'Restoration' Convalescence Project Serves People Affected by the Coronavirus
The project serves 230 meals a day or does weekly shopping, provides wellbeing counseling support, and gives financial assistance.
Trans-European Division (TED)
[England] "Thank you so much for caring for us! We really appreciate the tasty hot meals you provide us each day. It has kept us going!”
These comments came from a lady whose family are the recipients of an outreach project God led me to create for individuals and families recovering from the COVID-19 Coronavirus.
As people recover from the virus, I noticed that a significant number are encountering ongoing challenges. For example, several individuals have reported that they continue to experience breathing difficulties and significant fatigue. Some are reporting that they are feeling very flat and low in mood and even quite depressed. Others have reported that the ongoing fatigue is such that they are unable to adequately care for themselves.
On April 15th 2020, a New Scientist article carried the headlines, "Could the Coronavirus trigger post-viral fatigue syndromes?"
It states: “Conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome have been linked to viral infections, so it’s possible that the COVID-19 virus may go on to trigger similar conditions.”
This article certainly resonated with the reports I was receiving. As such, God led me to launch a 'Restoration' Convalescence Project which seeks to meet the wholistic needs of individuals recovering from the coronavirus. This is being run by funding from my British Union Conference (BUC) Health Ministries department and resources from my other two departments of Women’s Ministries and Adventist Community Services.
The 'Restoration' Convalescence Project under the subheading, 'Revive, Renew, Restore,' is being rolled out in three phases and will provide the following:
- Daily freshly cooked meals and weekly shopping
- Relevant publications on physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing counseling support
- Financial assistance for a limited number of people to enable them to convalesce away from home where necessary
We are working in partnership with an outreach ministry group called ‘One Vision’ an initiative of Enoch Kanagaraj, from the Stanborough Park Church, to deliver some of the operational segments of our BUC 'Restoration' Convalescence Project. They assist us in providing the hot meals and we are currently delivering around 230 meals per day to the community.
Each week we get positive feedback from people of all cultural and faith groups and those with no religious beliefs. Many have stated that once our churches reopen, they would like to visit. We are so grateful to God for the opportunity to reach out to others during this pandemic.
There is much that we can do on a practical level to bring relief to the suffering. Our churches may be closed for our regular services, but we can still be of service to the community.
Please pray for the BUC 'Restoration' Convalescence Project, as we seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus to our communities, in this time of need.
Contributed by Sharon Platt-McDonald, British Union Conference Director for Women’s Ministries, Health Ministries & Adventist Community Services
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632783-40...
Published in Mosaic newsletter, 2020 Q4, fall issue
