“Watching a small child die from malaria is a horrific experience. First comes the headache, tiredness, weakness in the joints and general malaise, followed by a very high fever. Then the fever’s effect on the brain causes the child’s muscles to jerk, just before the end.” ~Tom Gillem, Interpreter Jul/Aug 2009.

Even though you haven’t experienced these realities first hand, there is something you can do. Stand with The United Methodist Church in the fight against malaria. Sunday, June 5, our church will be holding a Sunday to Save Lives. June 5 is our day to make a difference. Would you please prayerfully consider saving 10, 50 or 100 lives through your sacrificial gift? ($10 to save a life) Your gift to Imagine No Malaria will help The United Methodist Church along with its’ global partners, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to provide life-saving bed nets, health education and communication programs and treatments for malaria.

We have malaria on the run. In two short years, our efforts (your efforts) and those of our partners have slowed the clock. While in 2006, a child under the age of five died once every 30 seconds, in 2008, a child died once every 45 seconds. What that means is that 200,000 children lived. Your gift, made on our Sunday to Save Lives, is critically important. The time is right. The time is now. To sit back and let vast numbers of women, children and youth die from diseases and practices that are distant memories if not completely forgotten in the comfort of our churches in the developed world is simply not acceptable. We must respond. Your gift will make a difference. A gift of just $28 a month over the next three years, which adds up to $1000, will impact the lives of 100 children, their families, communities and nations. These are parents – just like you – who long to see a day when malaria won’t kill any more of their children. They are “Imagining NO Malaria.” To make their imagination a reality, they need you. Please stand with First United Methodist Church in this fight. I invite you to join me and others in taking the pledge to save 100 lives.

You have my thanks for your prayerful consideration of this wonderful opportunity. Together, we can carry out our healing mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor Donna