Mission Update: Moravian Disaster Response/ COVID Aid

MORAVIANS IN MISSION

This issue’s highlight:

Moravian Disaster Response/COVID Aid

As the calendar turned from 2019 to 2020, none of us could have imagined how a virus would have gripped every corner of God’s earthly kingdom. At first, we thought this might cause us a month or two of inconvenience – it has become far more than that. When it became apparent the virus would impact us for some time, the Board of World Mission decided to offer $200 grants to congregations and agencies in the Northern and Southern Provinces. These grants were to help pay for adjustments in putting their worship services and meetings online using streaming services or Zoom.

To date, The BWM has assisted 63 Moravian congregations and agencies, amounting to over $14,000. Some congregations have also used the money for things like feeding programs in their communities.

COVID-19 is now impacting our Moravian brothers and sisters in Latin America as case

MISSION UPDATE

counts continue to rise in a part of the world that does not have the healthcare infrastructure we take for granted in North America. To date, we have sent COVID-19 aid to Honduras (Unity Province), Honduras (Mission Province), Peru and Cuba.

A grant of $55,000 was used to purchase medical and protective equipment, hygiene kits and food for the La Mosquitia region in Honduras for use at the Ahuas Clinic and 50 other medical stations. Among the items purchased and shipped were oxygen concentrators, respiratory nebulizers, non-touch thermometers, pulse oximeters, oxygen flowmeters and N-95 masks.

We thank the Rt. Rev. Sam and Lorena Gray for overseeing the process of items being purchased, shipped and properly distributed. Sister Lorena was able to help with the packing in Winston-Salem, N.C., and being at the distribution point in Belen, Honduras. We also

thank Dr. John Arrowood and Dr. Benno Marx for their expertise in helping us to know just what needed to be purchased. On October 13, 2020, a dedication service was held in Belen before the materials were distributed to their final destination.

The pandemic will continue to require us to be attentive to needs and respond with aid for some time to come. We continue to solicit donations to the MDR fund to ensure that we can meet the needs of those who are impacted by calamity. It has been a very busy hurricane season, but we are thankful that none, so far, have been catastrophic.

We thank all those who have so generously supported the Disaster Response Fund. Lives are being saved.

The new Antioch Leadership Cohort

The purpose of the Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church, North America is to “Build relationships through Mission Outreach and Mission Engagement while being faithful to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.” Relationships are built through trust and partnership.

The BWM also emphasizes the importance of education, training and developing relationships as individuals and teams prepare for service and then serve with ministry partners who have extended an invitation to the BWM to support efforts in many locales of the Moravian landscape. These tenets of the BWM will be put into action through the Antioch Leadership

Cohort.

The Cohort has been developed to intentionally engage with individuals seeking greater awareness and a more comprehensive and informed way of serving as an expression and responsibility of their faith. Participants will be encouraged to work with their pastor or a congregational leader to play an active role in the yearlong process. The process includes online education and meetings, the reading and discussion of written resources and concepts, as well as the development and implementation of an action plan that is based upon the values of the Moravian Church and will contribute to the greater good of humanity. More information about the Cohort will be available soon. (Continued on next page)

Left: Lorena Gray helps organize a shipment of medical supplies in Winston-Salem, N.C. RIght: Boxes are carried over land to locations in Honduras. On previous page: supplies are loaded onto a boat to reach their final destination.

Mission Update

(Continued from previous page) If you are interested in participating or have questions about the program, please contact Jill Kolodziej at jill@moravianmission.org.

Report from the Colegio Moravo in Bluefields, Nicaragua

For almost 100 years, the Moravian school known as the Colegio Moravo has been educating young men and women from up and down Nicaragua’s east coast. It has a wonderful history and many distinguished alumni who are now making a positive impact in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the school to change many of its teaching techniques, but they are making the most of the situation. What follows is a portion of the report that Allan Budier Bryan, principal of the school, sent to the Board World Mission:

“We reopened the doors of our school on August 24 with students in tenth and eleventh grades. On September 21, we divided the classes (50%) from 7th to 9th grades. The first group comes on Monday and Tuesday and the second group on

Wednesday and Thursday. Thank God, as of this moment we have had satisfactory results: we are taking all necessary precautions, and we have had the support

from our teachers, parents and students.

Our kids were out of classes for five months. During this period of time, they were receiving classes through hand-outs, WhatsApp, and a few through classroom platform.

As of this moment, we have 492 students; 90 percent are currently receiving classes in their respective classrooms.

The Colegio Moravo depends solely on school fees in order to meet our responsibilities with the personnel and comply with our responsibilities with other institutions (light, water, phone bills and maintenance). The Government pays seven teachers while the school pays 24 (including administrative and support personnel).

The monthly school fees are C$650.00 (six hundred and fifty Córdobas), which is equivalent to $18.90 USD.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed by offering scholarships to students. This has made a significant difference in the life of many kids and their families.” n

The Rt. Rev. Chris Giesler is director of mission engagement for the Board of World Mission.

The Colegio Moravo in Bluefields, Nicaragua, has seen impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic but are making the best of the situation..

IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Overcoming challenges at Sunnyside Freedom School 2020

For the last several years, Trinity Moravian Church has been the site for Sunnyside Freedom School. This six-week summer school program is sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund and organized and run locally by Anthony’s Plot, an emerging ministry in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Like most other things in 2020, Freedom School was very different this year! With creativity and dedication, the team behind this remarkable program overcame significant challenges to keep this remarkable program alive and well this summer.

The CDF Freedom Schools program enhances children’s motivation to read and makes them feel good about learning. At the same time, the program connects families to the right resources in their communities. Freedom School students engage in a researchbased, multicultural Integrated Reading Curriculum that supports them and their families

This exciting and vibrant program is a mix of school summer camp and Vacation Bible School. There is lots of singing, energetic music in the style the kids like, hands-on learning activities and lots of reading and spelling. Because most of the children in Freedom School are people of color, there is a strong effort to find age-appropriate books that feature black and brown children that look like them – something that often doesn’t happen in traditional school curriculum.

Community leaders ranging from the mayor to the local pastor (me) come each morning to kick off the day reading a story to the children, then answering their questions and learning how to do a little dance with them! The basic program focuses on reading skills but has expanded over the last three years to include STEAM: science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Last year a genuine rocket scientist taught the children how to build and launch their own rocket, while this year a graphic artist taught a class the principles of artistic design. (Continued on next page)

Freedom School (Continued from previous page)

But Freedom School also involves lots of “being together” for the staff and kids—something that was suddenly off the table with the COVID-19 pandemic. The unexpected challenge this year was how to retool Freedom School to keep the children and staff safe and respect the restrictions imposed by the State of North Carolina in “Phase 2,” requiring masks, social distancing, no meetings inside of more than ten.

For a time, it seemed like Freedom School 2020 might not happen. Pastor Russ May, the co-founder of Anthony’s Plot and sort of the “principal” of Freedom School, had to scramble to figure out a new model that would provide the same benefits to the children, yet keep everybody safe. Fortunately, the Children’s Defense Fund leaders provided a lot of resources and advice, and together they were able to create a safe Freedom School for COVID-tide.

Similar to the local schools, the plan was to piece together a mix of distance learning and limited in-person learning. Donors provided funds for iPads for each child; if the children successfully completed the program, they were allowed to keep the iPad. But in a population that is struggling financially, the other daunting issue was facing the “digital divide” – few poor families have broadband internet! Hotspots were purchased to provide internet access for those who did not have it in their home.

The teaching plan was revamped to work over distance learning – not as effective or exciting, but every effort was made to bring the same energy to the online sessions as existed in the in-person sessions. Each class would come into the building once a week to meet in person with the mentor-teacher. The rest of the week, they would meet virtually.

Classrooms were decorated with themes to make the spaces interesting and to place a bit of “learning” on each wall. The in-person meetings were carefully structured so that each child wore a mask, social distancing was observed, and careful precautions were taken to sanitize surfaces between meetings. As most of us have found over the last months, observing these precautions can be very time-consuming,

Freedom School classrooms were decorated with themes to make spaces interesting and to place a bit of “learning” on each wall.

and often get in the way of the way we would normally do things. The mentor-teachers were all very faithful and careful in sanitizing surfaces and keeping kids at social distance, something that requires constant reminders, especially with younger children!

Challenges were constant. As any teacher these days can tell you, one of the main themes that emerged were the constant technical issues. Zoom wouldn’t connect to the audio, someone’s camera wouldn’t work, the internet was sometimes overburdened and dropouts were common. Trinity Moravian Church is wired for high-speed internet access in the office and fellowship hall, where “connected” meetings and seminars are often held, but the signal did not reach reliably to the third and fourth floors, where many classrooms were located. A decision was made to use some of the AT&T hotspots in that area, which worked pretty well until the hotspots reached a data cap and went into “throttling” mode, where the speed is reduced drastically. The slow speed could not accommodate the multiple video streams needed for Zoom. Russ May and Pastor Jackman scrambled to run a temporary cable to the third floor and install a new internet router for those classrooms.

Then halfway through the program, the big challenge dropped out of the blue. One of the college interns tested positive for COVID-19. There were plans in place for this eventuality, but it was one everyone hoped to avoid. The planned emergency procedures were put into effect. All classes went fully virtual, with children isolated at home. Contact tracing checked who had been near to the intern during the previous week. The end result was that the mentor-teacher recovered, and none of the other staff or students contracted the virus.

The big closing program for Freedom School, when certificates and awards are

passed out, is a well-attended event usually held in the Reich Fellowship Hall at Trinity. Since that was out of the question, the closing was moved into the parking lot to be held outdoors. To add to an already difficult year, this exciting closing event was washed out at the last minute by one of the worst thunderstorms we’ve had in a long time – roads and yards were flooded, trees were downed and no one with sense was outside. The certificates and awards had to be hand-delivered to each home. It was exciting that with only one exception, all of the students completed the program successfully and were allowed to keep their iPads!

This has been a challenging year for churches and ministries in every way. But Freedom School 2020 is a testimony that the challenges can be overcome—and in that, the values of Comenius and education are living values today! n

The Rev. John Jackman is pastor of Trinity Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, NC