Here’s the thing, in quarantine it’s an easy excuse to say “I can’t do ministry because I can’t go be around people.”
But, as I said, that’s an excuse.
We were in quarantine for a month because of Covid-positive members, as I mentioned a couple blogs ago, and we still did ministry.
Ministry for us looked like:
-Creating encouraging videos for our leaders and people we love. Specifically, we did some listening prayers to encourage people with messages we perceive to be hearing from God for that person. In a listening prayer, what I hear may not mean much to me, but I’ll definitely share it anyway because you never know what it’s meant to say to the person you hear it for. Yes, I do believe God communicates with us through words, images, dreams, any and all communication.
-Writing letters to friends, family, sponsors, etc.
-Video chatting with individuals who are preparing for a World Race of their own to provide encouragement and some insider tips about what was and wasn’t helpful in our Race. You learn a lot about what you wish you did and didn’t bring. It’s a pretty cool thing to pass that along.
-Write blogs to share encouragement with everyone connected to us and those who stumble onto our pages.
-Trash pickup in the neighborhood. A perfect social distancing activity to beautify a neighborhood.
-Pass out candy for Halloween!
-Minister to each other and cherish the time together.
-Prayer walks around the neighborhood and prayer drives wherever we felt led (again, I believe we hear from God. As an example, read my blog about going to a cemetery). Another perfect social distancing activity!
-Ask for prayer requests through social media and spend intentional time praying for and encouraging those people. A video chat with our World Race Alumni Facebook group to pray specifically for their prayer requests LIVE was also a beautiful thing. And guess what, a video chat like that can be done on many outlets with many groups!
I have to say that seems like a pretty long list to me, and there’s probably some others I forgot. But the point is, you can always be doing some kind of ministry. Don’t negate the power of prayer. Even from the middle of a field with no internet you can still be praying for the community, the country, friends, family, and the world.
Ministry should be part of our daily lives, and even if you don’t believe as a Christian, I think 99% of the world would agree that love is a good and powerful thing to share.
Don’t get discouraged in this time of quarantine and uncertainty with Covid and any other circumstances that arise (weather, for example) about the limitations in what you can do. God is a flexible overcomer who isn’t surprised by the challenges we face. There’s always a way to love. Sometimes, who you need to love is God or yourself. Take care of yourselves going forward. Don’t lose sight of the fact that we need to be caring for ourselves so we can pour love into others without getting burned out. Self-care is an essential thing we were designed to need by God.
Know that during this time of quarantine, if you’re my friend, family, or someone I met who played a special temporary role in my life, I thought about you and I prayed for you.
I never needed to leave my home for that.
