Eight Missionary Suggestions for the Church and Coronavirus

I’m seeing a tremendous amount of conversation on social media related to coronavirus. Also, there are conversations in organizations I’m part of related to the best responses. There is lots of good information out there. I’m seeing strands of thoughts related to how a person of Christian faith lives in community during the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s my best attempt at putting the best thoughts together:

1. Don’t fear. God is sovereign. He knows all

and has all power. He will not leave us. His Son, Jesus has risen from the dead. Death will not overcome those who believe. Some of us may not live through this pandemic. Yet, death is not the final matter. Most of us will live through this pandemic. As we get through this, we will be wiser, and our stories will glorify God.

2. Steward your health, wealth, and home. There are ways to prepare. Stewardship should be part of your life. Yet, if stewardship has been lacking, we still have some of a window to prepare. Those who are most likely to be helpful in a pandemic are good stewards of their health, wealth, and home. Get a good night’s sleep. Eat nutritious food. Get some daily exercise. Live on a budget. Have some savings. Have enough food and essentials in your home that you can quickly host others with a little to spare. Have an extra bed or two for visitors.

3. Conversely don’t pillage Walmart and hoard. That’s a response based on fear and coveting. Faith is very different. Also, the ability to hoard ignores the plight of those in our community who live paycheck to paycheck. We’re better than that.

4. Listen to good counsel. Stay aware of what government and medical leaders are advising in your

locality. Make sure you have some personal friends who are experts. Call them when you have a question. Don’t get sucked into pundits and paranoia. When you hear definite advice follow it.

5. Protect the vulnerable. Some of us are going to have it more difficult than others. Five quickly come to mind. They are:

a. Asians. Sadly, crisis brings out the darkest sides to humanity. Some will look for an easy target to blame instead solving problems in a community. Some of my Asian friends are posting about language ranging from inappropriate jokes to just meanness. Let’s put that nonsense behind us. If you hear or see bigotry confront it. Then just extend extra measures of respect and kindness to those of Asian descent.

b. The elderly and chronically ill. Follow the instructions. Minimize physical contact. Wash your hands. Avoid unnecessary large social gatherings. We need to slow down the infection rates. Remember avoiding getting the coronavirus isn’t just about you as an individual. It’s about how many others you will infect. For the sake of others take precautions.

c. International students. Universities are closing. International students will be in a difficult place. What do they do? Where do they go? Where do they stay? Now is a time to practice the art of hospitality. Stay aware. Call international offices of nearby universities. Be in touch with campus ministries. Make your extra bed at home available for those who don’t have family nearby.

d. Students from low income families. Many of their families budget through the year with their

room and board covered by financial aid and are saving for their transportation home. Closing universities puts low income families in a jam. When school closures are extended to elementary and high schools low income students will need to replace breakfasts and lunches that their children typically receive at a reduced rate or free. Now is a time to stop by these families home with a bag of groceries. It’s the time to put some cash in a card to hand to someone you know. If you are in the position to hire, it’s a time to create a little extra work for a parent. Remember don’t turn these families into a project or prop on stage at church. Help them out while respecting their dignity.

e. Working families. Many families rely on open schools to both educate and care for their children as both parents work. School closures create chaos in household management. Many don’t have extended family or neighbors nearby. If you know a family in this situation offer to watch their kids.

6. Discern. We’re in new territory here. This is a time for prayer, learning, and appropriate decisions. Discernment means we’ll make decisions that push against our culture and comfort. Most of us haven’t been through something like this before. Many events that we find great joy in will need to be canceled to slow down infection rates. If you are a decision maker for a church stay informed, and make the best decision you can to protect your church members and their network. For a season you need to withhold the compassion of Christ expressed through physical touch. Shaking hands and embracing aren’t necessary to be pastoral. As I’ve mentioned we do want to slow infection rates in our community.

7. Yet, if predictions are accurate a time is coming in which our community will have members

who are gravely sick. Historically, this is where Christianity has thrived. The compassion of Christ is displayed through human touch. Some Christian leaders will need to sit with the sick, hold their hands, read to them Scripture, pray, and be physically present for a long period of time. No one should be gravely ill alone. No one who is gravely ill should be deprived of human touch. At times this will include reminiscing about the past and laughing – even when it hurts, and the laughter causes coughing. It’s likely that paid medical people won’t be able to do it all. Those of us who are physically strong may need to carry the sick from their beds to the bathroom. We may need to carry the sick to car and drive them to a hospital. We are possibly entering into a season where shepherding one’s spiritual and physical fitness is shepherding one’s community.

8. Create new and appropriate ministry paradigms. Christianity has grown historically despite epidemics and violent persecution. Though our rhythms of weekly services in buildings have blessed many for generations they are not the core of church life. Creativity and community are the core of church life. “What would the Apostle Paul do at such a time as this?” may be the most important question of the day.

I propose that Paul would listen well to government leaders and his ministry colleagues. He’d bathe all of this in prayer. He’d thank God for all that church infrastructure had accomplished in the Western Church. Yet, he’d stay very flexible. He’d not ask for any Christian leader to do what he wasn’t already doing. He’d model. He’d appoint deacons to get in the sick’s homes to help. He’d instruct elders to pray, teach, and touch the sick. He’d be working overtime on blogs, vlogs, and social media. He’d wish everyone a Happy Birthday. He’d check on people individually and in groups. He’d be a very consistent messenger of what it means to live “in Christ.” I suspect that his most memorable teaching would not be in large public sermons but in intimate correspondence over the internet.

Our prayers are with all our friends and family around the world as you wrestle through these matters. We know none of this is easy. We do believe this season will pass. We will be wiser when it’s over. God will be glorified. Christ’s Church will continue to transform many lives.

Mungu akubariki! Mukama abere namwe! Imana ikurinde! May God bless all of you!

Mzee Daudi Jenkins

End of Year Missionary Reflections

Today, is the last day of 2019.   We’re both hopeful and vulnerable as we look at 2020.   We’re sure our last blog and email of 2019 isn’t the only one you have today requesting a year end gift.   We do sense that we are exactly where we need to be.  We do sense that we are in a location where God is moving.  We request that you put some thought into what’s happening in America, and the best use of resources.

From our perspective there are neglected places in the margins of society that show the movements of God.   America is a great nation, but amid a great spiritual struggle.   In this struggle it can be easy to choose a partisan path.   The issues of ministry we frequently face of immigration, poverty, and race are frequently seen through a partisan lens.   Yet, we believe these issues of ministry are best addressed through the witness of the Church.   There are thoughtful voices of faith.   However, many of those voices cluster in urban areas.   We chose in 2019 to move to Bismarck, North Dakota as missionaries to be near a surge of African migration, take a part-time teaching pastor role with Revive Christian Church, and hopefully settle into life that is good for our disabled son and us as grandparents.  

December saw these variables play out.   If you weren’t aware with recent policy changes to refugee settlement local states and counties now must consent to receive refugees.   It’s all been a relatively easy process.  In North Dakota our governor, and the counties where Fargo and Grand Forks are located quickly consented.   However, in Bismarck it quickly became international news.  (If you haven’t seen there are articles on Burleigh County refugee settlement in the B.B.C., New York Times, Washington Post, and local North Dakota newspapers.)  Social media escalated concerns.   The first Burleigh County Commissioners meeting on December 2 had hundreds attend.   The meeting had to be rescheduled for a larger venue on Monday, December 9.    At first the Burleigh County commissioners were receiving hundreds of phone calls and emails with a 9 to 1 ratio opposing refugee settlement.   In the week before December 9 a multiple of Bismarck pastors and Christian leaders raised awareness.   By December 9 the ratio had shifted to 7 in favor of refugee settlement to 3 opposed in communication to the commissioners.  When it came time to vote the commissioners consented to refugee settlement by a 3 to 2 vote.  Refugees will continue to settle in Burleigh County, North Dakota.

We didn’t speak at the public meeting on December 2 or 9.   There were hundreds in line who spoke.  We thought we might hurt the argument as we are North Dakota newcomers.  However, Dave did edit one refugee’s speech, we hosted a small group discussion about these matters with Revive, and Dave wrote each county commissioner.   In a way, this was a very personal matter.  We take it as the movement of God that most refugees in Burleigh County are from Congo and speak Kinyarwanda (Banyamulenge ethnic group.)  They have deep old Christian traditions.  They worship in Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili.   We feel very at home with them.  They only number a few hundred in the Bismarck / Mandan metropolitan area.  We’re unaware of any of them ever having problems with law enforcement.  They work hard.  Their young people are in school.   Those laboring help in tough jobs such as cleaning, home health care, and nursing.   Their young men are frequently in the local sports page for their success in soccer and track.    We believe they are an answer to prayer for more workers in the mission field of America.

Now coming back to the needed voice of the Church.  During Christmas season Dave preached through the traditional Christmas texts at Revive Christian such as Isaiah 9, Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2, and John 1.   This past Sunday, December 29 we were in Matthew 2 where the wise men visit Jesus’ family, King Herod orders genocide of male toddlers in the Bethlehem region, and Jesus’ family flees to Egypt before settling into Nazareth.   

When we hit the point after we understand the history of the text and ask for application to our faith community in North Dakota we look back to several events.   Germans from Russia came to North Dakota and settled on the prairie generations ago to flee religious and ethnic persecution.   Armenians also came to North Dakota to settle on the prairie fleeing genocide of the Ottoman Turkey empire.   For most in North Dakota these types of applications are part of esteemed heritage, but too distant to feel personal.   Thus, we invited Banyamulenge refugees to tell us their stories to apply the text.   We had two delightful young women, Joy and Francine.  

Some parts of their stories were heartbreaking.  Can you imagine entering junior high with no English skill?  Can you imagine having lived as a refugee your whole childhood, and thus having no memories of your parents’ home?  Can you imagine starting out in a new country in high school? 

  

Some parts of their stories were funny and endearing.  Can you imagine landing in North Dakota in January?   Can you imagine the first time you ever touched snow?

Yet, the biggest parts of their stories were inspirational.   Young people who couldn’t speak English within 4 years spoke in such a way you couldn’t tell immigration was part of their story.    They had completed school.  Everyone in the home was working.   Their church was growing.   Their family structure was the glue that kept them all together.   We at Revive got to meet those whose character was like the generations of German and Armenian refugees who settled in North Dakota generations ago.   It strengthened our believe in God, American ideals, and local churches.   In those ideals we believe is a future of hope.

Today can you donate to keep us in North Dakota as missionaries by either sending a check to 

East Africa Diaspora Community

P.O. BOX 480

Wheaton, IL 60187

Or giving on line at https://secure.egsnetwork.com/donate/C0AF312B0E28441.

Asante sana.  Webale nyo.  Murakoze cyane.  Thank you very much,

Dave and Jana

53rd Birthday Reflections

Today is my 53^rd Birthday.   I’m a missionary to diaspora people so on social media my birthday will last 43 hours. The first well wishes typically would come from Australia, and the last ones typically come from America’s west coast.   I’m very fortunate.  God has been kind to me.  Besides the well wishes several will ask, “What do you want for your Birthday?”

Frankly, I just want to thank God for His goodness, and continue to be a missionary.   If you’d like to give something today, can you give to our mission?

Let me list some matters that I continually thank God for:

1. I’m in great health.   Yes, I wear bifocals.  My hearing is declining, I’m slower and less flexible.  I struggle with measures of daily pain.  Yet, I can bench press 9 times my weight, and swim a mile in 45 minutes.   Most of my peers can’t keep up with me.  Many men much younger can’t either.   I do feel like God is asking for me to keep going forward in faith the way He asked Joshua and Caleb.

2.       My family is well.   Yes, we’ve been at the poverty line for years.  Yes, cultural transition has been hard, and we’ve spent many days just sitting in tears.  Yes, we have a disabled child.  Yet, Jana and I have been married 29 years.  The kids are all doing well.  Two are married.  We have a grandchild.    Three have graduated from college.  Two are in graduate school on scholarships.   One is a stunning beauty and artist.  One was named to a Paralympic High School All American Track team.  All are wise.  I believe God would want to me to share how this has happened.

3.       I live in North Dakota.  I’ve always wanted to live here.  I can’t believe it has happened.   The sunrises and sunsets are beautiful.  I constantly see deer and hear geese.   During reasonable weather this a great place to bike and run.   I hope to eventually get back to my youthful pursuits of hunting and fishing.   The economy is doing great.   I intuitively fit with many of the rhythms and culture.   This is the type of place I wanted to grow old as a grandfather.   I know most efforts in North Dakota have failed so in great humility I thank God for each day here and work as hard as I can to stay.  

 4.       I’m amid a surge of African migration to America’s heartland.  All I must do is go to Walmart, listen, and watch to see African migration.    I don’t have to look hard to find it.   I worship in Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda every week.   I provide some leadership in the African communities and churches.  Each week we visit Africans in our or their homes.  This surge is getting noticed in the media.  I find stories in the Al Jazeera, the B.B.C, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post about this African immigration surge.   I sense God wants us to pastorally nurture people we know well through transitions to Post-Christian America so they can be effective missionaries. 

 5.       I’m pastoring again.   I love Revive Christian Church.  I like not being the lone vision bearer and serving with others.  I enjoy young families, and just can’t help but to giggle at all these little kids in our midst.   I thrive in ministry environments where matters are still being formed, and we can create.   It’s both humbling and inspiring to realize Revive is made up of people more talented and educated than I.   I sense they deserve my very best preaching and pastoral care.

Wow.  So much to be thankful for.  And I’m getting to do this as a missionary fully dependent on God and His people.  Revive provides enough salary to pay our housing.  Everything else comes down to God’s people’s support.  Sometimes it’s nerve wracking.  Will we have enough to buy groceries, fuel, and pay bills?  Yet, it’s always a reminder of God’s daily care.   

Today, for my birthday can you contribute to keep us in North Dakota as missionaries.  If you would like to please either send a check to:

East Africa Diaspora Community,

P.O. BOX 480,

Wheaton, IL 60187

Or give online at https://secure.egsnetwork.com/donate/C0AF312B0E28441.

Asante sana.  Webale nyo.  Murakoze cyane.  Thank you very much,

Dave