Lent 2015 Resources

Imagine No Malaria has new resources available for Lent 2015:

Give Up Indifference
Give Up Excess
Take Up the Charge
Take Up the Challenge
Lift Up the Hurting
Lift Up the Healed
Look Up to Overcome

Download the full engagement kit from http://imaginenomalaria.org/resources under Lent 2015 Toolkit, or learn more at http://imaginenomalaria.org/news/lent-worship-resources.

Resources for Lent

Happy Valentine's Day! Are you ready for Lent?

Seems like church leaders can never fully enjoy the present day or season because they always have to be thinking a month or two ahead to plan for the next. Ash Wednesday is March 5, less than 3 weeks away.

If your church is considering taking on Imagine No Malaria as a mission focus for Lent this year, we have some new resources to help you out! View and download any or all of the following:

• Guide for Lent (developed by INM-Iowa Conference)
• Giving from Abundance Calendar
• Bulletin Inserts
• Call to Action Poster
• Church-wide letter
• Lent slider image
• World Malaria Day Resources

May the God of abundant life and unconditional love bless you richly as you look for ways to share that love with others!

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.

Launching into Lent

Did you miss the official campaign launch for Imagine No Malaria in the Rocky Mountain Conference?  For the thousands of United Methodists in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming who were not able to be present at the Youth Leadership Conference on January 25, we have a video snapshot to give you a taste of the presentation (our thanks to Myranda Hoffman, RMC Communications Specialist, who did the video editing!):



This is just a glimpse of the information and stories shared that night by Becca Fenton, Rev. Mike Dent, Becky Buxton, and Bishop Elaine Stanovsky. The Rocky Mountain Conference has committed to raising $1.2 million toward the denomination's overall goal of $75 million. This represents 120,000 lives saved, but the truth is that our impact will last longer and stretch further than this fraction of the 655,000 people who die from malaria each year.

Because Imagine No Malaria takes a comprehensive approach, including prevention, treatment, education, and communication, our gifts and efforts become part of sustainable, empowering, locally-led work to eradicate malaria as a source of suffering and death in Africa. This is long-term, life-saving, kingdom-building work that we do in the name of Jesus Christ, who came that all people might have abundant life.

Tomorrow, we enter into the season of Lent, a time of examining our spiritual lives, identifying what separates us from God, and seeking to follow the footsteps of Jesus more closely and intentionally. If you are taking on a spiritual discipline such as prayer or fasting, I invite you to consider connecting it with an action that has tangible impact on the lives of our sisters and brothers in God's family. That could be as simple as setting aside $10 a week to donate to Imagine No Malaria instead of eating out; or telling one new person each week about The United Methodist Church's extraordinary work to bring healing to families and communities in Africa. For more ideas, check out the Imagine No Malaria Lenten Devotional.

If you want to learn more, and especially if you have experience with malaria or if you have a heart for the people of Africa and are eager to get involved, call 303-733-3736 x152 or email kerry@rmcumc.com to find out how you can join the campaign as a volunteer. 

Watch this space in the coming days for details on the different volunteer roles available and what it means become an Ambassador, district organizer, or local church leader!

Lenten devotional

With Easter on the early side this year (March 31), the season of Lent is sneaking up more quickly than a groundhog running away from Bill Murray. In fact, Ash Wednesday is less than 2 weeks away, on February 13.

If you are looking for a resource for prayer and reflection this Lent, consider joining your prayer with action, and use this Lenten devotional compiled by the staff of Imagine No Malaria. Each day includes a verse of Scripture, a reflection on how that reading applies to our lives today, and a brief prayer. Fridays are "Action Days," with different ways you can get involved in spreading the word about Imagine No Malaria throughout the six weeks leading up to Easter.

Consider using this devotional with your Sunday school class, youth group, Missions Committee, prayer group, Bible study, or at home with your family. Join the movement to save lives as we seek to end this preventable, treatable, beatable disease.