To give to Imagine No Malaria, make your check to your local church with "International Advance #3021190" on the memo line.

Greetings, Holston!

I’m LeRae Collins, and I am blessed to be the Holston Conference’s coordinator for the Imagine No Malaria initiative.

I’m a daughter of the Holston Conference. My husband I recently moved to Knoxville where we worship at Fountain City United Methodist Church. I grew up at Clintwood United Methodist Church in the Big Stone Gap District. I served as a member of the Conference Council on Youth Ministries (CCYM) where I gained lifelong friends and a love of the Holston Conference. I’m a graduate of Emory & Henry College with degrees in both mass communications and political science. I continue to be an active alum and serve on the College’s Young Alumni Council and 175th Anniversary Steering Committee. I recently served as as director of development for a non-profit.

My husband Benjamin and I met during our time at Emory & Henry College and were married at Emory United Methodist Church in 2009. We lived in my hometown of Haysi, Va., for the first years of our marriage where Benjamin taught and coached at Haysi High School. Benjamin now teaches geography and coaches girls’ basketball at Gresham Middle School in Knoxville. He is the son of the Rev. Tony Collins who currently serves as pastor at First United Methodist Church in Sweetwater, Tenn. The Collins family’s ministry has taken them throughout the Holston Conference.

I will focus on the conference’s efforts to raise awareness and funds to support the Imagine No Malaria initiative. At Annual Conference, Holston committed to saving 100,000 lives by raising $1 million to fight malaria in the next year. This is an ambitious goal, but I’m confident that together, as people of Holston, we will step up and meet the opportunity to save 100,000 lives. Imagine No Malaria makes sustainable victory over malaria possible through prevention, education, communication, and treatment.

I will be traveling throughout the conference to work with districts and congregations of all sizes to discover creative opportunities to support the Imagine No Malaria initiative. This is a chance for us connect to Christ’s call to bring health to the sick and help those in need. One life can be saved by just $10. How many lives will we save together?

I look forward to working with many of you as we work together to save lives, eliminate malaria, and meet the conference’s goal. Please contact me to discuss the Imagine No Malaria initiative or your ideas at leraecollins@holston.org or (866) 690-4080.

Womp those skeeters!


Visit Holston's Imagine No Malaria page.