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We understand the depth of sadness and fear coursing through our world right now. COVID-19 (Carona Virus) has upended the flow of daily life around the world. It is not a stretch to say that the world has never faced such a wide spread pandemic of this magnitude in our lifetime. How are we to respond as God’s people? We know that we are called not to live in fear, “Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV) ⁸It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Sadly, the world around us expresses their fear every waking moment of the day in personal interactions, social media posts, and news reports. Our job as believers is to keep on being the church. We must continue meeting the needs of those around us who are afraid and seeking answers. Scripture outlines many ways that we can do this, but a specific passage from the Apostle John comes to mind, “1 John 4:18–21 (ESV) ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” So let us, during this time of great fear and uncertainty, give others love. We want to do that in a few different ways. The first is through out Facebook page where we will be holding livestream events each week to encourage prayer and conversation about what we can be doing as a church. The second way that we can show love to the world is by continuing to worship together even though we cannot do so in person. Below you will find links to both our Facebook page and our YouTube page where both of these options can be found. The third and final way that we are trying to show love to one another is through meeting one another’s needs. This might mean that you make that extra phone call this week, or you check on that person whom you know has no one to look after them. We want to continue meeting the needs of so many, but to do that we must continue to give faithfully so that these needs can be met. Below you will also find our giving portal through which you can give directly to Hartford Baptist Church as you would with your normal tithes and offerings. These gifts allow us to keep our doors open and meet the needs of those around our church community. Thank you for joining us during this difficult time, and may God bless us all as we seek to make much of his name.