Still with Love and Thanks
MCGI’s Covid-19 Journey
“I still go to work every day. Despite the sickening smell of garbage, I must do my job.”
Michael Gonzales, Garbage Collector
“I can’t leave my colleagues in this battle. Who am I not to engage?”
Jovic De Leon Bermas, Nurse, COVID-19 Survivor
“To my comrades, before we perform our duties, let us pray for guidance.”
Neil Sarez, Police Officer
As an organization taught to do good unto all, the Members Church of God International (MCGI) keep on finding ways for its charitable and evangelical works to continue, with the help and mercy of the Lord.
Love in Deed
Days before his birthday on April 4, 2020, MCGI’s Servant Bro. Eli Soriano requested something extraordinary from the MCGI brethren — a gift.
Extraordinary, because it has always been Bro. Eli who gives gifts whenever his birthday comes around.
The gift he requested? Just some rice, canned goods, like corned beef, and other basic necessities — not for himself but for the church members’ loved ones, friends, or neighbors who must be experiencing problems about their day-to-day subsistence because of the lockdown.
Earlier in the same month, Bro. Eli gave a donation of 1M to the City of Manila for its Covid-19 relief efforts.
And that was just part of the beginning. From donating food supplies to personal protective equipment or PPE in different cities and municipalities, MCGI’s desire to maintain its attitude of love towards its members and fellow people strengthened in such a trying time for the whole world.
Love in Word
Apart from sharing Bro. Eli’s financial load with MCGI’s needs and charitable services, Overall Servant Bro. Daniel Razon also launched a webcast to help fight another disease from spreading: misinformation.A veteran broadcaster by profession, Bro. Daniel knows that delivering factual, timely information especially during a crisis can help save lives.So on March 16, 2020, Bro. Daniel began a series of discussions centered on the coronavirus situation on KDR TV or Kuya (big brother) Daniel Razon TV.The Instagram and YouTube series brought to the public authoritative information on coronavirus prevention, mythbusting, and more.Upon the instruction of Bro. Eli, Bro. Daniel also put up a 24/7 Digital Clinic overnight, so people can consult doctors on the phone.
People gained easy access to medical practitioners to know whether what they have is Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, or just the flu without leaving their homes.
Meanwhile on his morning program on UNTV, Get It Straight With Daniel Razon, Kuya Daniel interviews city mayors to help keep their constituents abreast with:
Quarantine updates
Where to get government financial assistance
Delivery of relief goods
Where frontliners can get IDs and passes to go to work
Kuya Daniel also launched a new program called Serbisyong Bayanihan (Service Through Cooperative Efforts) on UNTV, where viewers can seek help about various problems during the lockdown and other Covid-19-related concerns. Kuya Daniel is the CEO of UNTV, the Philippines’ public service channel.
Knowing that not all problems are financial or physical in nature, Kuya Daniel would regularly have Bro. Eli as a guest speaker on KDR TV’s coronavirus coverage to provide biblical insights concerning the crises that the world is facing now.
While the platform is new for Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel, the practice however isn’t. In fact, they have been preaching online as early as the year 2000.
Familiar Firsts
With God’s help and mercy, MCGI’s use of internet and satellite technologies since the early 2000s has allowed the organization to keep God’s commandment on valuing gatherings and preaching His words, while observing government protocols on social distancing and other safety and health measures.
The Worldwide Bible Exposition connects guests in MCGI or The Old Path Coordinating Centers around the globe to ask Bro. Eli their questions live on air using the World Wide Web.
The livestream is also beamed across six continents by seven satellite providers, so that those with receivers at their homes can tune in for free.
Prior to the pandemic, Bible Expositions and Bible studies were done about three to four times a month in the Philippines, usually before Live Mass Indoctrination sessions began.
Since governments the world over started to impose lockdowns however, MCGI’s Bible Studies and Bible Expositions in Filipino began to run each weekday at 7 pm.
(See the schedule of Bible Studies and Bible Expositions in Spanish and Portuguese.)
Each night, about 30,000 devices on the average tune in to the webcast, with comments and questions from guests pouring in on Facebook Live and on YouTube by the thousands.
The services are also available on Twitter via Periscope and on Instagram via the official social media accounts of The Old Path and Ang Dating Daan.
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Especially in a time when uncertainty and anxiety are affecting people of different races, ages, and social standing, MCGI believes that there is no better peace than that which comes from the Lord.
MCGI’s Community Prayer at www.mcgi.org/cp/ is a free service that the church has been offering for many years now.
Following the commandment of the Lord to pray for all men, the service is available every hour of the day and is offered in different languages.
Before the appointed hours of prayer, online visitors can hear songs of praise being played.
Since the onslaught of the pandemic, daily visits to the Community Prayer page have soared even more with tens of thousands of users tuning in to the service — a number that Bro. Eli hopes to only increase for the sake of humanity.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, MCGI already used satellite dishes and internet packets to connect thousands of its coordinating centers to participate in church events, be they live or recorded.
For its weekly Thanksgiving for example, the entire congregation offers songs of thanks together and hears biblical topics delivered by MCGI’s Servants.
No matter where the members are gathered across the globe, all they need to do is to go to a nearby coordinating center to see and hear fellow congregants on TV screens.
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
While MCGI have charities that range from medical missions to houses for the elderly to free colleges, the church’s primary acts of care and compassion are for its brethren in faith.
The physical welfare of the members, especially of the poor, is always in the minds of Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel.
Apart from providing free food during weekly Thanksgivings, MCGI’s Servants also give livelihood packages to members who wish to start small businesses, like selling fried bananas or raising poultry.
Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel also put up departments in the church that look after the MCGI brethren. One of which is a disaster-response group that is trained on what to do best should a calamity strike areas where the brethren reside.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, the MCGI brethren send relief goods to members whose livelihoods have been affected by lockdowns.
Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel also had a quarantine facility built in Bulacan, a province north of Manila, to house members infected with the Covid-19 disease.
And to help keep the love among the MCGI brethren as alive as ever, Bro. Daniel launched the Serbisyong Kapatiran or Brotherly Service program on Instagram on June 29.
The livestream, which airs on weeknights at 10 via a private webcast, helps connect members who can aid other members in need. The program is also filled with feel-good moments as Bro. Eli, Bro. Daniel, and the rest of the MCGI brethren share stories, songs, and well-wishes of love, hope, and faith.
All these are done in observance of the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ with God’s help and mercy, because it is He who said through the Apostle Paul to do good unto all, especially to those of the household of faith.
The Worldwide Bible Exposition connects guests in MCGI or The Old Path Coordinating Centers around the globe to ask Bro. Eli their questions live on air using the World Wide Web.
The livestream is also beamed across six continents by seven satellite providers, so that those with receivers at their homes can tune in for free.
Prior to the pandemic, Bible Expositions and Bible studies were done about three to four times a month in the Philippines, usually before Live Mass Indoctrination sessions began.
Since governments the world over started to impose lockdowns however, MCGI’s Bible Studies and Bible Expositions in Filipino began to run each weekday at 7 pm.
(See the schedule of Bible Studies and Bible Expositions in Spanish and Portuguese.)
Each night, about 30,000 devices on the average tune in to the webcast, with comments and questions from guests pouring in on Facebook Live and on YouTube by the thousands.
The services are also available on Twitter via Periscope and on Instagram via the official social media accounts of The Old Path and Ang Dating Daan.
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Especially in a time when uncertainty and anxiety are affecting people of different races, ages, and social standing, MCGI believes that there is no better peace than that which comes from the Lord.
MCGI’s Community Prayer at www.mcgi.org/cp/ is a free service that the church has been offering for many years now.
Following the commandment of the Lord to pray for all men, the service is available every hour of the day and is offered in different languages.
Before the appointed hours of prayer, online visitors can hear songs of praise being played.
Since the onslaught of the pandemic, daily visits to the Community Prayer page have soared even more with tens of thousands of users tuning in to the service — a number that Bro. Eli hopes to only increase for the sake of humanity.
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, MCGI already used satellite dishes and internet packets to connect thousands of its coordinating centers to participate in church events, be they live or recorded.
For its weekly Thanksgiving for example, the entire congregation offers songs of thanks together and hears biblical topics delivered by MCGI’s Servants.
No matter where the members are gathered across the globe, all they need to do is to go to a nearby coordinating center to see and hear fellow congregants on TV screens.
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
While MCGI have charities that range from medical missions to houses for the elderly to free colleges, the church’s primary acts of care and compassion are for its brethren in faith.
The physical welfare of the members, especially of the poor, is always in the minds of Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel.
Apart from providing free food during weekly Thanksgivings, MCGI’s Servants also give livelihood packages to members who wish to start small businesses, like selling fried bananas or raising poultry.
Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel also put up departments in the church that look after the MCGI brethren. One of which is a disaster-response group that is trained on what to do best should a calamity strike areas where the brethren reside.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, the MCGI brethren send relief goods to members whose livelihoods have been affected by lockdowns.
Bro. Eli and Bro. Daniel also had a quarantine facility built in Bulacan, a province north of Manila, to house members infected with the Covid-19 disease.
And to help keep the love among the MCGI brethren as alive as ever, Bro. Daniel launched the Serbisyong Kapatiran or Brotherly Service program on Instagram on June 29.
The livestream, which airs on weeknights at 10 via a private webcast, helps connect members who can aid other members in need. The program is also filled with feel-good moments as Bro. Eli, Bro. Daniel, and the rest of the MCGI brethren share stories, songs, and well-wishes of love, hope, and faith.
All these are done in observance of the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ with God’s help and mercy, because it is He who said through the Apostle Paul to do good unto all, especially to those of the household of faith.
In the Bible
For many, it is only until recently that people have heard terms such as “lockdown” and “community quarantine,” much less, have any idea of what they’re for.
And while it is helpful to consider the explanation being given by people in authority, Bro. Eli points to a more reliable reference.
Being on Lockdown
Before the last plague that hit the Egyptians, which compelled the pharaoh to finally release the Israelites from 400 years of bondage, God advised the Israelites to not go out and to shut their doors.
Exodus 12:22-23 King James Version
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
The Practice of Quarantine
Many know that the practice of quarantine or keeping people with disease away from healthy people has been done since the Middle Ages. But more than 1,000 years earlier, it had already been practiced in the Bible.
Numbers 5:2-3 King James Version
2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead:
3 Both male and female shall ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.
On Government Ordinances
Despite being higher than any king or lord on earth, Christ commanded His followers to observe the mandates and ordinances of men. It is written in 1 Peter 2:13-14.
1 Peter 2:13-14 King James Version
13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
Good Hygiene
Today, there is no argument that handwashing helps stop the spread of germs. But long before people knew about the existence microbiology in the 17th century, the Bible had already advised the practice of proper hygiene.
Leviticus 11:28 King James Version
And he that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean unto you.
Use of Copper
Copper, and even brass which has traces of copper, has helped protect people from the spread of serious diseases since hundreds of years ago — and even way, way back, if we consult the Bible.
Exodus 30:18-21 King James Version
18 Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.
19 For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
20 When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord:
21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.