As of March all of our congregation visits, LWML Zone renewal
speaking engagements along with our Spring visits into community have been
cancelled. It was the plan to be in the north the middle two weeks of May where
Dennis would introduce me to the communities and their leaders I had not yet
met. Instead I have been meeting with team leaders via email, phone & Video
formats. I have been talking to some of our supporters making sure they are
doing okay during this time of isolation and offering prayer support. I have had
the opportunity to reach out to community contacts through email, facebook
messenger, and phone calls meeting many of them for the first time in this way.
All of our contacts with both teams and communities were to let them know we
are praying for them during this pandemic. And as we are not sure when the
borders, and Northern travel will open up again, we want to be ready to go when
that happens.
We have also began planning for Virtual VBS. That is,
ministry from a distance by all of our teams. It became official as of May 11th
as the onsite Summer VBS’s across the country were all cancelled. We have started
work on a Virtual classroom where teams can share videos, music, stories, bible
activities, puppet shows, magic tricks, etc. This will be accessible by
community children who have internet access. Some of our teams are hosting
online Bible Studies, offering youth chatrooms for their community, attending
community services on Facebook Live, phoning in to the radio station offering a
message and prayer for the community, sending a DVD for playing on the
Community TV Channel, and participating in the discussion section of the
community Facebook pages. All the teams admit that nothing replaces physically
being there, but this way they are still a part of their lives as they share
the love of Jesus from a distance.
Darlene and I just before Easter prepared a craft and card
that we sent to each of our community contacts, and Team Leaders. We got the idea
from our devotion time and were led to Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. From that we
developed a woven cord of three different color strands, representing our Lord and
saviour Jesus Christ, the Volunteer Team, and the Community.
Each color
also had meaning.
The Red cord
= the life blood of our Lord Jesus shed for us.
The Purple cord
= our life of Repentance as we live to change our sinful ways.
The Blue cord = the Hope given to us, through our adoption
as children of God, and Christ’s promised return from heaven on the last day.
We made the cord a tail attached to a butterfly clip, representing
the new life given to all believers through the resurrection (both the first at
Easter, and finally when we join Jesus in eternal Heavenly joy). We added an
angel pendant to the bottom which reminds us of God’s promise to be close to us
always, never leaving nor forsaking us.
I am preparing a collage of the pictures of the recipients
with their butterfly that I will send out for each community and team to have.
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