Restaurants are closed, stores are shuttered, small businesses are wondering whether they will survive and churches around the country are prohibited from worshipping together.

A new and deadly virus has changed the face of society and some are wondering how it will end, if indeed it will end.

No, that isn’t from today’s news. It was the reality of 1918 when the Spanish Flu swept around the world eventually killing between 50 and 100 million people.  In Canada, over 55,000 died out of a population of a little over 8 million.  To put that in perspective, that would be the equivalent of almost a quarter of a million Canadians dying of COVID-19.

And churches adapted and survived.  They changed how they worshipped, services were closed but churches became innovative, first by worshipping outside and when that was prohibited they used the latest technology to print their pastors’ messages and have them delivered to their church families.

And just like that, everything changed.  After the second wave of the Spanish flu in the fall of 1918, the infection rate and the death rate dropped.  Life slowly returned to normal, and people returned to their churches and began to worship together again.

And as soon as it’s safe for our church family to worship together again, we will.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is possible, you’ll have to attempt the impossible