Global Health (May/June/July 2010)

The fourth and final issue of Circuit Rider's year-long series on the United Methodist Church's Four Areas of Focus. This issue addresses what churches can do to combat devastating diseases like AIDS and malaria, to ease medical struggles in our own communities, and to preserve the health of the globe itself.

In This Issue

  1. If Pandemic Strikes

    articles If Pandemic Strikes

    Historically, there has perhaps never been a more visible display of the Church in action, loving and caring for people in distress, than its response to major disasters. I have…

  2. Retirement Repositioning

    articles Retirement Repositioning

    Throughout my adult life and ministry, I have been a hopeful and mostly positive person. In fact, “encouragement” shows up as one of my spiritual gifts for leadership…

  3. Rx for Mother Earth: How the Planet's Health is Affecting Our Own

    articles Rx for Mother Earth: How the Planet's Health is Affecting Our Own

    About a year ago, my husband Jerry and I flew halfway around the world to the hot, humid islands of the Philippines. We were on our way to meet 16-year old Fad, a young woman we…

  4. Simple Wisdom for a Complex World

    articles Simple Wisdom for a Complex World

    If nothing else, the various crises engulfing our world—pandemic poverty, disease, war, political instability, consumerist idolatry—remind us of what happens when…

  5. Turning Enthusiasm into Action: How one child's determination has saved thousands of lives

    articles Turning Enthusiasm into Action: How one child's determination has saved thousands of lives

    In 2006, Lynda Commale saw a PBS documentary about malaria's devastating effects in Africa and shared what she had learned with her family, including then five-year-old Katherine. …

  6. Stick to What We Know

    articles Stick to What We Know

    “Stick to what you know," I've been told. When people say that, they usually mean that I and, by implication, also the Church should stick to telling people about Jesus and…

  7. The Health Care Debate: Fostering Civil Discussion

    articles The Health Care Debate: Fostering Civil Discussion

    In the wake of March's legislation, is it possible to discuss health care reform without being overwhelmed by incivility? The 2008 General Conference answered “yes.”…

  8. The High Cost of Physical Health

    articles The High Cost of Physical Health

    When we survey the Gospels, we find story after story of Jesus healing—the blind, the diseased, the paralyzed. Despite a calling to follow the Great Physician's orders…

  9. Coping with Anxiety

    articles Coping with Anxiety

    An Episcopal priest friend in California said one day in a sermon that Jesus had three commandments: “Love God, love your neighbor, and don't worry.” I was surprised…