NAIROBI: Some fly Bibles into war zones, others care for AIDS orphans dying in slums. Many hope a trip by US President George W. Bush to Africa this week will help advance their version of God’s cause.

They are the Christian missionaries from the United States — thousands of fathers, reverends and pastors working everywhere from the shantytowns of Kenya to forgotten villages in Sudan and dangerous outposts in Congo.

Today, the word “missionary” conjures images of the most most famous one of all: Scotsman David Livingstone, who disappeared in Africa for almost five years before being found by journalist Sir Henry Morton Stanley in 1871.

His greeting immortalized the Scottish explorer in four words: “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”

Livingstone died two years later, but not before making a passionate plea for the United States to intervene in Africa, in his era to eradicate the slave trade.

While the slave trade is no more, American missionaries in Africa have plenty of modern challenges — from fighting disease to spreading God’s word to Christians they consider to be oppressed — and they want Bush to help.

First on the list for many is the AIDS epidemic scything its way across Africa — a scourge that activists say would be easier to contain if Bush pressured US pharmaceutical giants to slash prices of life-prolonging drugs.

In May Bush signed into law a $15 billion plan to help combat the epidemic in Africa and the Caribbean, although critics pointed out that the proposed budget for next year included just over half of the $3 billion promised.

“All I can say is that ‘by their fruits you shall know them’,” said Father Angelo D’Agostino, who runs a home for HIV-positive orphans in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. “They’ve done a lot and there’s more coming, but compared to the defence budget, it’s a trickle.”

While some US missionaries consciously avoid political talk, others are outspoken — particularly in Sudan where the mainly Arab, Muslim north is fighting a civil war with rebels in the south, home to a substantial Christian population.

Some missionaries are keen to see Bush take a tougher line against the Khartoum government, which is on a US list of states sponsoring terrorism and has long been accused of wiping out villages in the south during the 20-year conflict.

“If Bush was to take a firmer hand against these terrorists, then perhaps we’ll see more restraint when it comes to their acts,” said Timothy Keller, field director with the Frontline Fellowship, a group that flies bibles into southern Sudan.

“Obviously, I think the ultimate solution is for them to come to know the Lord through Christ,” said Keller.

Also active in southern Sudan is the Samaritan’s Purse Christian charity, headed by evangelist Franklin Graham, who gave the sermon at Bush’s inauguration in 2001 and has called Islam an “evil religion”.—Reuters