Two very bright and beautiful sisters, ages 11 and 13, have already experienced more than their share of suffering. The South African girls lost their mother to AIDS and their younger brother was found in a garbage can with AIDS sores covering his body. Sadly, such a scenario is all too common in Africa, a continent where HIV/AIDS has a deadly foothold and is destroying millions of lives.
To Jaime Rau, founder of an abstinence program entitles “Purely Committed,” these two sisters were far more than just statistics in the ongoing Africa AIDS plague. On a recent trip to South Africa to present her Purely Committed seminar, the Twin Cities resident spent time with the girls, talked with them, hugged them, and wept with them when she discovered that they, too, had AIDS. They had been infected by their father.
Three million African children under 15 have the AIDS virus and the dreaded disease has left 11 million orphans, more children than live in the state of California. Jaime is committed to changing these tragic statistics. She knows that the message of abstinence will help stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic.
On August 9, in the township of Philippi in Capetown, 155 young men and women attended Jaime’s Purely Committed conference, talking about sex and other issues of concern to African youth.
Love, relationships, marriage, and AIDS were the main topics. Jaime’s goal for the conference was to motivate young people to make a commitment to abstinence from sexual activity until marriage. The event included a multi-media presentation that featured celebrities who have embraced the abstinence lifestyle. Having experienced the failure of the condom/“safe sex” message in Africa, the young Africans who attended the seminar enthusiastically received Jaime’s message of abstinence until marriage
Throughout the day-long conference, attendees learned the benefits of abstinence: no children out of wedlock, no HIV transmission through sex, and the gift of sex as God designed—in a marital relationship between a husband and a wife.
One of the conference speaders was a local pastor who recalled that promiscuity was not always the norm in Africa and that as the new generations have become more promiscuous, sexual diseases have become more rampant. He made it clear to the young people listening to him that each of them must learn to either live without AIDS by abstaining from sex or continue on the destructive path of promiscuity with the high likelihood of infection and early death
Jessica Bailey, another conference speaker, inspired the youth by relating her personal story of committing to renewed virginity. She told about giving her virginity away, and of the accompanying guilt and emotional pain. But, she explained, she did not stay on the path of destruction. Instead, she made the commitment to herself, her future husband, and God that she wouuld no longer have sex from that day forward until she was married. Jessica shared how she has been redeemed and feels whole again despite her past mistakes.
This message of hope and renewal is what African youth are hungry to hear, said Jaime. Asked if the conference was a success, Jaime shared what the young men and women who attended told her. “It was very educational and exciting,” said one young person. “It has changed my life, my way of thinking. It is the best workshop I’ve ever attended.“
Another attendee responded, “I learned a lot. The issue of secondary virginity gave me a new meaning to life, knowing that it’s not over, but we can start a new beginning.”
Jaime has a passion for promoting the abstinence message in South Africa as well as here in the U.S. “We need to reduce the spread of this deadly disease that is claiming the lives of the innocent,” she said. “The burden is deep, the need so enormous.”
Jaime is now at home in Minnesota waiting to see where God leads her next. She is ready and willing to be a part of the solution in bringing help and hope to young people. Said Jaime, “I want to be where my life and faith will be most effective.”
