It rings true, they say, whether it plays out in the mountains of Honduras or a densely populated city in Kenya: Often, the most important piece of equipment for saving lives during a pandemic is a meal.
“So many people have been shouting … ‘better we die of coronavirus than starve to death,’” Kaitlin Smith, a nurse from Hancock County who coordinates several medical clinics in Uganda, said in a recent video update to donors back home.
“So many people here live hand to mouth, so if they don’t work that day, they don’t eat that day,” she said.
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Local churches are checking in with ministry partners around the globe during the pandemic. They’re concerned about those laboring in densely populated areas not equipped for a sharp upturn in positive cases. And yet they also understand how lockdowns can slash incomes and in turn leave people hungry.
In Haiti, too, “People are more willing to take on the virus than they are to starve,” said Mike Wilkins, missions and outreach pastor at Outlook Christian Church in McCordsville.
Possible starvation is also a concern in Honduras, Wilkins said. The situation has prompted people from His Eyes Ministry, one of Outlook’s global partners, to work with local churches to send 30- or 50-pound bags of rice or corn up into the mountains.
A similar rock-and-hard-place scenario unfolds in India, said Paul Galbraith, one of the pastors at Brandywine Community Church in Greenfield. As the church communicates with ministry partners there, many of whom serve poor families feeling the income-crushing weight of quarantines, “My heart breaks for the millions that could die from lack of water and nutrition as a result of the social distancing and economic shutdowns occurring,” Galbraith wrote in a message to the Daily Reporter.
Gary Wright sees India facing the toughest challenge with feeding people. Wright is president and founder of World Renewal, a mission sending agency with headquarters in eastern Hancock County. Monday it unveiled Operation Food Basket, an effort to respond to immediate needs that have arisen in various countries as a result of COVID-19 and related quarantines. Wright admits the “food” basket may also have medicine in it but said the fund is about addressing urgent concerns.
Donations are passed along to help meet needs. They help Ghuna Kumar and son Joel in India make the rounds in a van to distribute bags of food. The money also helps Pastor Ricardo de Silva deliver essentials to families in a town of about 5,500 on the eastern coast of Brazil.
Such needs intensify even as some ministry workers overseas find support dwindling, the next domino to fall after many American churches have been unable to gather in person — and receive the offerings their parishioners would have brought, some of which would have become missions dollars.
Realife Church lead pastor Adam Detamore said restrictions on travel can also hamper missionaries visiting in person and cultivating new financial supporters.
“Missionaries … count on sharing in services on the weekends and taking offerings, as well as in-person meetings over coffee and meals to gain new support,” Detamore wrote in an email to the Daily Reporter. “With those avenues being taken away, they are struggling.”
Though leaders in local churches can quickly name the ripple effects of the coronavirus and quarantine on ministry partners and the people they serve, they take the virus itself seriously too.
Wright said one World Renewal staff member, who had visited a country where Christians face violent persecution, later tested positive for the virus. That worker and his wife are recovering.
Smith has seen costs of medications and supplies for the Ugandan clinics rise sharply. Twenty masks cost about $100 in U.S. dollars now, she said. And in a country of 42 million people, there are 55 intensive care unit beds, she added.
A curfew is in place, and both public and private transportation are restricted. As a result, she walks a five-mile round trip to the grocery.
“All of this has been a challenge for our missionaries and mission organizations,” wrote Dave Combs, global team leader at Park Chapel Christian Church. “Our missionaries are remaining strong and hopeful … outwardly focused on sharing their faith and love to those around them whether it be through their medical communities, as pastors, as educators, or as friends.
“They know that God uses life-changing events to help people reflect on the things that are most important and know that there will be many opportunities for them to help.”
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-To support World Renewal’s Operation Bread Basket, go to worldrenewal.org and click "Donate Now."
-You can follow Kaitlin Smith’s work in Uganda at at www.facebook.com/medicalcareafrica. To find out more about donating, go to https://www.chogglobal.org/mission-projects/projects-africa/uganda-health-care/.
-Find out more about Outlook Christian Church’s global partners, including His Eyes in Honduras, at http://outlookchurch.org/globalpartners.
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