In addition to encouraging and uniting the faithful, the initiative also aimed to show children that they have not been forgotten.
Members of Seventh-day Adventist churches in the Santa Efigênia district in Curitiba, Brazil, were surprised at the end of April with a unique contest. Each of them could submit a child-sized homemade mask to be given to a young member of the community. Each design would be judged as a creative art piece, and winners would be chosen at the church level to compete with others at the district level.
The idea came up in a meeting with the district youth board. In discussion about the next youth program, someone suggested a friendly contest, with the idea that it would foster joy and community for those who chose to participate. Looking for a local and global context for the contest, the idea arose for mask production for children.
“We realized that the group most affected by social distance was our children,” explained Caroline Mottin, district youth leader. “We had not seen any outreach for them during all of this, so we thought about giving them masks made especially for them.”
Each director gathered a list of children from his congregation and presented it to the group so that each contest participant could choose the child for whom they would personalize the mask.
“We wanted these children to know that they are also important to the church, and that they have not been forgotten,” said Mottin.
Members had a week to make a mask. The following weekend, the most creative design was chosen to represent their church in the final challenge.
“We combined the development of participants' handicrafts with a healthy and positive competitive spirit among the churches in the district,” the leader said. “It was a way to unite our district churches in our current climate.”
Union even in isolation
In addition to producing a mask, each person would personally deliver it to the chosen child and pray with them, something quick and without contact, respecting health guidelines.
“We were very happy with how much people got into the idea,” Mottin said. “We didn't think there would be so many. We even expected that a few committed masks would not be delivered, but in the end we had enough. It was really cool to see how much everyone cared to give their best by producing the masks, putting all their heart into giving it to someone else.”
The district has carried out other initiatives as well, such as an adopt-an-elderly-person program. Each participating young person was challenged to pray and keep in touch with an elderly person in the congregation to help them feel loved and less lonely in this period of little social contact.
“Generally, each church did its own worship, its own activities,” Mottin pointed out. “Now our meetings, even if over the internet, are open to everyone in the district, in the past something that happened only when there was a special event. Isolation has brought us closer together.”
This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site