Renewing Hope in the Time of COVID-19

In the time of COVID-19, have you ever gotten to a point when it seems all hope is lost? Even the best of us get discouraged, especially during the pandemic, when everything is so uncertain!

“I always have trouble finding food,” Pastor David told us. “Sometimes I feel hopeless.” Pastor David is one of our partners who has a small church plant in Bohol. He is living in the shell of his unfinished church building with no resources to complete it. He told us about how COVID-19 has ravaged his community.

Pastor David’s bed. He just added a roof so he no longer gets wet when it rains.

Pastor David in front of his unfinished church.

Some of the Family Academy members from a former Transform program.

Although he is far away from his family and has no one to rely on, he has stuck with this community in the midst of hardship in the time of COVD-19. Initially wary of pastors, most of his neighbors have grown close with him after they have seen his concern for their needs, physical as well as spiritual. “I feel compassion for them, especially for their hungry children,” he said. During the hardest times, he used ICM’s REDI network to request food packs for 150 people.

Handing out food to neighbors

Pastor David conducting Renew program in his community.