In the last couple of days, a lot has been said about the corona virus and its likely effects on the world, and Kenyans in particular, and how institutions and individuals ought to respond to it.
One social commentator has said that churches should be used as isolation centers in the case that the pandemic worsens. Is that asking too much from the Church, or is it even derogatory as some have said?
Mutahi Ngunyi of the Fort Hall School of Government predicts that by the end of April 2020, the death toll in Kenya from the virus will be 16,000 and the infections will be 160,000. This is contrary to the Kenya government estimates which show that by the end of April, the infections will be 10,000.
If Mutahi’s prediction comes true, is the Church ready to provide support to those who are vulnerable by opening up their sanctuaries for people to find a place of safety? Is this something the Church can do or should even contemplate doing? Are they even prepared for such an eventuality?
For the churches to do this, this would not be something that is unique. Around the world, many sporting facilities in the Philippines, in the USA and in Brazil, have been turned into temporary hospitals or temporary storage facilities for medical supplies.
Up to this point in Kenya, there is no sporting facility that has been turned into a medical facility or something close to that in attempts to deal with emergencies that have arisen from the corona virus pandemic. Perhaps this is because, as the government predicts, the country is not likely to deal with more than 10,000 cases of the virus. But, what if the prophet Ngunyi is right?
Are churches ready to respond to the challenge to provide sanctuary to those who are affected by the pandemic one way or the other? So far, some churches have been in the forefront mobilizing resources to help those who will be affected by the after-effects of the corona virus.
In its latest update, the government says that the number of people with the virus has increased and will increase exponentially. Schools with boarding facilities have been put on high alert to be ready to act as quarantine centres. This is a cause for concern to any Kenyan anywhere. The government has not yet directly asked churches to come in and support its efforts.
As people who give hope to the world, the Church has a responsibility to rise to the occasion and show the way. The church has showed the way in the past when there were other pandemics.
Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian faith, healed the sick during his ministry on earth (see Matt. 9; 10:8; 25: 34-26). The early church not only endorsed medicine, but championed care for the sick. Christians have been leaders in medicine and the building of hospitals for many centuries.
Historians record that the second great sweep of medical history begins at the end of the fourth century, with the founding of the first Christian hospital at Caesarea in Cappadocia. One, Charles Rosenberg, in his volume, The Care of Strangers, The Rise of America’s Hospital System, says the modern hospital owes its origins to Judeo-Christian compassion. Evidence of this is seen in the legacy of hospital names: St. Vincent’s, St. Luke’s, Mt. Sinai, Presbyterian, St. Mary’s etc. Many of these were started as charitable hospitals to take care of those most vulnerable in society.
Our churches therefore need to go back to their original mandate of providing care, mercy and compassion as Jesus taught them. What prophet Mutahi has challenged the Church in Kenya to do is not something that the church has not done previously, or which the Church cannot done. In this time and age, the Church needs to think of more creative ways of helping those who find themselves in difficult circumstances.
It is doable because it has been done before.
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