New job

Last month, I started a new job. For those of you playing along at home, that's 3 places of employment, which is my new excuse for not blogging (or doing much non-work-related writing) over the past few weeks. In addition to serving as Associate Pastor at Highlands UMC (the position that ends next week), and Communications Manager for Family Voices Colorado, I am now the Field Coordinator for Imagine No Malaria in the Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist Church.

I'm excited to be part of Imagine No Malaria's extraordinary and historic work to end preventable deaths and suffering from malaria in Africa, where  a child dies from malaria every 60 seconds. That's far too many children who don't live to see adulthood, but the death rate is already half what it was just a few years ago.

The United Methodist Church is partnering with the UN Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in developing a comprehensive approach that includes the insecticide-treated bed nets that made Nothing But Nets such a successful campaign, and adds other prevention measures (draining standing water where the mosquitoes that spread malaria breed), plus treatment by stocking hospitals and clinics with rapid diagnostic kits and effective medications, education on how to use bed nets and the importance of seeking treatment quickly through trained community health workers, communication by radio and cell phone to raise public awareness, and advocacy for continued global health funding to fight these diseases of poverty.

As a denomination, we are working to raise $75 million by 2015. The Rocky Mountain Conference share of that is $1.2 million, which seems like a lot until you learn that it works out to just $20 for every member of every United Methodist Church in our region (Colorado, Utah, most of Wyoming). I am confident that we can achieve this goal, and it is my hope that we will surpass it with the enthusiasm of a people who believe that Jesus came so that all people might have abundant life in God's name (John 10:10).

If you're interested in learning more about this ministry of healing and saving lives, you can follow the campaign in Rocky Mountain at our blog, like the RMC Facebook page, or contact me at kerry [at] rmcumc [dot] com.

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.