At the jumpstart of the year 2020, Butuan Central Adventist Youth Department committed to continue the on and off Bible Reading for the past years. Starting off The New Testament Books.
I, the principal as they tease me, without much ado accepted the long-term commitment to handle the Bible quiz to oblige myself to read. One chapter a day so seven chapters a week how easy is that? Then weekly, 30-35 items Bible test questions with promised simple awards to highest scorers and other participants.
January, more or less 10 participants. Not bad for starters. Followed by February swung up to 15 and pulled back to more or less 5 participants. Truly, the set of questions were lengthy and difficult so I made a bargain to do it by small group. Moving on to March, we enjoyed the awarding ceremony for the 1st two months despite of the consecutive organizational activities of which our church was greatly involved.
Then March 16 came, the onset of the quarantine period. Fortunately, our church services abruptly done online via zoom community and live streamed on our Facebook fan page. So our journey continued but moving to a different direction.
Covid 19 Pandemic is both a blessing and a hindrance, depends on how you take it. Staying at home gives us more time to read and do other stuff that we weren’t able to do freely before this pandemic. Certainly, our eagerness to read increased pushed by the terror happening around. Before the pandemic we were living at a fast pace, later this pandemic turns people slow and slack. Each family faced different forms of challenges. But the churched moved on and prayed more. The lowest point of our online programs was the starting point of the most participated, most fun, and turned out to be spiritually inspiring. We shared bible verses on social media from our reading with the hashtag #readachaptershareaversedaily.
I asked our church members how Bible reading helped them spiritually. Three young people said it “Refreshes the mind and fills the soul” The other one said “Knowing more about the Bible strengthens our faith”. In summary, the last one said “All long life’s questions are answered in the Bible.” The Women, all do agree that we inconsistently read the Bible but we made it through and grown even just a little that makes us hunger for more.
Today, September 19, 2020 we finished reading the whole New Testament Books of the Bible. Awarding all the active families and Bible quiz top notchers. ‘Twas a rewarding moment to all of us.
For reasons, we failed to read and for greater reasons, we’ll continue reading. Together we read, we learn and together we grow more until Jesus comes. Amen! (Maryjane M. Dela Cruz)
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