Lockdown encourages one Adventist family to start a digital ministry

[Photo courtesy of Frendy and Selwida]

Southern Asia-Pacific Division

Lockdown encourages one Adventist family to start a digital ministry

Malaysia | Southern Asia-Pacific Division

Now, this is a fun way to approach the pandemic.

A family of five in Penang, Malaysia never let the boredom of staying at home during the pandemic impact them. Instead, they took it as an opportunity to explore the possibilities of doing online ministry. Frendy and Selwida, husband and wife, involved their kids in creating online content for kids and families worldwide.

The whole idea started when countries around the world resorted to lockdowns to prevent the spread of the disease. This led to the closing down of private and public offices and school classes suspended to protect students and their parents. Mass gatherings such as worship in churches, concerts, and meetings were strongly prohibited by government agencies around the world to contain the spread of the virus. The drastic change in society led everyone to transition to a digital environment for most of their daily activities.

On one occasion, Frendy and Selwida started filming their kids following one of the stories published by Gracelink for kids. The family produced the video and agreed to have it posted on their social media account. At first, it was just a simple family project, but eventually, it became more of a ministry. 

“At first, the videos were only for our family to view. Then, we thought of sharing the videos with churches all around the world. We knew that churches were closed during the pandemic, and so we decided to begin a YouTube Channel. We uploaded all the videos to the channel so that children around the world could view them. Every week since then, we have been producing Kindergarten Sabbath School lessons,” Selwida said. 

“What started as a hobby, turned out to be a ministry for us,” said Frendy. We never thought of utilizing social media as our medium for ministry, but the Lord led us to this and we are glad that He is using these materials [to reach] out to kids and families,” Frendy added. 

Mia Allysandra, 8 years old; Hans Immanuel, 4 years old; and Tiara Valentina 2 years old are members of their family’s online production, named Double Blessing Home Ministry. The ministry celebrated its first anniversary on June 26th.

This article was originally published on the Southern Asia-Pacific Division’s news site