Over the last 6 weeks our Servants workers have beautifully witnessed to the spirit of Christ in the face of the many challenges presented by COVID 19. By and large they have faced these challenges with grace and courage despite times when they’ve felt overwhelmed, inadequate, powerless, even possibly accused and derided.
While they are few in number, the work they are doing has brought relief and comfort to thousands of families. Their work is hugely appreciated by their poor neighbours, by us cheering on from the West, and we believe by God. We specifically acknowledge:-
- The Manila team <https://servantsasia.org/countries/philippines/> and their partner organisations, for distributing food to almost 4,000 families (1,000 of them receiving a second distribution) to fill the gaps left by the government distribution programme and other initiatives. They have held up well, despite some having significant health issues themselves, and not being able to meet face to face as a team, or get to their team centre.
- The Jakarta team <https://servantsasia.org/countries/indonesia/> who have been through so many trials in the last few months, from floods, to typhoid, to being sent away from Bible College (on suspicion of having Covid), and most recently one team member being very ill. They have cared for him beautifully. We continue to pray for his recovery.
- The India team <https://servantsasia.org/countries/india/> which has helped distribute food packages and cash to hundreds of families. Some have helped many other migrant families be registered for the government food distribution programme, while another has had many hours in hospitals and several difficult conversations with health officials as he’s advocated for life saving medical treatment for some critically ill people.
- The Covid Response Group which spends an hour or more twice a week Zooming together (and many mails in between) to monitor, and debate our response in each place.
- Our linking teams for the many Zoom, Whatsapp and FB calls they make to encourage our immersion team folk in difficult times.
- The many generous financial gifts from people all over the world to help in the relief efforts.
From our workers’ actions, we’ve also learnt a few things along the way in this crisis:
- While lockdowns have been effective in the West, such lockdowns in the developing world have caused immeasurable suffering to the poor, as families struggle to have enough to eat and to get urgent medical attention. One job those of us in the West can do is to get the word out that as wealthy countries consider loosening restrictions, the suffering in many countries in Asia is worsening.
- Our immersion teams’ experience is that it’s very difficult to actually get tested for Covid, given the lack of tests available. This means we need to hold the official statistics of number of infections and deaths in those countries lightly. There are likely to be many many more people infected than the official record.
- The need for our workers to think about worst case scenarios ahead of time – to think “If I get really sick, where will I/my neighbours go for treatment, and how will we get there?”
- The need to listen to the science and act accordingly, rather than get our information from FB (or from certain unnamed presidential briefings).
- We need to treat this response as a marathon. This crisis will take months or years to pan out. Hence the need to pace ourselves and draw boundaries about what we can do and what we can’t.
Again we want to thank our workers for their tremendous work in very difficult circumstances. We pray that they are gracious to themselves and others on their teams. We hope and pray they take encouragement from the words of our model in loving the poor:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Bless are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
