NASHVILLE (BP) — Last week, lying in bed, music arranger and producer David Wise had an idea. Like seemingly everyone else in the world, he was troubled by the ongoing crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and wondered how he might help.

Today, that moment of inspiration has encouraged more than a million people. The video of singers joining together on the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,” produced by Wise, was released only yesterday (March 25), and its exponential impact caught him off guard.

“Our intention was we felt God was prompting us to release this song,” Wise told Baptist Press. “Not knowing that in 24 hours, we would have a million views. … Every five minutes another church is wanting to stream it. Radio stations are wanting to play this for people.”

The project started as a way to encourage his friends.

“I was just overcome with the spirit of the song ‘It Is Well,’” Wise said. “The Lord laid that song on my heart. I just said, ‘Wouldn’t it be so cool if right now, we were able to find a way to make music in a time when we can’t be together anymore?’”

He called a friend who is a music engineer and asked if the idea just might work — or if his friend thought he was crazy.

“I’ll do the dirty work,” he told his friend. “I’ll do the arrangement. I’ll make it as easy as I possibly can. Can we do it?”

His friend liked the idea and agreed to help. Things went very quickly after that.

“This song feels anointed,” Wise said, “I can’t even remember doing the arrangement. I sat down, and in less than two hours, I had it. My hands cannot manipulate something like that.”

He divided the arrangement into parts and sent a different part to each of 31 Nashville studio singers he works with regularly. Each singer got an email with the full arrangement chart, the part they were supposed to sing, and an example audio track of their part, which they could listen to as they sang to ensure they stayed on the beat.

“Every single solo and the choir is 100 percent recorded on cell phones,” Wise said.

After each singer recorded their part, Wise pieced them all together.

Source: Baptist Press

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WASHINGTON (BP) — The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic “is no time to turn our eyes away from the sanctity of human life,” Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore said in a column published Thursday (March 26) in The New York Times.

Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), wrote in response to recent suggestions from government officials and others “about weighing the value of human life against the health of the nation’s economy and the strength of the stock market,” he said in the column.

He acknowledged human beings are suffering from the economic disruption of layoffs and business closings in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus but wrote, “Still, each human life is more significant than a trillion-dollar gross national product. Stocks and bonds are important, yes, but human beings are created in the image of God.”

Moore’s column — with the headline “God Doesn’t Want Us to Sacrifice the Old” — came after Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Southern Baptist, implied March 23 many elderly Americans would be willing to risk COVID-19 infection to save the economy. President Trump expressed the next day his desire to restart the economy by Easter (April 12).

The ERLC president also warned against recommendations that care for the “young and healthy” should take priority over care for the elderly and disabled.

“Such considerations turn human lives into checkmarks on a page rather than the sacred mystery they are,” he wrote. “When we entertain these ideas, something of our very humanity is lost.

“[W]e must guard our consciences,” Moore wrote. In a reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said, “We cannot pass by on the side of the road when the elderly, disabled, the poor, and the vulnerable are in peril before our eyes. We want to hear the sound of cash registers again, but we cannot afford to hear them over the cries of those made in the image of God.”

Source: Baptist Press

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Coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to skyrocket and the stock market remains volatile. Last week, the U.S. closed its borders with Canada and Mexico, the tax deadline moved from April to July, and severely-affected states ordered citizens to stay home. See our full coronavirus coverage here.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says fear has “gone viral.” “There was an earthquake a few days ago in Utah and, like any earthquake, the damage was localized,” he says.

“In this case, we’ve got a ‘coronaquake’ going on… and it’s shaking scores of nations and lives everywhere.”

Fear, like the coronavirus, does not respect person or status. More about that here. But believers have the antidote.

“There is a wonderful statement in Scripture that I came across just a couple of days ago from Psalm 29:11… ‘The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.’ Right now feels like a flood!” Hutchcraft says.

“Every hour there’s a flood of new information, new dangers, but the Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord gives strength to His people and the Lord blesses His people with peace.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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Christian camp directors are passionate about fostering a fun experience for children and teens that ultimately points them to Jesus. But what about after cabins are closed, bags are packed, and campers go home?

Keys for Kids Ministries executive director Greg Yoder says he spoke with a camp director who expressed his concerns: “One of the challenges Kevin [Grifhorst] had at Pine Ridge Bible Camp was, ‘How do I keep the kids in my camp in the Word all year long? How do I stay connected with them other than inviting them back to camp every year? How do I stay connected to my [campers’] parents? How do I develop a long-lasting relationship?’”

To bridge the gap between the spiritual high at camp and the rest of the year, Keys for Kids created a unique resource called Keys for Camps! It has Keys for Kids and Unlocked devotionals as well as a letter and advertisements from the camp distributor.

Keys for Kids proposed Keys for Camps to several other camp directors at the Christian Camp and Conference Association in 2016. Yoder says the idea was received warmly. “About 90 percent of them said that they would sign up today if it was available!”

In the three years since, Keys for Camps has taken off as a program and grown exponentially. Last year, almost 100 camps signed up for Keys for Camps quarterly devotionals, including 30,000 kids and teens.

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Lyndsey Koh

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Coronavirus containment efforts continue in the U.S. The virus is present in nearly every state, and many experts forecast exponential growth in the number of new infections. Lawmakers are considering spending and stimulus packages to offset economic downfall, while a small group of volunteers helps test the first vaccine.

More coronavirus coverage here.

There’s a new meaning to the phrase “March Madness” as society adjusts to widespread school and business closures, event cancellations, and “social distancing.” But from fear and uncertainty rises a hopeful perspective.

“It’s obviously changed everything when your mission field empties out in front of you with very little notice,” InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Greg Jao says, “but I’ve been delighted by the way students and staff are responding to say, ‘This is actually a mission opportunity, how do we take advantage of it?’”

Hundreds of colleges across the nation began switching to “virtual classrooms” last week, cancelling in-person sessions and moving everything to a remote learning environment. Others reportedly closed “indefinitely” and have asked students to leave campus.

An unexpected shut-down like this leaves some international students with nowhere to go, Jao says. They “may be barred from returning to their home countries, or … cannot afford to go home quickly,” he explains.

It’s a need the Church can easily meet.  “There [are] obvious responsibilities that you have for your family. But, if your family is healthy … this may be a wonderful way to engage the university,” Jao says.

“Inviting church families to say, ‘Would you take in a student who cannot get home right now?’ is a beautiful example of what hospitality means in an age of epidemic.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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Haiti has no reported coronavirus cases so far, but it has more than its share of hunger, conflict, and theft.

Eve DeHart from For Haiti With Love says, “In Haiti, they’ve reported no cases. So, the impact on Haiti right now is people stealing gloves and mask and [sterile equipment] from the hospitals to take to the DR and sell because the DR does have the virus.” In fact, Haiti is now closing its border with the Dominican Republic.

So even though there are no reported coronavirus cases so far, people who have medical conditions often can’t get the care they need because supplies have been stolen.

At For Haiti with Love’s burn clinic, tight security has largely prevented any theft of supplies, and their last order came in before suppliers started running out. DeHart says, “We can continue treating the burn [patients] and not worrying about exposing them to anything. But with God’s blessing it will just stay out of Haiti. Because Haiti doesn’t need that additional layer of problems.”

“Right now,” DeHart says, “Haiti’s biggest problem is the lack of security, particularly down in Port-au-Prince. Because the problem is the police; they’re doing the rioting and setting tires on fire. They’re doing all of the rebellion stuff.” DeHart says the police want more pay, but the government doesn’t have enough money to give it to them.

Before this, the military and police were actively fighting each other. And this lack of safety brings with it a food shortage since food trucks aren’t safe in the North of the country. DeHart says, “They will either get robbed by the police or they’ll get robbed by the bad guys. And so, they can’t go out on the road to move the food from the farms where it’s grown to the cities where it’s needed.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Kevin Zeller

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