Words from President (October 2020)

Are you wondering how Presence has been coping with the impacts of the Pandemic? Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  We are holding on to our faith in the Lord to overcome all the challenges brought by the Pandemic!         

Adjusting ministry strategies 

From March 20 to the present, switching physical services to Zoom and Facebook Live, our services not only showed no decrease, but actually increased dramatically. Here are some of the projects:

1. Since April, we have been launching free webinars (a devotional plus professional Q&A) on “Maintaining a Healthy Soul and Relationships in the Pandemic,” and serving many churches in Northern and Southern California, as well as in Hong Kong. We have also been offering special parenting and mental health workshops. A total of 33 webinars were arranged, and the total number of participants was 1,271.

2. Presence offered the complete PLPC Course at the Logos Training Institute at the beginning of this year. Later, we offered 8 lessons (20 hours) of the Basic Certification Course (A) online, and held the first 16-hour PLPC Coach Certification Course (A) in September. The Advanced Certification Course (B) is now in progress. The total number of participants in our courses is 53.

3. The production of the online course materials for “Healthy Dialogue” were completed in May. It has allowed families and churches to participate in online learning, and has provided timely support to manage stress and build harmonious parent-child relationships during the Pandemic.

4. RE:NEW held a youth ministry prayer meeting for youth workers (7/16) to discuss the impact of the recent social movement–“Black Lives Matter”–and also held a Youth Faith Seminar (9/25) on “Strengthening Our Spiritual Lives in the New Normal.” These events aim at supporting spiritual growth in our young people, and encouraging reflections on social issues related to the Pandemic.

5. Presence Possibilities continues to provide professional assessment and consultation to young people from different cities in the United States on finding their college majors and career path.

Utilizing different media to connect with the community

From April to October, the “Presence Cares Series” uploaded more than 50 posts (including Scripture passages, articles, and educational videos) through different media, conducted 3 monthly FB Live workshops (“Improving Family Resilience to Stress Series”), 2 FB activities, and more. According to the analytics, our post reach has exceeded 5,000 including 30 new Likes, 48 new followers, and over 1,100 real-time participation on FB. Fifty percent of those reached are actually new to our ministry. These are the harvests resulting from our co-workers dedicatedly serving together!

Seeking double blessings from God with the support of our Kingdom partners

This year we have not organized any large-scale online fundraising events, but have chosen to devote all our human resources to the expansion of our ministry. The working hours of our co-workers have increased significantly. As of October 20, 2020, our income is $119,917; our expenditure is $208,938, and the total deficit is -$89,021. If you share in the mission of our ministry, we invite you to partner with us through prayer and financial support! Moreover, December 2 of this year will be “Giving Tuesday.” We hope that you will give us another blessing by participating in that event!  If you are moved by the Lord to support Presence financially, please click here to donate. Thank you!

With warmest blessings to you and your family,
Agnes Ip
Presence Founder and CEO

October 2020