During the past several months, most countries in Asia have remained under lockdown due to an increase in COVID-19 cases across the continent from the Delta and Omicron variants of the virus. This forced LHM ministry centers in those countries to close and staff to work from home with an increased focus on sharing the Gospel through digital means such as social media.
Thankfully, the situation is starting to improve in several Asian countries, with daily cases dropping and restrictions being lifted. This has allowed several ministry centers to resume some of their traditional in-person events and activities.
In Thailand, many minimum-wage workers have lost their jobs, day laborers have been unable to find work, and many small businesses had to close for long periods or go out of business permanently due to the pandemic. To help provide relief, the LHM-Thailand team was involved in a program called "Giving with Love" that focused on helping people who were suffering physically, emotionally, or financially because of COVID-19. The team prepared 400 packets for two churches that contained two facemasks, a container of hand sanitizer, some gummy candy, and the LHM booklet, Why Do Bad Things Happen? These items were added to basic food supplies in the churches' relief bags. The 400 individuals who received the relief bags expressed their gratitude for the practical support and the hope they got from reading the booklet.
LHM-Malaysia is thankful for their partnership with Open Doors Malaysia that recently connected them with the Food Distribution Ministry of the Gospel Hall. Their organization's mission is not only to provide food relief to the indigenous people during the pandemic, but also to train and equip indigenous Christian leaders to share the Gospel among their own people. When they heard about the LHM audio Bibles, they were very excited to learn more since they are powerful and perfect tools for their outreach efforts. They organized two training workshops to teach Christian leaders how to use the audio Bibles to conduct Bible studies in homes and villages of the people living in remote areas. We are very excited about this new partnership and have supplied 1,500 LHM audio Bibles.
We are thankful for the hard work of our ministry center staff and volunteers who continue to share the Gospel with those who need to hear it, even during uncertain times.