KINGFISHER INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NEWS
MARCH 2020
ISSUE 11
Kingfisher Family responds to worldwide pandemic We are living in unprecedented times - at least for our lifetime. Around 20% of the entire human race is currently in lockdown as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with nearly 2 million infected and more than 120,000 having died so far. With churches around the world being closed, Christian communities are finding different, creative ways to minister to people, body, soul and spirit.
are beginning to surface of a large scale increase of the number of people accessing the Christian message online, through visits to Christin websites, through attendance of online churches, with a rise in the number of people committing their lives to Christ. At Kingfisher in the UK, the past three weeks has seen over 20 people indicating their decision to ask Jesus Christ into their lives, with many others asking for prayer.
In the UK, Kingfisher has launched a successful online church, with three services being made available every week.
These are times when everything is being shaken and all the old certainties are crumbling around us. Jesus Himself predicted that things in the world would get worse and worse as the end draws near, and what we are living through right now would definitely be in line with that. But Jesus has overcome the world, and in this dark times, the Church is taking the light of Christ into the world in creative, compassionate, caring ways.
In India, believers are praying fervently in their own homes for an end to the pandemic. In Africa as well as in India, churches are organising food aid for families in their local communities. In the Philippines, a Food Aid programme has been launched by local churches with the help of local government in Rio Chico in the north of the country. Food packages are also being distributed among the Dumagat families.
The Covid-19 pandemic will pass, tragically leaving death and destruction in its wake. It will pass, but will we get back to normal? Do we even want to get back to ‘normal’, with its busyness, its distraction, its consumerism? Or is there an opportunity here, to move on to a new normal - an opportunity for people to reset priorities and continue to care for one another, with the church leading the way in this? There is a well-known saying that seems so appropriate for this time: ‘The world at its worst needs the Church at its best’.
Back in the UK, Kingfisher Treasure Seekers has also launched a Food Aid programme in association with Gloucester City Homes, packaging and distributing food parcels to vulnerable and isolated people. A partner of Treasure Seekers, Wiggly Worm, has been cooking meals, freezing them and then distributing them to people who are able to reheat them and enjoy a hot meal.
As and when the world emerges from this pandemic, may we, the Church, continue to be at our best, bringing love, hope and LIFE to this lost and broken world.
All over the world, Christians are rising to the challenge of sharing Christ’s love in practical, tangible ways. As mentioned above, we have a vision to minister to the whole person, and reports
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Coronavirus relief efforts and IDOP
Dumagat Education Program update
Prayers, Praise and a new resource