We received the following on 21st March from our mission partner Becky Jenkins working with a church planting team in Manchester. As you will see some of her new “normality” will already have changed by now.
“We’ve had to stop meeting as a church here, along with every CofE church, at least the venue isn’t an issue for the time being. (Ed. I guess that changed a couple of days later!) We’re trialling a zoom call for our Sunday service this week… a bit easier when there’s fewer of you. We’re hoping and praying that new people would join our church in this time, even if it’s only to see each other on our screens…we’ll see!
Meanwhile, yes finding creative ways to keep in touch: my class instructor from the gym is doing video classes, I’m going to meet a friend in the park for morning runs, going for 1 and 1 coffees in people’s houses while I still can. We had a class going with some Afghan ladies where we did English and read stories of the prophets through the Bible and prayed, so I’m now trying to turn them into videos they can watch! … and I’ll even be teaching from home for work, so we’ll see how it all goes. Praise the Lord for technology!!
“Also the local Asian shops seem better stocked than Tesco, and my Asian friends are instructing us about how to use a jug to ‘rinse’ after going to the toilet – so we’re doing pretty well with the panic buying shortages.A tricky thing at the moment is weddings! My brother’s is in June, and they’re anticipating calling it off. We’ll have to wait and see for July but currently only 5 people allowed: the church building we’re using are being very kind though: if that’s still the case in July we can a) live stream (?!) and b) return for a blessing later in the year (or postpone). Luckily we haven’t quite hit that point yet, but I imagine it may end up being a bit different to the big celebration with 250 people in the church we were anticipating…
“God’s still God though- trusting he can bring about good through all of this, glorify his name and refine us as his children through the process.”