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!

Pauley Perrette wants you to help her catch a killer

Pauley Perrette, star of TV's hit show NCIS, is a supporter of Imagine No Malaria.

If you want to help catch this killer in the dark, visit ImagineNoMalaria.org to learn more, pray, donate, or get ideas for organizing your church or community group.

If you're in Colorado, Utah, or Wyoming, contact Rev. Kerry Greenhill at the Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist Church (kerry@rmcumc.com or 303-733-3736 x152) to learn more about how you can get involved.

*This PSA was recorded about a year ago, when malaria took the life of a child in Africa every 45 seconds. Today, that rate has dropped further, so that a child dies every 60 seconds. That's still too many children who die needlessly each day from a preventable, treatable, and beatable disease, but it means we are making progress. Together, we can end unnecessary death and suffering from malaria in our lifetime.

Ripples in the water

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you know how much power you have to affect the lives of others? 

Depending on how your day is going, you may see yourself as powerless, or too easily affected by the words, attitudes, or actions of other people. Or you may be all too aware that the decisions you make - in parenting, in friendship or a romantic relationship, in the workplace - can make a dramatic difference for those around you.

Image courtesy of zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In recent years, the recognition of interdependence and connectedness among all people and all living things has become regarded as more than just a feel-good statement of philosophy or spirituality; it is affirmed in arenas as diverse as physics, biology, politics, and psychology. From the "butterfly effect" (a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world sets off a chain reaction that leads to a tsunami around the globe) to the ripples created by a small stone being thrown into a pond, the natural world is full of images that demonstrate the far-reaching effects of small, simple actions. The truth is that all of us have more influence than we realize, both on the people who are physically close by and on those we may never meet.

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 

- 1 John 3:18

 One of the blessings of a movement like Imagine No Malaria is that it offers a concrete and meaningful way to harness the energy of interdependence, to turn good intentions into actions that can literally heal people and save lives. If you spend $10 on lunch or a movie ticket, you may or may  not remember how you spent the money a year from now. But if you give that same $10 to pay for the cost of an insecticide-treated bed net, you're helping keep a family of four safe from malaria-spreading mosquito bites for up to five years.

That's five years when children are in school regularly and parents don't have to miss work, when there are no unexpected and arduous trips on foot to a clinic ten or twenty miles away to seek treatment. And of course, bed nets are only one part of the story; your $10 (or $25, or $100, or...?) could help provide rapid diagnostic kits or life-saving medication for a clinic or hospital; larger gifts can help train and support community health workers who visit villages to build relationships, assess the need, and explain the importance of bed nets and prompt treatment of symptoms; initiate radio programs that raise public awareness of malaria prevention and treatment; or much more.

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he [or she] sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

- Robert F. Kennedy

What kind of ripples are you sending out into the world this week? Would you consider some small action - telling a friend or church group about Imagine No Malaria, making a donation, calling your Congressperson to support continued global health funding - to help save the lives of children and pregnant women who are most vulnerable to malaria? If you're not sure where to start, the Lenten devotional booklet compiled by INM staff has some great suggestions for simple actions you can take, each Friday during Lent. Together, we can make a difference.


P. S. You can donate now (or at any time) at the Rocky Mountain Conference website - enter the amount you wish to give in the Imagine No Malaria box, and at the bottom of the screen, choose whether you want to give once, weekly, or monthly. Or you can give directly through Imagine No Malaria; just make sure to indicate which church, district, or conference you want to receive credit.

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.

Mosquitoes kill no more

Mosquitoes, they fly high;
Mosquitoes, they fly low.
Mosquitoes, they fly everywhere -- [clap]
Mosquitoes fly no more!

Bishop Elaine Stanovsky has been teaching conference leaders, clergy and laity this camp song about mosquitoes each time she talks about the life-saving work of Imagine No Malaria. On Friday evening, the participants in the Youth Leadership Conference (YLC), held at St Andrew UMC in Highlands Ranch, learned all about the mosquitoes that spread malaria. And, more importantly, they heard from Bishop Elaine and three other speakers how The United Methodist Church, together with global funding and health partners, is taking the lead in an extraordinary effort to end preventable deaths and suffering from malaria in Africa.

Rev. Dr. Mike Dent, Senior Pastor of Trinity UMC, Denver, introduced the youth to Imagine No Malaria, an expansion of the tremendous work accomplished through Nothing But Nets. Imagine No Malaria adds to the prevention work of providing bed nets the essential components of treatment, education, communication, and advocacy, which are being carried out in African communities by United Methodist health workers and partners like Africare, Nets for Life, and the Alliance for Malaria Prevention. Rev. Dent also welcomed the other members of the Steering Committee who were present at the event: Dr. Becky Buxton, Bishop Elaine, Kunle Taiwo, Kristi Kinnison, and Rev. Dr. Youngsook Kang. Co-Chair, Robin Ball, and Field Coordinator, Rev. Kerry Greenhill, were unable to attend.

Becca Fenton, a youth leader in the conference and member of the Conference Board of Global Ministries, led an exercise that demonstrated the prevalence of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa -- in many areas, approximately 75% of the population experiences malaria at some point in their lives, most as children when they are most vulnerable to the disease.

Dr. Becky Buxton, who teaches medical laboratory sciences at the University of Utah, shared her professional passion for malaria research and her personal experience visiting Ghana and seeing firsthand how diagnosis and treatment have improved in the last eight years.
 
And Bishop Elaine closed out the presentation with the mosquito song, a description of her experience distributing bed nets as part of the Mountain Sky Area mission team to Angola last year, and a call to action for the youth: Get involved as leaders in your church and community, and help us save lives! 

One of the images from the Angola trip is of a village gathered around the base of a baobab tree to sign up to receive insecticide-treated bed nets, one of the most important and cost-effective prevention tools available. Reflecting on what those nets mean to families, many of whom have already lost children to malaria, Bishop Elaine identified this as a powerful symbol: the Tree of Life.

For most Americans, the challenges of malaria may seem too far away to get involved or too overwhelming to make a difference. But Imagine No Malaria offers individuals, families, churches, and communities the opportunity to be part of a bigger movement; to take small steps that can offer physical and spiritual healing to families and communities in Africa. It only costs $10 to send a net that can save a life; imagine how many lives you can save if you join together with others in your Sunday school class, youth group, UMW, UMM, book club, congregation, school, or town!

For those unsure of their capacity to have an impact, consider the African proverb:

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito."

Youth at YLC had a chance to sign up to get involved as volunteers, and also to take packets of information back to share with their churches. Video of the presentation will be available soon. Meanwhile, to learn more or to get involved, please contact Field Coordinator, Kerry Greenhill, at kerry [at] rmcumc [dot] com or 303-733-3736 x152. Together, we can sing a new song:

Mosquitoes, they fly high;
Mosquitoes, they fly low.
Mosquitoes, they fly everywhere -- [clap]
Mosquitoes kill no more!

Introducing our new Field Coordinator

Hi! My name is Kerry Greenhill, and I'm the new Field Coordinator for Imagine No Malaria in the Rocky Mountain Conference. I look forward to sharing updates on our campaign, ideas for how to get your church and community involved, resources and inspiration throughout the coming year. If you have questions or want to learn more, please contact me at kerry [at] rmcumc [dot] com, or call 303-733-3736 x152.

Myranda Hoffman, RMC Communications Specialist, wrote this article about me in December:

Welcome Kerry Greenhill! 

New Field Coordinator, Imagine No Malaria Campaign 

by Myranda Hoffman

The Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist Church is pleased to announce Rev. Kerry Greenhill has been selected for the position of Field Coordinator for the Imagine No Malaria campaign. She will be working with Conference leaders, including the Steering Committee of the Imagine No Malaria Campaign of the Rocky Mountain Conference, Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky and Rev. Youngsook C. Kang, Conference Staff Administrator, to get the word out to churches across Utah, Wyoming and Colorado about the goals and impact of Imagine No Malaria. Oh behalf of the Steering Committee, Kerry will also be asking for individual and congregational involvement through education, fundraising and advocacy. 

The Rocky Mountain Conference adopted the Imagine No Malaria campaign as a major area of focus. Our goal as a Conference is to raise $1.2 million from both large and small donors. The goal is to have met this amount by World Malaria Day in April 2014. This campaign provides so much more than simply treated mosquito nets.  It will complement the success of the Nothing but Nets campaign by adding holistic prevention efforts, providing treatment through existing United Methodist facilities, educating community health works, and providing communication to raise public awareness of bed net usage and when to seek treatment.

When asked what drew her to the Imagine No Malaria campaign, Kerry responded, “I have always believed that one of the gifts of The United Methodist Church is its willingness to put faith into action in bold ways, making a concrete difference in the lives of people around the world. I see Imagine No Malaria as a true healing ministry, saving lives and offering a more abundant life to millions of people in Jesus’ name. No strings attached, just living out God’s love in tangible ways.” She hopes that every church in our Conference “will commit to a plan of education, generosity and advocacy that involves all their members and also reaches out to the wider community.”

Rev. Greenhill has been serving as Associate Pastor at Highlands United Methodist Church in Denver, CO since 2008. This is a one-year part-time position from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013. Kerry is looking forward to working with local churches, districts and the Conference during that time.

Saving Lives in D.C. - Imagine No Malaria Visits Capitol Hill

More than 100 Imagine No Malaria advocates knocked on doors across Capitol Hill on December 4th to meet with members of Congress to urge continued global health funding. This included United Methodist members from 29 states, 40 annual conferences and five participants from Africa. Rev. Mike Dent, Tiffany Fletcher, Kunle Taiwo, and Margaret Hotze represented the Rocky Mountain Conference. Rev. Mike Dent has written a blog about the experience...check it out and learn more about how you can help!

Here are some other articles written about the Imagine No Malaria events in our nation's capitol:

-Conferences push malaria goal past $26 million 
-Malaria fighters knock at Capitol Hill doors