During the COVID-19 pandemic, ACCTS in person ministries have been been essentially non-existent due to travel and gathering constraints across the globe. Despite these limitations, however, God has shown repeatedly that He has given us technology for a purpose, and ACCTS staff members have been participating in as many as 6 or 7 online meetings each week to advance the Gospel with military Christians around the world.
Weekly online staff meetings have been helpful in allowing participants in past ACCTS programs to join us and share their testimony about how they have applied the training they received. This has been both encouraging and informative as God uses these sessions to provide feedback and encouragement to our guests, as well as inspire other ministries.
Contacts with our global ministry partners reveal that they are all exploiting various online applications to conduct ministry, and that God is blessing their efforts by expanding their reach at reduced travel costs. Military Christian fellowships (MCFs) that used to meet in person once a month or quarterly are now meeting online more frequently, and inviting MCFs from neighboring nations to join them. The result is broader ministry with eternal benefits for God’s kingdom, and increased anticipation for live ministry as the pandemic slowly winds down. Many have started using the“break room” feature available in online meeting software to hold regional and other team meetings before rejoioning the main meeting to share their reports.
A number of pray and plan teams have been meeting online since the start of the COVID crisis:
· The team formed 18 months ago for the Brazil AMCF world conference in 2024 continues to meet for prayer, encouragement and planning, and the Lord is revealing His will for an event that will hopefully be unimpeded by COVID 19;
· Another team has been meeting weekly to develop training in ethics to help military Christians make ethical decisions in the face of an increasingly secular and corrupt global society. Given the geographic dispersion of the participants, meeting in person this frequently would be cost prohibitive, but technology has made it possible to accomplish much on-ine.
· A third team has been meeting to develop an AMCF Interaction program to help develop spiritually mature military Christian leaders and develop relationships to enhance future cooperative ministry initiatives. The initial even is planned for Croatia in October, and will serve as a prototype for similar events around the world,
Pray that these Pray and Plan efforts will bear much fruit for the kingdom of God as they develop, and that both those who participate, as well as those who will attend are blessed.
Discussions with ACCTS staff about the future of our ministry indicate that what God has revealed to us about the potential of online ministry will guide us in the future. Unrestricted travel and gathering may eventually return, but will likely be supplanted by online events that free up resources for more live ministry. As new online meeting software is developed it will likely be incorporated in future ministry strategies.
Pray that we will be alert to God’s leading in these trying times, and will “redeem the days,” claiming God’s promises to “never leave us,” and reveal “the plans He has for us, . . . to give us hope and a future.”
