When Americans need hand sanitizer, we go to a drugstore or Costco. That is not an option for most people in the world.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation. After decades of strife with the northern forces, South Sudan emerged as an independent nation on July 9, 2011. Since then, it has been wracked by violence from different warring factions. 
  Probably the best thing going in the country is the fast-growing Episcopal Church of South Sudan, boasting eight million members--more than half the population. The Primate, ABp Justin Badi, is a great friend. An even closer relationship is with ABp Paul Yugusuk, son of ABp Benjamin Yugusuk, former Archbishop of Sudan. ABp Benjamin was also a wonderful spiritual father to me for many years from 1993 until his death in 2000. ABp Paul and I are brothers, and collaborate all the time. Your generosity just allowed us to send money to help with COVID-19 relief and prevention. 
These photos (from upper left) show people displaced by fighting, a new mask factory we are helping with, a project to turn plastic jugs into hand washing/sanitization stations, and pictures of delivering the finished supplies. 

ABp Paul wrote to me: 
“Ndugu Kubwa [Big Brother], Thank you and the people of Ekklesia for your wonderful support. Our needs are very great. We are teaching hygiene, making masks, and sending teams out to teach how to avoid the spread of COVID. Your partnership is a tremendous encouragement.”

Canon Getachew Teshome is a priest serving in Kenya. Originally from Ethiopia, “Getch” is an absolutely prodigious evangelist. He serves as a Canon for mission with Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, the Primate of Kenya. Getch has not only led countless people of other religions to the true faith, he has trained and equipped literally hundreds upon hundreds of other evangelists to do the same. By God’s grace, Getch is responsible for a massive shift--a people-movement coming to Christ.
Now, with COVID-19 spreading like wildfire in Kenya, Getch has many people turning to him for help. We are partnering with him to provide basic staples. For months, the whole country has been shut down. The government has been trying to avoid having the health care system overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. That has left countless people stuck at home unable to get food.
When Getch contacted me on WhatsApp, he had people literally at his door asking for food. In a matter of minutes, we were able to transfer money and get lots of people fed! That was a direct result of the faithfulness and generosity of our donors!

We are in the midst of one of the most trying times in human history. Never before has one crisis assaulted literally every nation and every person in the entire world...and, in the midst of that, what is the Lord’s hope for us? Joy! 
Joy is actually different from happiness, which is dependent on circumstances. Real joy is the connection with someone else--whether another “regular” human or with Jesus, in which the relationship is greater than the problem we face.
Admittedly, it is not automatic for us to be able to recapture joy when it has escaped us! It is a skill that has to be learned. In fact, what is happening, is that there are different places in our brain where we experience the six major negative emotions. They are:
Sadness    AnxietyDisgust
Shame    AngerDespair
Inside our brains, different “neural pathways” need to be developed for each of those emotions so we can learn how to navigate our way back to our “joy center,” in order to “recapture joy.”