Hi folks,
I have some information about things we are going to try in the meantime while we cannot gather together in person. Some of these will work, and some might not, but please be patient with us as we try new things:
1. We are planning to live-stream online a Sunday morning service, starting at our usual time of 11:15am, lasting for approx 45 minutes. This will be a way of continuing to ‘gather’ together – to sing, pray, have a children’s talk, and a brief message. The technology for this will not be complicated, and will simply involve clicking on a link to get to the appropriate website to watch and listen – David Scott will send out more details before Sunday. If you are able to, please do join us online for this, so that we might continue to be together with one another on a Sunday morning.
2. As part of this live-stream there will be a brief children’s talk. This children’s talk will tie in with some web-based materials for parents to use with their children, to make up for the lack of Sunday school classes. A link to this web-based material will be provided.
3. We are planning a brief daily podcast, that folk can listen to in their own time. Each day this will give a thought for the day, and updates and prayer requests from folk in the church, so that we have a sense of checking in with one another and hearing how folk are getting on. We are hoping to include some “on-air” phone calls, so that we can hear voices from a few different folk in the church. Starting from Monday, this podcast will be uploaded by 9:30am each morning 6 days a week (not Sundays), and will be available on our soundcloud site: https://soundcloud.com/kirkwallbaptistchurch
4. In terms of youth activities, spring camp has been cancelled, sadly. But if you are a young person or parent of a young person, Fraser will be in contact with information about how the young people are staying connected at this time.
5. Ingrid and Lindi are setting up a KBC support group on facebook, and more information about that should be available soon. Other support groups have been set up across our islands, and if you would like to help, or need some support, please do get in contact with them directly. One such group, which some folk from our church are involved with, is found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/505271343691687/
6. Small groups are suspended at the moment, but please stay in contact with your fellow small group members, either by phone or through various types of social media, e.g. whatsapp groups.
7. If you find yourself isolating, and feel you have spare time with nothing to do, can I encourage you to pick up the phone and call some people and ask how they are getting on. We are very blessed to have updated our contact sheet recently (thank you Ingrid!) and it is probably our number one ministry tool at this time for helping one another through this crisis. If we can’t meet, let’s stay in contact by phone.
8. Please do call someone from the church if you need help with anything at this time: to talk, to get prayer, to get practical help. In particular, please do feel free to call any of the deacons at any time: Tim 876436, Mark 871817, Malcolm 781710, Angus 877798, Donald 761883, Rognvald 874580, Fraser 988267, David 872252, Alan 874543.
9. This coming Sunday has been designated a national day of prayer about the coronavirus crisis: https://www.eauk.org/what-we-do/prayer-centre/national-day-of-prayer-about-the-coronavirus-crisisThe Baptist Union of Scotland will be holding an online prayer gathering on Sunday evening at 7pm, which you can watch and pray along with live here: https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fscottishbaptist%2Fposts%2F3296692607010972
10. Some folk do not have the technology or technological skills to be involved with some of these initiatives. Let’s particularly remember to pray for them and call them. And please know that there are a number of folk in our church who are technologically very smart, so if you need help in getting online access to one of the things we have mentioned please do let us know.
That’s all for now. Keep an ear to the ground for other things going on – this isn’t a complete list. And let’s keep praying for one another.
Thanks, Tim.