In the midst of COVID, we are all facing challenging times, here and abroad. So I wanted to take a moment and update you on our Missions partners and the status of our Summer Mission Trips.
MONTREAL
Like most major cities in North America, Montreal has screeched to an abrupt halt. Our streets are empty and our number of infected people continues to rise daily. Montreal has become the epicenter of COVID cases in Canada with 6,830 people (as of 4/16/2020) who have tested positive. While many places have seen their numbers begin to dwindle, the numbers in Quebec continue to rise.
Like many of you, we had put off the idea of live streaming our services until we felt prepared to make that commitment. Well, it seems God has forced our hand a bit and like many of you, we have been using our social media to broadcast our church’s worship services. And the response has been overwhelming! We have had many new people in our city and across the continent tune into our services but one of my favorite stories is the one happening right across the hall from my apartment. My neighbor (A) has been saying she wanted to check out our church for months but every weekend had to work. She told my wife that thanks to our online services, she’s watched the past 2 and plans to tune in again this weekend! We rejoice at the opportunity that God has used at this time to take the gospel outside our church walls and even deeper into our communities!
But with these opportunities, there have been setbacks. The reality of the situation is forcing us to acknowledge that many of our summer plans have changed or will in the near future. We have already had to cancel our summer internship program, a guest family coming to serve the summer with us, as well as mission teams for this summer. Last week, the city announced that there will be no public events at least through July 2nd and many expect it to be much later than that. This, unfortunately, puts our July BIG weekend as being canceled and August’s is a possibility as well.
Pastor Ben Fleet, Voyage Church
MONTREAL MISSION TRIP UPDATE
With the news of what is happening in Montreal and the setbacks to ministry as well as the limitations of travel to Canada from the USA, Pastor Ben and I felt it necessary to postpone our summer mission trip until a time when ministry in Montreal would be more effective for a team from our church to be there. So please be praying for the ministry in Montreal and for Ben and Alyssa and for their ministry in Montreal in a virtual world.
PANAMA
The Vegas in Panama are experiencing the effects of COVID-19 too. Panama has been in complete shutdown mode. Only 10% of the country is still working. Every citizen has a designated time of the day they can come out of their house. The entrance to the Ngobe reservation has been closed and they are not letting anyone in, hoping to keep the Ngobe from getting COVID-19. They are not letting anyone in or out until the outbreak is under control. The government is estimating that it will be this way until at least June if not later. Both David and Talsidia Vega are doing well and are staying safe. They are able to touch base with our missionary, Mateo, through phone calls. He is staying encouraged and continuing to travel to other villages and keeping up the work of the ministry. Now more than ever, we need to be praying for Mateo and for the Ngobe believers to continue to share Jesus with their neighbors in other villages.
PANAMA MISSION TRIP UPDATE
So because of the current situation in Panama and our own country, we have decided to postpone our currently scheduled mission trip in July. We are very sad about this decision, hoping that we would still be able to continue with our mission, but at this time there is too much uncertainty to be able to make arrangements for this trip. We will continue to be in touch with the Vegas and encourage them and support them in any way we can until future trips can be scheduled.
OTHER PARTNERS
Jake, Ginger, and Timber Goss are doing well. They had an opportunity to come back to the USA when the COVID outbreak began, but they didn’t know if or when they would ever be able to get back in to their country, so they felt the Lord lead them to stay. The borders to their neighboring country has been closed and they are isolated in their home. While they are there to reach their neighbors for Christ, this has been a bit frustrating, not being able to socialize and continue to learn the language. Yet, they are staying encouraged and feel as though they have slipped into a rhythm that is helping them each and every day. Continue to pray for them!
OUR PRAYER:
Continue to pray for our missionaries across the globe, I will be updating you more from our other missionaries in future posts. But God is most definitely at work through the COVID-19 interruption. Our prayer as always is that God would be glorified in and through these challenges. Even though “THE STRUGGLE IS REAL” God is bigger than all our struggles and we must glorify his name in everything we do, regardless of our circumstances! According to James 1, God is at work, using these trials to “bring us to perfection.” Let’s pray for our missionaries to be made perfect and to shine the light of Jesus to those that need him most!
Go God Go!