International Women's Day: Kylie Overbye on keeping connected through passionate church

When COVID first hit, many of us found we had to direct energy into different expressions of relationship and 'being church'. Captain Kylie Overbye explores the possibility that God wants us to be ever-sensitive to the move of Holy Spirit, as we learn how to reconnect as a church through the uncertainty. 

We invite you to download and share this and our other International Women's Day testimonies with your community (link below). The following is a transcript from the video:

When COVID enforced the lockdown in New Zealand, majority of us had to simply go home and care for our families. What a gift! When in this part of the world, peoples’ lives are usually all about the hustle and the drive for success - and working longer hours hoping to get greater returns - and going home to our families was becoming something that many of us longed for more of.

We've been given a gift of time. For some, it felt like a time-out sentence but for others it was a time to reflect, to refresh and to re-prioritise as we awakened to our reality.

Romans 8:5 and 6 says ‘For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace’.

My response to COVID life has been to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. Every morning I gather my team for devotions and prayer - whether they’re in a relationship with the Lord or not - and we spend about 15 minutes before the day discussing the truth found in the scriptures. And it’s amazing to see people's hearts encouraged as they realise that there is more to God than maybe they knew.

Questions and discussions arise and there's joy in the workplace every day knowing that God is in control. We’ve brought support to local essential services and the Civil Defence team and the community is working more closely together than before, and it's delightful to see as we bring food and support to families in need. Imagine if the church lived this passionately every day and not just in a crisis!

We can't afford to let this opportunity pass us by. God’s calling his people to awaken afresh and step into what he has called us to do and not to run from it. So we're maintaining and developing these closer connections with people, families and organisations that we work with. If we can meet in person that's great! If not, we’ll meet online and sometimes that actually works better than before. 
As a congregation, we're following a Bible reading plan so that we can inspire greater conversation through the Word together, keeping in touch more regularly. More in-home hospitality is happening. And we’re sitting down with our children more doing Bible studies, using online presentations and things - and I have never seen my boys so hungry for God as they are in these days. The kids are saying ‘Dad, can you help me with the Bible study?’, or ‘Mum, can you take us up to the mountains and watch the sunrise and have a hot chocolate and pray?’

These are exciting days, as we come aside and fix our eyes on the things of the Spirit. As we honour God by making room for him and others in the most simplest of ways, I believe that we’ll experience more of this life and peace that he brings, that we also desperately long for.

We're celebrating International Women's Day by sharing women's testimonies of leadership during COVID in New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa Territory. We will be releasing new videos daily, and joining a worldwide video montage on The Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission's Facebook Page on March 8th. We invite you to share and view these stories with your community, to amplify their voices!

• CHECK OUT the other Salvationist Stories here (updated daily)
• VIEW the videos on Youtube (captions available)
• VIEW and SHARE from our Facebook Page
• DOWNLOAD the video files from OneDrive