Sunday is Surreal

I drove out early to Lingan Square about 12kms and had breakfast. I already had bread at home at 6.30am and at 8,30am I had a bowl of pan mee with meatballs. It was surreal because it was Sunday. I would never go out on a Sunday morning as I would be busy preparing for church even when I am not preaching. Now that the lockdown has gone on for 2 months, it was the first Sunday I was away from “church”. Last month when I was not preaching I was still attending “church” as a congregation member, listening to my elder preached and then led prayers.

I went back to my car at 9.05am and listened to the online service. To make things easy, a deacon-deaconess team, a husband and wife preached and led songs respectively. They would have recorded the sermon on Friday or Saturday. So I am feeling forlorn as a pastor in solitude. I can’t talk to a soul on a Sunday which is surreal. Usually the pastor is the centre of attention with requests for prayers, words of encouragement given and received, and hearty fellowship with church members who choose to stay back at “church”. I feel I can’t go on for another Sunday such as today but we may have to go on for at least a month or two months seeing that COVID-19 cases rose to above 800 new patients today. This lockdown may last longer that the first last year from March to June of 2020. “How long Lord, will you be angry forever with Your people?”