A Smash Hit!  All Saints, Bay Head held a movie night fund-raiser for the ERD NetsforLife campaign on Thursday, June 28, 2012.  Movie-goers munched popcorn, candy, and soda and watched "The Girl in the Cafe," a funny, touching love story with a powerful humanitarian message about the Millennium Development Goals.  The film, first aired on HBO June, 2005, stars Bill Nighy and Kelly MacDonald and is available on Amazon.  The All Saints Movie Night raised $235.00 for the ERD Nets for Life campaign. 

In this romantic comedy, Bill Nighy stars as Lawrence, a mild British civil servant assigned to his country's delegation at a G8 Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland.   Lawrence finds himself drawn to Gina (Kelly MacDonald), an odd, outspoken young woman whom he has met in a café.  On a whim, shy Lawrence invites the decidedly un-shy Gina to accompany him to the G8 conference in Reykjavik.   The avowed purpose of the G8 is to adopt the all-important Millennium Development Goals as a means of reducing world poverty.  Together, this unlikely couple might just change history.  "The Girl in the Cafe," is a delightful romance for teens and adults that today would be rated PG-13. 

 Trinity Swedesboro raised $660.00 for 55 nets with our Lenten mission "March Gladness" campaign. (We played off of the March Madness of college basketball) The Sunday School used the Nets-for-Life / Inspiration Fund curriculum for 3 weeks in March and they discussed and drew pictures of ways in which they could personally contribute. In addition, the children practiced assembling under a net, the Net was hung in church to remind everyone of the weekly collection, they constructed an information display board which was placed in the Narthex, each child received ‘no Rita Mosquito’ stickers, and then each Sunday from March 1 through the 25, they collected change (and bills) in flower pots during the service. The display board and collection pots were left in the Narthex for additional collections on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

Write-ups on our campaign purpose and our progress were included in the weekly bulletins and the March and April edition of Trinity Tidings, our monthly newsletter. We are thrilled with the out-pouring of support received from our small but mighty congregation and the children learned about compassion and caring for people less fortunate than themselves.

Our check was submitted directly to the Inspiration Fund for matching contributions on May 1.

 All Saints Bay Head had great success in our Episcopal Relief and Development Nets for Life/Inspiration Fund campaign.  Our congregation raised enough donations to purchase over 100 nets to combat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.  The church school children led the way with a terrific banner on which they outlined and decorated their hands to represent children whose lives could be saved by using nets.  Our board display included netting,  ‘mosquitoes,’ stickers for the kids, pictures and stories of nets in use in Ghana, Zambia, and other sub-Saharan nations. 

Thanks also to those who attended the Nets for Life Coffee and Discussion on Tuesday, March 6^th at the 11 am and 7:30 pm presentation.  Rick Hager, Ed, and Phyllis Kata led a discussion between viewing two Nets for Life videos, “Instilling a Nets Culture” and “End of the Road.”  Everyone helped unfold an actual mosquito net so we could see how one net can protect up to three children.  At each presentation, the participants agreed that in addition to raising funds, we at All Saints could ‘pass the message’ and help our friends and neighbors learn more about malaria and the use of long-lasting insecticide treated nets to reduce the spread of malaria.

Monthly bulletin inserts about the MDGs.

     November (on children) 

     February (nets)

     March (water)