East District churches band together for Imagine No Malaria

By SHERON C. PATTERSON
Editor

Seven East District churches – Aley, Becker, College Mound, Kaufman, Kemp, Poetry and Mabank, all in Kaufman County – raised more than $10,000 for the Imagine No Malaria campaign through a March concert of the Connections Band.

“We challenged each of our churches to bring $1,000 to the concert, rather than simple relying on passing the plate that night,” the Rev. Eston Williams of Aley UMC said. “We are very excited to have raised the second-highest amount of money in the history of the Connections Band.”

Instead of hosting the concert at a church, the event was held at the Mabank High School auditorium “so that we could take the music to the people, rather than expecting them to come to us. We believe that presenting the band at a secular facility brought people to the concert who might not have come to a church to hear it,” Rev. Williams said.

In addition to the $9,474 that the churches collected before the event, donations received at the concert totaled $1,824, including over $400 from a bake sale that the churches put on and $420 from text-message donations to Imagine No Malaria sent during the concert.

The Connections Band, a 1970s cover band made up of United Methodist ministers, is gaining quite a following through the region. It is named in recognition of their clergy connection, their connection to great music and the calling as United Methodists to be connected to those in need through giving to missions. As of last summer, they had raised more than $100,000 for the UMC’s disaster relief fund and its anti-malaria campaign in Africa.