Hope for a Small Town during COVID

Sicamous is small. Just over 2,000 people. 40% Seniors population. Our church was almost 12 years old when Covid struck. 

People were reeling. Suddenly the school we met in wouldn’t allow us to meet there anymore. People were afraid. Life Groups in the church shut down and folks got lonely fast.

On March 16^th, 2020 I had one clear thought: Do a Devo called “Hope At 7” on Facebook Live every night and tell people that Jesus is our Hope.  I started in Genesis and every night at 7pm, for 89 straight days, I would start my live Facebook post. 

Soon, many, many people from town would join me and I would see their names listed as Facebook told me who was watching. The Good News was being proclaimed and a lot of scared people were watching. Soon I started getting guest speakers. Men and women from all over the world have been guest speakers on Hope at 7 including Christian recording artist Michael Card. I loved having them speak to me as well.  

After the 89 days, I told folks we needed to move to 5 days a week, so we went from Monday to Friday. Now I do Hope at 7am Monday to Friday and 7pm on Tuesday nights. The Lord also gave us the idea to do Kid Zone on Tuesday night at 6 and I had to become like Mr. Dressup real quick.

Three people who watched asked me if I would baptize them. So, we went down to the Lake with just their family and dunked them good. One woman who watched stopped me in the Grocery store and told me she felt drawn to Jesus and asked me for “a book about Jesus or something I could give her to help and something for my kids too, please. They’re asking about Him too.” 

God is on the move—His Spirit is working—He let this happen for a good reason. As long as we follow Him through the rest of this valley, we are going in the right direction.  God always seems to do something out of the box to reach people.  And He is.  When we are back together there are going to be a lot of new faces at church.

 A big thank you to Bob Evans, from Shuswap Community Church in Sicamous, BC for sharing this story with us. You can check out Hope at 7, by visiting Pastor Bob on Facebook