In this video, Bishop Ward speaks about The Advance Icon Project from the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), #GivingTuesday and Imagine No Malaria.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I’ve got a pile of buttons before me because I want to tell you about the Icon Project of the General Board of Global Ministries. These are wonderful little buttons that young people have created.
Each of the buttons matches one of the icons on the website. You can go to the website and click on the medical bag, for example, to learn more about projects in health care, or you can click on this one, a church, to learn more about church extension around the world, or the tornado for disaster response, or the hammer for construction, or wheat for agriculture.
These buttons we wear proudly because they help others recognize the passion which we have for ministry in the world. They are good conversation starters; “What’s your button about?” Our answer reveals something of the mission of our church and our energy for being God’s agents in the world.
We as United Methodists are in mission together around the world and we celebrate that each year on #GivingTuesday, the first Tuesday in December, which this year is so easy to remember, it’s December 1st. There’s a million dollar match this year for those who give earliest. #GivingTuesday begins, Central Time, at midnight, December 1st.
The first year of #GivingTuesday, $6.5 million was raised. Last year, $2.5 million was raised on #GivingTuesday. The point of #GivingTuesday, is not so much the match, although that is fun, the point is for us to think about giving rather than consuming during the season of Advent and Christmas.
Here in our annual conference, we are focusing in a very strategic, and energetic way on Imagine No Malaria, one of the many Advance missions of The United Methodist Church.
You can receive these buttons for use in your own church by being in touch with the General Board of Global Ministries. They are free for the asking. Let us together, engage in mission the Wesleyan way, connected, empowered, effective. We are Christ in the world. The world is our parish. Thanks be to God.