A church leader has devoted himself to volunteer services since the outbreak in Shanghai in early March.
Elder Chen Zhimin, director of Jinshan District CC&TSPM, stayed and worked in the outer suburb of Shanghai for nearly two months instead of staying with his family members living in the urban area, Shanghai CC&TSPM reported.
Following his example, having high blood pressure at more than 60 years of age, at least 60 pastoral staff and believers in the district served in streets, villages, and national road crossings, delivering vegetables to the elderly living alone in the community and donating more than 32,000 yuan in total.
A phone ran out of power
On the morning of March 5, after Elder Chen received the news that the district had reported suspected cases, he convened local Christian leaders, proposing to suspend the Sunday service that weekend. After the online meeting, they reached a unanimous decision of issuing an emergency notice to cease group meetings that weekend. He urged church leaders and church board members to publicize and explain the suspension to believers. Later, he forwarded the government's epidemic prevention and control information and the emergency notice of the district CC&TSPM by telephone and on WeChat, demanding churches to implement epidemic prevention and control measures. Before the evening came, his phone indicated that the battery was low, as his online work used up the power of his phone which was just charged in the morning.
Unfinished porridge
One afternoon in late March, Elder Chen, heated up a bowl of porridge after visiting some COVID-19 prevention workers. Wu Lirong, head of Tianming Church, called him via WeChat video, "Why are you still eating? Why don’t the volunteers who have signed up come?"
"Ah, isn't it at 14:00?" Chen put down the porridge, asking rhetorically.
"You remember wrong. It is at 12:00. The rest of us have arrived, waiting for you…"
He quickly got up to change his clothes, hurrying out of his house after drinking less than half of the bowl of porridge. Rushing to the COVID-19 testing point on Mengshan Road, he worked there until the evening.
Water soaked through shoes
Chen registered to be a volunteer in his community though he was under lockdown in his residential area, after the Jinshan District began to be closed and controlled on March 28.
He engaged in helping residents with nucleic acid tests or antigen self-test, maintaining order, assisting the elderly in applying for nucleic acid codes, and delivering vegetables, medicines, and goods in the community, which received praise from the community property and residents.
During those windy and rainy days when the temperature dropped several degrees, when seeing people or materials arriving, Elder Chen rushed forward to check the information or deliver goods regardless of the water dripping from his shoes, reducing the times of other volunteers walking in the wind and rain. When he got home, he found that his shoes had been soaked through by the rain, but did not complain.
In addition, on behalf of the district CC&TSPM, he presented medical protective masks and food to a public security checkpoint on the 320 National Highway in Fengjing Town, the district volunteer association, and Jinshanwei Town.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
