cost involved. They make the patient feel ill for a time. Later,
when the patients feel better, they sometimes discontinue taking the drugs and then the virus comes to
adapt to a more virulent form. Non-compliance is a serious problem in Namibia.
(e) Counsel to help sufferers towards repentance and reconciliation with God through Christ
In all of this medical concern and strategy, we need to remember that each patient has been created in the
image of God, and that Christ has sent us to make disciples. If the patient is willing to listen, the
Christian counsellor can offer his or her testimony of what Christ has done for our salvation, and the
invitation to come to Him in repentance and faith. No good counsellor would say that an HIV + patient
had more need of repentance than a healthy sinner, but there may be a need to confess specific sins that
were linked to the way the patient got infected. Of course, repentance may also be needed for the sin of
knowingly passing on the infection to others, especially one’s spouse, if that has happened.
If the patient is willing, the counsellor can lead this person to reconciliation with God through Christ, and
to an assurance of salvation and eternal life. There are many demands that Christ puts on us as His
disciples, particularly regarding holy sexual relationships, so, if this has been an area of disobedience in
the past, the counsellor may need to emphasize the relevant parts of God’s Bible on this subject.
(f) Distinguishing between sin and innocence in how the disease was caught
Many a good godly wife has been infected through married sex with her husband, and perhaps some
husbands have received the virus from their wives. If a person has got the infection in a way that was not
sinful, the need for repentance is different. It is like counselling a person who was injured in a road
accident through another person’s fault.
All of us humans have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but when we come to God in repentance,
we need to confess sins we have done, not those of other people. The “innocent” party still needs the
same salvation as those who are considered by some to be “worse sinners”. But Jesus warned us in Lk 13
not to make comparisons with others and thus hope that we can enter God’s heaven without coming to
Him in repentance and faith in Jesus.
(g) Counsel towards courage and patience under suffering
Let us bring the Christian sufferers to a strong hope in Christ, even though their outer nature is “wasting
away”. Let us turn their eyes to Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith, to the things that are eternal
and unseen, and draw on His grace that He promised is sufficient for us, even in times of distress and
suffering.
Hugh Prentice’s Address on Namibia and NETS for the NetACT Conference in August 2007, page 11
16. SEEKING TO MAINTAIN HOPE AMID GREAT DISCOURAGEMENT
(a) Facing realistically the severity of the problem in Namibia
We in Namibia are seeking to address the problem of HIV and the escalation of the infection into the
syndrome. It is a very serious problem. There are grounds for despair, if one looks at the widespread
immorality and violence. But we serve a Risen Saviour who calls us to show compassion and be active in
doing good for all men, especially to those in the family of believers.
(b) Grieving over the decline in traditional Christian moral standards across the nation
Like Jeremiah, we weep for the sins of the people and the suffering that so often comes in the wake of
sinful immoral behaviour. We grieve that many young people are forsaking the traditional Christian
moral standards that were the backbone of the integrity of Namibia, even through the dark years of
apartheid and oppression. Now that the nation is independent, something of the moral fibre has been lost.
(c) The power of God to transform and sanctify formerly immoral people (1 Cor 6:9-11)
We recall the great power of God to transform and sanctify sinners. Paul called himself the worst of
sinners. He mentioned in 1 Cor 6 the kind of person that some of the Corinthian Christians had been
before they turned to Christ in repentance and became His disciples. So we trust in the power of God to
work in Namibia as well, and we thank Him for every triumph of His grace that we see.
(d) The power of God through His General Grace to inspire people to keep sexually pure (1 Cor 5)
Even for those who are not Christians, we ask God to restrain evil and encourage people to live good
lives. We know of His general grace at work in governments, for example, and in the community as a
whole. We pray against the forces of wickedness that lead many to sin.
(e) The power of God through His Special Grace to inspire Christians to keep sexually pure (1 Cor
6:12-20)
For those who are in Christ, we ask God’s Special Grace, so that they may not be tempted beyond their
strength, but always find the way out of any temptation. We urge those who are doing well not to become
complacent, but to be careful that they don’t fall, and to cut off their contact with the kind of person or
situation that Jesus referred to as “your hand that causes you to sin.”
(f) The Eschatological Perspective – Eternal life for all who are in Christ
For every Christian there is the sure and certain hope, like an anchor for the soul, of our eternal life with
Christ. As we come to prepare people for the life to come, let us hold out to them the promises of being
with Christ and of their tears being wiped away. In the GNB version of Lk 16, Abraham says that
Lazarus is “enjoying himself” in the peace and rest of Paradise.
(g) The Eschatological Perspective –Christ’s Second Coming and the Resurrection Body
Beyond the Intermediate State is the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His power that will transform
our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body. Whatever the condition of the body of a believer at death,
each believer will receive a glorious resurrection body, the “eternal house in heaven, not built by human
hands.” We will be fully clothed to enjoy eternity in the presence of God and of all of His chosen and
redeemed people of all ages and races. To Him be the glory!
Revd Hugh Prentice,
Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary, Windhoek, Namibia,
3 August 2007