God Is Able!

Happy World Malaria Day! God is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or even imagine... and we can know the joy of being part of God's work in the world!

New Year's Resolutions, or How to Save Lives in 2014

Happy New Year! Are you making any resolutions for 2014? The first day of the year always seems like a good opportunity to declare your intentions to be more healthy in mind, body, spirit, relationships, finances, and other important areas of life.

If you're looking for ideas on how to help proclaim God's love in the coming year, or want to share with family and friends what it means to be a United Methodist committed to putting faith into action, here are 10 ways to support Imagine No Malaria in 2014 - let me know in the comments if you take on one or more of these, or if you have other suggestions!

How to Save Lives in 2014

1. Schedule a monthly donation to Imagine No Malaria (make sure to check the box to indicate what church you're affiliated with). Remember:

• $10 Buys a life-saving insecticide-treated bed net
• $20 Pays for the cost of food and treatment of anemia in a pregnant woman with malaria
• $50 Provides malaria medication to treat ten adults
• $100 Covers the cost of an anti-malaria campaign in a local school
• $200 Trains Traditional Birth Attendants in malaria prevention and treatment
• $500 Provides all the resources for a one-day community leader training for 35-40 people on malaria prevention
• $28/month over three years adds up to a pledge of $1,000 that will save 100 lives - that's a whole community!

2. Send an email to your friends and family, telling them about the threat of malaria in Africa, what Imagine No Malaria is doing about it, and why you are supporting this cause. Invite them to join you in saving lives.

3. Like Imagine No Malaria - Rocky Mountain Conference on Facebook and follow @RMCbuzz on Twitter. Share or retweet a post at least once a month.

4. Host a screening of A Killer in the Dark, the documentary about the United Methodist Church's work to fight malaria in Africa. Invite friends, neighbors, coworkers, or church members to watch with you and discuss afterwards.

5. Talk to your pastor, Sunday school teacher, small group leader, or other church members to find out what your congregation is doing to support INM, and offer to help.

6. Make pipe cleaner mosquitoes with your own children or the church youth group. Sell them for donations (suggested: $5 each or 3 for $10) at church during coffee hour/fellowship time or as part of a bake sale or other event.

7. Contact your Senators and Representative in Congress to let them know that you support continued federal funding for global health work, including the President's Malaria Initiative. Tell the staff person you speak with that you are United Methodist and you are doing your part through Imagine No Malaria, and you hope the US government will continue to do its part to end this unnecessary source of suffering in our world.

8. Talk to leaders in your school, civic groups, local government, hospitals/clinics, or other congregations in your community to find out if they would like to partner with your church in saving children's lives in Africa.

9. Help your church leaders plan and put on an event that invites the whole community to come together in support of Imagine No Malaria. Possibilities include a basketball tournament, benefit concert, fundraising dinner, silent auction, knit-a-thon, variety show, or any creative option that will give people a chance to have fun while learning about malaria and giving generously.

10. Pray each week for those who suffer from malaria, for those who have lost loved ones, for the doctors, nurses, and community health workers who bring healing and hope, for those who are working in communication and advocacy, for improvements to infrastructure and social systems that will make health care more accessible for more people, and that Imagine No Malaria can be a powerful witness to God's desire for abundant life for all people as we help end deaths from malaria in Africa in our lifetime.

Thank you for whatever step you can take to help make abundant life more possible for our sisters and brothers in Africa. Together, we are bringing hope and healing to millions of people: a great testimony to the Good News of God's love made known in Jesus Christ!

A Prayer for Christmastide

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Yes, the one big day of gifts and feasting is over for most of us, but in the Christian calendar, Christmas lasts for 12 days, until we celebrate the arrival of the wise ones with Epiphany on January 6.

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to check out this great brief video created by Imagine No Malaria staff in Iowa, Missouri, and Holston Conferences - consider showing it in worship this Sunday or next! As we keep our hearts and minds focused on the gifts of Christmas in the coming days, I offer this Prayer for Christmastide:   

God of blazing galaxies and blades of grass,
     Creator of worlds and healer of wounds,
we give you thanks once more for the gifts of Christmas:
     For Jesus, the baby who grew up to proclaim your blessing on the poor
          and your boundary-breaking plan to redeem all people by love;
     for Mary and Joseph, who risked security and social standing
          to say yes to your invitation to parent that Holy Child;
     for the shepherds, and all who work and watch by night,
          who were awake to hear the angels’ chorus
          and were willing to go and see what they had been told;
     for the Magi, who were wise in the ways of heaven and earth,
          paying attention, bearing gifts and returning home by another way.
Open our ears to hear your voice
     proclaiming wonders and new worlds being birthed;
open our eyes to see your signs
     blazing brightly overhead or quietly resting in mother’s arms;
open our hearts to new ways of loving, new ways of living
     that continue the gift of the Incarnation
     by letting your Word of Love become flesh in us once more;
open our hands to reach out in generosity and care,
     to work for justice and to touch with compassion,
that the world may know you are still Emmanuel,
     God-with-us,
     living within and among us
     in this time and place.
In the name of the babe in the manger,
     our Friend and Teacher,
     Healer and Savior,
     Jesus the Christ,
     we pray.
Amen.

Rev. Kerry Greenhill ©2013

May Christ be born anew in your life this year!

Giving Thanks, Giving Back

Next week is Thanksgiving, a time for celebrating the abundance of God's good gifts, especially time with family or friends, and often a table laden with rich foods. It is also a time when many people recognize how blessed they are and are moved to bless others through acts of generosity and kindness.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be generous with the gifts and resources entrusted to us, sharing with those who have less so that all might have enough.

I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.

2 Corinthians 8:13 -14

The reports coming in from churches across the Rocky Mountain Conference demonstrate that we United Methodists take seriously this call to generosity, both out of a sense of gratitude and often from a sense of God's desire for economic justice as well. Thanks to your work so far, we have already received gifts and pledges totaling $700,000 - that's 58% of our goal!

In contrast, we are barraged by messages in the media that emphasize buying and spending more than ever at this time of year, with an increasing number of stores starting their "Black Friday" sales on Thanksgiving day, or even earlier online. In recent years, "Small Business Saturday" has joined "Cyber Monday"as a significant way to kick off the holiday shopping season. Of course, gift giving can be a fun and meaningful experience; we can participate in the marketplace and still be faithful Christians. But the more we tune in to commercialism, the more difficult it can become to stay grounded in our Source and Center and to keep our focus on the deeper meanings behind the season.

However, even in the midst of this frenzy of "more, bigger, newer, better," there are ways to live out the values of God's kin'dom. Consider including Imagine No Malaria in your charitable giving this holiday season, and give a gift that will transform lives. All of the usual giving channels are appropriate (the Donate link above, which takes you to the RMCUMC giving website; www.imaginenomalaria.org; or through your local church), but we have a special opportunity to make your gift go further on "Giving Tuesday," in two weeks.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has become one of the largest donation days of the year. Any gifts given online on Tuesday, December 3, will be DOUBLED through The Advance.

Local churches can be credited, and gifts can be made in honor or in memory of someone you love. To make your gift count double, make sure to give at this page on that day. (You can also click on the "Giving Tuesday" tab on this site, above and to the right, which will take you directly to the page.)

Learn more about The Advance at http://www.umcmission.org/Give-to-Mission/The-Advance.

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.

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.

Compassion AND justice

Back: Jennifer Long, Charissa Shawcross, Adlene Kufarimai,
Linda Caldwell, Bonnie Marden, Kerry Greenhill
Front: Jill Wondel, Tami Coleman, Kristen Cates

I recently spent a week in Nashville with a dozen passionate and thoughtful church leaders from across the U.S. to be trained in how to go about organizing our campaigns for Imagine No Malaria. There was a lot of joking that since I'd been on the job for three months already, I could lead the training rather than receive it, but I gained a great deal from the stories people shared, the best practices recommended by the more experienced Field Coordinators, and above all from the connections built among those of us setting out on this journey at about the same time in our respective annual (regional) conferences.

As we talked with some of the communications staff connected with Imagine No Malaria, we were asked why we are passionate about the cause. Staff writer/editor Barbara Dunlap-Berg quoted part of my response in an article posted today to the Imagine No Malaria website:

“What excites me about the campaign is that this is a ministry of health and healing that is about both compassion and justice. Not only are we relieving suffering for thousands of families across Africa; we are also empowering local leaders through training, support and accountability to develop the infrastructure that will support future public health efforts in a sustainable way.
“Children in the United States don’t have to worry that they might die from a mosquito bite, but children in Africa still do. I believe that just as Jesus made healing a central part of his ministry, we as the body of Christ today have a calling to offer healing, wholeness and abundant life in Jesus’ name.”

The difference, to me, between ministries of compassion and justice, is that compassion means we are responding to an immediate need to alleviate suffering, but justice requires working for a world where needless suffering doesn't happen in the first place. I believe that Jesus calls his followers to both justice and compassion, even when it is inconvenient or means we have to give up some privilege or comfort for the sake of others. 

Bishop Elaine and others are greeted by children in Angola

Through Imagine No Malaria, followers of Jesus in the United States (and plenty of non-Christians who are invited to take part in our work) have an opportunity to give of the resources God has entrusted to them (us) for the sake of the well-being of our sisters and brothers in Africa. And the way we are working together, donors and recipients, fundraisers and health care providers, advocates and administrators, provides a foundation of just and mutual relationships that could bring us a few steps closer to realizing the kin'dom of God here on earth.  

When we recognize our interconnectedness in these networks and communities built on mutual respect and love for neighbor, we are all beneficiaries of the act of sharing and giving, both "rich" and "poor" alike, wherever our home, however safe or vulnerable we currently feel. Living in a world of gross inequity impoverishes us all, though clearly some suffer greater physical consequences than others. 

This is at least part of the meaning of abundant life, that “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little” (2 Cor 8:15). And this is why I agree with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who declared, “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”  

I hope you will consider joining us as we seek to offer healing, wholeness, and abundant life through Imagine No Malaria in the Rocky Mountain Conference and around the world.

World Malaria Day

This Thursday, April 25, is World Malaria Day. It's a time when everyone involved in the fight to end preventable deaths from malaria - churches, NGOs, hospitals, research labs, donors, advocates, government leaders, health care professionals, community educators, public health officials, and others - joins together to help raise awareness of malaria and invite others to join us in saving lives. In case this is your first time to the blog, here are the statistics:

• Malaria is a disease transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. 
• Left untreated, its flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, vomiting, headache) lead to convulsions, organ failure and countless unnecessary deaths.
• One in five children in Africa does not reach their 5th birthday because of malaria. 
• Over 655,000 people die each year because of malaria.
• Malaria is preventable, treatable and beatable: To overcome malaria, we must continue to support the most effective prevention methods. We also must improve education about the disease, continue to establish community-based malaria-control programs, conduct communications and revitalize hospitals and clinics to improve treatment across Africa.
• Imagine No Malaria is an expression of the United Methodist Global Health Initiative to raise $75 million to fight malaria on the African continent. 
• Through Imagine No Malaria, 1.2 million insecticide-treated nets have been distributed, impacting 2.4 million lives. A total of 13 health boards have been created with responsibilities in 16 countries and 5,800 health care workers have been trained.

World Malaria Day is a great opportunity to take the first step in joining the people of The United Methodist Church as we Imagine No Malaria, and then help make that vision a reality. Or, if you've already taken some first steps, it's an opportunity to pray and reflect on whether God might be nudging you to go a step further, whether that's through Advocacy on behalf of those suffering from malaria, Raising Awareness among your church or community, Raising Funds alone or with a group of like-minded friends, Engaging the Community to invite others into this extraordinary effort, or volunteering at the local, district, or conference (regional) level to support this ministry behind the scenes. Check out the Resources to Get Involved page for a complete list of ideas on how you can take part.

Our movement begins and is surrounded by prayer: Join Imagine No Malaria as we pray for all who are affected by this preventable and treatable disease.  As people of faith, we will once again through prayer ask God to bless and protect those who suffer with malaria but to also bless and protect those who  are working toward malaria’s elimination as a disease of poverty. Visit ImagineNoMalaria.org each day this week for a daily prayer, and lend your social media network to our Change the World campaign at Thunderclap to help us get the word out to invite prayers for all affected by malaria.

This year, our program staff at the General Board of Church and Society are particularly encouraging Imagine No Malaria supporters to take part in an advocacy movement to let our elected leaders know how important Global Health funding is to us as people of faith. Please consider writing to your Senators and Representatives to ask for continued support of Global Health Assistance for diseases of poverty like malaria. You can send an electronic letter simply by entering your zip code and contact information at the GBCS page for World Malaria Day Advocacy.

(There are two other petitions you can sign onto at UMPower.org: Moms for Moms, and Stand with Us Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.)

If you're able to make a donation to move us toward our goal of ending deaths from malaria in Africa, you can do that here (2nd box down) or here (be sure to check the box near the bottom of the form for your United Methodist church/district/conference affiliation). We most often use $10, the cost of providing an insecticide-treated bed net, as our reference point for what it takes to save a life, but if you're looking for more detail, here are a few other comparisons:

Bishop Elaine helping hang a bed net in Angola

$5.00    Provides medication to treat someone with malaria
$10.00    Purchases one insecticide-treated mosquito net
$20.00    Pays for the cost of food and treatment of anemia in a pregnant women with malaria
$50.00    Buys 25 Rapid Diagnostic Kits for malaria
$100.00    Covers the expenses for an anti-malaria campaign in a local school
$200.00    Trains Traditional Birth Attendants in malaria prevention and treatment.
$500.00    Provides all the expenses for a one day community leader training for 35-40 people on malaria prevention.

And this is a great time for starting a plan to engage your community, whether through a church-sponsored event, a school-based awareness campaign, or another creative approach to inviting others to join you in saving lives. If you want to be trained to volunteer for Imagine No Malaria, be sure to contact me, kerry (at) rmcumc.com, so I can include you in plans for volunteer trainings this summer.

Whatever action you take for World Malaria Day, please let us know about it through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RockyMountainConferenceUMC), Twitter (https://twitter.com/RMCbuzz), or by email (kerry [at] rmcumc.com). Tell us the story of what this means to you, how many lives you plan to save, how you are inviting others to make a difference through this extraordinary, life-saving ministry, so we can continue to build the movement. Thank you for all you are doing, and remember, it is God who is at work in you and through you to bring more abundant life to our sisters and brothers around the world!

Holy Week, Holy Work

This is Holy Week.

Christians around the world are journeying together in a variety of ways, recalling the final days of Jesus' life, from his "triumphal entry" (or anti-empire protest march) into Jerusalem, through the celebration of the Passover meal with his disciples, through his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.

It is a week that many experience as heavy with meaning and remembrance, overshadowed by the betrayal, violence, fear, and grief that Jesus and his followers experienced. In my five years in pastoral leadership in the local church, and twelve years of worship design and leadership, it was always one of the hardest and most sacred times to be a leader of the Christian community. The darkness becomes almost palpable, even two thousand years later, even for those of us living in comfort and affluence, even when the weather is sunny and warm, even when we know how the story ends.

It is the week that changes everything.

Artwork is mixed media collage, created by
Jessica Miller Kelley in 2006, photographs ©2013.
Downloaded from MinistryMatters.com.

Because on Sunday, after all that darkness and sorrow, we rise to the Good News that Christ is alive and goes before us. We remember those long-ago disciples and their experience of Resurrection, and we celebrate the truth that hate and fear do not have the final word; love does. Evil may seem to be all around, but ultimately, good triumphs. Death is still and always a reality in our world, but it is not the deepest reality: Life is what God desires, life abundant and eternal, life transformed by love, life made in the image of our Creator, life expressed by following in the footsteps of our Redeemer, life sustained by the nourishment and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that blows where it will and cannot be stopped or restrained.

This is a Holy Week, and it is right to make time for prayer and worship with the gathered community to recall and proclaim these stories, these experiences, together.

But even in the midst of this holy time, there is work to be done: reports to write, children to pick up from school, data to analyze, buildings to construct, food to prepare, seeds to plant, burst pipes to repair... bed nets to hang, rapid diagnostic kits to distribute, community health workers to train, school children to educate, medications to administer, radio programs to broadcast, funds to raise, communities to engage, voices to lift up on behalf of the voiceless, to speak out for those who are poor and vulnerable, to cry out for justice and proclaim the good news of God's love, of God's desire for abundant life for all people.

In the midst of this Holy Week, may your work - paid or volunteer, professional or personal - become part of the ongoing ministry of Jesus, to proclaim the good news and to build the kin'dom of heaven, the reign of God's love and justice in our midst, here and now, making Resurrection and abundant life possible for all people and all creation.

And if you'd like to join us in partnering with the people of Africa to make abundant life more accessible for millions of God's children by eliminating preventable deaths from malaria, call 303-733-3736 x152 or email kerry [at] rmcumc [dot] com. Death will not have the final word, this week or for generations to come.