Church seeks to bring hope despite pandemic

THERE is a call for the restoration of hope because the covid19 pandemic is sparking too much fear and causing people to despair.

In delivering a virtual message of hope, Presbyterian minister the Rev Kendrick Sooknarine said as servants of God, the mission of the church is to bring hope.

“Our mission calls us to be bearers of hope. Hope for the hopeless."

Long before the coronavirus affected the globe, he said, children were dying from poverty and youths from violence. Months into this covid19 life, nothing has changed.

“Who is crying now?

“It’s still the mothers who have lost their sons to bullets and violence. It’s the mothers of teenagers and the mothers of bystanders.

“It’s the men who are humiliated because they cannot provide a meal for their children, or snacks for them to pass the time at home.

“It’s the mothers who don’t know what to cook, mothers who throughout the world are lining up for a handout of cereal to boil for their babies. Mothers of Yemen, mothers of refugees and even mothers here in TT.”

He said the hopes of many refugees who came to TT to find a better life here have been dashed.

“And so many of us men think that every Spanish-speaking woman is a prostitute.

“Many fears are born out of our imaginings. What if the hammer would fall off the ledge? What if the soldiers seek us out and kill us? What if we cannot beat this virus?”

Fear, he said, has its place in the lives of men as it brings caution and help them to be prepared.

“But too much of 'what if' is anxiety and causes one to lose hope and fill our lives with fear and despair.

“We need hope now, today.”

Sooknarine said although coronavirus and its deaths bring pain and hurt, churches are helping people find hope across faith lines in unprecedented ways. Acknowledging the generosity of people who are reaching out to those in need, he opined, “Covid19 can make us more selfish or it can make us more generous.

“God must be smiling as people share bread and share yams.”

He said the pandemic has caused the world and its rulers to change but there are many who are still craving the luxuries that define their status.

He said when this pandemic is over and life restored the generosity should continue.

“Seek out the hungry, spare a thought for the world of starving people and let us really bring change into this world.

“We must behave in ways that save and protect lives, both of those being attacked by the virus, but also of those who are constantly living without hope and those in poverty.”