CARE GROUP TELEBOT (V1)

Introduction

Why a Care Group Telebot?

• Tool to keep people within a care group involved in the lives of one another
• For care group members to be comfortable sharing personal matters in a bite-sized manner
• For care group members know how to pray for & encourage one another

Main features:

• Linked to a Google Spreadsheet (where all the data will be stored, and for easy access separately)
• Members can submit items under 3 categories:
  1. Thanksgiving items
  2. Prayer requests
  3. Reflections
• Members can also view all submitted items by everyone in the group (that has been submitted within the past week)
• Weekly reminders: reminds users (by default, on Wednesday) to submit in their items for the week
• Weekly blasts: blasts out all thanksgiving items (by default, on Thursday), prayer requests and reflections that members have sent over the week

To start

Environment Variables

Before running the bot, you need to set up your environment variables:

1. Copy .env.sample to a new file named .env
2. Replace the placeholder values as you go along the other steps below

Setting up the Telegram Bot

1. Search @botfather on telegram and message it
2. Send /start and follow the steps to create a new telegram bot
3. Copy the API token (paste it under "TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN") and use it in your project

Setting up Google Service Account (for access to your bot's Google Spreadsheet)

1. Go to Google Cloud and create a new project
2. Go to "IAM and admin" -> "Service accounts"
3. Create a new service account
4. Generate Keys:
   • Click on "Create Key"
   • Choose "JSON" as the key type
   • Click "Create". This will download a JSON file containing your service account's credentials to your computer, which you will then add into the root of the project folder! (IMPORTANT)

Setting up the Google Spreadsheet

1. Create a Google Spreadsheet (this will be the database for everything regarding this bot!)
2. Rename your spreadsheet and copy the sheet name (paste it under "SHEET_NAME")
3. Share the sheet with the email of your service account (created in step 2), and grant it permission to edit

Congrats!

Start messaging your telebot, and share it with your care group members

Future plans

Currently, the code is not refined at all and there are lots of improvements to be made...in due time! At the same time, I am building a no-code platform for churches to design and implement effective telebots for church ministry apart from care groups (e.g. games, activities, admin, meetings, worship)!