At Wantirna, new challenges have also provided new opportunities. The “usual” continues to occur on a weekly basis – livestreamed services via YouTube and Facebook, Sabbath schools via zoom, and weekly meetings called “Virtual Family Rooms” (VFR), both immediately after church and during the week.
Initially when this whole situation with Covid started, kids Sabbath School craft packs were delivered to each home, and our VFRs had a different theme each day – PRAYER Monday, YOUNG PEOPLE “Chooseday”, WORD Wednesday, FUN Thursday, and KIND Friday, and of course our usually most well attended session – the After Church VFR. The goal was to have something for everyone. However with the increasing feeling of people being “zoomed out”, we’ve cut back on the VFR to two days a week, still providing a space for people to connect if they so wish. Pathfinders have occurred via Zoom as well – the kids actually loved being together as they participated in getting their honours from the comfort of their own own.
Wantirna’s focus for the rest of 2020 is to continue to “Stay Connected”, where the emphasis on our livestream services is now on including especially those who normally wouldn’t want to participate. New segments like “Wantirna Family @ Home” have been introduced, and the pastors even put together a how to video to encourage participation. There was also a challenge and a call to reach out to 3 different people each week for this whole duration of the lockdown.
The Praise & Worship team continue to spend a lot of time and effort putting out new songs as well as incorporating new faces each week, and we’ve just finished submission of our second choir song where more than 30 people participated. The song, like our sermons and other songs will be published on our YouTube channel. Please feel free to re-use anything that we’ve published.
On the outreach front, our ADRA Hub / Food Pantry has had the opportunity to serve 19 families weekly, totally almost 100 people. God has really opened doors in this area, especially as we’ve only been in operation for a few months since the whole Covid situation started. Incredible and encouraging stories of interactions and encounters occur weekly, and we’re now in the midst of planning how we can do this post-Covid so that there will be minimal disruption to the other ministries that run at Wantirna when we return to church.
Pr. Yong shin Chee and Pr. Dan Brunt