Dear brothers and sisters, friends and family:

Amidst the panic taking place with the coronavirus, we hope that you find peace and reassurance from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God knows the difficult trials we face in life so He has given us His promise and comfort to carry us through them:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:1-3, 7

You probably have gotten guidance and instructions from your work, school, or the local authorities on how to try to stay safe from COVID-19. We are also taking precautions to help prevent the spread of this virus and try to safeguard the people that come to Covenant Church.

Effectively immediately, all activities of the church, with the exception of Sunday Worship service, are being suspended until further notice. This includes: Sunday School, Chinese School, Pioneer Club, Youth Fellowship, Cell Groups, and Prayer Meetings. We will have lunch on Sunday, March 15, but after that, lunch will also be suspended.

When coming to church, we ask that you would please follow the guidelines below, which come from the health authorities:

1. If you feel sick in any way, please stay home so you can recover and we can prevent spreading illness to other people. You should seek the appropriate medical help to care for your health so you can rejoin us when you are well again.
2. If you cannot come to church, we encourage you to worship from home by listening to our recorded sermon on the church website which we will make available the same day. In the near future we hope to set up live streaming of the worship service.
3. Please cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or with your sleeves.  You should immediately discard the tissue into the trash can afterwards.
4. You should wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds regularly.  If soap is not available, you should use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
5. You should avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
6. While we understand the joy of seeing each other, please avoid greeting people with hugs or hand-shakes or kissing little children.  Instead, a warm smile to each other would be very appropriate.
7. If you have been out of the country or in contact with someone who has, especially to the high risk countries of China, South Korea, Italy, or Iran, please self-quarantine yourself for 14 days to determine if you have any symptoms of the virus.

We do long for the day that we can resume our normal activities and fellowship with each other but we trust that God has his perfect timing for that and he has our goodness in mind.  With everyone’s cooperation, we pray that we will be able to stem the spread of this virus and see its end soon by the grace of Christ.

In Our Savior,
Pastors David and Phillip,
Elders Michael, George, James and Raymond