The Conference Office may be largely uninhabited, however the work is still continuing. If anything, our staff have been busier than usual.
Departmental leaders are e-meeting weekly to pray together, sharing the challenges their ministries are facing as they come up with creative ideas to fulfil their roles.
The VicYouth team has been busy trying to navigate youth ministry in a COVID-19 season. Working with Pathfinder District Directors and other youth directors from around Australia, they are currently looking at ways by which the pathfinder curriculum can run in 2020. Phil and Rose have been touching base with youth leaders from across the state, and will be continuing to support them through resourcing, mentoring, networking and an online community through this COVID-19 season. Be on the lookout for your local youth group which will soon be featured on the VicYouth instagram and Facebook page. Sign up for VicYouth’s monthly newsletter HERE.
All departments have been spending a lot of time directly contacting the local church members involved in their ministries.
For our Ministerial Secretary, Justin Bone, this included contacting each of our pastors, helping equip them with technology if they need it, and encouraging them in a new way of ministry.
Tarnya Garner has set up a Prayer Wall PRAYER WALL, for women to share their prayers, and has been contacting pastors to see what she can do for local church women. Her team are are helping women around Victoria stay in touch through the WM facebook page, where each day there is a new inspiring message. See what else is happening at the WM website.
Anxiety is on the increase, and our Health Director, Andrew Jasper, has been working on establishing an online forum for conducting Depression and Anxiety Recovery programs, and shared the news that the Livemore Project will soon be offered to the public for free, for several months. He has also liaised with Faith FM to produce an on-air 60 second Vitality Boost program and with the Adventist Media Centre to prepare brochures about boosting your immune system and other relevant literature. These will be ready for when it is considered safe to letterbox again. A digital version of Coronavirus vs Your Immune System is available here and we encourage you to share it via your social media platforms.
As Personal Ministries Director, Andrew has also been busy with Harvest Victoria, which has pivoted to an online focus, with Bible workers conducting onine Bible studies and Bible Worker Trainers are developing content for online training. And plans include following up on Hope Channel’s online interests.
Big Camp Did happening…
For our kids! Julie Catton was flat out working with other Children’s Ministry Departments around Australia to produce BigCamp@home which started Easter Friday and will run for eight days. As well, Julie has being involved in the Growing Together program, as a coach for several churches. See more CM resources here too…
The Finance Department has been functioning full steam ahead, as they keep up with current workload and seek alternatives for the future.
And our Education Director and ADRA Director were so busy they were unable to put in an appearance. The team prayed especially for them, with the extra heavy work load they are currently carrying.
Please pray for our Conference leaders and their staff. This is a time of transition and stress. A time of finding creative ways to do their work, supporting and enabling local churches to focus on mission – growing God’s Kingdom.