Pictures of a Pandemic: Recent Episodes
American Baptist Home Mission Societies
Telling stories of the toll the coronavirus is taking on American Baptists across the United States and Puerto Rico. American Baptist Home Mission Societies' Susan Gottshall hosts conversations with pastors, community service directors and others ministering in the context of these days.
A link to essays featured in this episode, as well as some additional submissions, can be found, in written form, at abhms.org/covid19relief
First Lady Deborah Shannon of Zion Baptist Church, Petersburg, Va., discusses the essay contest that the church sponsored for youth. Participants were asked to write an essay that began "Dear Coronavirus." It turned out to be an opportunity for youth to release their feelings and frustrations about the pandemic and how it's affecting their schooling and athletics.
Mang Sonna, executive director of Bethel Neighborhood Center in Kansas City, Kansas, talks about the increasing need of the people he serves for food and money to pay electric bills and rent.
The Rev. Julio Gonzalez-Paniagua and his wife Pastor Anatalys Gonzalez-Ortiz discuss the devastating toll COVID has taken on their family, including their struggle with isolation and faith in the middle of so much illness.
The number of cars lined up for free meals every Wednesday at Trinity Church of Northborough in Massachusetts has almost doubled since the pandemic began. Church member Martha Michalewich talks about how an American Baptist Home Mission Societies' COVID-19 Recovery grant is helping to ensure the program continues its ministry to the hungry.
The Rev. Chaplain (Col.) Brett Charsky, Joint Force Headquarters chaplain of the Vermont Army National Guard tells the story of isolation and increasing numbers of suicides in the military.
Carlos Padilla pastors Pimera Iglesia Bautista de Guayanilla which finds itself near the epicenter of the tremors hitting Puerto Rico earlier this year. In this conversation, he talks about the poverty on the island and the challenges the people in the area face. Because of the pandemic they are told to stay in and shelter in place to not catch the virus. Because of the tremors, they need to be outside of buildings, because they never know when another earthquake could topple buildings. Now with hurricane season upon them, they need to think about being in structures that will keep them safe if high winds come.
The Rev. Douglas Avilesbernal, executive minister, Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches shares his view of the impact of the pandemic on the West Coast. The discussion includes a conversation about individual freedom versus a Christian call to care for the “other” even when it means curtailing your own independence.
Rev. Mar Imsong, executive director, Massachusetts Baptist Multicultural Ministries, discusses the pandemic’s toll on refugee and immigrant communities—including pastors and churches—across Massachusetts.
Rev. Patricia Lawrence, associate pastor, Memorial Baptist Church, Hartford, Conn., discusses how the pandemic is affecting her shrinking congregation of older members. Lawrence has given up her salary so that other church staff can continue to be paid.
Gladys Rodriguez, executive director of Corporacion Milagros Del Amor in Caguas, Puerto Rico, discusses the organization’s ministry to the homeless the time of COIVD-19.
Rev. Patrick Young, pastor of First Baptist Church of East Elmhurst in Queens, which was an epicenter of New York City, which itself was an epicenter within the United States and the world for the COVID-19 pandemic.