Ways to Make an Eternal Difference During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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Ways to Make an Eternal Difference During the Coronavirus Pandemic

How would you like to make a difference – even an eternal difference – during this Coronavirus crisis? Karen Covell of the Hollywood Prayer Network has come up with several creative and redemptive ways for Christians to reach out to your family, friends, and neighbors … and make a difference! Given the fact that most of us are shut in or restricted in our movements, these recommendations are practical, doable and could really change someone’s life.    

• Pray daily for the person you chose to pray for and ask the Lord how to love and/or serve that person. And pray that same way for everyone in your life!

• Send texts of encouragement, humor, wise thoughts, quotes or encouraging words to others.

• Email prayers, loving words or even fun pictures to the people in your life who may get a chance to smile at a great picture, or ponder a profound thought that may be a new thought to them or just be encouraged to hear from you. 

• Call anyone in your life who comes to mind. If someone pops up in your mind, take a moment to call and just let them know you’re thinking of them. Even just leaving a loving message could make someone’s day.

• If you are willing and able: Make a simple flier to put on the doors of your apartment building or neighborhood houses, letting your neighbors know how to call you if they are in need, or offer to deliver the groceries to their door, if they can’t get out themselves, to cut their lawn if they need it, or do anything that might be hard for them during this time. Introduce yourself to them, give them your name, address, email and/or phone # and let them know you’re there for them.

• Set up a zoom or google hang out call with your small group, prayer group, or friend group and touch base once a week. It’s the next best thing to being there.

• Set up meetings by zoom or google hang out. 

• Write a handwritten note encouraging and/or love notes and mail them to your friends and family or co-workers. What a wonderful surprise it is to get mail when all we’re getting is junk mail and bills. There’s nothing more personal than a hand-written note in the mail.

• Have something special delivered to someone through amazon.com or anywhere that ships. You can send things for fun, because you thought of them, or because you know they love something and it will remind them of you, etc. If you have the finances to do it, that could be very fun.

• PRAY! Take neighborhood prayer walks, pray for everyone on your work contact list, or make prayer lists of family, friends, associates and even strangers who are on your mind. People need prayer because of financial hits, isolation, discouragement, and fear!

• As you watch movies, remember to take extra time in the end to use the credit list as a prayer list. If you pray for all the names that pop out at you as you read the credits you could be praying for people who have never been prayed for before! How cool is that?

 Let’s go out and change the world – one loving act of service at a time!!!

 

Source CBN

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Six Reasons Why Church Members Choose One Worship Service Over Another

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By Sam Rainer 

My church has five services on Sunday morning across two sites and in two languages. I preach three services in English, our Hispanic pastor preaches a service in Spanish, and our campus pastor preaches at our second site. Why do people choose one service over another? I’ll give you six reasons from the perspective of my church. However, I believe these reasons apply to many churches offering multiple services. 

  1. Language preference. This reason is obvious. If you speak only Spanish, you’ll likely choose our Hispanic service. However, it’s not as simple as you might think. Children and students of those who attend the Hispanic service often end up in our children’s ministry and student ministry. Some of our bilingual members go back-and-forth between English and Spanish services.
  2. Time preference. Some people choose a service because the time slot works well for them. I have a friend who goes to the 8:00 a.m. service simply because he’s up early and likes that time.
  3. Style preference. Some pastors and church leaders believe style is the driving factor for service selection. It’s important, certainly. A monastic chant service is not likely to grow. But we should not fall into the trap of believing one service is more highly attended than another simply because of style.
  4. Group preference. A worship service is often the front door to a church, meaning people will attend a worship service before doing anything else in the church. However, once people decide on a church, a…

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WATCH: Oprah Finally Kicks Stedman Out of Their Shacking Up Living Situation—but Only Because he Became ‘High Risk for Contracting Coronavirus From Taking a Number of Flights’

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WATCH: Oprah Finally Kicks Stedman Out of Their Shacking Up Living Situation—but Only Because he Became ‘High Risk for Contracting Coronavirus From Taking a Number of Flights’

Oprah Winfrey has revealed she is sleeping in separate houses to her long-time partner Stedman Graham amid concerns over coronavirus. The TV legend, 66, who contracted pneumonia late last year, announced in an Instagram Live video that the businessman, 69, is currently in quarantine in their guesthouse after he became higher risk from taking a number of flights. She admitted that she was forced to properly explain social distancing to Stedman as he queried what precautions they should be taking after he was travelling: ‘I was like, ‘You ain’t coming in here and sleeping in my bed. It doesn’t work that way’.

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SOURCE: Daily Mail

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Coronavirus Spreads to At Least 6 Amazon Warehouses

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Coronavirus Spreads to At Least 6 Amazon Warehouses

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SOURCE: The Sun

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Bishop T.D. Jakes Preaches ‘He Bled Out’ With Just a Handful of People in the Audience of His Massive Church and Glory Be to God He Preached Just the Same as He Always Does

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Bishop T.D. Jakes Preaches ‘He Bled Out’ With Just a Handful of People in the Audience of His Massive Church and Glory Be to God He Preached Just the Same as He Always Does

T.D. Jakes is a preaching machine. “If you are truly called by God to preach you will preach just the same even if there is no crowd.” – Daniel Whyte III

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Anglican Bishops’ Lambeth Conference Postponed Until 2021 Over Coronavirus Concerns

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Anglican Bishops’ Lambeth Conference Postponed Until 2021 Over Coronavirus Concerns

A major conference for bishops of the Anglican Communion that garnered headlines for not inviting same-sex spouses has been postponed over concerns about the coronavirus.

The Lambeth Conference, which was originally scheduled to be held at Canterbury in the United Kingdom in July and August, has been postponed until summer 2021.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Anglican Communion, announced the rescheduling in a video message posted to the Conference website on Monday.

Welby stated that he believed that “the place of a bishop at a time of difficulty is the place of a shepherd when the wolf is attacking the flock.”

“It is to be with them, to be alongside them, to love them, to suffer with them,” he said. “Because of the coronavirus, travel around the world is deeply restricted and the amount of time that we will face these limitations is unknown.”

“For these reasons, so that we may be good shepherds as bishops in the Anglican world and encourage the Church to be there for God’s suffering world, we have decided to reschedule and postpone the conference.”

Welby stressed that they are “absolutely not canceling,” adding that “when we come together, it will be in a world reshaped by what is going on at the moment.”

“It is ever more important that we meet to pray, to study the Scriptures, to hear the Word of God, to comfort, to gain a fresh vision of what it is to be God’s church for God’s world,” he continued.

“Let us remember that as we come together and share our wisdom, we will need to hear from the Spirit through each other, to think and ponder and study, to worship and pray.”

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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Pastor, His Wife, and Over 30 People at Arkansas Church Infected With Coronavirus

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Pastor, His Wife, and Over 30 People at Arkansas Church Infected With Coronavirus

An Arkansas pastor who was recently struck with the deadly coronavirus along with his wife, Dena, and more than 30 others connected to his church is now warning others not to underestimate how dangerous the virus is and treat it with “wisdom and restraint.”

“There was very little in my training for the ministry that covered the full measure of what our church family has dealt with in the past few weeks,” pastor Mark Palenske of Greers Ferry First Assembly in Cleburne County said in a statement on Facebook Sunday.

“The intensity of this virus has been underestimated by so many, and I continue to ask that each of you take it very seriously. An act of wisdom and restraint on your part can be the blessing that preserves the health of someone else.”

The church didn’t immediately respond to calls from The Christian Post for comment, but Donald Shipp, a deacon of the church, told The Arkansas Democrat Gazette on Monday that at least 34 people connected with the church have tested positive for the virus and several others are still awaiting results. All of them attended a children’s event held at the church from March 5-8.

Of those who tested positive for the virus, 31 are on staff at the church or are members, Shipp said. The others are two evangelists who led the children’s event and a child who was visiting.

As of Tuesday, Arkansas had 218 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. The state also confirmed a 91-year-old man as their first death from the disease.

Palenske warned on his Facebook page that the virus is “highly contagious” and his wife got so sick she had to be hospitalized along with several other members of their church.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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Church Donates 4,000 N95 Masks to Area Hospitals: ‘Thank You for Your Dedication’

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Church Donates 4,000 N95 Masks to Area Hospitals: ‘Thank You for Your Dedication’


Church Donates 4,000 N95 Masks to Area Hospitals: ‘Thank You for Your Dedication’

As hospitals nationwide try to find enough masks for doctors and nurses in the battle against COVID-19, churches are helping fill in the gap. 

Rock Church in Virginia Beach, Va., donated a total of 4,000 N95 masks to four area hospitals last week, according to WAVY-TV: Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Sentara Leigh Hospital, Sentara Princess Anne Hospital and Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital.

The masks had been in storage to use for mission trips.

“We at Rock Church would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your dedication and work in providing much-needed care for our community and loved ones,” the church said in a letter to the hospitals. “… We hope that this will help in some small measure, the battle that you are in against the coronavirus.”

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital said in a statement, “This generous donation … will help our teams on the front line immensely. Thank you!”

Meanwhile, volunteers at Macedonia Baptist Church in Holland, Mich., are using sewing machines to make homemade masks for local medical professionals, WOOD-TV reported. 

“We want to reach out to the community in whichever way we can help them – spiritually, with materials like the masks, anything,” church assistant Elda Haak told the television station.

The homemade masks technically don’t meet N95 regulations but can be used “for care of patients with…

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World-famous African Jazz Legend Manu Dibango Dies from Coronavirus in France, Aged 86

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World-famous African Jazz Legend Manu Dibango Dies from Coronavirus in France, Aged 86

World-famous singer and saxophonist Manu Dibango has died from a coronavirus infection at the age of 86 in France, his management team said on Tuesday.

‘It is with deep sadness that we announce the loss of Manu Dibango, our Papy Groove, who passed away on March 24, 2020, at 86 years old, further to Covid 19,’ read a statement on Dibango’s Facebook page.

Dibango died early Tuesday morning in a hospital in the Paris region, Thierry Durepaire, a member of the artist’s management team, told Reuters.

Cameroon-born Dibango arrived in France in the early 1950s and studied jazz and saxophone in the northern city of Reims, where he started playing in clubs, according to a biography on his Facebook page.

His style of playing took on more African rhythms as he collaborated with Brussels-based musicians from Congo and he began touring in Africa, developing his trademark pumping saxophone rhythms.

‘Sax is sexy. I play other instruments too, but my voice sounds best through a saxophone,’ Dibango – who also played piano, organ and vibraphone – told French music programme Basique last year.

In the late 1960s, Dibango started his own band, played with a string of French musicians and in 1972 he had a major hit with ‘Soul Makossa’, a song that brought him international success and was reinterpreted by many other artists.

In 2009, Dibango filed a lawsuit in a Paris court against the producers of Michael Jackson for using the ‘Mamase, mamasa, makossa’ riff from Soul Makossa. The riff became world-famous through Jackson’s hit Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin. The case was later settled out of court.

In an interview in 2019, Dibango said the song was now there for all to use.

‘It has moved beyond me. It is good in a way, once a song becomes a standard, it no longer belongs to the composer but to the person who interprets it,’ he said.

On Dibango’s 1992 album Wakafrika, produced in France, he reinterpreted a string of African hits and played with top African stars including Youssou N’dour, King Sunny Adé, Salif Keïta, Angélique Kidjo and Papa Wemba, as well as British rock singers Peter Gabriel and Sinéad O’Connor.

In 2010, Dibango received the ‘legion d’honneur’ medal in his adopted country France. He was diagnosed with a coronavirus infection earlier this month.

Last year, on the sidelines of a tour celebrating 60 years on stage, he said jazz music needed to have a danceable beat.

‘We are the leg specialists, things have to move, that is how I see music,’ he said.

SOURCE: Daily Mail, Andrew Bullock

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Thanks to Coronavirus, Hollywood is Facing an Existential Crisis

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SOURCE: The Atlantic

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