Abundant life, abundant generosity

Fantastic pre-conference volunteers

This is "Annual Conference Recovery Week" for several staff and other conference leaders, so we'll get back into the swing of things next week, but I did want to highlight a few of the wonderful developments last weekend. To sum up, God is good - all the time!

First of all, I could not have finished preparing all of our packets of materials in time if it weren't for the help of four fantastic volunteers on Tuesday before conference. Thanks to Hamu, Darcy,  Michael, and LeAnn for your great - and fast - work!

Becky Buxton, our scientific
expert on malaria

Dozens of people stopped by the Imagine No Malaria resource table in the display area to ask questions, collect materials, and sign up to volunteer or get more information. My thanks go out to our Steering Committee members, especially Robin Ball and Becky Buxton, who helped staff the table so I could eat and take a break occasionally!

CCYM selling cute & colorful mosquitoes (the fashion
accessory of the year, according to Bishop Elaine)

The Conference Council on Youth Ministries made pipe cleaner mosquitoes that they then sold for $5 each, raising $638 for Imagine No Malaria! Also, the Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry invited participants to vote for their favorite campus ministry by making donations, and they raised another $175.18 for our work in malaria prevention, treatment, education, and communication! (The Wesley Foundation at UW in Laramie won, in case you were wondering!)

Robin Ball, Steering Committee
Co-Chair, with the banquet centerpieces

About 65 people volunteered as Table Captains (or Co-Captains) for the all-conference Missions Banquet on Friday night, making it possible to set up centerpieces, programs, "prayer nets" and bookmarks, handouts, and pledge forms in a very short time period, also making sure that anyone who entered the room could see where there was still room at a table. Thank you for helping us practice gracious hospitality and keep things running smoothly and on schedule!

Rev. Gary Henderson, Executive Director
of the UMC's Global Health Initiative

 Rev. Gary Henderson gave a powerful and inspiring keynote presentation about the success of Imagine No Malaria so far, both on the ground in Africa, and among United Methodist churches in the United States. We hope to have video of that presentation available in a couple weeks - stay tuned!

The all-conference Mission Banquet on Friday night

Somewhere around 700 attendees at the banquet engaged in conversation about how to carry the energy and passion for Imagine No Malaria back to their churches and communities, and made pledges of prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. It'll take some time for us (Kerry and the Steering Committee) to follow up with everyone, but we are thrilled by the support and commitment of the lay and clergy members of the Rocky Mountain Conference.

That support and commitment was made concrete in the abundance of gifts and pledges collected in the banquet, which totaled $40,188.61! In addition, Imagine No Malaria will receive half of the Bridge of Love offering from Saturday morning, which means that our total raised for Imagine No Malaria during annual conference is nearly $50,000, or 5,000 lives saved in just three days!

Rev. Kerry Greenhill
(Field Coordinator)
with a human-size mosquito!

I am so thankful and awed by the movement of the Spirit during our time together, and by the This is not just second-mile giving, but third- or fourth-mile giving for many who already give tremendous amounts of time and energy to the work of the kin'dom of God through the church.
outpouring of generosity from conference participants. Clergy and lay members to annual conference are asked to give to several offerings from Thursday to Sunday, usually from their own wallets and checkbooks (unless a church has been organized enough to plan ahead and send funds with their delegates).

I believe that this work, to prevent unnecessary deaths and suffering from malaria, particularly among children and pregnant women, is truly what God desires from the Body of Christ. All who have received the gift of abundant life have an opportunity to receive blessing in the act of offering a blessing to others through their generosity. Thank you to all who recognized this opportunity and are joining in this extraordinary effort with the people called United Methodist around the world!

Do Something to Keep Children Alive!

Annual Conference begins Thursday - are you ready?

This week the Rocky  Mountain Annual Conference will include a brief presentation Thursday afternoon to introduce the Steering Committee for Imagine No Malaria, and on Friday evening we'll enjoy a Missions Banquet with updates from Rev. Gary Henderson, Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative, on the overall scope of this ministry at the global level. If you're at annual conference, you won't want to miss this powerful presentation!

In preparation for our festivities, here's an inspiring message from one of our Steering Committee members. Kunle Taiwo is Co-Lay Leader of the Rocky Mountain Conference. He shares his personal experiences with malaria growing up in Nigeria, and why it's important to take action now to save lives from this preventable and treatable disease:


Kunle emphasizes our faith calling to take action, from a perspective of justice:

"The mortality rate due to malaria is very atrocious in Africa. If we've eradicated that in the western world, particularly in the United States, I think it's incumbent upon us as Christians to pursue this in the best way we can, to at least make sure that these little kids would live."

and

"Having grown up in a place where there is resources... where you know that children can live and be fruitful, and enough is not being done to bring that to life, is something that is a challenge for all of us, and should motivate us to do something to keep children alive."

Children born in the U.S. no longer have to worry that a mosquito bite could turn out to be fatal, but globally, that's not true. A child dies from malaria every 60 seconds, and in Africa, one in five children will not live to see their fifth birthday because of this preventable, treatable, and beatable disease. But we can change that, through a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, treatment, education, and communication. As Kunle says, 

"We have the capability to do this; we have the will to do this; we ought to do it."

If you want to be part of the movement to save lives and end deaths from malaria in Africa, please consider making a donation through the Rocky Mountain Conference or at ImagineNoMalaria.org (make sure to check the box at the bottom for your United Methodist affiliation so your church/district/conference gets credit!), or contact Field Coordinator Rev. Kerry Greenhill, 303-733-3736 x152 or kerry (at) rmcumc.com to find out how you can get involved.

And Are We Yet Alive?

Image from United Methodist Memes
(https://www.facebook.com/UnitedMethodistMemes)

It's Annual Conference season in The United Methodist Church. The Rocky Mountain Annual Conference begins next Thursday, June 13, and finishes around midday on Sunday, June 16.

For those less familiar with the peculiarities of our denomination's practices, an annual conference is just what it sounds like*: an event for the United Methodist clergy from a particular region and an (approximately) equal number of lay (non-clergy) delegates from United Methodist congregations, who gather once a year to tell the story of what we've been up to in the past year, to vote on matters of teaching and practice, to honor those in transition from one stage of ministry or life to another (commissioning, ordination, retirement, death), to learn, to sing, to eat, and - at our best - to remember who and Whose we are, and why we are part of a connectional church system, so that we can do more together than we could on our own.

One of the traditions in many regions is to open annual conference with a hymn by Charles Wesley, brother of John and co-founder of the Methodist movement. "And Are We Yet Alive" was written more than 250 years ago, at a time when Methodism was a flourishing movement for renewal and reform within the Church of England. In an era when child mortality may have been as high as 40% and average life expectancy only around 40 years, the opening lyrics must have been especially poignant:

And are we yet alive,
and see each other's face?

Glory and thanks to Jesus give
for his almighty grace.

(You can read the full lyrics here.) A lot has changed since 1749, including many of the technologies we use for annual conference (it'll be #RMAC13 if you're on Twitter!) And today, of course, we expect most of the people we saw a year ago to still be alive, even if circumstances have changed and they are not at annual conference itself. But these words remind me that life is still fragile and fleeting, and in many parts of the world, health and longevity cannot be taken for granted.  

What troubles have we seen,
what mighty conflicts past,
fightings without, and fears within,
since we assembled last!   

A child dies of malaria every 60 seconds. Some 650,000 people die each year from this preventable, treatable, and beatable disease. As we gather at the Denver Marriott Tech Center next week, we'll be holding in prayer the families and communities across Africa and around the world where malaria - along with tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases of poverty - add extra meaning to this hymn.

If you'll be at annual conference, stop by the Imagine No Malaria display table to say hello, pick up some materials and a fly-swatter, and share your story. And don't miss Friday evening's Mission Banquet, with Rev. Gary Henderson, Executive Director of the UMC Global Health Initiative, as keynote speaker!

And if you won't be at annual conference but want to help out, please contact me ASAP at kerry (at) rmcumc.com as there are still some great volunteer opportunities available, both at our Denver tech center office and around the region.

Yet out of all the Lord
hath brought us by his love;
and still he doth his help afford,
and hides our life above. 

The worship committee has planned a little different opening for the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference this year, but these words will still be brought to mind as we sing "We've Come This Far By Faith," about God's faithfulness through all the challenges life brings, and our continued forward momentum toward God's purposes - the same themes as Charles Wesley's hymn, just based in a different cultural tradition.

We’ve come this far by faith,
leaning on the Lord;
Trusting in the holy word,
God’s never failed us yet.
Oh -- can’t turn around,
We’ve come this far by faith.

We are United Methodists. We are known worldwide for living out the teachings of Jesus through ministries with the poor and others on the margins, for our theology of grace and salvation for all, and for our work for a better world, the kin'dom of a loving God made real here on earth. And so I invite you to join our movement to prevent suffering and death from malaria; to prevent, diagnose, and treat malaria; to educate, communicate, and advocate until no parent has to worry that their child will die from a mosquito bite.



*Of course, because we like things complicated, "annual conference" can also refer to any geographic region of the denomination that is overseen by a single bishop and meets at such a yearly gathering (the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference consists of Colorado, Utah, and a little over half of Wyoming). And we might sometimes talk about "the conference" as all the churches or all the individual members of that region. But in May and June, we're mostly describing the meetings themselves.