二○二○年十一月七日/八日 Click here for English version 保持連結(Be Connected)
任健雄牧師
疫情期間,大家常透過互聯網進行會議、團契、崇拜及祈禱會,務求在社交生活、教會生活上都可以和其他人保持連結,而靈命也可透過網上崇拜、各式各樣的聖經講座得著餵養。然而,許多長者因為不懂上網,或沒有智能電話、WiFi、流動數據等上網資源,所以和教會、其他肢體失聯。 Pastor's Sharing
Be Connected
Rev Kenneth Yum
During the pandemic, brothers and sisters stay connected socially and spiritually through online meetings, fellowship, worship and prayer meetings. Our spiritual life gets nurtured through online worship services and a range of Bible studies and talks. However, many seniors have been disconnected from the church and other brothers and sisters as they do not know how to go online, do not have smart phones, Wi-Fi, or other resources to go online such as mobile data. As such, staff and counselors of the Elderly Ministry have made great efforts to gather and send our seniors much information and links about online worship services, prayer meetings and pastors’ devotional sharing via WhatsApp so they can take part at a click. Although our senior fellowships are not meeting via Zoom, we have remained connected with members by texts and phone. One brother/sister turns the pastors' devotional sharing each day into an audio recording and sends it by WhatsApp to some seniors who cannot read. This helps the seniors stay connected spiritually with the Lord. Meanwhile, the Seniors Sunday School has introduced a "New Testament Quick Reads" program to encourage participants to continue learning during the suspension of Sunday School. The church has also set up a telephone hotline for seniors without smart phones to take part in worship services. Jesus paid much attention to believers' relationship with the Lord and other people. He said: "Remain in me, and I will remain in you" (John 15:4a). To grow spiritually, we need a close relationship with Christ. Having connected with Christ, we will bear the fruit of love and be able to love each other (John 15:12-17). We must know that we are all connected to one another as parts of Christ’s body (Ephesians 4:11-16). Maslow's hierarchy of needs mentions five categories of human needs of which love and belongingness come third. Alderfer's ERG theory also points out three core human needs, with relatedness being one. Both stress the need for social life, the need to maintain a relationship with others, and be accepted by the community. Over the past month, the staff and counselors of the Elderly Ministry tried our best to teach our seniors to use Zoom, and have successfully conducted online fellowship meetings and small group sharing with them using Zoom. Members are happy to see the faces of counselors and fellowship members and they look forward to meeting on Zoom again. We can see that our seniors are ready to take on challenge and change. They only need encouragement and guidance with downloading the app. I therefore encourage brothers and sisters to help them: 1. To download the app 2. To install Wi-Fi at their homes, or buy mobile data cards so they can easily go online 3. If you have a smart phone in good condition which you no longer use, please contact me or the Elderly Ministry at 2909 9700 for us to pass them on to our seniors who may need them It is my sincere hope that our seniors can get connected with friends, relatives, fellowship members and the Lord socially and spiritually. The coming Sunday is Senior Citizen's Day. I encourage you to get connected with one senior. |
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