Challenges Beyond the Pandemic, the Church’s Current Opportunity!

COVID-19 has affected the world for more than three years, infecting more than 600 million people and claiming 6.6 million lives. The year 2022 was a busy one, it packed with all signs Jesus’ prophesied on Endtimes in Chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew, the signs had appeared one by one. Wars, riots, earthquakes, pestilence, crime, indifference, false prophets and doctrine, none of them were absent. Coupled with global inflation and economic depression, the originally wealthy financial resources have been greatly reduced, the wailing of suffering grassroots has escalated, the poor have no tomorrow!

HISTEAM held “2022 Asian Chinese Christian Holistic Care Conference – The Greatest Opportunity” over three weekends in October, and constantly we could hear from the workshops’ speakers from Hong Kong and Taiwan’s co-organizers, of the challenges that Asia is facing in post-COVID-19 era. Doulos, Hong Kong in collaboration with local universities conducted a survey on the negative impact of COVID-19 in nine Asian regions, and the results showed that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia ranked first, third and fourth. This means that people with moderate or even severe depression and anxiety due to the pandemic are the ready harvest field who are suffering from mental distress and in need of assistance. On the economic front, Malaysia has been the hardest hit, ranking first in Asia. The ageing population has led to an increasing number of stay alone elderlies, chronic illnesses elderlies who requires long-term medical care, and dementia elderlies who have been displaced. Authoritarian ruling, economic and political instability in several Asian countries have led to mass emigration. These scattered stateless groups are most often victims of oppression and exploitation in foreign cultures and countries where they are not welcome.

When Malaysia opened its borders in April, many people fasten the pace of their lives hoping to recover the opportunities they lost during the pandemic, but they ended up in disconcerted state. Many businesses, including many churches, over reacted by holding various gatherings and banquets, making extensive travel plans and church building projects. As a result, the old wineskins problems before the pandemic also returned to the nest in retaliation. In fact, the painful lesson our Heavenly Father hopes to teach us the children of God during the pandemic, we should not forget the learnt lessons when the pandemic is over. Now enter into the epidemic stage, the Holy Spirit wants the church to put on new wineskins and pour out new wine, which we should not miss in our disconcerted state. The opportunity Jesus wants Christians to seize and minister in the Endtimes is right now! The church and the children of God have the eternal assurance of salvation, the unchanging truth of the Bible, the hope of the resurrection of our Savior, the support of the power of the Holy Spirit, and the guidance of the rod of the Father. We are bestowed with the privileges that no one else has, in order for us to reach out to the suffering communities and desperate neighbors. As we come to an era where good and bad times alternate frantically, it is also a rare opportunity for Christians to rise up and respond to the call of harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. In this epidemic, would you like to respond to the cries of workers in the field? God is calling for warriors of caring mission to seize the greatest opportunity!