ONE STITCH AT A TIME

by Kuah Leck Ping

Many things I had worked on in 2020 somehow did not seem to turn out well. But one thing I will not forget is making worship videos for our Chinese Ministry for nine months from 29 March to 22 December. How did someone inexperienced as I was in video editing come to ensure that there would be a Chinese worship service video each Sunday for members to tune in to from home?

“…my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:22b)

After the Chinese New Year Sunday worship service in February 2020, as reminders of safe distancing and hand sanitizing measures escalated, the Chinese Ministry Sunday attendance saw a sudden dip. By the end of March, the English Sunday service online was already gearing up for members who could not attend onsite. Yet the Chinese Ministry did not see the need yet but held on to onsite services for whoever would make the effort to worship in church.

Interestingly, before the circuit breaker closed down all onsite services, I had been prompted and burdened to look for alternatives for the Chinese Sunday service. In February, I attended a session conducted by the Singapore Bible College to prepare local churches for online services. But after sharing with some, what I had learnt, I was met with lukewarm responses at best. They felt it was too technically daunting for our Chinese speaking congregation and that I should look for more tailormade solutions.

We all acknowledged God wants people to draw near to Him and even more, worship Him in times of crisis. So, even if all church activities had to stop, Sunday worship service must somehow go on. But how could we conduct our service and get it to our elderly Chinese congregation in the simplest way?

During a lunch break alone in the office, I believe God inspired me with the word “Stitch” as I was looking at my patchwork pouch. A plan birthed. Immediately I went into one of the counting rooms and recorded some demo videos using my handphone, and then stitched them into a video project using Microsoft Photo App on my notebook. I used that to persuade the Chinese Ministry committee how simple it was to produce a video for worship service, using a formula like this:

Worship Coordinator: 15 to 20 minutes worship (including two to three songs from Youtube)

Speaker: 20 to 30 minutes message

Chinese Ministry Leader: 5 to 10 minutes response and announcements.

Tapestry of all the video opening screens

The co-workers would do their respective recordings at home using their handphone, which I would “stitch” into an hour-long video, upload it to Youtube, and send a link to the Chinese members via WhatsApp to watch from home every Sunday at 9 a.m.

You see, most of our Chinese members do not have an email, but they are familiar with Whatsapp and Youtube. So, the Chinese Ministry’s first Sunday Worship@home debuted on 29 March 2020.

In all, 38 videos over 40 weeks were produced - as we did not know then that the weekly onsite service would resume only from 27 December, starting with once a month onsite worship in October and November.

I was nervous after the debut because I did not know whether our members had actually watched it. A committee member said he could not feel any involvement from watching the video. I realised a video alone would not help members become worshippers; it is living in the body of Christ that makes it possible. Since the Chinese Ministry had not yet been organized into zoom cell groups, it was important that someone contacted the members or their caregivers during the week - especially during the circuit breaker - to show care, pray with them and listen to their needs and feedback.

So the committee members gladly took on the role of such pastoral care while I concentrated on stitching the video projects. God led everybody to play a part during the week. And when members could access the worship videos every Sunday, they knew they could praise God in their involved participation. What a tapestry of the different parts of the Body ministering together!

Sometimes due to the limitation of equipment, co-workers could only produce audio clips, so I would use animation or illustrations to make the video more lively. One member requested to have Chinese subtitles for her mother with hearing difficulties and had not been able to attend church services due to vertigo. I was moved by her plight and so subtitling and animation became a signature on the projects despite the tediousness. (Every 1 minute of the video takes 45 minutes to 1.5 hours of work) That member’s mother accessed almost all the worship videos last year.

After weeks of such intense and long hours, fatigue set in. Even my laptop froze frequently from overloaded memory space while the touchpad fractured from overuse. There were some weeks that co-workers sent in their projects late, leaving me little time to sleep in order to meet the deadline so that members could receive their video notices by the weekend. What kept me going was the fact that God was involved in the project.

I would commit the project to the Lord at the start of each week and amazingly He inspires me unfailingly with a picture to suit the theme, design of slides, animation and the right choice of response music. There was not a video that I had not been ministered by personally. One sermon was based on Mark 5:21-43, “Don’t be afraid, just believe”. God inspired me to make a cover page not merely of a roaring lion, but one that was looking up at a Cross. God taught me personally that even the bravest lion gets its courage by looking up at the cross!

While the nature of the work hindered most from helping in the video project, the Lord called two sisters-in-Christ to offer their time to learn and help. (They are now faithfully serving in the Chinese Sunday service even after Phase 3 when the video project ceased.)

With this time-consuming video production, I often felt bad that my core pastoral work was affected though others were sharing in the ministry burden.

The stitched videos are by no means professionally done; there are flaws in every episode. But I was encouraged when I learnt that they have reached people who have yet to know Christ, and are also watched by some in the USA, Japan and in JB! A Japanese friend in Sapporo who understands Chinese accessed most of them before she was called Home in October last year. How wonderful are the stitches and threads of ministry woven in the tapestry of God’s grace!

Though it took a while to recover from such fatigue, I will still say it was all worthwhile - “Yes Lord, it has been hard but I have no regrets stitching these videos, as they were done for and with YOU. All for your Glory!”