NIGHT OF NETS...Celebrating 2013 and Looking Ahead to 2014

This week is a really quiet one on the CU campus.  I'm getting a chance to do some long range planning and vision casting, finishing up grading, and spend time with some of the folks I work with in my office talking about how to make better our student programs and initiatives in 2014...

I also dropped a few checks in the mail over the last few weeks as we closed up Night of Nets for 2013...the funds raised this fall at CU and several other campuses will provide about 5000 bed nets for families in sub-Saharan Africa...it is a sort of sacred moment for me sealing an envelope with a piece of paper that will ultimately save, change, and better the lives of some remarkable folks threatened by the bite of an insect as the rainy season approaches...

And this morning over coffee and cocoa at our favorite local place a few of us dreamed about how to grow Night of Nets in the year to come...we've seen it move from 500 nets the first year to 5000 in its fourth year while providing about 10,000 bed nets for families in Africa...

And now we dream and are beginning to try and take next steps that might move its impact to 10,000 families involving 20 different campuses in 2014...it's a big step to dream of doing in year 5 what we've done in the first 4 years combined, but I am quite certain that God can do more than I can imagine and it is clearly time to capitalize on our chance to make a massive dent in the impact of this deadly killer...here's some encouraging and compelling info via my friends at World Vision in their Beyond 5 Blog:

Malaria falls under preventable diseases and children under 5 years old is the group most affected.  The world’s deadliest creature, the mosquito, kills nearly 655,000 people every year. The World Health Organization estimates that an African child younger than 5 dies every 45 to 60 seconds from the disease.

Last week, the World Health Organization reported positive news in the fight against malaria.

Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives since 2000, reducing malaria mortality rates by 45% globally and by 49% in Africa.

An expansion of prevention and control measures has been mirrored by a consistent decline in malaria deaths and illness, despite an increase in the global population at risk of malaria between 2000 and 2012. Increased political commitment and expanded funding have helped to reduce incidence of malaria by 29% globally, and by 31% in Africa.

The large majority of the 3.3 million lives saved between 2000 and 2012 were in the 10 countries with the highest malaria burden, and among children aged less than 5 years – the group most affected by the disease. Over the same period, malaria mortality rates in children in Africa were reduced by an estimated 54%.

http://beyond5.org/2013/12/17/more-than-an-itch-for-kids-under-5/?fb_action_ids=10202454496297770&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B569403739808130%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D 

There's no chance to turn back at this point...and it's my prayer as I wrap up my last week on campus for 2013 that 2014 will see NIGHT OF NETS continue to transform lives in Africa and in west MI as we seek to end malaria in the name of the ONE who entered into the mess of disease and sickness to redeem all things at Christmas...