Pastor Audrey Ng oversees a pastoral zone as well as the Liberty Ministry in City Harvest Church. The mother of three shares what life has been like since COVID-19 and the Circuit Breaker came into being.
CHC has not held a physical service since February. As a pastor, how do you connect with your members in this season?
In this season of the pandemic, it is necessary not to physically meet. When members are aware that we are constantly thinking not just for their spiritual well-being, but also their physical and emotional health, they will know that we only want what’s best for them.
I meet my members and leaders through Zoom—it is the norm now for all of us. Now I get the chance to visit most of the cell groups in my zone virtually. It used to take me months to physically visit all the cell groups in my pastoral zone; now with Zoom, it’s taken me just a few weeks to meet them all! It’s important to see the good in the midst of this trying situation.
For Liberty Ministry, we held off our appointments starting the first two weeks of February. However, requests from the members kept coming in so we decided to resume meeting the members for a while until the Circuit Breaker was announced.
We kept to very stringent measures such as taking temperature and asking them to fill in a travel declaration form. While ministering, we refrain from laying hands while praying for the members and also kept a safe distance. The presence of God was still there to heal and restore their broken hearts.
When the Circuit Breaker began, we stopped all meetings, and the requests also stopped coming in. Now, we share positive testimonies through out group chats, to encourage each other. And we keep each other in prayer.
What have you been doing at home in this season?
I personally get to be at home most of the nights since we have no more leaders meeting for the pastoral zone, physical gathering cell group meetings, and so on. The nights that I am at home, I get to see and spend more time with my three children, playing board games together. Sometimes we just gather together in the living room and talk about our day and laugh over it.
Currently, I am studying for my Masters in Counselling, and now I have had more time to do my readings and research. It has been an enriching time for me.
Do you have a revelation to share for this season?
I remembered the first Saturday when I was home, about to watch the online service. It was a pretty strange feeling as I don’t remember the last time I stayed home on a Saturday evening at 5pm. After online service ended, the sky was still bright and I was at a loss momentarily. I went into my room and started to pray. And this verse in Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” came to me.
You see, I was finding it a little hard to be still—literally. I wasn’t used to being at home on a Saturday evening and having nothing to do. Sometimes I feel that I am just so used to being busy, running around, counselling that I almost find it strange when I have nothing to do. This whole period of being able to have the chance to evaluate my own life, to focus on my own walk with God is so precious. I literally had to be still and allow the Lord to work in me. The Lord reminded me that to be still is not just merely being quiet but also being at a state of surrender. Thus, I took some time to surrender to the Lord, asking Him to be the Lord once again in my life, my family, my church. It was a moment that I had with the Lord and I enjoyed being able to hang out with Him in such a manner on a Saturday evening!
How would you encourage our church members to experience God’s presence?
Having a relationship with God varies so differently from person to person. The key is to find what is most pleasurable to you as an individual and, in that manner, pursue the Lord. For me, I love to listen to podcasts and worship God with music. I love just meditating on the Word, and sometimes allowing the lyrics of the worship songs minister to me. I find it most therapeutic when I am free to bow, prostrate, cry, or even just sing along to the songs in His presence alone. It’s important to have that alone time with God.
What is your prayer for the church members?
Romans 8:31-39 (MSG) reads, “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
“They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
“We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
“None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”
I pray that at this time, we will all once again be reminded of how the Lord loves us. I pray that every member will have a revelation that with God on our side, we always win. Nothing and no one will be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us. No trouble, no hard times, nothing will faze us because Jesus loves us. May we all be so convinced that absolutely nothing can get between us and God. Amen.
