Covid-19 Response

GOD’S SERVANTS ARE SUFFERING

Our teammates in South Asia are dying!  As of  May 27, 2021, we are mourning the loss of nearly 100 New Generation leaders in the span of a month! COVID-19 is making another sweep through this region, and we’re hearing tragic story after tragic story of families within our network, who do not have basic food and necessities, let alone medical care for their sicknesses.  The need is growing by the day. Now is the time to demonstrate what the Body of Christ is all about to our brothers and sisters who have no ‘safety net’. Click the link below to learn more about what you can do.

Updates From The Past Year As Our Team Responds to The Pandemic

Here at New Generations, we believe there is a Kingdom opportunity in every crisis, and meeting needs is part of being disciples as well as making disciples. With that as our premise, New Generations has a long history of responding to natural disasters in a way that integrates help for hurting people with reproductive church planting.

Over the last 15 years, we provided life-saving assistance for hundreds of thousands of people who were afflicted with the devastation from famine, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and Ebola. In all cases, the combination of compassionate care infused with intentional church planting has produced significant advancement for the Kingdom of God.

The pandemic of 2020 was no exception. When Covid hit in early 2020, it was immediately clear the impact would be big, wide, and long. In response, we gave all Field Leaders the freedom to use their people and their money to meet the needs around them in whatever ways they saw fit.

2020 Results

Although we were confident that meeting immediate needs would eventually create church planting momentum, we felt it was prudent to drop our short-term goals. But, by God’s grace, we were able to not only beat our reduced goals, but also in some cases we surpassed our original goals! With the third quarter of 2020 as an example, our original goal was 2,091 new churches. We revised that goal down to 1,445 churches but finished the year with 2,202 churches—111 churches beyond our original goal!

Q & A

What are your biggest Covid-19 challenges you had to overcome?

• Our church planting approach requires intense and ongoing spiritual interaction. Covid works directly against that with calls for isolation and avoiding contact with strangers. To overcome this challenge, our teams pivoted to the use of technology (WhatsApp & Zoom) to provide the necessary interaction.
• In most places where we work, the “cure” (lockdown) is worse than the disease, because poor people typically “eat at night what they earn during the day.” There are no safety nets or government bailouts, so masses of people are at significant risk of starvation.
• Government lockdowns restrict the travel required for training and coaching.
• Covid put our workers at risk as they delivered life-saving support to those in need. Tragically, we have lost 15 of our teammates to Covid.
• High-impact, long-lasting disaster produces an astronomical need with very limited resources.
• The global nature of the pandemic dilutes the response we can make to any single geographic area in our world-wide ministry.

What is your organization doing to address those that have been impacted?

New Generations has provided a wide array of assistance for those affected by Covid. This includes:

• Providing food boxes to families that include: rice, sugar, dried noodles, beans, cooking oil, maize flour, salt, etc. on a multi-month basis to restore stability
• Providing food and caring for the handicapped, prisoners, marginalized, etc.
• Hand delivering food to those in remote/isolated locations via motorcycles
• Assisting the sick with medical care
• Providing protective clothing, face masks, and shields
• Setting up public handwashing stations
• Providing sanitation/hygiene education along with soap and hand sanitizer
• Assisting with income generation for those who lost their jobs
• Encouraging neighbors to help their neighbors
• Launching Discovery Bible Studies and providing Scripture to those who are receptive
• Praying through our prayer base of over 100,000 intercessors on behalf of the victims, those at risk, the responders, etc.

If you had additional funding, how would it be used to further address those needs?

Our focus will be on providing long-term food (three months) to families at risk of starving. Our ministry is spread across 55 countries and includes over 600 people group engagements. This scope provides us with direct access to tens of thousands of families in need.

Costs vary from region to region, but the average cost to care for a typical family of five would be $100 per month. With a planned time frame of three months, our cost-per-family would be $300.

SAMPLE IMPACT: With a gift of $30,000, we could provide 100 families with three months of food.

Updates from the Field

East Africa

East Africa is experiencing “The Perfect Storm” of natural disasters with Covid, drought, famine, flood, and two locust swarms. Resources are exhausted, the government is overwhelmed, people are in despair, and the region is being devasted. Lockdowns have been very strict. We are working to reach those in need with food and necessities. Despite the overwhelming difficulties, we have seen many people become disciples of Jesus.

West Africa

We are feeding the vulnerable, prisoners, amputees, and providing water bags/bottles to Police and Military Officers during lockdown in the fight against Covid-19.

Horn of Africa

A majority of people depend on their daily wage for that day’s sustenance. The Government has shut businesses, schools, and churches, and is restricting gatherings. Many families have no way to purchase food or needed supplies. We have a goal to serve more than 1,000 families and share the Gospel with these people.

Southern Africa

There has been a dramatic rise in hunger, riots, looting, and clashes with the police. Over 400 schools have been vandalized—many destroyed or burned beyond recovery. Most of the small businesses are not expected to survive. There is great openness to the Gospel. We have sent out individual hygiene packs, food packages, solar lights, education packs for children, help for small and medium-sized businesses, and Bibles for families.

South Asia

Movement leaders have been distributing food packets, masks, and soap. They have also been teaching villagers virus awareness, hand washing, and social distancing. They have been helping new believers, widows, orphans, the handicapped, and migrant workers. Lockdowns have become a season of harvest. Many families are open to the Gospel and are attending home Bible studies. We are also teaching families how to save for future crises.

South East Asia

Our medical team is caring for over 200 patients per day. We are providing food packets to be delivered to families in need. We have teams sewing face masks and protective clothing for medical workers. People have been more open to spiritual things and new discovery groups have begun and multiplied. Many have committed their lives to Christ.
Click this link to read more or watch the video put together by the team in Bali.

More Updates From the Field On Our Story Page