Are you tired of all the bad news related to COVID-19? Even as the health concerns wane, the economic ramifications linger. Well, here’s some good news for you. There are at least four ways eternal good is coming from this awful situation. 

First, God has shown people in ministry how to be creative in outreach and those innovative methods will continue. Second, despite schools and other facilities being closed, ministry to children has continued, and in some cases, increased. Third, through these new innovations and perseverance, entire families have been impacted whereas there was often no contact with parents in the past. Fourth, as people have faced the fear of illness and death, they have been more open to discussions about eternal life. Let’s unpack these four good things a bit. 

Child Evangelism Fellowship has been reaching 25.5 million children a year in face-to face ministry, but with the pandemic, face-to-face ministry came to a halt. But ministry did not, CEF workers all over the world came up with innovative ways to stay in contact with children in their Good News Club, including conducting clubs online. International Headquarters came out with a myriad of online resources which could be used. All of these resources are still free at cefonline.com/covid19. So, these workers stepped up to the challenge of learning new methods and they will continue to use them and keep up with innovative ways to reach out. 

Besides the improvement in evangelistic outreach, much more training for evangelism has taken to the internet, allowing more people to join, even people long distances away from each other, even from different countries, learning together. Many people even from closed countries where it would have been too dangerous for them to leave or for someone to go to them. This will continue, and many more people will be equipped for leading others to Christ.

How did ministry increase while schools were shut down? Many children love the after school Good News Clubs, but there were also many children who could not attend due to having to ride the bus home, or not having parental permission. Then there were children who were busy with other activities after school. But now those activities came to a halt. Moving Good News Clubs online opened up club to those children who now needed something to do and could join a Zoom club with their parents’ permission. Kids shared the invitation and clubs grew, to the point that in some places, additional clubs were added. Instead of one club a week, there were two clubs a day, five days a week, and then even clubs on Saturday and Sunday. 

How were entire families impacted? Well, with all the parents home from work, many parents participated with their children in online Good News Clubs, correspondence courses, the Stuck at Home devotionals, and other resources. Parents responded along with their children and told CEF workers that they too gave their lives to Jesus. They learned how to lead their families in devotions and how to study the Bible.

Finally, concern about the health crisis caused people to seek information on how to have a relationship with God. In March, Internet searches related to prayer skyrocketed to their highest levels in five years in 75 countries. Many ministries, including CEF, experienced triple or quadruple response to outreach. PDFs of evangelistic tracts can be downloaded and shared or links shared to watch them online, with titles like “The World’s Greatest Doctor” and “Stop the Spread of Fear”. These free resources are at cefonline.com/covid19

While our tendency is to focus on all that’s wrong in the world, let’s notice how God is working for good, cooperate with what He’s doing, and praise Him for how He works. Even those of us who suffered personal loss during this time can hand that grief to Him and ask what He would like to do in our lives so good can come from it.