The following article was included in the December 2020 Newsletter to explain how Hope Ministries adapted to the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 and describes the current plan to move forward ...
In the August 2020 Newsletter, I summarized how Jaya and I had our travel plans delayed by the global pandemic. In the early part of our 2020 India missions’ trip, before significant spread of Covid 19, we were still able to hold our annual Gospel Meeting in Mori and visit some of our children’s homes. By the end of the trip, we were already beginning to shift the focus of the ministry due to the impact of the corona virus on both community needs and health agency restrictions.
When the pandemic began in March 2020, schools were shut down by government decree. Soon after the schools closed, the child welfare required us to send all of the children in our children’s homes back to their families or relatives. Even when we told the authorities that we had secure campuses for the children to stay, they still forced us to send them home. The children didn’t want to go home, because they knew it would be difficult to get enough food to eat at their homes. Presently, there are no children in our children’s homes
While we are waiting for schools to re-open and our children to return to our children’s homes, we have been using child support funds to distribute food to needy families and help the sick financially, along with others who come to us for help. Support to our pastors and evangelists was never interrupted and in addition to serving special, pandemic related needs in our local communities, we have also stepped up food and other assistance to our affected pastors and evangelists. This is a continuation of the types of outreach we described in the prior newsletter.
After approximately a half year of emergency redirection of ministry funds to meet the needs of the coronavirus crisis, we have restarted saving the child support funds in anticipation of children returning to the children’s homes. We will be glad to return to one of our core Ministry functions, serving the needs of orphaned and needy children, but we have also been encouraged to be able to step into other forms of ministry during this health crisis. We wish to thank all of you for your continued prayer and financial support for the Ministry through this extraordinarily unique and challenging time. We are continuing to pray for all of you, too, that you stay healthy and weather this crisis through God’s grace.
Jacob Beera
In the August 2020 Newsletter, I summarized how Jaya and I had our travel plans delayed by the global pandemic. In the early part of our 2020 India missions’ trip, before significant spread of Covid 19, we were still able to hold our annual Gospel Meeting in Mori and visit some of our children’s homes. By the end of the trip, we were already beginning to shift the focus of the ministry due to the impact of the corona virus on both community needs and health agency restrictions.
When the pandemic began in March 2020, schools were shut down by government decree. Soon after the schools closed, the child welfare required us to send all of the children in our children’s homes back to their families or relatives. Even when we told the authorities that we had secure campuses for the children to stay, they still forced us to send them home. The children didn’t want to go home, because they knew it would be difficult to get enough food to eat at their homes. Presently, there are no children in our children’s homes
While we are waiting for schools to re-open and our children to return to our children’s homes, we have been using child support funds to distribute food to needy families and help the sick financially, along with others who come to us for help. Support to our pastors and evangelists was never interrupted and in addition to serving special, pandemic related needs in our local communities, we have also stepped up food and other assistance to our affected pastors and evangelists. This is a continuation of the types of outreach we described in the prior newsletter.
After approximately a half year of emergency redirection of ministry funds to meet the needs of the coronavirus crisis, we have restarted saving the child support funds in anticipation of children returning to the children’s homes. We will be glad to return to one of our core Ministry functions, serving the needs of orphaned and needy children, but we have also been encouraged to be able to step into other forms of ministry during this health crisis. We wish to thank all of you for your continued prayer and financial support for the Ministry through this extraordinarily unique and challenging time. We are continuing to pray for all of you, too, that you stay healthy and weather this crisis through God’s grace.
Jacob Beera