The Church is the HOPE

I just finished reading one of my all time favorite books-Dangerous Surrender by Kay Warren. The wife of the famous pastor-Rick Warren who wrote A Purpose Driven Life. She has committed her life to helping widows, orphans and especially those stricken with AIDS. http://www.kaywarren.com/pages/
I think that every Christian whether guy or gal should read this-it is amazing! Here is a quote from the book that I love and is so true and challenging: Below are 7 video links about Dangerous Surrender for you to watch.
"I know it sounds crazy, but the church-with all its warts and flaws-has advantages over every other institution in society. More than two billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ-and this means that NO organization is bigger than the church. No government, no relief agency-no single country, in fact-is bigger than the church. These churches are scattered in nearly every country on earth, and there are more churches than all of the McDonald's , Wal-Marts, Starbucks, and Macy's COMBINED. Some places have few or no hospitals or universities or libraries, but they have a church!
The church around the world is growing at the rate of 60,000 new converts a day. To stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic requires something growing faster than the 14,000 new infections every day-and the church fits the bill. The church has been around for nearly two thousand years; it certainly isn't a fly-by-night operation. It has a track record of caring for the sick, helping the poor, and leading people to Jesus Christ. Jesus himself told us to go in to the world and do his word (see Matthew 28:19-20; John 17:18)-there is no stronger authorization than that. The church offers love as the motivation for everything we do; the highest call on our lives is to love as Jesus loved(see John 15:12-13). Governments and the private sector cannot love in the name of Jesus: only Christians can do that.......As strange as it sounds, God has put all his "eggs" in one basket, namely, his church. He has no other basket! His strategy has always been to work though his people-first he reminded the people of Israel that they had been blessed to be a blessing to others and gave them specific instructions on how to care for those made vulnerable by poverty, sickness, and injustice (see Exodus 22:22; 23:11); Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 24:17-19).
What I am suggesting is not new! A thousand years ago, this is what the church was known for, and it is what we should be known for today. God has commissioned those in his eternal family to be his hands and feet in the world, to be his choice of love, to speak truth, to act justly, to combat evil, and to do good. Our job is to push back the encroaching darkness and be God's light in a desperately dark world. Our mission is to care for the sick, the widows, the orphans-and to heal in Jesus' name. We are to preach the Good News of salvation and to disciple the nations, bringing all into fellowship with him and each other. The Lord of all calls us to live lives of love, mercy, and grace, thus making the invisible God visible. It's not a matter of one or the other; we must care for both body and soul. We are Christ's ambassadors. If we fail, he has no plan B."