While churches in the U.S cannot gather for worship services amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some churches have shown great examples to be the channel of God's love into the community.
Riverside church in California has converted its in-house manufacturing facility - normally used to make furniture, signage and sermon props Among items - into a Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) production line to help health care workers and emergency personnel, Baptist Press reported.
To minimize the risk of spreading coronavirus, the church allows staff members to work just 10 people at a time. More than 13,000 plastic gowns 9,000 N95 masks and hundreds of plastic face shields that the church staff members and volunteers made were delivered with the message, "We're praying for you! Provided and assembled by your friends from Sandals Church and local community volunteers."
We want to be a positive voice in a very hard season. We want to show people God in a very tangible way." Ron McCoy, executive director of the Sandals Church Foundation. The work is in the partnership with the California Southern Baptist Convention (CSBC) and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, as well as local charities The Magnon Foundation and Riverside, the media noted.
"A church that has relationships in its community can respond quicker, more uniquely and with less money" than CSBC disaster relief units, Bivins said. "As churches respond to the needs in their community, not only do they get the credit, they are being the hands and feet of Jesus."
Hawaii Baptist Academy and several Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention (HPBC) churches on the island of Oahu are donating meals to two homeless shelters in Honolulu. Nearly 200 lunch meals are prepared and delivered daily to Next Step and Keahou Shelters according to Baptist Press.
"I'm very grateful that we are able to help those in need during this unprecedented crisis," said Ron Shiira, president of Hawaii Baptist Academy. "It's wonderful that we're able to use resources already available to us, especially our talented and hardworking chefs. We also appreciate the support we've received from our churches and families."
The K-12 school expect to serve more than 8,000 lunch meals and the cost of providing 10 meals is $30 per day. You can donate to them online through hba.net.
