Dear Ministry Partners,
As I’ve thought and prayed about how World Impact should function in the middle of a pandemic, three words came to me. The first one is faith. 2nd Timothy 1:7 states “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” These are the three traits that we should always display to be effective, but especially now. Regardless of what our circumstances are, the Holy Spirit is alive inside of us giving us the ability to demonstrate these virtues.
The second one is care. Historically, Christians have responded to plagues and the like by not panicking. We could learn a lot from the actions of the ancient Church. While the world around them was freaking out focusing on self-preservation (like present day hording toilet paper) Christians were known to go in the opposite direction. Despite what was going on, they cared for those around them. The result was the ancient Church ended up experiencing a tremendous growth spurt among survivors.
The third word is caution. Concerning World Impact hosted events, we are being vigilant in paying attention to what the local public health officials are saying and following those guidelines. We have also restricted all ministry related travel to only the most necessary of circumstances through April 30, 2020.
As this crisis unfolds, I’m single-minded that we will live out being a Christian mission organization. Our Kingdom work will not stop! We will take advantage of this crisis moment to come out stronger than ever. We’ve developed a task force to develop a plan on how to operate our five programs digitally. When this pandemic is over, we’ll have both in-person programming and a much stronger digital presence.
Thank you for your continued giving. I know that it is not easy to do so in the middle of uneasy economic times. As a staff, we’ve committed to praying every Wednesday for 20 minutes concerning issues related to the coronavirus starting March 25th at Noon EST. I invite you to join us from wherever you’re at. God be with you – keep the faith!
Dr. Alvin Sanders
World Impact President & CEO