Coronavirus Outbreak
Coronavirus occupied the front and center of our programming in February. We conducted interviews, produced reports, said prayers regarding people’s needs in crisis and aiming to bring listeners back to God. Prayerfully, some listeners would put their trust in God and live according to His truth and the example of Jesus.
Report
Reporting Coronavirus is in itself challenging. What is our purpose? What impact do we hope to see our reports generating among our listeners? We go to God and ask “what would Jesus do?” Several reports focus on how Christians responded to the crisis. We air a confession of seeking the truthfulness of God in time of crisis by a church minister in Singapore three days after Sunday service where five members were infected with Coronavirus—a powerful witness of faith. One early report is about how our own Shumei exercised self-restraint after she flew back from Taiwan. She stayed at home for a week, and spent a lot of time reading the word of God which brought hope, faith, and courage to her. Another report is about how our local Chinese church in Nashville responded to the crisis and worked together speedily to get twelve hundred masks and four thousand gloves sent to a hospital in Wuhan. Beyond reporting responses to the crisis by Christians today, we also drew examples of how God’s people responded to challenges in biblical times. We pray that God uses the Coronavirus crisis and our radio programming to turn listeners’attention toward the God who created the universe and is in control of everything in the universe.
Interviews
Dr. Jianwei Li:The center of Coronavirus crisis is health. Yet, considering the origin of Coronavirus, the problem is much broader than health. For example, how do human beings manage what we eat? How do we manage other animals cohabiting with human beings in the same environment on earth? These were early questions Chinese inquired when the Coronavirus broke out. We took the questions to Dr. Jianwei Li, a leading scientist in agriculture at Tennessee State University whose correlation of soil and heat research is fully funded by US Federal grant. Dr. Li, a Christian by faith, assisted our listeners to realize how good was the earth created by God for our habitation and how severely the earth’s environment has been deteriorating. In the interview, Dr. Li recognized that the core of the environment crisis as a crisis of faith in essence. Only when we turn to God, human beings would take the responsibility of managing the natural resources and animals on earth while we enjoy all the good things on the planet. Abandoning faith in God, human beings fail being good stewards while they exploit the earth’s resources. Dr. Li encourages listeners to return to God and live by His truth which is the first step in solving all environmental problems.
Dr. Yaling Wang:As the crisis spread worldwide, human behavior is among the first impacted by the Coronavirus. Rumors, death and anxiety, quarantine and loneliness, closed cities and uncertainty, closing borders and watching the stock market fall, purchasing masks and unlawful transactions, etc. But, while loss of normalcy is being forced upon people, love and faith experience no limits. , Coordinator for Chinese Affairs for Joni & Friends in California, visited us and shared stories of love and testimonies of faith in our studio. Dr. Wang witnessed transformation of life when handicapped children received wheelchairs, when their parents and siblings joined retreat for the handicapped, when inmates retrofit wheelchair for the handicapped, when churches remodeled their building so they can be accessible to the handicapped. The power of love and faith breaks through all barriers. We pray that God uses Dr. Wang’s interview to bring love and courage to the crisis-sickened Chinese around the world and to lead them back to God who is the source of love and faith.
Prayers
Our first effort responding to the Coronavirus is to post daily prayers on our website and in our daily radio programs. Each day we pray for a certain group of people and their needs, from doctors, nurses, to government leaders and scientists; from mask producers to deliverers; from patients to their loved ones; from anxious people to the God of peace who is always in control; from an angry public to God’s command to forgive one another; from self-centered pursuers to God and His call for oneness and for love of others; from individuals who fear of losing everything to God who gives us everything. Most of these prayers are accompanied by God’s word empowering understanding and trust in God.
Bible Reading
We tailor-made our programs for Chinese listeners in this special opportunity rendered by the Coronavirus, but we have not got sidetracked from the important task as planned—recording the Chinese Bible. By the first week of March we are to finish recording the Book of Isaiah.
Please pray for our listeners, producers, and programming. We thank you for your support and interest in ministering to the Chinese around the world with the love and truth of our God and His Son.
