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! 

Advent & Holiday Giving Review

If you've been following the blog regularly, you already know about most of our Advent resources for worship and study, as well as Giving Tuesday. But in the interest of putting it all in one place (with a little less theological reflection to distract you from it than usual), I thought I'd run a quick review:

If you're making Imagine No Malaria a mission focus for Advent and Christmas:

• Check out these Advent Worship & Study Resources: includes Advent candle liturgy, prayers, sermon starters, and more
• Find weekly images, videos, crafts, and other files in this folder
• Use this bulletin insert for Christmas Eve (contact me if you want to edit the wording).

Best option for giving online to Imagine No Malaria next week:

• Giving Tuesday, December 3, 2013, when all gifts made at this page will be doubled by matching funds from the Advance, up to $10,000 per donor and a maximum of $50,000 per project. (Please note that where affiliation is indicated, your gifts will count toward church and conference goals, but the matching funds will count only toward the overall campaign goal of $75 million, not individual conferences or churches.)

Christmas gift options:

• Order a teddy bear, pajama pants, or bead bracelets made by artisans in Africa, and help support Imagine No Malaria as well as other health and economic development organizations with these fun and vibrant gifts.
• Host an Alternative Gifts Fair at your church to encourage giving that honors the child whose birth changed our world by helping to save and transform children's lives in Africa. Download the inserts that describe gifts at various levels from this folder.
• Make a gift in honor of family and friends at http://imaginenomalaria.org/donate - make sure to check the box to indicate your church or conference membership. When you give through this site, you can have your honoree notified by email or regular mail of your donation, in addition to these honor cards that you can download, print, and give to family and friends.

At Christmas, we honor the coming of the Christ child who transformed our world. Will you help save and transform the lives of children in Africa by making a gift to Imagine No Malaria this holiday season?

As always, please contact me, kerry [at] rmcumc.com, with any questions or if you need help getting other resources. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a blessed entrance to the Advent season!

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.

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!