GLOBAL VOICES
Global Voices for A Global Pandemic Strangely enough, a global pandemic makes some people less global and more local. To make sure our global voice is still being heard, we reached out to our missionaries for their perspectives on COVID-19 in the countries where they live and serve. DATELINE—SAN FRANCISCO/WORLDWIDE, APRIL 2 AT 10:55 A.M. SUSAN PERLMAN COVID-19 will change the way all of us do ministry going forward. We are engaging with a world that has had its security shattered. The message of hope in Jesus is being heard through a new lens. For me, I have stepped up my work in live chat on our 24/7 platform. Three Jewish people came to faith there this past week. We are also serving as first responders in cities like Tel Aviv, where the municipality has called on us to deliver food to the homes of elderly Israelis who cannot do this for themselves. One of missionaries in Paris has started a Faith & Fitness YouTube program which is growing daily. I can go on and on. All this to say that as a church we are more relevant to our community today than ever before. DATELINE—PAKISTAN, APRIL 2 AT 8:15 A.M. BETH AND JIM TEBBE The Pakistan government has put us all on a twoweek lockdown, due to “expire” April 4. I’ve frankly been amazed at how the government and others have communicated the realities of an infectious disease to an often illiterate and uneducated public, including the Christian community— drawing circles on the ground where people are supposed to stand in line the appropriate distance apart, when the culture calls for crowding up as closely as possible. That sort of thing. I think the church is somewhat catching on, but sees the controls as largely something that others in authority have imposed on them. Because they are so much a part of everything, it isn’t seen as just a tool of Christian persecution. The so-called good side is folks are used to submitting to authority and just accept the controls.
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A few churches (maybe more than I would have thought) have tried to do online church for two Sundays now with mixed success for the technology. This tends to reach just the more literate and middle-class parts of the church. Others continue to meet for small groups. Back when my house helper lady was coming, she’d arrive in the morning with reports of glorious prayer meetings the evening before. I didn’t have the heart to suggest to her that these meetings could be problematic in terms of the disease. People really need the encouragement of being together as they are used to. Some, more educated, have moved to Zoom and Facebook and various technologies. (WhatsApp is big here for smaller groups) to keep in touch. Those that use these media are quite comfortable with them, though they will still get together with friends they know, “who couldn’t be sick” as they are asymptomatic! The big problem is how close to subsistence many Christians live. Those who are fortunate have a proper job as sanitation worker with the city or situation like that. Many live as daily laborers (think Jesus parable in Matthew 20) and if they don’t work a specific day, the family really doesn’t eat that day. With many or most all construction efforts stopped, more people are out of work. We’ve gotten involved in some efforts to help, but the need is enormous and hard to know how giving can be wisely done. Easter is the biggest day of the Christian church here. On the one hand, it is the day the terrorists attacked a place where they knew Christian families would gather in 2016. On the other hand, unless active persecution, it is the one day when churches will lead a procession with a bit of police support, marching down the middle of the street singing and so on. Everyone (literally, if possible) buys new clothes for the day—a bit like the 1950s in the U.S. when I grew up, when it was really important to get a new Easter dress. This might be their only new clothes for the year, but it happens on Easter. I frankly can’t imagine them not having a group celebration. On the other hand, we are waiting until the end of the week to hear if the government extends the lockdown. (And if I believe in social distancing at all, I hope they will. Otherwise folks will flock together and presumably really spread the virus further.) No one here is big on planning ahead. The upside is a lot of flexibility; the downside is my desire to plan everything ahead as much as possible.
