Crossworld worker Amy and her family moved to Italy in 2018. Their region of the country has faced a coronavirus lockdown since early March. But that hasn’t stopped their family from bringing God’s love to life! Here Amy shares about engaging her neighbors in trying times.


I know we’ve had a lot of bad news lately, but we would like to share some really good things happening during this hard time.

Italy has asked everyone to open their windows at 6 p.m. and play an instrument. It’s beautiful hearing all the music echo through the streets. And it brought everyone out on their balconies. I recently met three neighbors from my window that I didn’t know before. Love it!

To those of you adjusting to a new way of life, we offer these ideas for building community and encouragement.

1. Organize a fun event for the people who live on your street. You could sing the national anthem together, play music in your front yard, take five minutes to applaud your healthcare workers, or light a candle in your windows to honor those who have passed away.
   
   
2. Coordinate a project for kids through local art programs or schools. Here, children are hanging pictures of rainbows, a symbol of hope, with banners that read Tutto andrà bene (“Everything will be ok”). See the photo above.
   
   
3. Reach out to an elderly friend or neighbor and offer to shop for them so they don’t expose themselves to large crowds.
   
   
4. Get in touch with friends and family. My family did eight Skype calls last weekend. This “pause” has been a beautiful time to reconnect with people we have not talked to in a while.
   
   
5. Send out encouragements to local healthcare workers, either physical notes or virtually.
   
   
6. Engage the people right around you. The families in our building have hung pictures on our apartment door (see photo above). One neighbor created a message board at our building entrance where we all write notes to each other. And we created a WhatsApp group so we can talk anytime. We have bonded more with our neighbors in the last week than in previous months combined.

Hang in there, everyone! Be kind to one another, give someone a smile while you wait in line, keep your sense of humor, and be sure to thank the people who are serving you.

Share your ideas for spreading God’s love during the coronavirus pandemic in the comments below!

Crossworld worker Amy and her family live and make disciples in Italy.