A three-month break from friends can be difficult – especially for children. This is equally true for church congregations as many have struggled to get the same intimacy and sense of worship from a live stream or video as they get from physically attending a place of worship.
Like everywhere else, Vejlefjord Seventh-day Adventist church members have missed meeting as a congregation. Denmark was one of the earliest European countries to close churches due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, due to the early shutdown, the infection rate has gone down.
Denmark is slowly reopening – including schools and churches. Yet reopening is not that easy! Adults may respect social distancing and other preventative measures, but it is not so easy for the children. They do not necessarily understand or adhere to government guidelines for indoor congregations. Vejlefjord children needed a solution.
Saturday, June 27 was their day! A joyous and long-awaited reunion took place as Pastor Lasse Bech welcomed parents and children to an informal Sabbath picnic on the front lawn of the boarding school at which the church is based.
Sitting together as families on rugs, the lawn soon transformed itself into a setting for building the tower of Babel. Designed specifically as a child-friendly program, both children and parents helped to build a tall tower of moving boxes. In addition to the Bible lessons and music, the morning became a very special time for socializing with missed friends while enjoying packed lunches.
To live carefully within government guidance participants signed up in advance, fitting in with the current directive that no more than 50 people can meet outdoors together. Jesus stated that, “Where two or three gather together in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). At Vejlefjord that was certainly true for the joyful group of families who met together for innovative worship and fellowship.
This article was originally published on the Trans-European Division’s news site