14 Aug 2020, 07:08Enock BamusiGlasgow
Glasgow hosts Virtual International Day Programme
Cognisant of its multiculturality and its multinational membership, Glasgow Community Seventh Day Adventist Church holds an International Day every year around July/August time. This day allows the church to emphasise and celebrate its unity in diversity. This year (2020), the day fell on Sabbath, 25 July. The theme was ‘IT IS ALMOST TIME’, and the theme song was ‘It is Almost Time for the Lord to Come’ (SDAH 212) which was wonderfully renditioned by Glasgow’s Semone and Lamona Pollard, a mother and daughter duet. The guest speaker was Pastor Britius Habwangabwanga who is based in Zambia, but has in the past worked in the Scottish Mission as Bible Worker. He was also instrumental in the planting of the Faifley Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and in providing its pastoral leadership at the time of its inception.
Due to the Covid-19 situation and related restrictions, the day this year was a virtual event. This was the first time for Glasgow Church to host such an event this way. Obviously, the Sabbath School Department, which has been organising these events for the church over the years, had challenges to overcome in order to make such an online programme a success, technology being a major challenge. But, as God’s work will never fail, God himself had prepared a way out.
Technical help was at hand in the form the Scottish Mission’s Charles Lethbridge, a member of the Dunfermline Church, who made the whole project as easy as we had never imagined it. Under the capable supervision and leadership of the hardworking Elder Calvin Ndlovu, Glasgow’s Sabbath School Superintendent, Charles worked with Enock Bamusi, a member of Glasgow’s Communications and Sabbath School teams, and Glasgow’s Elder Benjamin Bakina, to put all the material for the programme together and make it accessible online during the services. The material included the day’s Sabbath School lesson discussion which was led by Glasgow’s Elder Kelly Muvwanga, and which also got great input from Scottish Mission President, Pastor Paul Tompkins, who was also in attendance and closed the programme at the very end. This was followed by Country Presentations from the Caribbean, Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines, Zambia, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe and Malawi, just some of the many nationalities represented at Glasgow Church.
The country presentations were followed by Pastor Habwangabwanga’s sermon titled ‘This One Fellow: The Lord being merciful to him’ which was based on the story of Lot as found in Genesis chapter 19. The message tied in very well with the day’s theme. You can follow this link for the sermon and the rest of the divine service: https://youtu.be/mW665-RvMzI
The programme was such a great success, not just in terms of its intended spiritual and unifying purpose, but also in terms of numbers and viewership. We had 93hrs of video saved on the day of the programme, which is thrilling, and 260 people watched the programme. As the 260 includes families, and as families have more than one person, this means actual viewership was / is even bigger than this figure.
Glasgow Sabbath School team wishes to thank everyone who tuned in to the programme, and all who supported and contributed to the programme in one way or another. May God bless you all!
Most importantly, we praise God for making this programme a success and for everything.
Cognisant of its multiculturality and its multinational membership, Glasgow Community Seventh Day Adventist Church holds an International Day every year around July/August time. This day allows the church to emphasise and celebrate its unity in diversity. This year (2020), the day fell on Sabbath, 25 July. The theme was ‘IT IS ALMOST TIME’, and the theme song was ‘It is Almost Time for the Lord to Come’ (SDAH 212) which was wonderfully renditioned by Glasgow’s Semone and Lamona Pollard, a mother and daughter duet. The guest speaker was Pastor Britius Habwangabwanga who is based in Zambia, but has in the past worked in the Scottish Mission as Bible Worker. He was also instrumental in the planting of the Faifley Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and in providing its pastoral leadership at the time of its inception.
Due to the Covid-19 situation and related restrictions, the day this year was a virtual event. This was the first time for Glasgow Church to host such an event this way. Obviously, the Sabbath School Department, which has been organising these events for the church over the years, had challenges to overcome in order to make such an online programme a success, technology being a major challenge. But, as God’s work will never fail, God himself had prepared a way out.
Technical help was at hand in the form the Scottish Mission’s Charles Lethbridge, a member of the Dunfermline Church, who made the whole project as easy as we had never imagined it. Under the capable supervision and leadership of the hardworking Elder Calvin Ndlovu, Glasgow’s Sabbath School Superintendent, Charles worked with Enock Bamusi, a member of Glasgow’s Communications and Sabbath School teams, and Glasgow’s Elder Benjamin Bakina, to put all the material for the programme together and make it accessible online during the services. The material included the day’s Sabbath School lesson discussion which was led by Glasgow’s Elder Kelly Muvwanga, and which also got great input from Scottish Mission President, Pastor Paul Tompkins, who was also in attendance and closed the programme at the very end. This was followed by Country Presentations from the Caribbean, Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines, Zambia, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe and Malawi, just some of the many nationalities represented at Glasgow Church.
The country presentations were followed by Pastor Habwangabwanga’s sermon titled ‘This One Fellow: The Lord being merciful to him’ which was based on the story of Lot as found in Genesis chapter 19. The message tied in very well with the day’s theme. You can follow this link for the sermon and the rest of the divine service: https://youtu.be/mW665-RvMzI
The programme was such a great success, not just in terms of its intended spiritual and unifying purpose, but also in terms of numbers and viewership. We had 93hrs of video saved on the day of the programme, which is thrilling, and 260 people watched the programme. As the 260 includes families, and as families have more than one person, this means actual viewership was / is even bigger than this figure.
Glasgow Sabbath School team wishes to thank everyone who tuned in to the programme, and all who supported and contributed to the programme in one way or another. May God bless you all!
Most importantly, we praise God for making this programme a success and for everything.
