Annual 'Have a Heart Reach Out' offering to benefit Global AIDS Fund

Story and photo submitted by Dr. Donald Messer
Chair, Rocky Mountain Conference Global AIDS Fund Committee

We invite your church to observe the 2017 February “Mission of the Month” of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference on either Feb. 12 or 19. This month, we look to the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. AIDS is not over yet, despite the lack of publicity in the media and church press. There are currently 37 million people living with HIV, many in Africa and Asia. Fifteen million children are orphaned due to the disease and 700 babies are born HIV positive every day. We can effect real change through access to transmission drugs and reliable healthcare.
 
The annual “Have a Heart-Reach Out” Sunday will emphasize the relationship of Valentine’s Day and Christian love and care for the marginalized and ostracized. We invite you to donate your Sunday offering to the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. The offering from this year’s “Have a Heart-Reach Out” Sunday will help support 260 children whose parents have died from AIDS in Meru, Kenya. Methodists in Kenya supervise the community-based program.

These funds will also be used to help support a free medical clinic for women and children in Namakkal, India. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to magnify one’s love by giving to children and others who rarely experience love and care. Encourage people to remember loved ones not only with traditional flowers and chocolates, but also with life-giving gifts to the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund. Join us in our global campaign!