Growing up in Kenya: the personal impact of malaria

Pastor Alice Koech grew up in Kenya, and has several personal experiences of malaria that drive her enthusiasm for the United Methodist Church's response through Imagine No Malaria. Hear her story in her own words:

Steamboat Springs surpasses their goal by 50%!

We know that Imagine No Malaria is just one of many important causes that churches are asked to support, and that each congregation faces unique circumstances and challenges that affect their ability to raise the suggested $20 per member toward our Rocky Mountain Conference goal of $1.2 million. And so we are grateful when a church takes on that baseline goal with commitment and conviction, and thrilled when they surpass it by more than 50%!

Here's how Steamboat Springs UMC did it, submitted by member Dorothy Lindahl:

Just wanted to let you know what the Steamboat Springs UMC has been doing to support the Imagine No Malaria Campaign.  Our mission team set a goal of raising $8000 (approximately $20 per member as was suggested). 

On July 4th we set up a booth which included a bednet on the lawn of the church following the parade to let others know about the project.  We had a donation jar and literature and mosquitoes.  Next we advertised and showed the "Killer in the Dark" movie at the town library, with the children selling mosquitoes they had made in Sunday School.  At the UMW Fall Fare we offered a few items left from an Estate Sale. 

We have been taking coins in buckets on the third Sundays of the month called "Change for Change." We have a portable basketball hoop which is moved place to place in the church with a bucket for coins. A challenge was made to parents and kids to make a donation for every score made as they played sports. (Nets for Nets). At Christmas we offered cards for honor donations.

I don't have the exact figure we have collected but know it is more that $13,000. United Methodist Women gave $500 raised for mission work to the fund. This has been a joint project of the Mission Team and United Methodist Women. 

Congratulations and thanks to all who took part in these efforts, and praise God for an abundant return on your faithful work!

What has your church done so far to support the cause? What exciting plans do you have for the next several months? Please send stories and photos to kerry@rmcumc.com! 

Charge Conference Season

As a pastor friend of mine posted on Facebook recently, for United Methodist clergy and church leaders, this isn't yet the "holiday season"; it's "report season"! In our connectional system, each church (or charge, usually used if a pastor serves more than one church) where a pastor is appointed holds an annual business meeting to report to each other, to the district, and and to the (regional) conference office some of the highlights and challenges of ministry in the past year.

This includes lots of statistical and other numeric reporting - budgets, attendance, membership, baptisms, deaths, and so on - but also offers an opportunity for the church to practice telling its story about how God has been at work in and through the congregation. Not just, do we have enough money and do we have more or fewer people than in January, but also, how have we experienced the power of the risen Christ in our ministries? How are we responding to God's grace in our lives? How are we growing in the call to love our neighbor through prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness? How is the kin'dom of God breaking through in our midst? And where might the Spirit be leading us in the coming year?

This year, one of the reports churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference will be asked to give is for Imagine No Malaria. District Superintendents (or their designated presiding elders) will be asking each church/charge to respond to 3 simple questions as part of their "holy business":

1. How many lives does your church plan to save? ($10 saves a life)
2. What progress have you made toward that goal? and 
3. What plans do you have between now and April 25, 2014? 

If your church has not yet set a formal goal, this is an excellent opportunity to have that conversation. (Download the Imagine No Malaria Report form here to be ready to respond at your church or charge conference.)

Churches will also have an opportunity to take up an offering for Imagine No Malaria during the charge conference. If individuals wish to make gifts or pledges, they have two options: they can give to/through the local church, or make checks and pledge forms out to the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMCUMC). We encourage churches to track pledges that will be paid off over time, but we are always happy to receive information about individual donors so we can acknowledge them at the conference level as well.

The Rocky Mountain Conference Steering Committee understands that many churches are facing financial challenges, and also that there are many worthy causes that United Methodists are asked to support. However, we believe strongly that Imagine No Malaria is a vital and urgent opportunity for all of us to put our faith into action as we join the global movement to end deaths from this preventable, treatable, and beatable disease. We can be part of making history as we empower the people of Africa to win a sustainable victory over malaria within our lifetimes, and to make a more abundant life possible for communities across the continent. I hope you'll join us!

Equip & Empower

One of the things I love about The United Methodist Church and our approach to mission and service work is that we really strive to go beyond a simple 'charity' approach. What I mean by that is we don't simply drop off supplies or funds to people in need and go home. Nor do we come in with a strict, cookie-cutter plan for how relief or development work should happen. Rather, through the United Methodist Committee on Relief and other agencies, we seek to partner with the people with whom we are in ministry.

Young people in Nigeria help educate their community
about malaria

We take time to listen to their needs, concerns, hopes, and strengths, and to learn from those living the experience what will be most helpful. And we work with local leaders to develop a plan that not only alleviates immediate suffering, but also builds capacity for the long term. Our goal is to equip and empower people in need to first become part of the solution and ultimately to chart their own future.

That's exactly what Imagine No Malaria is doing with the 16 African countries where Health Boards have been established and trained in economic sustainability for health care institutions. After learning best practices in planning fee structures, grant writing, and similar topics, members of the Health Boards - many of whom are health care providers themselves - have the opportunity to write grant proposals to the General Board of Global Ministries (UMC) and to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Since 40-60% of health care in Africa comes from faith-based organizations (depending on the country), this work of equipping and empowering local leaders to pursue infrastructure development is vital--not only to reduce deaths from malaria, but also to increase opportunities for abundant life along a variety of measures. These leaders can share their knowledge and skills with colleagues and neighbors, who can then pursue similar improvements in education, nutrition, overall child and maternal health, economic development, and other areas.

Rev. Kerry Greenhill leading a workshop
at First UMC, Limon, CO

And on the flip side of the initiative, we are also working to equip and empower individuals and congregations across the United States to become advocates and leaders in the fight against malaria here. If you want to get involved - and invite your church or community to join you - in this extraordinary effort to save lives and offer hope and healing in Christ's name, contact me, Kerry Greenhill, Field Coordinator, today: 303-733-3736 x152, or kerry@rmcumc.com. I'm currently scheduling volunteer trainings for summer and fall, and will make sure you get the information you need about training opportunities in your area.

Here is a tentative schedule of trainings over the next three months (subject to change, but updated here when they do); each training will last approximately 2 hours:

Date         Day             Time         Location
July 31    Wednesday   11am       Webinar (online/anywhere)
Aug 6     Tuesday        6:30pm     Highlands UMC, Denver    CO
Aug 10    Saturday       10am       First UMC, Pueblo, CO
Aug 29   Thursday      6:30pm    Hope UMC, Greenwood Village, CO
Sep 12    Thursday      6pm        Durango, CO
Sep 13    Friday           6:30pm     Hotchkiss, CO           
Sep 14    Saturday       2pm          Meeker, CO (UMW District Mtg)
Sep 18    Wednesday   6:30pm     First UMC, Greeley    CO

Sep 28    Saturday       10am        First UMC, Casper, WY
Sep 29    Sunday          4pm         First UMC, Cheyenne, WY

I am still hoping to add one or two Colorado trainings the week of August 26, and a trip to Utah sometime this fall! Hope to see you sometime soon as we equip and empower one another to proclaim the good news of God's desire for abundant life for all people!

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!

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.

We're all a-buzz!

The 2013 session of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference begins two weeks from today, which means that conference staff and volunteers are buzzing around energetically trying to get everything ready in time!

I had hoped to have another video interview edited in time to post today, but I've encountered some technical difficulties in that process, so instead, here's a sneak peek at one of the items we're preparing for the Annual Conference Mission Banquet on June 14:

We call them "prayer nets," with Imagine No Malaria bookmarks attached, and every single person who attends Annual Conference will receive one at the Friday night banquet.

While these 9" squares of tulle doesn't look like much, the Steering Committee hopes that they will serve as a reminder of the millions of people who sleep more safely and soundly because of an insecticide-treated mosquito net over their bed, and of the work still ahead of us to reduce suffering and death from malaria through Prevention, Treatment, Education, and Communication.

The bookmarks include a photo, a verse of Scripture, a brief overview of the work of Imagine No Malaria, and an invitation to prayer and involvement.

If you're attending Annual Conference, make sure not to skip the Mission Banquet on June 14, and bring home your very own prayer net and bookmark!

Affect the World Forever

Robin Ball is Co-Chair of the Steering Committee for Imagine No Malaria in the Rocky Mountain Conference, and also Chair of the Conference Board of Global Ministries. She recently shared some thoughts on her experience going to Angola in 2012 to distribute bed nets, and her enthusiasm for the opportunity that Imagine No Malaria represents:


She ends with:

"It's so exciting that we might actually be able to eliminate a killer, something that affects so many women and children in the world... and it keeps families in poverty. And we really have the opportunity now to eliminate that. So take this opportunity right now, where science is coming together with the political situation, and we have the awareness, and we can raise the money, and really affect the world forever."

It's true - the resources that are available currently make elimination of deaths from malaria possible in our lifetime, something that could quickly slip out of reach if we do not follow through on the massive and comprehensive efforts needed to win a sustainable victory over this disease of poverty. We'll have another video on why that's true from a scientific perspective next week!

If you want to be part of the movement to save lives and end preventable deaths from malaria, 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.