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 they might be touched by the same fate.
As she explains these deaths, she gazes into the distance. She did not know malaria comes from mosquitoes. She did not know mosquitoes breed in standing water. She did not know the fever her loved ones experienced was the forerunner to even worse effects of this deadly disease, which takes a child every 45 seconds in Africa.
Now Mama Rose is alone.
But across the continent, mothers just like her continue to cradle sick children and watch them grow worse, as the malaria parasite attacks their bodies. And, if treatment isn't swift, these mothers watch their babies die.
As a follower of Jesus, I can't help but imagine if he were physically present in Kasumgami today he would be handing out bed nets and teaching people how to avoid malaria. His storytelling would include instruction about how to save the lives of the children.
And I can't help but think he was speaking about Mama Rose and others who share her experience when he told his followers to care for the sick as the gospel of Matthew records (Matthew 25:36).
A thread woven throughout most of the world's major religions is that love of God is always linked with love of neighbor.
When John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement, saw his following grow, he instructed them to include a dispensary for medicines in their meeting houses for those who could not afford to purchase them otherwise.
I believe faith equips us to grow personally in our understanding of God and God's grace, and it equips us to mobilize for mission and service -- to stand with Mama Rose and those who are otherwise overlooked, left out, vulnerable or forgotten.
As the world recognizes World Malaria Day, the infection rate in Africa is still a heavy burden, despite encouraging progress toward reducing the effects of the disease. Each year, 300 million to 500 million people are still infected. The men will be unable to work, mothers unable to care for children, children unable to study and many will die.
Insecticide-treated bed nets are proving to be a cost-effective, simple way to prevent malaria. Nets can prevent malaria transmission by 50 percent or higher when used properly and cared for.
Beyond nets, religious humanitarian organizations are doing myriad other activities to bring about change. They are:
• Encouraging income-generating work so that people can afford to replace the nets.
• Aiding environmental reclamation and water management to reduce breeding places for mosquitoes.
• Training community health workers to recognize and treat symptoms at the outset of the disease.
• Constructing community health clinics.
• Rehabilitating hospitals.
• Conducting communications programs to inform mothers and fathers about how the disease is contracted, what they can do to prevent it and how to recognize it before their children are too sick to respond to medications.
The work of faith-based groups like The United Methodist Church's Imagine No Malaria initiative is important. Many churches are in the bush beyond the end of the road, where health programs don't reach people. Religious leaders are trusted and can encourage communities to undertake the changes necessary to prevent malaria. And they can reassure the community about the value of nets and medications.
The global community needs to address the long-term neglect of national health systems and support for their overworked personnel. We must continue to support research into potential immunization and effective treatment, and improve salaries of competent health personnel so they don't seek jobs in the developed world.
The challenge to religious people and the global community today is to make this disease history.
The challenge is to answer the question, "When you saw Mama Rose, did you not see me?"
World Malaria Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Imagine No Malaria" Ad - Video Library - The New York Times
Save lives.
So, I'm guessing he would do nothing.
Good people of medicine and means have done what little can be done.
W.W.J.C.
What Social Programs would Jesus Cut
Would Jesus tell his most fervent followers, Teabaggers and Republicans, to cool it with shutting down social programs? Hmmmmmm
Why does religion feel they have the moral upper hand in helping others. Or is it me?
Any God you perceive. What is real? In the Beginning God CREATED, everything after? something call LORD GOD came into the picture. Do your homework Sir, God and Lord God not same. Read Genesis over and over. I love my Creator!! I serve my Creator!! I do not server a god who wants us to be in fear of god. And yes I am part of God and God of me, so that makes me God as a co-creator of my life in the perceived reality we call life. As you are in yours Sir. We are all here to experience, have a nice one.
mother coyote, Osiris, Zeus, you
All Gods that were worshiped at one time.
even me when I thought I was the center of the world HA, was i fooled,
who is to say the Gods that are here today are not gone tomorrow. History has proven that!!! All we have is what we have on the inside. Our thoughts! All the Great teachers have told us over and over. Nothing is outside you Sir, nothing. From our thoughts come things. All THINGS!! That started when? is the question. that first thought, was it "I AM", going to create the Heavens and the Earth? could be! and if it is, I am going to beleive it was done from LOVE!!!
The Quantum Sciences are proving this.
We can ask Him that when we see Him. But He's also going to ask us why we didn't our resources to help one another, instead of indulging our appetite for excess. I'm guessing whatever excuse God has will be superior to what we'll say.
Now might say "it's a test", but even with all our focus and attention, it takes a long time for us to develop an honest understanding of diseases and viruses. In that time, countless numbers have died.
If he was Republican Jesus.
Sad but accurately observed.
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way
He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.
We are the only Bible the careless world will read,
We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;
We are the Lord’s last message, given in word and deed;
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?
What if our hands are busy with other work than His?
What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?
What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?
How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?
—Annie Johnston Flint
You can mock my God all you want, as long as it doesn't get in the way of doing the right thing. Malaria is virtually eliminated in the U.S.A., so many here do not see it as a problem. But, the truth is it is a decease that could go the way of small pox, if we took it seriously.
"As a follower of Jesus, I can't help but imagine if he were physically present in Kasumgami today he would be handing out bed nets and teaching people how to avoid malaria."
Really? That's the best he can do? Normal people -- including those who don't worship Jesus -- have been doing that and more for decades.
I thought Jesus cured lepers and raised the dead. Surely he would CURE all the malaria sufferers. He cursed a fig tree to death. Couldn't he wipe out the protists that cause malaria? He calmed the waters and walked on them. Couldn't he drown the mosquito larvae as they hatch in their stagnant pools?
Or maybe God could just have not created malaria in the first place? Instead, he gave us a horrible disease, and to alleviate that, the sickle-cell gene. O, what wondrous love.
The reverend's goal is a good one. But phrasing it as a "WWJD" question turns it into a farce. Jesus hasn't lifted a finger to help these people -- stop giving him the credit that rightly belongs to human beings. including yourself.