For this is Love

Protection, Provision and Prayer

As COVID-19 raged across the world, Samaritan’s Purse mobilised to respond in Jesus’ Name. Through an unprecedented and widespread disaster on both a global and local scale, our ‘This is Love’ project provided care to those ravaged by the terrible disease.

Samaritan’s Purse UK were able to leverage our disaster relief supply chain to equip the good work of UK churches and charities with PPE as they worked to meet the practical needs of the most disadvantaged in their communities, under the ever-present risk of the coronavirus.

They had been standing in the gap for years, but these essential services became more important than ever. Food banks, supporting refugees, sheltering the homeless, and caring for the elderly are key to ensuring the marginalised in society are not forgotten. But these and many other vital services were at risk.

We received hundreds of requests from people and projects who desperately needed the equipment to carry on. Vital face masks, gloves, and sanitiser were needed to allow them to have a measure of safety as they cared for their communities. People were tired, scared and sometimes felt forgotten, but through ‘This is Love’, Samaritan’s Purse was able to come alongside them.

Protection, Provision and Prayer for the UK

Samaritan’s Purse stepped out in faith and allocated every penny we could to support them. Utilising our international supply chain, we sourced:

FFP1 masks:   96,000 pcs.
FFP2 masks:   48,000 pcs.
Latex Gloves:   60,000 pcs.
Nitrile Gloves:   60,000 pcs.
Sanitiser:   2,100 lt

We sent hundreds of kits which each included over £250 worth of FFP1 disposable face masks, FFP2 disposable masks, disposable nitrile and latex gloves and alcohol-based hand sanitiser.

Here are just three of the many requests for support we received from Good Samaritans

  • We need PPE for our staff as we provide 24 hour supported accommodation in registered care homes; we literally can’t carry on without it.
  • Support would make all the difference as we help to give food, groceries, and share the love of Christ to asylum seekers, single elderly people from minority communities, international students stuck in hostels, low-income families and parents of children with autism.
  • Masks and gloves would lower the risk as we work with the homeless in our city every week, as we provide up to 70 warm meals a night.

Our ‘This is Love’ project supported Good Samaritans such as these, as they themselves extended Christ’s love in practical ways to those who needed us the most.

‘And this is love that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.’ 2 John 1:6

For this is Love

Standing in the gap – stories of Community Care Grants in action

‘I don’t know what would happen if you weren’t here. I think I would have died if it wasn’t for you.’

Read About a Day in The Life Of UK Mission

Find out more about the projects we supported together.

View The Interactive Map

More ways Samaritan’s Purse responded to the global crisis:

Direct clinical care: Samaritan’s Purse directly provided critical clinical care in the global epicentres of the pandemic, Italy and New York City, through the deployment of two emergency field hospitals and teams of disaster assistance and emergency medical specialist personnel.

Providing key equipment: We distributed Personal Protective Equipment. Earlier in the pandemic we sent supplies to meet overwhelming needs in China, and then we extended this to other areas where needs became dire.

Ministering to meet emotional and psychological need: Rapid Response Team Chaplains from our sister organisation, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, virtually deployed, ministering by phone to people experiencing fear, or suffering from anxiety and grief across the UK. Support can be found here.

 

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