COVID-19 Appeal - February 2021 Update
Your gifts to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal are making a difference...all over the world
When we launched this Appeal almost a year ago, none of us could have grasped what the devasting effects upon the global community would be with almost two million dead and economies devastated. Vaccines provide a glimmer of hope, but we know it will be a long time before large parts of the world can access them.
The Outreach Foundation is grateful for your faithful generosity over these past months as your gifts of over $277,000 have allowed us to respond to urgent needs in 23 countries: Iraq, Syria, Ghana, Rwanda, China, Cuba, Venezuela and so many more. These gifts have provided food relief, tuition help for seminarians so that their studies could continue, salary support for pastors in impoverished villages, and refugee relief for those whose lives were already being lived on the edge of calamity. The Global Church has used these gifts to shine the Light of Christ upon those who might not yet know of him and to encourage the faithful to “hold on.”
Because we have close relationships in these places, we can track the escalating challenges and respond quickly (we just wired $5,000 to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil). Last week, Rev. José Pezini, Latin America consultant for Outreach in Brazil, shared this about Manaus, a large city in the northeast into which are flooding many COVID cases from the Amazon basin:
Manaus is being known worldwide in a terrible way. A new variant of COVID which is even more contagious and deadly has been found. Our hospitals are overcrowded, exhausted professionals are trying to save lives, and there is a shortage of oxygen for patients. Despite the help of many companies and agencies plus the federal government airlifting in more than 25 tons of oxygen, the pandemic is overwhelming …we are now exporting patients to other states as there are no more vacancies in our hospitals here…
The worldwide pandemic has also introduced potential new partners to Outreach, such as the Middelburg Congregation of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA). Last summer, Marilyn Borst, our Associate for Partnership Development, received an email from someone she did not know (which is not unusual) asking for help for their church (also, not unusual because The Outreach Foundation can easily be found via an internet search). But this one caught her eye because of the name of the sender: Perceverance [sic]. As she would explain, “I often say that if you want to know what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote of “perseverance” you only need to meet the Church in a difficult place, because they model it, namely, long obedience that endures despite challenging experiences.”
Marilyn would soon get to know the Rev. Peceverance Percival Molehe, his denomination (which is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches), and his congregation in Middelburg (founded by Dutch settlers as Nazareth, it is a large industrial city about three hours east of Johannesburg). Because of your gifts, we were able to provide funds that enabled the congregation to make food distributions to the poor around them (see photo on page one) and also honor a request from the elders to provide some back salary for their pastor (the economy has been devastated by shutdowns, as in many parts of the world).
This update from them arrived recently:
Thank you very much for supporting us in 2020… Lots of our church members lost their jobs and others passed on due to COVID-19 – very strong members of the church. This current situation will take us almost two years to recover as the church. Through your help and support, we will make it…. Please continue to support us and pray for us, the URCSA Middelburg Congregation. We need you 100% in our daily lives and church life.
Click HERE to learn more about Outreach’s COVID-19 Emergency Appeal and HERE to learn about the use of funds already sent to other places and partners around the world because of your generosity.
THE NEED
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts to support the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.