4. The Bible tells me so. Read Luke 4:38-39—Jesus rebuked a fever and we can too. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12—we are one body in Christ, and some of our members are suf- fering from malaria, so we must all respond together.
5. “God’s work. Our hands.” Arden Strasser, an ELCA missionary in Zambia, puts it succinctly: “God doesn’t need our money. God’s work needs money.” We give our time, our creativ-
ity and our fi nancial resources to the ELCA Malaria Campaign, and our Lutheran companions in Africa leverage those dollars to create life- changing malaria programs. All of us are doing God’s work.
6. Malaria is a medical injustice. Malaria disproportionately aff ects those in society who are already most vulnerable: the very young, the very old, pregnant mothers, those living in poverty, those living with HIV/AIDS. Our Lutheran theol- ogy teaches us that in Christ, we are freed to work for justice for all of God’s beloved children.
7. A child in Africa dies every 60 seconds from malaria. Progress has been made, but we’re still losing hundreds of thousands of lives to a preventable and treatable
disease. Our work is not fi nished.
8. Remove the obstacles. Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi said that as a church, “we must remove those obstacles that hinder people from seeing the love of Christ. Malaria is one of them.”
9. The time is now. T e alarming growth of drug-resistant malaria parasites in Southeast Asia and the reality of a changing climate lend urgency to the fi ght against malaria. If the frontline malaria drugs lose their potency, more live s will be lost. Changes in global temperature will mean that malaria can creep into higher-altitude areas and aff ect unprepared communities. Unless we make it better, the epi- demic of malaria will get worse.
To learn more and help For more information about
the ELCA Malaria Campaign, visit
www.elca.org/malaria. To help, send checks (indi-
cate “malaria” on the memo line) to ELCA Malaria Cam- paign, PO Box 71764, Chicago, IL 60694-1764; give online at
www.elca.org/malaria (click on “Donate now”); or call 800-638-3522.
Author bio: Hacker is an ELCA diaconal minister and coordinator for the ELCA Malaria Campaign.
JACELYN PEABODY ’15
J-term Medical Mission Ometepe, Nicaragua
An education that ensures a life lived with meaning.
THAT’S THE VIEW FROM HERE.
www.carthage.edu SHUTTERSTOCK
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