Manna 4 Lempira During the Age of Covid-19

 For better or worse, COVID-19 has meant a lot of free time for a lot of people. Kim Hall, with Manna 4 Lempira, is not one of those people. Kim and her husband Jonathan are busier than ever, so it was wonderful to get a chance to catch up with her today.

Kim with kids

A large part of Kim’s job with Manna has always been to stay connected to the kids and act as a liaison between sponsors and their sponsored kids. When COVID restrictions made large group meetings illegal back in March, the degree of difficulty tied to that job description increased exponentially! It went from visiting a feeding center with hundreds of children to visiting one home at a time. A few churches are now able to meet using the required biosecurity measures. One of those measures is that children can’t attend.

Sample page of
discipleship materials

With children unable to attend church, a big concern for the Manna team was providing resources for Pastors and teachers to use so that they could continue ministering to the children and their families. Kim reached out to a team of Manna sponsors who compiled a 6 week discipleship challenge for every child to complete in their homes with their families. The booklets were distributed, and they were such a success that the pastors have requested another one, which is almost ready to go!

Through it all, Kim and Jonathan have made a valiant effort to go out as much as possible. They have been putting emergency provision bags into the hands of pastors. Kim said that she can’t stress enough how important Sowers4Pastors mission of empowering pastors is. Manna 4 Lempira and Sowers4Pastors have been able to stay in touch with the pastors and Sunday school teachers who are planted in the communities. Those pastors and Sunday school teachers know when there is someone in need.

Some communities are open to visits from Kim and Jonathan, while others are more afraid of a visitor potentially spreading COVID-19 to their area. Kim and Jonathan are sensitive to the communities’ wishes. As Kim stated, “It would be horrific if we got COVID and passed it on. But if we don’t go, we won’t know what’s happening. We pray about doing the wise thing and listening to what our partners need.”

Family receiving roof repairs

Since this started, Kim has delivered thousands of bags of emergency provisions, including rice and beans. These bags have been a stop-gap for the neediest families. Often, the bags are delivered to the pastors, who in turn take them to those in need. Other times, Kim has been able to make the visits personally.

One church is particularly receptive to visits. Manna 4 Lempira has set the goal of visiting the home of every child in that program. The pastor is accompanying them. Kim said there’s nothing like getting to see their homes, meet their families, pet their dogs, and hear their needs. During one visit, they found a mother too ill to work. She and her children were living in a borrowed house with holes in the roof during the rainy season. Thanks to Manna and Sowers4Pastors, roofing supplies were delivered to the pastor who just happens to work as a roofer, and the roof was repaired.

In another visit, Kim saw a woman in her church with cancer. When the pandemic hit and public transportation was halted, the woman was unable to get to her treatment appointments. Without that visit, Kim wouldn’t have known that the woman went eight months without chemo. In the past two weeks, Kim has been able to drive the woman to multiple appointments for treatments and tests. Her cancer grew during her time without chemo and her prognosis isn’t great, but she knows she is loved and that she isn’t going through this alone.

“I feel like God is answering prayers,” Kim said. “The pastors are pointing us in the right direction about who we should visit. We wish we could get around to see everybody, but I can’t express strongly enough how thankful we are for the church partners we have.”

She continued by saying, “This ministry isn’t us. It’s putting resources in the hands of the pastors to do the ministry that is in their hearts. It’s a special thing to go alongside them. I don’t know of any more loving, hard-working people.”

 - posted by Christi