Johnny Wong, Gateway Adventist Centre member, has found something good that has come out of the COVID-19 lock down. Opportunities for people’s heart to turn to Jesus for hope in an uncertain future are being created.
“We rejoice in the four baptisms despite the increasing COVID-19 restriction in Victoria as our Bible students turn to the God of hope in crisis”, said Pr Chris Moses, pastor at Gateway. A Sunday church couple, Tiana and Shaun (pictured), David also from Sunday church and Bao from Buddhist background joined the Adventist ‘church just before stage 3 restrictions.
It was initially planned for all four to be baptised on the same day but as we were restricted to maximum of 20 people, their friends and families would had missed out, so we decided to have two separate baptismal services. The first one on Sabbath 27 June was held at the church’s weExplore centre of influence at Clayton with 20 people and broadcast online. The second baptism was scheduled for Sabbath 11 July but with Melbourne going into stage 3 restrictions we brought the baptism to Wednesday night, a few hours before the lock down.
It turned out to be a blessing. Besides the basic health precautions e.g. hand sanitising, disinfecting venue, temperature check, what were the ingredients that made it a blessing? The ingredients were to 1) make the baptism evangelistic by having the candidates share their conversion testimony; 2) live stream the baptism on online to a wider audience; 3) reduce waiting time for online viewers by having the candidates ready in their baptismal attire; 4) use online appeal after the baptism to call for decision for those watching; and 5) use social media to further promote the testimonies. People that missed out the live event could still watch the videos. We praise God that six people responded online that they too would like to be baptised in the future.
“With the uncertainties of the pandemic, people’s hearts are looking for God, our Anchor in the storms of life. If restrictions are eased, we now have baptism planned for next two months!” said Pr Moses. We have transitioned everything online including starting an online church on Sunday morning (onlinechurch.melbourne). weExplore Centre community wellness courses e.g. Mental & Emotional Health Course, have moved online and thus become a channel of influence. We are currently running online public evangelism and offering cooking program, mental and emotional wellness program and Bible Prophecy program.
Johnny Wong, Church Elder