Coronavirus. Covid-19. Social Distancing. Flattening the Curve. Six weeks ago you probably wouldn’t have even know what these words mean. Now, these words are a part of our everyday conversations. These words are affecting nearly every area of every person’s life.
The Coronavirus of Covid-19 is even affecting Lakerlife. In case you didn’t know, Lakerlife is a campus ministry group at Iowa Lakes Community College. About 30-50 college students attend various Lakerlife activities on a weekly basis.
The first change that affected Lakerlife group was very disappointing. The change was the fact that the kids who signed up for the Chicago mission trip did not get to go on that trip due to the Coronavirus. Instead the kids got to go to Spirit Lake and stay at a church and serve. The Lakerlife students had the opportunity to serve at a summer camp in Okoboji. They also had speakers at night and praise and worship time. Unfortunately, even the Spirit Lake trip was cut short due to the fact that the Governor cut down the group size to less than 10 people.
Lakerlife has also been affected by the Coronavirus because changes have had to be made to the location of the meeting. One of the main changes that they had to make was move the Lakerlife Thursday night meetings to Facebook live instead of meeting in person. The leaders record the speakers, and then they play the videos on Facebook live for us to watch in our homes.
Lakerlife also had to change small group time that typically happens after the message. The small group times are now delivered through zoom groups after the message. Lakerlife is also using Zoom to gather for bible study time on Wednesday afternoons. These groups activities used to be in person, but now they are being held online with Zoom.
“The zoom thing works out really nice,” says Brett Fuelberth who is in charge of Lakerlife. “The kids efforts made it stay the same. We meet now for lunch on Wednesdays over Zoom and still have prayer group on Monday’s but again over Zoom. And on Thursdays evenings, we have Facebook Live welcome by one of by one of the students. Then we still have the Word of God taught to us by Kris or Joe and end up in Zoom small groups being led by student leaders. And in fact, we’ve had a lot of other good changes a student leader everyday is sharing a devotional.”
“Matt Tift, a student at Iowa Lakes, says, “Lakerlife on Thursday nights is great online. I love listening to the speakers on Facebook live and hearing from everyone on Zoom after the message. I also like hearing how everyone’s week is going for that week and what things they are doing at home during this time of the Coronavirus.”
Personally, I like how Lakerlife is changing during the Coronavirus. It’s better than having nothing. I like connecting with everyone through Zoom. I think it is pretty awesome. I love hearing from everyone on what homework they have and how they are keeping busy. It’s one of my favorite things I look forward to in the week now. I am thankful that Brett puts all of this together every week it gives everyone something to do each week and everyone has something to talk about.
The Coronavirus has changed so many things, but thankfully, Lakerlife continues to reach out and continue to help others.
Call of the Lake 
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