This period of coronavirus pandemic has strengthened our belief that God speaks in varying ways using different means. When the lockdown began, we thought it will not last long; however, after one week into the lockdown we realized we needed to adjust our way of living. We told our workers in the house to stop coming to work; we took over the cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, watering the garden etc.
One day, we discovered that we needed sponges since the ones from the market seem to disintegrate too fast. We started discussing about using our own local sponges which we never paid attention to but were readily available on the compound. We harvested some and tried using them; we discovered that they were better than the ones we have been buying from the market.
This period has given us more time for prayer (both personal and communal), recreation, community meeting and outreach. As a community, we did some planting of vegetables to mark Earth Day and had an outdoor prayer session. It has really helped us to become more grateful to God, our congregation and all those who support us in mission. We have grown also in our appreciation of our workers.
Furthermore, we bought some food with the money we saved during Lenten season. We visited five elderly mothers, shared some food and prayed with them. During our interactions with them, we learned that one of them lost her husband and all her children. She is now living alone but she said some of her neighbors and a relative come around from time to time to bring food. According to her, she was praying for death to take her but after our visit, she told us that she would like to be alive to enjoy the food we brought her. The women really appreciated our visit and we were equally enriched with the kind of faith and hope they expressed during our interactions with them.
Finally, we continue to pray daily for an end to this Coronavirus pandemic ravaging humanity.
The SSND Akwanga Community, Nigeria