During 2020, the ministry of the church was conditioned by the different bio-security restrictions established by the government due to COVID-19. No matter, even though the activities and movements were restricted, it didn't stop the mission of our church to reach out to the community in love.
What it did is challenge us to find different ways to share the Gospel of Christ in our town - and beyond. This was important in those many moments when fear, uncertainty and stress attacked the hearts of the people. The church was able to be the voice of Christ and share a message of security, comfort, hope and forgiveness...
...Our after-school tutoring program has expanded a lot. To date, in-person classes are not being held in Panama in the public or private schools. Thus, the children continue studying via Internet, something that is very difficult for a great number of families in our town. The only thing they get from their teachers of the town school is a WhatsApp message daily with some things to do, but with no teaching. Because of this, the only real education they are receiving is through our congregational program. Right now, we are attending to 50 children, divided into groups of four by age, with 90 minutes of classes. Due to the limit on group size and because it is difficult to involve other teachers, Laura is doing most of this on her own. She is hoping that when things open up more, she can once again involve some of the volunteers that were helping before the pandemic.