Pastors Kevin Shively (St. Matthew, York) and Barb Barry (Quickel, York) practice good stewardship of health and wellness at the 2014 5K Turkey Trot.

In 2014, rostered leaders in our Synod met the challenge to earn all congregations a 2% discount on Portico health premiums and an incentive from Portico Benefits that will help fund next week's Rostered Leader Wellness Retreat at the Hershey Hotel, in addition to earning up to $500 in wellness dollars for each member, spouse, and ESGP. Thank you for being good stewards of your health, your congregation or organization's resources, and our synod's overall wellness. We appreciate you!

Now it's time for the 2015 Go! Challenge, and there are even more opportunities to earn your wellness dollars. Begin, if you have not already done so, by taking the Mayo Clinic Health Assessment by April 30. This will earn you $150. It's even easier this year because you no longer need a separate Mayo Clinic user ID and password. Simply sign in to myPortico.PorticoBenefits.org to register and be redirected to the assessment.

Next choose and complete one wellness activity and earn $350. The focus this year is on "Being Still" and practicing a spiritual discipline of daily prayer for at least six weeks. Other options are keeping a food or fitness journal for at least 10 weeks. Visit PorticoBenefits.org/go for detailed information. You'll find plenty of tools to help you at the new Mayo Clinic Healthy Living, and online resource center that has replaced the EmbodyHealth web portal. If you use a FitBit monitor, you can even upload activity to your journal automatically.

In the November 2014 issue of The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Eaton said, "As a church we need to engage in basic spiritual practices: prayer, silence, corporate worship, Scripture study, giving, service. These are ways God comes to us. These disciplines create space in us, an openness, for God's Spirit. They chip away at our willfulness. They make us aware of God's presence in our lives."

Thank you for being a good steward of God's gifts last year. Please help us make even more of an impact this year by participating again or by joining us for the first time. Look for more information about how our synod is also offering opportunities and events to help you meet your requirements for the 2015 Go! Challenge. Together we are stronger. Together we are the synod that feeds others as we have been fed by Christ.

by Allison Beebe, ELCA Malaria Campaign

Recently, The New York Times published an interesting article titled "Meant to Keep Malaria Out, Mosquito Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In". The article focuses on the
challenge posed by people using mosquito nets as fishing nets, and reminds us that the choice between hunger and health is real and pressing for many. This is not a new problem in the fight against malaria, but the article brings it to a new light. The ELCA Malaria Campaign would like to take this opportunity to share about how Lutheran malaria programs in Africa are already responding to this challenge.

Every net that is distributed through the Lutheran malaria program is accompanied by educational programming about how to properly use the net, how to hang the net, and what benefits (health and otherwise) can be realized from appropriate net use. The Lutheran malaria programs which are supported by the ELCA Malaria Campaign are comprehensive, which means that programming is more than just nets (although nets are an important piece). The programs operate under four pillars: prevention, education, treatment and sustainable livelihoods. Nets fall under the "prevention" pillar, but only when joined with content from the "education" pillar. Click here to read the entire article on the ELCA website.