Do you remember this song that we sang as children?
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. / This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. / Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. / All around the neighbourhood, I’m going to let it shine…”
This simple song sums up the work of the Irish Mission Women’s Ministry during the pandemic. Big plans were scheduled for 2020 – including a spiritual retreat. Then the pandemic upset everything. Or did it?
April 2020 found Lilian Cooper, the Women’s Ministry sponsor, struggling to find direction. How was she going to connect with the Irish Mission ladies and help them in their spiritual growth?
Zoom was the answer!
It’s the solution that everyone turned to, including the Women’s Ministry department. From May until December 2020, the Women’s Ministry hosted truly relevant, real world topics twice a month on Zoom. Topics like budgeting, emotional intelligence, menopause, and godly women & sexuality were covered.
This year the Women’s Ministry department hosts monthly Zoom talks. These talks are more than just relevant topics for the ladies, they are growth opportunities. Lilian’s motto is: “If you want something to work, empower others!” Following Christ’s servant leadership example, she has used the Zoom talks as opportunities to empower ladies.
The topics stay relevant because they are chosen from requests from the ladies themselves. Lilian arranges the speaker; then askes a lady within the Irish Mission to be the organizer and the host. Each month she asks a different lady to design and organize the program, as well as facilitate the Q & A time. She has also been blessed with a very capable IT team of ladies assisting with these events. Lilian’s dream is to empower the ladies so they can develop the self-confidence needed to be more involved in leadership within their own spheres of life
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WhatsApp Group
Lilian has also set up a Whatsapp group for ladies across the Irish Mission. Technology has allowed ladies to connect with those that they might not have been able to connect with in person. They support each other by sharing devotionals and snippets of their lives, with prayer support being a great focus. They even held a 24-hour prayer support event for someone in need.
This supportive environment has bound the ladies together with cords of love to create a loving community. A community that has been a blessing to everyone during the lonely months of lockdown. A community that has grown through its accessibility with these online platforms. Lilian Cooper feels blessed to be working with the ladies of the Irish Mission, because without them this could never have been possible.
More ideas...
Our innovative Lilian is currently toying with a new idea: a themed afternoon Zoom Tea for the ladies. A lighthearted social event aimed at just having some fun together. So, ladies, keep a lookout for an invitation to a virtual tea party. It is guaranteed to be fun!
Lilian, along with the sponsors in the Scottish and Welsh Missions, is also involved with organizing and hosting the 3 Missions Women’s Ministry Day of Fellowship. This past weekend was a blessed time of fellowship and worship. Woman were blessed, inspired, and challenged by the talks.
Now that you have “met” Lilian, you can see that her heart’s desire is for each woman in the Irish Mission to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. A relationship that is so vibrant and real, that others can see Jesus in them. This is how their little lights will shine in this dark world of ours.
