Imagine No Malaria Day

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Tom Bolton

I raise funds for a number of good causes, and people may get tired of hearing from me. I get it! But here I go again: Dear friends and readers,

On April 25, I will be walking to end malaria with my church, and I would love it if you would support me. All donations go directly to the life-saving work of Imagine No Malaria, a project of the United Methodist Church that provides bed nets, community-based education, medicine, and more to help the people of Africa relieve the burden of malaria in their communities. We have walks going on in a number of Wisconsin communities. The one in Milwaukee starts at Bay View United Methodist Church at 10:00 this Saturday.

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Did you know that malaria kills one person every minute and accounts for over 200 million cases worldwide each year? The Sub-Saharan region of Africa is hardest hit, with over 85% of malaria cases and over 90% of malaria deaths occurring there. This disease targets pregnant women and children under the age of 5. Lives are lost and communities are destroyed – all because of a mosquito bite.

But we are making progress. The Imagine No Malaria initiative of the United Methodist Church is sparking a revolution that is showing results. Along with our partner organizations like the United Nations Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have seen malaria deaths cut in half in just the last eight years. And we won’t stop until we have seen an end to deaths and suffering from this killer disease. The end really is in sight!

For the Walk, my goal is to raise 500.00 for Imagine No Malaria. Any donation you can make toward this goal would be greatly appreciated! Just $5 buys a round of malaria treatment and $10 provides a bed net to protect an entire family from malarial mosquitos10338666_10152705174036260_8076236875829015391_o while they sleep. Literally every dollar can make a life-saving difference for women, children, and families in Africa.

If you are interested in finding out more about Imagine No Malaria, check out: www.ImagineNoMalariaWI.org.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Here are a few more facts about the campaign; they help explain why I buy into this campaign:

Good News, Malaria is 100% Preventable

Unlike many other diseases that are awaiting a cure, malaria was eliminated in the U.S. in the 1950s. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria continues to kill a person every 60 seconds. But there is hope! Imagine No Malaria is part of a global partnership and together with our partners, our generation can beat malaria once and for all.

Malaria is caused by a parasite, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. This mosquito flies and feeds at night (which is why bed nets are an effective prevention tool).

When an infected mosquito bites a person, the parasite enters the bloodstream and heads for the liver, where it multiplies. It then re-enters the bloodstream, attacking red blood cells. Typically, someone with malaria experiences a high fever, chills, joint pain and headaches. Left untreated, symptoms eventually advance to organ failure. Nearly 90 percent of malaria’s victims are children under the age of 5 and pregnant women.

Through Partnership, We Have Made Extraordinary Progress

In 2007, the World Health Organization estimated there were more than 1,000,000 malaria related fatalities. By 2012, the number had been reduced to 627,000. While that is still a staggering number, a nearly 50% increase in life is worth celebrating! Thanks to the efforts of The United Methodist Church and our partners, we are on our way to beating malaria for good.

2,300,000+ Bed Nets Distributed

4,600,000+ Lives Impacted

300+ Clinics Maintained

11,600+ Health Workers Trained

We are making a difference!

Our goal is to raise over $1 million in Wisconsin by June.  We are over half way there.  We can make it!

I will be walking 5K on Saturday and also helping to set up.  If you would like to donate, you may send a check to me at Tom Bolton, in care of First United Methodist Church of West Allis, 7520 W Lapham St., West Allis, WI 53214.

 

If you are interested in finding out more about Imagine No Malaria, visit www.ImagineNoMalariaWI.org.

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A love Tale

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Tom Bolton

I’m sharing another poem I wrote in 2013, and I honestly had forgotten this one completely. When I read it Tuesday, it was as though it was brand new to me, and I had to read it many times and think about it. Maybe that is how everyone reads this.

Love, Fabric

Of real people we care, it festers;
Practical, more than just ethical,
we dirty our hands.
We ache and cry at the end of the day.
Like Christ, we love the real person.
More a doing than a feeling,
we love.
In our love, we do not desire more;
we serve.
Love originates in Christ:
Not in my brother, my sister,
my wife, my sons,
and not in some seen enemy,
but in Christ.
He is the light.
He is the word.
He is love.
In this rough fabric of our lives,
the Spirit weaves in love.
Love cleanses hands.
Love strengthens fabric.
Love shines bright.

(c) Tom Bolton, 8 April 2013, Milwaukee

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Grit

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Tom Bolton

Re-posting a poem from July 2013:

Bay window in Christ Church Hall

As I was reading Mark 3:

In a Concrete World

Some days in this world, the law is such that the silence is deafening,
or comments are shouted so harshly that ears ache and minds are crushed.
The doing that puts us in the midst of real doing
May be costly doing.
So, do we yet save lives?
Do we get gritty?
Scratching with hens out back, do we fill our nails with hard grit?
May we freely endure embarrassment?
How dirty are my hands each day?
We learned this in school, no?
Were these messages inside our textbook covers?
Some days, the messages of school days are lost.
Some days, the messages seem different, long lost.
But in the midst of this concrete world,
Christ is with us.
The doing that puts us in the midst of real doing
is blessed doing.
Beside us, the Master is doing.
In the abstract of life,
we do and are doing.
In the gray of life,
the doing shows in some black and white.
In the abstract of life,
Christ is still with us.

My hands are dirty;
I am in the midst of doing today.
I listen.
In the grit, I listen.

(c) Tom Bolton, 17 July, 2013, Milwaukee

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Another Offshoot

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Tom Bolton

I am again sharing the newsletter of Mineral Street Programs and Services.

Mineral Street Programs and Services, Inc.

Cultivating healthy individuals, healthy families, for a healthy community.

                 Offshoots                            April 2015

Dear Friends,

The month of March we were able to serve breakfast on two Saturdays, March the 11th and March the 25th. We are able to rent the pavilion at Clark Square Park right across the street from where we used to serve. The first week we served 24 guests! Some of the guests are still looking for us at the church and others came after we went around looking for to let them know that we are back in the community. The building that we are renting has heat, a refrigerator, tables and chairs. For the most part the building is not in use. Because of this we are able to set up the area and know that it will be ready for us to use for the following breakfast without having to reset the tables.

The guests who came were so excited to see us. Some were also calling their friends to let them know that we were there. We had great fellowship and were able to hand out Bibles to a few of the people. We were able to show God’s love and that is what is important.

For breakfast on the 25th we did not have as many guests. It was warmer out and there was an activity going on in the community. It was also hard because some of the people had forgotten that we are only able to come every other week. Some had showed up on the 18th and were disappointed that we were not there. They called me asking me where we were and wanting to know when we are coming back.

What we do is so important to the people and the community. It is not just about the food that we serve or the care packets that we had out. It’s about telling people about God, spending quality time with a person and caring for them. We specialize in the personal touch- the one that reaches hearts and makes a difference.

We are still trying to raise funds for a building but we are also talking to other churches in the area to see if we can rent space from them. In the meantime, we can continue to rent from the Milwaukee Parks System. It costs us $100 per Saturday. Are you able to sponsor a Saturday breakfast so that we can serve the community more than just twice a month? Would you like to provide a breakfast? Please contact me for ways in which you can help.

We are still looking for more board members who might be interested in helping us with the direction and growth of MSP&S. Our specific need is for an attorney and someone with accounting background. But anyone is welcomed who has a heart for God and shares the same vision.

 

In Christ,

Lisa

Morning Glory Director

Donations can be made to MSP&S and sent to Tri-City National Bank; 4295 West Bradley Road; Brown Deer, WI 53209; ATTN: Penny Tillman

 

I have also started a Go Fund Me page where you can make donations. http://www.gofundme.com/Mineralstreet

You may also visit our website to learn more information about us at www.mineralstreet.org. We have PayPal on the site.

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If You Give a Monk a Fishing Net

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Tom Bolton

A cool post by Irvin J. Boudreaux !!

Christopher Adamson's avatarThe Golden Echo (Archive)

Monastic Monday Br. Monday is now wondering why the abbot made him a fishing net…

Three old men, of whom one had a bad reputation, came one day to Abba Achilles.

The first asked him, “Father, make me a fishing-net.”

“I will not make you one,” he replied.

Then the second said, “Of your charity make one, so that we may have a souvenir of you in the monastery.”

But he said, “I do not have time.”

Then the third one, who had a bad reputation, said, “Make me a fishing-net, so that I may have something from your hands, Father.”

Abba Achilles answered him at once, “For you, I will make one.”

Then the two other old men asked him privately, “Why did you not want to do what we asked you, but you promised to do what he asked?”

The old man gave them this answer, “I told you I would not make one, and you…

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Freedom

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Tom Bolton

I’m recalling this poem from February 2013. The poem was percolating in my mind for over a week, but the parts about the song in my youth just didn’t translate well in 2013. Sometimes, repentance is hardest when we are too focused on the sin and not on restoration.

Jesus

Free Me From Shame

Can it be that there is no glory without the cross
and no growth without suffering?
Shall we conform to the image of the suffering servant?
How can we bear the image of his glory
after first bearing the image of our own shame?
Not the image of the suffering servant,
we do bear the image and memory of evil.
Today my memory drifts back to a song of my youth,
recalling words about Jesus and Joseph,
not a praise song, not a hymn,
but blasphemy of my prideful youth.
Today I seek to share his suffering, to
learn from the master,
to attain resurrection from the dead.
How did I get here,
I, a sinner so sad?
I remember pride and remarks, and cool,
and the shame engulfs me now.
Let me now be a disciple of the master,
learning now as a servant.
I seek now next things.
Draw me from my own selfishness.
Draw me to a holy enclave where I may
be free with boldness in faith.
Let me enter the garden to be close by my
Savior.

(c) Tom Bolton, 19 February 2013, Milwaukee

English: Sunrise at North Point Park, Milwauke...

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A List for Maundy Thursday

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Tom Bolton

Again

Maundy Thursday Table

Maundy Thursday Table

Maundy Thursday Playlist

http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/04/05/maundy-thursday-last-supper-and-gethsemane (This is a link to a page from Sojourners.)

This is a page from Sojourners in 2012. It includes a playlist of songs inspired by or that speak in some way to the Holy Week journey that brings us to Maundy Thursday and the great mandate from which the day takes its name: “If I, the Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet.”

John 13-1-17

As we walk with Jesus ever closer to Good Friday, we recognize today as Maundy Thursday, commemorating the day that Jesus celebrated his last Passover meal — the Last Supper — with his disciples and washed their feet. Later that night, he would go with them to the Garden of Gethsemane, to wrestled with his humanity and the mission God the Father had called him to — to suffer and die on the cross at Golgatha the next day. Jesus asks his disciples to stay awake with him, to keep him company and join him in prayer. But they fall asleep, leaving Jesus alone in his dark night of the soul.

This is my body … broken for you.

We’ve compiled a playlist of songs inspired by or that speak in some way to the Holy Week journey that brings us to Maundy Thursday and the great mandate from which the day takes its name: “If I, the Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet.”

Check out the music list near the bottom.

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