During the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world have been impacted by government restrictions and lockdowns. For individuals in India, this caused hardships for many people, especially lower income groups and daily wage earners. Staff at LHM-India were faced with the challenge of not being able to freely travel and provide holistic support to people who needed it. Although they couldn’t travel, the LHM-India staff were able to get 1,200 masks made that they could send to people.
While working remotely, LHM-India staff were able to telecast messages and send audio files to more than 200 people every week. In addition, they were able to conduct an online Summer Bible Service in three languages. The LHM-India staff started the online Bible service because they realized self-quarantining at home can be hard on some people, especially children. This was the first time to conduct online lessons in Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi-speaking areas. LHM-India staff collected PDF versions of lessons and made audio versions of the lessons. The LHM-India staff created a team of people including pastors and volunteers who could reach out to the individuals and groups who wanted to participate in the program. The whole team would monitor feedback and provide instruction for activities and exercises to supplement the lessons.
Using WhatsApp, a digital messaging app, the team would send the materials to their assigned contact groups. The program lasted 10 days with the 11th day consisting of a closing ceremony and festival for the children. Each day, the lessons started at 11:30 a.m. and ended at 1:00 p.m. However, the children would continue messaging the staff and volunteers until late into the evening, sometimes until 11:30 p.m.
Every lesson began with prayer which was followed by songs that included videos, lyrics, and teaching videos. The LHM-India staff would then send the daily lesson and audio recording to the children. The children were encouraged to memorize Bible verses and participate in arts and crafts during the program, too. The LHM-India staff and volunteers also offered counseling sessions for the children to help them cope with stress induced by the quarantine. The lessons would end with a puppet show and a time for the children to ask questions about the lessons. Most of the videos used in the program were very interactive and allowed the children to easily connect the video to the lesson they were teaching.
Through this program, 6,400 Malayalam-speaking children, 314 Tamil-speaking children, and 238 Hindi-speaking children were able to hear the Gospel message.