Prevention

No child should die from a mosquito bite, yet EVERY DAY more than 2,000 do.

We do lots of things in our lives in the name of "prevention". If I asked you to take 30 seconds and make a list of all the things we work to "prevent" the list would include things like: cancer, weight gain, speeding tickets, unplanned pregnancies, sun burns, bad reputations, car accidents, fights and so on. My own list would include the word "malaria".

Today is World Malaria Day. There's no Hallmark card for it (yet), no televised parade or big rock star campaign. It's a seemingly small designation to mark one of the world's deadliest diseases.

Each year more than 1 million people die from malaria; 85% are children under the age of 5. In Uganda, where Sweet Sleep is actively working to prevent this disease from taking the lives of precious children, more people will die this year from malaria than from AIDS.

Really? All I can think when I hear myself say that is "WHY?" We know the cause. We know the cure. Friends, let's save these children's lives!

I'm happy to say that all gifts made today for mosquito nets will be doubled. That's right...we're having a "save a little, save a lot" day. I implore you to go to our website, www.sweetsleep.org, and make a gift TODAY to help save a child's life. A treated mosquito net is only $8.00. In fact, I further encourage you to become a bedhead. Sign up online to make a reoccurring monthly gift toward mosquito nets and you'll know you'll be saving children's lives all over the world, every day of the year. Amazing. Really.

I'm writing this blog from Haiti where, as I type, our Sweet Sleep team is outside loving on orphaned children and preparing to lead them in a beautiful time of worship. Pray for that time. And then pray for how God would lead you to respond to the need the children have for a simple mosquito net.

Later tonight I'll pause, like I have been doing each night here, and will count up the number of mosquito bites I've gotten as the sun has set. I'm blessed to have preventative education, malaria prevention drugs and a net. These children deserve the same. They need us. They need you.

Thanks special friends. You are a blessing. You are the reason we can be here, holding these precious ones and sharing HOPE and LOVE with them. I am incredibly thankful to you.

See you in the next blog,
Jen