By Bev Weber, special contributor
Bishop Scott Jones has announced a goal of every Kansas United Methodist congregation doing something by Dec. 31, 2013, to fight deaths from malaria by raising money for the United Methodist initiative Imagine No Malaria.
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| Instructions for making pipe-cleaner mosquitos are available from the Imagine No Malaria website at http://inm.larryhollon.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/PipeCleaner-Mosquito-Instructions.pdf. (photo by Susan Cooper) |
The disease kills an estimated 655,000 people each year, most of them children younger than 5 and pregnant women. Malaria is caused by a parasite transmitted through the bite of a female anopheles mosquito. But, malaria is preventable, treatable and beatable!
Here are some ideas for the remainder of 2013 to raise money for Imagine No Malaria.
October: Encourage individuals and/or families to make a fall gift of $20.13.
November: Give gifts of gratitude. What do you have to be thankful for? Give others a reason to be thankful for you! Think about creative offerings, such as encouraging people to put a $10 bill in an offering envelope and write the name on the outside of the envelope of someone or something for whom/which they are thankful. The “Thanks-givings” names can be collected and displayed, perhaps on pipe-cleaner mosquitos on a net in a common area.
December: Encourage Christmas offerings. One church in Western North Carolina raised $100,000 in a single Christmas offering! We have the power to give the gift of life.
Remember, it only takes $10 to save a life, and we’re not done yet!
Bev Weber is the associate director of Connectional Ministries - Program Ministries for the Kansas West Conference.
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