More Birthday Parties For Everyone
Sunday, April 25 is World Malaria Day. Let me say that again, SUNDAY, April 25 is World Malaria Day. When my friend Adam Phillips from The ONE Campaign told me about this, light bulbs began going off in my head, for I saw this as a time of great opportunity. This is because on any given Sunday at our faith community, and faith communities around the world, a lot of people gather and participate in worship together.
I became excited about the possibility of making a mention of it to our faith community, and thereby bringing greater awareness and education to a group of people about malaria. I spoke with several in our leadership as to whether this was something we should do. The response was an enthusiastic “Yes!”
This day presents to pastors around the world a remarkable opportunity to mention the day, and more importantly to educate those who are a part of our faith communities about the dark reality of malaria. Not only the dark side of the disease, but the dark reality that many have no idea as to how malaria is ravaging our world.
If you were to ask someone “What is malaria?” You may receive a host of answers. I did this recently. Quite a few said, “It’s a disease you can get from mosquitoes.” However, out of the nearly twenty people I asked, only one made any mention of malaria being a leading cause of death in our world.
The truth is that malaria is responsible for just under one million deaths each year. Most of those who die are children under the age of five. In fact, malaria is the leading cause of death in children in Africa, where one child, under the age of five, dies every thirty seconds from malaria.
This is not just a statistic. This is a child to a mother and father. A child like my daughter, who will celebrate her fifth birthday tomorrow. She has a whole day planned. She thinks she will be bigger, so she told me we have to buy her more clothes. She wants to go out with my wife and her closest friends. We are having a pizza lunch. And we will wrap the day up with our community celebrating her five years of life.
This is a privilege that thousands of parents are robbed of every day because their child's life is cut way too short by malaria. What is so maddening about these numbers is that it does not have to be this way. Malaria is preventable, treatable, and curable. Which means that there can be a lot more families celebrating their child's fifth birthday.
There are many ways the disease can be prevented. The easiest way costs just $10. For ten bucks you can buy an insecticide treated bed net that can last up to 5 years. This covers the making and distribution of the net, and education for those who are receiving the nets. These bed nets have been proven to reduce child deaths by up to 20%. That is the prevention of nearly 500,000 deaths every year in Africa alone. Which means a lot more kids can have a chance to blow out some candles.
The more I learned, the more my excitement grew about World Malaria Day. Rather than keep this to myself I decided to call other pastors. Many were excited and have chosen to say something about the day, ask people to give, or simply pause, and pray for the eradication of the disease. Together we have formed the Ten Thousand Nets Campaign, which is Denver's campaign to fight malaria (more details to follow).
Our faith community and many other communities of faith throughout Denver are putting our efforts toward raising awareness, educating our people, and supporting the fight against malaria, and it all begins on Sunday, April 25.
I invite you to join with us. Speak up and say something. It may be as simple as recognizing the day or a time of prayer during your worship service, or you may choose to dedicate your entire gathering toward the disease. The choice is yours.
We have joined together with The ONE Campaign, as they have a lot of great resources for the gatherings of faith communities with their ONE Sabbath Campaign. We have also chosen to give toward Malaria No More, a wonderful organization filled with passionate people who exist to see malaria eradicated.
Sunday, April 25 is World Malaria Day. I ask that you would email your pastor, forward this to every pastor that you know, put it on Facebook, tweet this everywhere, or if you are feeling inspired share about what you or your faith community are doing. If you ar a pastor, I invite you to participate with us on April 25. What could happen if communities of faith came together around this? I suspect that many more would have the joy of celebrating a fifth birthday with their child.