June 25, 2014
By Stan Walker, serving in Senegal, West Africa
In the June 1, 2014, print issue of Alliance Life magazine, I reported the following:
Every minute, a child in Africa dies of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that kills one million people each year. I nearly lost my dad and youngest sister to malaria when my parents served as Alliance workers in Gabon more than 30 years ago.
When my wife, Jaynee, and I were appointed to Africa, we knew the best way to avoid getting sick was not to get bitten. . . . We decided to sleep under a mosquito net. After 20 years on the field, we have each had malaria only once.
During malaria season in 2009, we purchased mosquito nets for all the guards in our neighborhood, who were becoming ill with the disease. We involved our son, Caleb, in the outreach.
After we posted a photo in our prayer update of Caleb distributing the nets, an Alliance church in Georgia had the children’s Sunday school classes collect money for what they called “Caleb’s Nets.”
Each year, Caleb’s Nets has grown, and we are thrilled to have an ongoing project of which our son . . . can be a part.
Partnering with Our Alliance Team
This month, Caleb’s Nets had the opportunity to come alongside our Alliance team in northeastern Senegal. Our first distribution was at the new vocational center for boys.
Center leadership met with community leaders, who decided to go door-to-door to hand out tickets to the families who most needed the nets.
On the day of the distribution, every family with a ticket received a net; we demonstrated how to use them and talked about their importance in preventing malaria. Alliance international workers described the ministries the vocational center offers to the community.
Providing the nets was a great way to show God’s love in a tangible way and introduce the new center to neighbors.
Hundreds More Nets Delivered
In addition, we supplied nets to the local church our Alliance team in the area serves and attends. During the service, I was able to share why this ministry is close to our hearts. We also explained how funding for Caleb’s Nets is raised by Sunday school classes, vacation Bible school students, and individuals in churches in the United States.
Before we left, we provided the church an additional 200 nets to distribute in two villages the congregation is seeking to reach with the gospel.
What You Can Do
Pray
- “As long as the Lord provides resources, we will continue to distribute nets,” the author further observed in alife. “Pray that this act of kindness will present opportunities to share God’s love so that lives may be saved spiritually and as well as physically.”
- Join the Alliance family in praying for our teams in Senegal and worldwide, who serve in often challenging circumstances that require Holy Spirit-inspired perseverance, wisdom, and creativity in demonstrating God’s love to those who don’t know Him. Use the weekly Alliance Prayer Requests to assist you.
Give
- Give to the Great Commission Fund (GCF) and support Alliance international workers, who express Jesus’ unconditional love—in word and deed—to the physically and spiritually needy.
- Give now
Learn More
- Check out “African Rains,” an alife exclusive about malaria’s deadly toll and what Alliance team members are doing to combat it.
- Read updates about the Walkers’ ministry.
- Check out alife online.
Stan and his wife, Jaynee, are Alliance regional administrators who also oversee Caleb’s Nets, a family enterprise named after their five-year-old son that distributes mosquito nets to West Africans susceptible to malaria.