Sunday, February 2, 2014

NIGHT OF NETS COMES ALIVE: Malaria BedNet Distribution in Zambia

I just got one of those emails that brings joy to your heart and even greater purpose to your passions and growth to your visions...

After hosting several different events in our NIGHT OF NETS initiative this past fall, we were so excited to raise the funds to provide thousands of bed nets to families that desperately need one in Zambia...

Yet for us we can sometimes wonder if they really get there and what impact they truly have in a place on the other side of the world...and then you get an email and a photo that makes everything real...

My friend and brother Lawrence Temfwe, the founder and director of our partner in Zambia, Jubilee ministries, sent me this photo:

And he wrote these words, which reminded me again why I love working alongside my Zambian friend:

"After giving them the nets I told them that if anyone dies from malaria, I will not come for your funeral and I will not shed a tear for you. I said anyone with a mosquito net and does not sleep in it, he is committing suicide. We had a great laugh. Of course I meant it!"

So far they have distributed over 1000 nets to 500 households from Night of Nets...and we will be joining their church leaders to distribute more in person this May on our trip to Ndola, Zambia...

I am reminded on Super Bowl Sunday how one of my greatest joys in life has not come from athletic victories or achievements despite my sports-crazed brain...but has come in giving and sharing and getting to know my dear friends in Africa...and getting to hand them a simple bed net that will save and change their lives because Jesus has brought us together...

Counting the days till I step on Zambian soil again with some fantastic CU friends...


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