The Blessing of Gathering Together
Helping Mozambican Churches Reopen in a Covid World
We Americans are blessed. Truly, we are so blessed! While we may have been distanced from our church families for several months during the Covid-19 lockdowns, most of us have still had access to livestream, recorded services or podcasts, a bible or two in our home, and all the electronic devotionals and bible study opportunities that are just a swipe, scroll, and click away.
But what if you hadn’t had any of those things for the past six months? Would your heart be yearning to return to church to hear and be reminded of God’s goodness and mercy? To get lost in an atmosphere of corporate worship and praise? To participate in corporate prayer? To feel a move of the Holy Spirit amongst the congregation?
After many long months of lockdown, the Mozambican government began its first phase of lifting restrictions this month, which included the reopening of churches. In order to reopen, however, there was a long list of requirements to meet, many of which seemed insurmountable for the average Mozambican church body because of their overwhelming poverty. Of the 187 countries listed on the World Bank’s GDP figures for 2019 by nation, Mozambique ranks at 182, the 6th poorest country in the world. Over 80% of its population live on less than two dollars a day.
Some of the reopening restrictions for Mozambican churches include:
- being limited to 50 people per service
- limiting their normally 3 to 4-hour services to 1-hour
- disinfecting in between services if multiple services are held
- hand washing stations must be provided
- congregants must wipe feet on a disinfecting foot mat when entering
- each person’s temperature must be taken and their phone number recorded
- congregants must wear a mask
- thermometers
- masks
- soap
- buckets with tap
- pumps for spraying disinfectant
- dispensers
This was a huge step to getting at least some of our partner churches reopened so that they could resume teaching, encouraging, and building up their bodies of believers and spurring one another on to good works!
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this cause!
