At the moment our staff and volunteers are all safe. not suffering from the coronavirus and encouraging churches to play their part in limiting the spread of the virus.

During visits to churches and schools they have been sharing the symptoms, how the virus is spread and prevention measures individuals can take to slow the spread.

They have been calling on people to take the advice of medical staff seriously, practice social distancing, stay at home, remain calm and role model how to respond in their communities.

Plus we are providing hand sanitisers for each of our volunteer teams and in our headquarters buildings.

The first case of Covid-19 was reported in Nigeria in late February; so far the spread is slow and there are few reported infections (51 on 25 March).

Nigerian states have different rules in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the common rule is that people should not gather in groups of more than 50. So, churches with less than 50 members can continue to meet, those with 50 or more members should not be doing so.

This means Grace & Light volunteer teams are no longer visiting Sunday services for vision sharing, counselling and testing for HIV/AIDS.

They will continue to support members who have tested positive during earlier church visits and the leaders of these churches, as they are able.

Volunteer teams will also continue to reach out to pastors to arrange vision sharing visits for when the pandemic is over. Visits can take many months to organise and the volunteers want to be supporting congregations as soon as they are able to.

We are also postponing refresher training and new volunteer training while the pandemic continues. Training will commence again as soon as it is safe for people to meet in large groups.

Ministry in schools is postponed as schools are closed across the country and students are staying home. The students’ conference planned for May is also postponed, probably until after the start of the new school year in September.

Please pray for:

• Pastors and congregations to be role models on how to respond to the virus in their communities
• Good health and wisdom for our staff and volunteers as they support each other and church pastors.