Foleza is a small program with an ambitious vision: to see each student succeed in school and life. Translated “little nest” from the Albanian language, Foleza was started in 2013 when the Ersekë Evangelical Church saw first-hand the need for children to have extra support in order to thrive in school.

For a few weeks, Owen and Abby watched as borders closed one by one. The American embassy sent out notices asking its citizens to return. They watched the news as the virus started in the capital and spread to the other parts of the country first slowly, but then   more quickly.

COVID-19 has forced many people to embrace new forms of resilience, often spurring on great creativity. Two Lancaster leaders serving the refugee and immigrant communities have been doing just that: Patience Buckwalter, who is the executive director of the Grape Leaf Empowerment Center, and Krista Martin, who is EMM’s Kingdom Team director.

Michael Clancy is an urban missionary serving in Lebanon City, Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, Michael had some anxiety as he was in the last two months of fundraising for support for his second term, just as COVID-19 had just come to the forefront of everyone’s lives.

After nine years in Thailand, Dave and Summer Houser were planning to move to Pennsylvania in early April. As reports of an unknown virus grew into a major worldwide concern, flights from many places around the globe were being canceled. Instead of having a week — or even a few days — they had mere hours to tie up their loose ends. They frantically packed, gave things away, and even sold their car that day! 

Polio was once the most feared disease in the U.S. Particularly in the 1940 and 50s, parents were sometimes fearful of letting their children even go outside. Each summer, polio seemed to strike without warning. Swimming pools, movie theaters, and Sunday school classes were closed. Almost 100 years passed from the first polio outbreak of any size in the U.S. through the development of a vaccine in 1955 to the eradication of the virus in the Americas in 1994.

As the world faced COVID-19, gathering food for Ramadan celebrations was difficult in places like Nairobi. Many workplaces shut down due to COVID-19, and as a result, many Kenyans lost their income, facing significant food insecurity. Christians in the Eastleigh neighborhood of the city decided to bless their Muslim neighbors by distributing free food.

How can we engage and equip the thousands of church leaders in Africa who have little or no biblical training? How does the church multiply and grow under these circumstances?

On a blustery afternoon, EMM worker Bethany Tobin, who is also jointly appointed with Virginia Mennonite Missions, grabbed an umbrella as protection from the sun and slid on her flip flops. Leaving her boisterous home-schoolers with her husband, Steve, she walked around the corner to her neighbor’s house. 

Despite the interruptions, the changes in our plans, and the disappointments of unfulfilled expectations, the mission of God goes on. EMM workers continue to cross cultures, engage the world, and make disciples of Jesus.