what if everyone in the city of detriot died?

that’s the impact malaria has on the world EVERY YEAR. around one million people, including 750,000 children, die from malaria. and what sucks is that it’s completely preventable!! because of poverty, families can’t afford to buy nets or pay for treatment.

today, 3,000 children died from malaria…while we were all talking about what we’d do with an extra ten bucks.

but with ten bucks, you can make a change. you can bite back.

ten dollars provides a mosquito net that will protect a child from mosquitoes for THREE YEARS. it also provides education and treatment for those who have malaria.

i’d like to present a challenge to you. april 25 is world malaria day. and i want to see at least 50 people from this blog community donate at least $10 to buy a child a net in the next 50 hours (by 7 pm CST on Friday).

50 nets in the next 50 hours.

super easy.

FIRST…

click HERE to leave a comment and let me know you’ve donated.

THIRD…
spread the word. post about this on your blog. steal the graphic!

here’s the code:

<a href="http://www.flowerdust.net/2008/04/23/malaria-prevention"><img src="http://www.flowerdust.net/images/malaria-prevention.jpg" alt="$10 to Prevent Malaria" /></a>

50 hours. 50 nets. let’s do it!!

what would you do with it?

we have had a great time in nashville, getting to hang out with so many truly amazing people, some were old friends, and some were new. we are driving home now & we just passed through memphis and are driving through arkansas.

i met brock face to face at the compassion dinner last night and because he remembers stuff much better than me, i am stealing this from him. the guest speaker at the dinner was tony neeves, (VP of international development for compassion)…a lovely british gentleman with humble and challenging thoughts.

one that stood out to me was “children in poverty aren’t the problem. children in poverty are the solution.” he went on to say that these children are “bundles of potential” — and if they receive positive support, they have the potential to be world-changers in the best way possible. yet if they aren’t loved, aren’t cared for, they have the potential to be world-changers in the worst possible way.

wow.

other things (from brock):

third world people press their faces against the windows of our lives because of technology, internet, tv etc. and they feel as if they have no hope. it is because they are seeing soap operas and game shows on tv and see how we live. they cant afford a bowl of rice. they realize they have nothing and have no hope.

also, churches in western world are far more introverted than third world churches. this must change.

and, third world churches are growing fast in some areas not because of a great pastor or sermons but they are loving people and meeting needs. then the community sees the love and want what they have.”

a few other highlights from the trip:

i honestly don’t listen to much christian music. but i did when i was 13. a little bit of me thought it was cool when toby mac walked into starbucks. then i realized how truly cool i was when jenni went to hug him. (julie, i thought you’d get a kick out of that!) :)

we got to hang out some with mark and stephanie lee. mark plays the guitar in amazing ways for a band called third day. again, it’s probably been a good decade since i really listened to third day, but as we saw them play at a showcase, some of their new material really really touched chris and me in ways only god could know.

it was just truly amazing to reconnect with some of the uganda bloggers. twice.

i really wish i could link to everyone we met and hung out with but i am about to have to drive. so to all of you, thank you for making us feel so welcome!!

chris and i are headed to nashville tonight for a little mini-vacation and i am not going to be blogging while we are there. i will be twittering and maybe even live video-casting via mogulus (if i’m having an adequate enough hair day). :)

to keep you busy during my absence, i thought i’d leave you with a few blogs (people from nashville to keep the theme) i am enjoying, and also one more opportunity to sponsor a child!

you should check out:

–pete wilson
–brody harper
–brock gill
–spence smith
–shaun groves
–randy elrod

is it just me or does everyone in nashville have great hair?

and you should sponsor:

liz.

LIZ HAS BEEN SPONSORED. THANK YOU! click here to go directly to liz’s sponsor page.

kim from baltimore sponsored pravallika earlier today. pravallika is an orphan. when i was searching for another child to post on here, i noticed something i guess i had skimmed over for some reason in the past: you can select a child with special needs.

liz is obviously a beautiful girl from uganda. but what you can’t tell from the picture is that she is both deaf and mute. and she is an orphan, too.

from the site:

Liz lives on the plains of Kyesiga Parish, Kyamukaka Subcounty, home to approximately 12,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and thatch roofs. The primary ethnic group is Bantu and the most commonly spoken language is Luganda.

The regional diet consists of maize, beans, bananas, fish, cassava and potatoes. Common health problems in this area include malaria, worms and HIV/AIDS. Most adults are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $5 per month. This community needs capital for income generating activities, scholastic materials and farming tools.

LIZ HAS BEEN SPONSORED. THANK YOU! click here to go directly to liz’s sponsor page.

you guys and gals are making a HUGE difference by sponsoring these children. it means the world to me, but more importantly, it means life and freedom and love to these children and their families. so thank you.

see you all in a few days!

you know how sometimes you can look at someone - a complete stranger - and know that they have “it?” you can see in their eyes and their smile that they have what it takes to make a huge difference in the world.

i want you to meet pravallika.

she is eight years old and lives in a rural area of india called kurnool. typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, grass walls and thatch roofs. most adults in kurnool are unemployed but some work as day laborers and earn the equivalent of $38 per month.

i love her eyes. her smile. her confidence. and you would have never guessed it, but she’s an orphan.

yep. that beautiful, smiling, confident girl is an orphan. both of her parents died. she lives with her grandmother and two siblings.

she is only eight, but it looks like she has the wisdom of an adult.

whoever sponsors pravallika will no doubt be very, very proud of her. i wonder how bright her future will be!

KIM FROM BALTIMORE IS NOW SPONSORING PRAVALLIKA! WOOHOO!

you can sponsor pravallika by going directly to her sponsor page here.

note: please do not click the “select this child” button unless you are sure you would like to sponsor her, as doing so will make her page unavailable for an hour or so.

thank you all so much for the sponsorships so many of you have already committed to. chris and i got letters from both of our sponsor kids a week ago and it just rocked. linet wrote us an entire page and drew some awesome pictures for us. it’s truly amazing knowing that not only are we praying for them, they pray for us!

ever since returning from africa, i’ve wondered something.

is it just me, or does THE CHURCH seem to have its funds distributed fairly unequally?

if we are all THE CHURCH (made up of individual, local churches)

and, if we are shown an example in acts 2:44-45:

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

then why:

is there a hard working children’s pastor making $75/week and who gets his office furniture from the side of the road because his church can’t afford to buy him any?

are churches closing because they don’t have enough money to sustain ministry?

edit: and i won’t even go into listing things that are broken in churches around the globe and in impoverished countries.

when:

other churches are building multi-million dollar facilities…in the same town, on the same road, right across the street from each other?

…i could make this list longer, but i am sure you get the point.

like really.

why?