Children's Sermon

It was time for the Children’s Sermon on Mother’s Day Sunday. I always get a kick watching the children come from all parts of the church to the front. Most run forward with anticipation and a smile. Some hold the hands of a brother or sister, and approach cautiously. Some are making their way under obvious parental threat and a few turn around and run back to their parents before they get there. However they came, they gathered on the steps by the prayer rail with John Holt. The little red piggy banks were a nice touch. John has a great way with kids and soon they were attentive and responding to the lesson. The topic was saving money to buy mosquito nets. The little ones were probably thinking what a great adventure it would be to sleep under one of the nets. We had several hung around the church for folks to see. They each got a little bank with instructions to save their coins and help buy a net for some little boy or girl in a far away country. When children’s time ended, they all scattered, some going on to “children’s church” and the rest back to mom and dad. They were all smiling and seeing how their little bank opened up.

If they had looked at the adults closely, they would not have seen many smiles; they might have even seen a tear or two. If these little ones of ours were children from the Congo, one out of five would not reach age five. The child would have died from malaria. We are told that a child in Africa dies every 30 seconds from malaria. We had talked about that a little during the opening of the service and how The United Methodist Church, hand in hand with a number of other organizations, has a vision of raising $75,000,000.00 to buy and distribute mosquito nets in Africa. Besides the high death rate, 23.6 million people get the disease each year. Malaria is a debilitating disease that preys on people in poverty and keeps them in poverty. An adult with malaria cannot work and provide for his or her family. Even if they survive the disease, many victims develop lifelong health problems associated with malaria and they never can reach their potential.

$75,000,000 is a bunch of money. It is a dream; a vision of visionary men and women who want to help change the world. How can we raise that much? We have the goal, in our church, of buying one insecticide treated net for every man, woman and child that calls First United Methodist Church “home”. The nets cost $10.00 each. We are making it a family project, with the smallest of children getting their little red piggy banks, the youth having car washes and bake sales and the adults leading by example. In Joshua 24:15, Joshua told the people to choose whatever god that they wanted to serve, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”. Being a witness for Christ is best when it is a family decision and putting together the money for the nets is a good family project. Clearly, this is a laity driven project organized by the lay leaders and ministry teams, and responsive to our conference leaders. Most certainly, our clergy are very much behind the effort, but it is taking its energy from the laity, especially the children and youth. The work is deeply Scriptural.


But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

These are the words of Jesus as he left the Disciples, telling them what they must do until he returns. For the disciples, the “ends of the earth” would probably be about what was included in the Roman Empire. They would not have known about most of the world. For us, the ends of the earth are the places that we know exist, but we will likely never travel to. At least I don’t have the missionary spirit. Even so, our family will witness in Africa by helping provide these nets. Our church will witness there by making sure the nets are distributed where they are needed.

There is a website called “Imagine No Malaria” that has all of the information about this ministry. I hope you visit the site, and then call a family meeting. That meeting can be a powerful time for your family; a time to read some Scripture and a time to witness in a single voice. A time to decide that we can make a difference when people of faith unite. Imagine; no more malaria.

Joy!

Bill