“The word of God says to go out in the world and to spread the gospel of Christ, but this situation is totally opposite,” wrote a JESUS Film team member in Nepal. “No one can go out of their home and meet the people. This time is the greatest challenge to us, and for all the missionaries in the world.”
Stay-at-home orders put into effect in most countries is requiring Nazarene JESUS Film teams to adapt their way of doing ministry, just like churches, schools, compassionate ministries, and other Nazarene endeavors.
“We used to go to other districts, other places, to share the gospel of Christ, but in this time I [am reaching] my own village and my nearest relatives and neighbors,” wrote another JESUS Film team member.
Unable to go to work, school or shop, this team member wrote that his relatives were willing to take time to listen as he shared about Jesus. They asked many questions about Jesus and His power.
“Some people were sick, not feeling peace, and asked for prayer. I prayed for them happily. They also felt happy and relaxed by these prayers and from listening to stories about Jesus and His love,” he reported.
Another JESUS Film team member described the difficulties that people are facing in Nepal during the global pandemic:
This is a remote area where people lack infrastructure, like electricity, transportation, and communication. In the time of lockdown, the vehicles are stopped totally, and all the shops are closed. People are finding it very hard to get oil, salt, vegetables, and other food materials.
Farmers have no vehicles to transport their products to market. All the markets are also closed. Laborers are not able to earn money, and landlords are not able to complete their works. So all the people are in trouble and suffering in their day-to-day lives.
This is the time that rich people have saved much food, but the poor people are starving. They don’t have money to buy food and no work to earn money. So people are saying, “Let us die from corona rather than dying with hunger.” It is a very critical situation, and the government is also feeling it is hard to solve this problem.
We decided to serve the people with some relief sources. Our churches wanted help, and shared the love of God to church members and other needy people in this lockdown time.
We distributed 25 kilograms of rice, two liters of cooking oil, two kilograms of sugar, two kilograms of beaten rice, washing soap and pulses. We provided this to children from the child development centers, also.
They were very much thankful for our help, and we are also thankful to God for this opportunity to share the care and love of Christ. But still, many people in various parts of the world are not getting food and are suffering.
Where people express fear and anxiety, believers are encouraging them, describing how Jesus offers peace and inviting them to put their hope in Jesus, too, according to a member of a third film team. Some have said that when the government allows churches to again meet together for worship, they will come.
“People are not able to go to medical and health centers; they are coming to believers of the church and pastors for prayer,” he wrote. “We prayed for them and they were healed.”
The teams asked Nazarenes to pray for the following requests:
- Pray for all the people who are fighting with physical problems, that God may heal them.
- Pray for those who have seen hope in Jesus, that they would understand the love of Christ.
- Pray for God to heal those who are sick with the coronavirus.
- Pray for those people who are not getting proper food to eat.
- Pray that God would provide all the needs to people struggling in this situation.
- Pray for the people in my village, that God would bless them with a new heart in Christ.
- Pray that all the Christians may read the Bible more.
Pray for all the Christian leaders, that they could take care of their church members in this time.
