KUCHING — Since the national movement control order (MCO) was imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 from 18 March 2020, the EMPOWERED Ministry, Kuching has announced cancellation of their weekly activities from mid-March until further notice.
In place of physical gatherings, the youth Ministry has since mobilised various activities with use of technology and social media such as weekly prayer broadcasts, virtual prayer meets among community members, virtual cell meets and recently, InstaLive with EMPOWERED — Live chat on Instagram (IG).
The first LIVE IG Chat took place on 5 April, Sunday evening at 8.30 pm with host, Kelvin Chan from EMPOWERED Ministry and Guest, Andre Ong from Shekinah Glory Renewal Group, Penang. The chat on the topic, ‘Life, Faith and Holy Week during MCO’ had a consistent live participation of about 60pax, and thereafter more than 200 offline viewers within 24 hours of going live.
The intention of hosting the IG LIVE Chat was to reconnect with youths and the EMPOWERED community, family and friends. A lively and engaging discussion took place on deepening and putting one’s faith to action during MCO before Andre shed light on Holy Week which deepened the youth’s understanding and stirred their hearts to find out more.
The host and guest then answered questions from the participants as well as posed questions in return to the participants. From the live questions, various areas were touched such as how does one prepare for Holy Week? What does it mean to be a leader? Covid-19 and diseases are deemed as spiritual warfare—how is this explained and what do we do about it besides praying? and other areas such as wandering souls finding peace, LGBT community and the importance of learning from failure.
The chat concluded stressing on the importance to READ the Word, MEDIATE the Word and OFFER the Word in love and action during this Restricted Movement Order (RMO) and beyond if one is to build an intimate relationship with God and lead purposeful lives. The chat left all viewers with these questions:
1. We’re heading into Holy Week which starts from Palm Sunday. There’s Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, then Easter. But what about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday? What happened then?
2. From the Apostle’s Creed, what does Jesus rose AGAIN mean? Why again? EMPOWERED will continue to conduct LIVE Chats on Instagram every Sunday evening at 8.30–9.30 pm / 10.00 pm. Do tune in and participate by following EMPOWERED on Instagram @empoweredkch. The topic this Sunday (12 April 2020) is EASTER – Christ is Alive! : A Chat on the Resurrection and Transformation of Our Lives. See you then!
Empowered Ministry Kuching
