We tend to look at the disruption caused by the pandemic in terms of our personal lives and economic realities. Many parents are dealing with how their children will be attending school. Some are looking at online schooling for the rest of the year while others are trying to figure out whether to commit to virtual or in-class teaching. Businesses are trying to figure out how to weather the economic crisis. But Covid-19 has disrupted much more than our daily activities.
Buffets A Thing Of The Past
For example, buffets are now something from the past. It is unlikely that they will return in the form of serving yourself what you want. Golden Corral restaurants remain mostly closed. A few are trying to reopen this month, but with cafeteria style food service instead of self-served helpings. The few that reopen are likely a test bed for the rest. Will be cafeteria model be economically feasible? We will soon learn.
But restaurants aren’t the only activities trying to adapt.
The Jehovah Witnesses
We noted something that was missing on our Sunday routines when we installed a video camera doorbell. As the use of video doorbell cameras started to become common place, we noticed a drop of Jehovah Witnesses ringing the doorbell on Sunday mornings.
Curios, I started to look at the archived videos of the doorbell and noticed that at first the Jehovah Witnesses would approach the door and upon noticing the video doorbell, some would simply leave without ringing it. I noticed overtime that they were simply skipping the house altogether. It seemed to me like word had spread that no one answered the door at our house, so they simply skipped it.
But they were still evangelizing in the neighborhood.
Although I hadn’t noticed it, the Jehovah Witnesses had simply stopped showing up in our neighborhood after the pandemic emergency had been declared. Obviously, the Coronavirus was behind their disappearance from neighborhoods.
It wasn’t until we received the letter this week that I realized that like everything else, door-to-door evangelizing had also been disrupted by the virus. The Jehovah Witnesses have suspended their door-to-door missions. But they haven’t ended them.
Like everyone else, they have adapted to the new reality of going online.
As I thought about this, I also realized that I haven’t seen the Mormons on their bikes on neighborhood streets lately.
Clearly, Covid-19 has fundamentally changed they way we live our lives.
