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Methodists raise funds to fight malaria "Across America the United Methodist Church is teaming up with a number of very diverse organizations, like the NBA, Sports Illustrated, United Nations Foundation, and others, to raise money to purchase chemically treated mosquito nets for the children of Africa to fight malaria," said the Rev. Dave Rhodes, pastor of the Grove Hill United Methodist Church. The effort is called the "Nothing But Nets" Campaign. A $10 donation buys and ships one mosquito net to a child in Africa. "Every 60 seconds a child dies of malaria somewhere in the world. The exciting part about the plan is the nets prevent the mosquito bites in the first place; and then being chemically treated, they kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria," Rev. Rhodes explained. In January the Bishop of the Alabama West Florida Annual Conference (covering the south half of Alabama and Northwest Florida) challenged the churches of the annual conference to raise $100,000 and thus buy 1,000 nets by the annual meeting in June. When the four day annual conference (June 3- 6) was over the offerings given by the churches of the annual conference totaled $203,000! This amount will be matched by a gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which doubles the amount to $406,000. Rev. Rhodes detailed the Grove Hill church's part: "The United Methodist Men of Grove Hill UMC got organized and motivated to raise funds for the "Nothing But Nets" Campaign by having a fish fry on April 14. The United Methodist Men set a goal of raising $1,000 or providing 100 nets for the project. Tickets were printed for selling ahead of time for $10 a piece. Many were sold in the weeks before the event. The church pulled together as well as the community to support the event. On the afternoon of that Saturday, United Methodist Men with a little help from some of the United Methodist Women worked hard to be ready to start serving catfish dinners on time. There was a constant line of people waiting to be served for almost two hours that night. In all the work and excitement of the evening no one was able to keep count of how many plates were served that night. There were obviously several people who bought tickets who did not come to the dinner, while there were several others who came and paid for their dinners that Saturday night."
When all the bills were paid and the pans were washed the church was able to give a gift of a little over $1,300 to the missions offering for "Nothing But Nets" campaign.
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