NAIROBI, Kenya — As the world faced COVID-19, gathering food for Ramadan celebrations was difficult in places like Nairobi. Many workplaces shut down due to COVID-19, and as a result, many Kenyans lost their income, facing significant food insecurity.

How can we engage and equip the thousands of church leaders in Africa who have little or no biblical training? How does the church multiply and grow under these circumstances?

In January 2016, I returned to Prague after a year in the U.S. to find Petra, a young woman new to our church, leading a Bible study and mentoring three to four young women.

Multiplication is the heartbeat of EMM. When my parents were church planters with Eastern Board (now EMM) and Lancaster Conference (now LMC) in northeast Pennsylvania, they were part of a group of church plants that multiplied from Wilkes-Barre Christian Fellowship (out of the Weaverland district of Lancaster Conference.) 

On a blustery afternoon, I grabbed an umbrella as protection from the sun and slid on my flip flops. Leaving my boisterous home-schoolers with my husband, Steve, I walked around the corner to my neighbor’s house. 

Christ’s transforming love compels us. These are the first five words of our mission statement. We recognize that Christ’s love is not static — it is transformative. This means that we expect Christ’s love to change us to be more like Him. This kind of transformation happens when we approach God with a posture of humility, repentance, and openness to what Jesus might have to show us. 

EMM echoes this call to prayer issued by LMC. Please join us in this prayer challenging all of us to repentance, reconciliation, healing, and peace.

Did you know that EMM has a church revitalization coach whose main role is to help churches develop healthy personal and corporate spiritual lives? It’s true! His name is Antonio Ulloa and he frequently speaks in churches to equip and support them in their spiritual health and development.

Focus is a weekly 3-minute radio program which airs on WDAC (94.5 FM) on Saturdays at 8:55 p.m. This program aired on Saturday, May 23, 2020.

Instead of being a great leveler, the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing pre-existing systemic inequalities that benefit some and disadvantage others. How can the Anabaptist family respond?

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once wrote a wise statement about how our well-being is reliant on one another. She wrote: “We don’t accomplish anything in the world alone and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that create something.”

Focus is a weekly 3 minute radio program which airs on WDAC (94.5 fm) on Saturdays at 8:55 p.m. This program aired on Saturday, May 16, 2020.