The Unexpected Blessing of Virtual Banquets

Written by Heidi Landes, Global Impact Fund Director

We were so excited that over 1,000 enthusiastic supporters joined us for one of our 12 Virtual Banquets this year, to hear about the work God is doing through TeachBeyond around the world!

Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Our annual Manitoba banquet has traditionally been a time to gather about 300 long-time friends and donors in person, to share stories of God’s transformational work over the past year. Circumstances dictated that we change to a virtual banquet format, and, not surprisingly, God used that to bring glory to His work in a new way.

Instead of 300 people in one location, we had over 1,000 people from locations all over the world! We used Facebook, not always known as a place for good news, to share the amazing stories of God’s transforming work in students and communities around the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic is the first time in our organization’s history that ONE single crisis impacted every single learner, teacher, school, project, and country at once! At one point in the spring, not one of TeachBeyond’s schools was able to offer in-person classes. However, determined to do what was best for our students, our members trusted God and obeyed limitations. As a result, all our schools were able to re-open safely in the fall, in a variety of in-person, hybrid, and remote models. While it looked different, God’s transformational work continued and even expanded!

During our virtual banquets, we heard testimonies from Germany, South Africa, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Southeast Asia, and Colombia, which clearly showed how in the midst of a dark time, His story of hope shines even brighter! The moving reports described how TeachBeyond members are taking every opportunity to share the Gospel with students and their families.

Not only were we excited to have so many people joining us to praise God for His work and pray for the upcoming year, we were also amazed by the financial support. The virtual banquets helped us raise over $193,000 in 2020, for TeachBeyond’s Global Impact Fund. God provided the funds for all our 2020 budgeted needs AND additional funds which we are using to help schools with extra Covid-19 related expenses.

We praise God for the opportunity to connect with so many of you through our virtual banquets, and we look forward to later this year, when we hope to have BOTH our in-person Manitoba banquet and our virtual banquets. God is so good and connecting us all as we serve Him together, in bringing transformational education services around the world.

If you missed the banquet but would like to hear the stories, you can watch a recording here.