Update from Mauritius

COVID-19 has definitely come with lots of surprises. The big change we had to handle during confinement was how to stay connected with the congregants. We thank God for technology that has helped us to still have connect groups and Sunday services. During the confinement, we were able to reach new students who needed a place to connect and worship. The International students were not able to go home, so they all stayed in Mauritius and some needed some financial assistance. We noticed the campus ministry significantly grew during confinement. The students felt really cared for by the church and were sharing with their friends how the church had been supporting them. We started the Sunday services in July, while posting our service on Facebook live. During confinement, we had people from the US, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe joining our connect groups and Sunday services. We also felt the attendance at the Sunday services had also increased week by week. The venue was getting too small for all the congregants and we were hoping to move to the bigger conference in September. Unfortunately, the hotel we normally use, was turned into a quarantine hotel so we had to find another venue for our Sunday services. We thank God that we were able to find another venue close to the community and campus.

As we were growing in numbers, we felt it was important to take people through the discipleship process and grow people as well as growing in numbers. We launched the Foundation Course in September, we basically did the One2One book over four weeks. Twenty-two students completely the Foundations Course and we even did a small graduation ceremony for them to celebrate what God had done in their lives. We had a couple who are in their late 60s who did the course and they were amazed by the freedom they experience. Two students got water-baptized, while doing the course. We are now preparing to do our first online Victory Course (aka Victory Weekend) starting on the 4th November. One exciting thing that has happened in September is the re-launch of the Kids Ministry with the new kids. We now have six kids in the Kids church and they are currently doing the Kids version of Foundations Course. We are really excited to see the growth and momentum in the church and trusting God for greater things in 2021!