Hello, friends and family of Victory Outreach!
 
We are writing to you today to share with you how we have prayerfully chosen to respond to the current Coronavirus outbreak.

 As God’s people, we respond in faith (not code for foolishness) and wisdom (not code for fear). From a position of peace, and in full confidence of God’s goodness and protection (Psalm 91), we acknowledge that both quarantine and handwashing practices are practical measures instructed in scripture and are necessary if we intend to stop the spread of infectious diseases.

 We want to communicate clearly what AHS has noted, the risk of contracting COVID-19 in Alberta remains to be low. They are working hard to ensure that our risk remains low, taking precautionary measures and putting strong guidelines in place to protect the people of our province. This is a wise response to handling the spread of a highly infectious virus and slowing the spread of a global pandemic. As a church, we are committed to cooperate with our health officials and offer them our earnest prayers and full support.

 As one church in three locations, this is how the Victory Outreach will respond to the present COVID-19 pandemic:

1. As of Sunday, March 13th, Our Sunday worship service WILL continue at both the Neighbourhood (Ogden) and Eastside (Forest Lawn) locations. We are the people of God and we recognize the importance of gathering together (Hebrews 10:25). At this time, we see that there is no need to move meetings primarily to an online format, but in cooperation with AHS, we have chosen to limit the gathering of social events. During this time we will suspend the Bowness service and encourage the people of Bowness to worship along with us at our other locations or follow along with online or via our VO App.
2. As a ministry that exists to ‘show the world who Jesus is’, we believe that this current situation is an opportunity for us to meet the growing needs of people. We anticipate that during this time of self-isolation and quarantine, the demand for essential services (warm meals and food hampers) will likely increase rather than decrease. Victory Outreach will continue to offer essential services throughout the week while taking extra health and sanitization measures to ensure the safety of all people.
3. We urge you to remain at home if you (or anyone in your household) are experiencing flu-like symptoms including fever, cough or a runny nose. If you are concerned that you may have COVID-19 we want to encourage you to take a self-assessment test before calling 811 (our public health link is overtaxed). The self-assessment can be found at ahs.ca/covid-19. It is important to note that the risk of death is EXTREMELY low and you do not need to be alarmed even if you DO contract the virus. Our province is seeking to isolate the spread of this virus and although we do need to take their concerns seriously, we certainly should not be panicking. A large percentage of the people who attend Victory Outreach experience compromised immunity and additional health challenges that make them especially vulnerable to contracting sicknesses. This should be something that we keep in mind all throughout the year, regardless of Coronavirus. 
4. If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms and require food or other essential services, you can contact our head office at [email protected] log onto www.victoryoutreach.ca to request help (rather than coming into a location). Please keep in mind, we are primarily a volunteer-based ministry with limited resources. We will do our best to meet your needs to the best of our ability. 
5. In cooperation with AHS, we have also chosen to postpone any large events that have been designed for the purpose of outreach. This means that our upcoming ‘Weekend Conference’ has been postponed until further notice. 

In closing, we remind you of the assurance of peace you have in your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”   - 2 Timothy 1:17
 
We want to encourage each of you to take advantage of this opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus with a fearful world. Set time aside to pray for our governing authorities, and purpose to love your neighbour as yourself. You may be tempted to store up food and provision for you and your family, but we remind you to keep your vision on others as well as yourself during this time. 
 
We love each one of you and you remain in our prayers always. 
Grace and Peace to you all. 
 
 
Love Pastors Nathan and Sharon, and the pastoral team of Victory Outreach