Begin today’s lesson by offering up the following scenario to your class.
You wake up tomorrow to find yourself on a deserted island, alone. You have no food, no supplies, no shelter, and to top it all off you somehow managed to lose your shoes and shirt. Sounds pretty hopeless right?
- What would you do in a situation like this? How would you overcome this trial? (Allow a few students to share their responses to this question.)
Ultimately, in a less-than-ideal environment, you have a choice to make. You can wallow in your own self-pity and hope that someone comes to rescue you, or you could make the best of a bad situation.
This year has been filled with less-than-ideal scenarios. Schools, churches, and communities have had to find creative ways to continue operating in the midst of a global pandemic. Though it hasn’t always been easy, many ministries have found creative solutions to keep reaching people with biblical content. Listen to these examples of ministry leaders making the most of hard situations!
Serah serves as a coordinator for Sunday School curriculum in several African countries. When COVID-19 hit, most churches weren’t meeting in person. So, the curriculum couldn’t be used in the traditional way either. So, Serah began recording family podcasts to encourage families to worship and study the Bible together at home. These on-demand weekly podcasts, which will be available all over Africa, provide short biblical lessons and activities that will help families to have meaningful conversations all week long. These podcasts will equip even small churches with a practical way to meet that need
Soledad and Veronica serve as ministry leaders all over Latin America. Because they were no longer able to travel and train Sunday School teachers to use the curriculum with their classes. So, they started training teachers using webinars. In the past few months, they’ve engaged more than 3,000 participants in webinars, providing opportunities for churches all over Latin America to learn and collaborate together. In addition to providing encouragement, these webinars have equipped teachers and ministry leaders to better understand how to share God’s truth in ways that bring transformation to young lives.
Because of these leaders’ creativity, ministry continues to happen in regions that were otherwise shut down. These are just a few examples of people making the most of hard situations in the past several months! Today, we’ll learn today that a level of heavenly perseverance and innovation lies within every one of us; we just need to call upon God to access it. Let’s take a look.
Story Source: David Caleb Cook Foundation Blog
