Christ’s Love Made Known Amidst the Pandemic

Christ’s Love Made Known Amidst the Pandemic

A pandemic is difficult any place in the world. Yet, it is especially difficult in the towns and villages of rural Uganda, in East Africa. Uganda has been very aggressive in restrictions attempting to stop the spread of COVID-19.  Because the health system was inadequate before the pandemic and is woefully prepared for the disease now spreading here, the restrictions are very harsh: all public and private transport forbidden and all but essential stores and businesses closed.  The severe lockdown has left many hardworking people suddenly stopped from their jobs with little or no savings and no economic assistance from the government. There is some government distribution of food, but it is not enough and generally focused on the most urban areas in and near the capital city.  Our diocese, Masindi-Kitara Diocese, Church of Uganda, is upcountry rural, and people here are mostly expected to fend for themselves. So, someone who say runs a clothing, stationary, or sewing supplies store here or pretty much anything other than food stores, pharmacies, agricultural supplies and designated essential services has had to suddenly close their stores. People working in hotels, bars, clothing stores, and so forth have lost their jobs. Public taxi drivers (which function like busses in the US) and private taxi drivers have no work.  Further, while some people might have relatives in a farming village who would feed them, travel is virtually impossible for most people due to our health laws.   Even if they are willing to walk for days, a night curfew forbids this, too. 

As a result, many people are scrambling looking for food. The other day, I had an elderly woman at my house who couldn’t do her regular work. Her food pantry consisted of only one 2-pound bag of cornmeal. There are lots of people in such situations–trying to stretch what little food they have or going hungry. Many families here have a number of children to feed also. No one should have to face choosing between risking jail or getting shot for breaking the laws versus having their family starve. Family food stores have been used up. Many people have little to no food—surviving on handfuls of maize meal only, eating one meal a day, or even sleeping hungry. Food relief, basic survival food like maize, is needed. People here need help to live through the crunch of this pandemic, and later will need food to help them work back towards a normal life.

Through my SAMS Special Project and a grant from SAMS World Relief Fund, the Masindi-Kitara Diocese is receiving direct funding, in addition to what they have raised and are continuing to raise locally, to provide food. The diocese is purchasing basic foodstuffs, primarily maize meal, which is being distributed to the needy with the cooperation of the Ugandan Government COVID-19 Taskforce in the three government districts covered by the Diocese. The bags for the maize meal are marked as coming from the church so the community can see how the church is active in helping mitigate the hunger problem. The Diocese is eager to continue with helping to provide food relief should additional funds become available. Additionally, after the immediate emergency food relief is done, in order to assist children in educational institutions the diocese would like to provide food to church-related educational institutions for when they resume schooling. It is very clear that with the economic hardship many parents will be unable to provide lunches for their school-children. This has historically been a challenge and food aid will assist the children who are a significant part of the vulnerable population here.

A basic Biblical principle is that Christians are to care for other Christians in need and also for other people, especially the very vulnerable (James 1:27.) This is not limited to teaching or praying, though those be important, but also extends to the physical needs. (James 2:16) Indeed, real love is a hallmark of following Jesus and a key to evangelism. There is an old saying, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Every bag of maize delivered, labeled as being from the church, is showing in deed the love of Christ.  The love of Christ draws people to the Father. When the Church shows love in practical, tangible ways meeting severe immediate needs this makes Christ’s love known, leading to more people knowing God.

 

An offering of maize in church, during better times.

Ripple Effect Ministry in Mexico

Ripple Effect Ministry in Mexico

I live in an impoverished area of Mexico, where many people live day-to-day without any kind of savings account.  With the event of the coronavirus, more and more people are losing their jobs and sources of income, making it difficult for them to have enough money to buy food. 

At the beginning of April, our Kids’ Bible Club team decided we needed to do something to reach out to the families of our weekly ministry.  When trying to determine which families were in the greatest need, the answer was that all of them were in need.  Through various donations, we were able to provide 42 families with basic food and household supplies.  We also included Bible story books, coloring pages, colored pencils, and other little goodies for the children.  Attached to the packages was a card with Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge”, and we told the families that this was a gift from our church.

One of the results of that initial delivery of food and supplies was that we asked for people’s phone numbers so that we could create a WhatsApp group of the children who usually attend our Saturday Kid’s Club.  This past month our team has worked to record videos of Bible songs, verses, and lessons to send out to these families each week, along with craft ideas as well.  We are encouraged to now be more in touch with whole families and to see many parents helping their children to have their own Kid’s Club at home.  Our prayer is that the Lord uses this time to reach not only the children with His love and Word, but that He also reaches their families.

Two weeks after our first delivery of food, our church vestry decided that it was time for the church to also put forth money to continue loving our community through another delivery of food and supplies, this time to 100 families.  We decided to give packages to each family in our church, regardless of need, to the families we had been able to bless the first time, and to a number of other needy families in the neighborhoods around our church.  On the attached card we stated that if the family didn’t need the items, to please pass them on to someone else who did need them, and thus we encouraged our congregation to be generous as well and continue shining Christ’s light to those around them.  Once again, everyone was greatly blessed to know that God loves them and was providing for them; one family hadn’t eaten all day because they didn’t have any food left in the house. 

This is a unique time in our world’s history and we as Christians have the responsibility and privilege to share Christ’s love and His message of salvation to those around us.  I am excited to see how the Lord uses these tangible examples of His and His Church’s care for people to draw them unto Himself.  We don’t know who is watching our online Sunday services, but our hope is that some of these families who have received the invitation to join us are doing so and are hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Feeding the Mind, Body, & Soul in Ecuador

Feeding the Mind, Body, & Soul in Ecuador

SAMS is sharing missionary updates about ways ministry is adapting because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many missionaries are already called to areas of great need, and those needs are increasing in light of the pandemic. We invite you, as you are able, to provide these dioceses and communities resources through the SAMS World Relief Fund. More information is on our website.

[Video Transcript Below]

Starting in March, obviously, all of a sudden life changed drastically here in Ecuador, where the capital city of Quito – the entire nation – has been on lockdown. I think we’re on day 48 or 49. We have martial law from 2:00 PM until 5:00 AM. So you’re not allowed to step outside your door from those times – so the buses have stopped. Public transportation is stopped.

People are in desperate situations. People are being laid off, obviously, which means no income. But most of our students and their families are in – they were in desperate situations anyway. Their families are going out at night and going through trash to do recycling. And that’s how they make their money. They might make 100 or 200 dollars a month by going through other people’s trash to get out recycling, but with the martial law they can’t go do that. And they have they have no access to earning money and are in some really desperate and difficult places even more so.

The way E=H (Education = Hope) works is that we come alongside the church and we resource the church so that the church can take care of its people, [and] has the resources to take care of its people and they have their own … committee and they have their application process because they know who really needs help in their neighborhood and who is playing the system.

So it’s really an amazing system that God had set up from the beginning, using that same network to continue to walk with people.  But instead of just doing education now we’re doing a little bit more. As we have transitioned from development to relief – relief being that E=H funds are now available for groceries and for medicine, and of course for education – it’s the same system that’s working so perfectly because we are supporting the local priests and the pastors and they’re still connected to their community.

We have the incredible privilege of walking alongside them in relief. As we find the resources, we’re able to go buy 50 pound bags of rice, or two or three cases of oil, or lentils, or tuna, or fresh fruits and vegetables, toothpaste, disinfectants, soap, feminine products, diapers – those precious necessities that you don’t even really think about until you don’t have access to them and you can’t buy them. So we’re able to buy that in bulk and then we deliver it to the different ministry sites. Then they make packages for each family depending on the number of people in the family, depending what their families’ needs are. They’re able to then deliver the groceries or the supplies and do some pastoral care with social distancing with masks and, you know, talking to you from six feet way, but able to do some pastoral care and able to do discipleship along the way.

So they’re feeding the mind, the body, the soul, all of it together. I’ve gotten several texts from moms especially saying “thank you, you have no idea” – [pause] I get a little emotional – “You have not only fed us, but you’ve taken away my depression, my anxiety.”

SAMS Missionaries are offering practical help in the communities they’re called to during the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Relief Fund provides them the resources to keep sharing the gospel in practical ways.