Every minute, malaria claims a life in Africa; but, malaria mortality rates are falling. Just a few short years ago, statistics showed a child died every 30 seconds of the mosquito-borne disease.

Malaria's impact has been cut in half. Insecticide-treated bed nets and community education are helping to reduce...

This weekend, I watched the HBO premiere of "Mary and Martha," a compelling story of two women of different ages from different countries who are drawn together by the common experience of having their sons die from a threat they never expected: malaria.

As the pair struggle...

We struggle to make sense of the senseless. Our hearts are broken. We ask why. We're confused, frustrated, angry. We weep. We plead. We curse. We pray.

We do what we can to express our concern, to comfort the grieving, and we wonder.

The tragic death of innocents, whether in...

When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, troops came home not to the accolades and war heroes' welcome of days past, but to personal attacks on character based on the condemnation of the war itself.

Today, we face an unprecedented number of troops coming home from what has

"Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists," writes Andrew Sullivan. "Ignore them," he says, "and embrace Him." His provocative essay appears in The Daily Beast and Newsweek.

Another commentator writes that politicians have reduced the evangelical tradition to a "pathetic caricature," subordinating a "rich tradition...

When the story of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin broke, I had a conversation with a friend who told me he had repeated "the talk" with his college-age son. My friend said he had been stopped driving while black, he's had experiences walking while black, even eating while black....

More than 1.1 million children, pregnant mothers and working fathers are alive today because of gains in preventing and treating malaria. Since 2000, the malaria death rate has been reduced by 20 percent.

United Methodists have played a role in that fight, and the church's work drew praise from philanthropist...

While paying for groceries in Pine Mountain, Ga., recently, I heard another customer say, "It's hard times right now. Hard times."

I turned to see a young man, perhaps in his early 30s, dressed in soiled blue jeans and a cotton shirt, telltale signs his work is physical and dirty....

A friend recently told me she had texted a colleague in Zimbabwe about travel needs for an upcoming visit. The reply came with questions and an admonishment for prompt answers. We chuckled at the reality of the need for immediacy across an ocean and a continent.

Once, a trip to...

A new survey that looks at American attitudes towards global citizenship underscores the increasing sense of connection people have with international events.

The 2011 Global Involvement Survey finds that one in five U.S. adults follows international news closely, with almost half (48 percent) following international news at least...

Twenty years ago, I sat at a wooden table under a plastic tarp eating cereal in powdered milk made of charcoal-filtered water at a refugee camp near Luuq, Somalia. It was the sparest of conditions.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a young man and woman with an...

Here are some facts I wish I didn't know: One in five children in my state of Tennessee is at risk of hunger. One in three persons receiving assistance from our middle Tennessee food bank is under the age of 18. More than one in six Tennesseans receive food stamps,...

Hell is losing your job six months short of 30 years, with no parachute, no shiny new gold watch and not so much as a "thank you" as you walk out the door. It's payments you can't make on a house you can't sell, as your kids watch their parents...

There's a free gas giveaway, a yard sale where everything is free, and a spa day for single moms with no-cost manicures, massages and giveaways. There are free cookies, free bikes, free breakfast, and free car washes. One church will stuff a car with food for the hungry and homeless....

Mama Rose Nambing lives alone in her community in a small village in Kasumgami, Democratic Republic of the Congo. No one speaks to her, and people avoid her.

Mama Rose has lost her entire family, seven children and her husband, to malaria. Her isolation is because people are afraid...