How one Conference took a campaign and made a slam dunk!

Here in the North Texas Conference the Nothing But Nets (NBN) campaign has really captured the interest of our local congregations. For a brand new program, the amount of interest we’ve seen in this initiative is outstanding. I believe this is because of the simplicity of the slogan “Buy A Net. Save A Life.” Everyone can understand that $10 buys a bed net that can save lives and prevent malaria, which kills a child every 30 seconds.

We started promoting this campaign by putting information in our conference newspaper, The Reporter. By August 2007, we had raised $62,935.61. We also had a 3-on-3 basketball tournament that started with the local churches, then went to the district level, then the conference level. Our conference winners then played the Central Texas Conference winners at General Conference in Ft. Worth this past April.

Since our basketball tournaments were spread out over many months, we were able to continually keep the NBN initiative before the congregations. We have now raised $113,801.74. A small church in Aubrey, Texas gave $200. Collectively, a lot of small donations can amount to something truly significant. Together, our conference has bought 11,380 bed nets. That is enough nets to drape all the beds in a small African town.

Imagine a town where no child dies of malaria. In this effort, I have truly seen the hand of God at work.

--Rev. Marji Bishir, Associate Director of Connectional Ministries with the North Texas Annual Conference