February 2006

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Prayer of Jabez author Bruce Wilkinson, who captured the imagination of Christians by relocating to Africa from his Georgia home in 2002, has quit his ministry focused on defeating HIV/AIDS and retired from active ministry at age 58.

One turning point was the inability of Swaziland's King Mswati III and Wilkinson to agree on a meeting time in New York to discuss Wilkinson's plan to build homes for aids orphans.

A few days after this "perceived snub," Wilkinson told staff at his Dream for Africa organization that he was stepping down and leaving Africa, according to a Wall Street Journal article published shortly before Christmas 2005.

For months, Wilkinson had negotiated with the Swazi government for permission to launch his African Dream Center. The center would house, educate, and feed children whose parents had died of AIDS. It would also have a golf course and other tourist attractions. Swaziland, located between Mozambique and South Africa, is one of Africa's smallest nations and has one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS rates. Dream for Africa had hoped to house 10,000 children on a 32,500-acre complex by the end of 2005.

The proposal was outlined in a complex 40-page document that Dream for Africa gave the Swazi government a mere five days to approve, the Journal says. The approval never happened. Then, in September 2005, Wilkinson flew to New York to meet King Mswati III. "The king's chief of staff … agreed to set up the audience, but only at a time that would have required Mr. Wilkinson to wait in New York a few extra days," according to the Journal. Apparently, Wilkinson's schedule did not permit such flexibility.

Less than a week later, Wilkinson abruptly announced his resignation as president of Dream for Africa. ...