Who Will Remember Domingos?

Mike Dubose is one of my heroes.

If you are familiar at all with the United Methodist Church, if you have ever visited any of the UM websites, if you have ever seen a news release from our United Methodist News Service and it had great photos with it, then you probably are familiar with the work of Mike Dubose. He is an extraordinary photographer, who tells the story of our ministry in some of the most amazing images you have ever seen.

Mike has done this work all around the world, in the face of disasters and tragedies. I would think he had seen it all.

Yet he returned this past week from Angola, and brought back pictures and stories of poeple who lives have been ravaged by malaria, a disease which for many of us is about as far removed as small pox or bubonic plague. For Mike Dubose, who has seen poverty, disease and disaster through the lens of his cameras, this trip shook him like no other.

You can read UMNS Reporter Kathy Gilbert's moving story if you click on the title of this blog entry. Please take a moment to read it. You will meet Domingos Antonic, the child in the picture above, who was brought to the hospital where Mike and Kathy were visiting in their assignment to cover the impact of malaria. Domingos small body had been victim to this disease, but by the time he arrived the doctors there were unable to save him.

Malaria kills over a million people a year, one every 30 seconds. Sometimes we can't get our heads around numbers like that. But little Domingos died, and that has a way of sinking in.

Who will remember Domingos? Mike Dubose and Kathy Gilbert will. I will, because they shared their story with me, and hopefully you will and all those who read this story and see his picture. But if we remember Domingos, will we no anything to save the others who are dying even as we read this?

A simple bed net might have saved Domingos life, and enough bed nets might put a serious dent in the number of malaria deaths in Africa. You can get a bed net to a family in Africa for just $10.

The United Methodist Church is a partner in an effort called "Nothing But Nets." I'll be writing more about this in upcoming postings. You can visiti the website at www.nothingbutnets.net.