To Zoom Or Not To Zoom
I can’t hear you, you are on mute…this was the most common statement I heard when learning to use Zoom.
Every Friday morning I find myself singing this song, “We’re gonna zoom, zoom, zoom-a-zoom, we’re gonna zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom, come on give it a try, we’re gonna teach you to fly high, come on and zoom, come on and zoom zoom.” If you grew up in the 70s like I did, then you probably have this song stuck in your head as well. It’s from the popular kids show called….you guessed it…ZOOM. This program included ordinary kids from different walks of life learning to talk about “real life” together. They learned to connect in a group and to build trust as they respected and valued each other. As part of the show they were allowed to be inquisitive as they shared life experiences and real problems.
This reminds me of the value we have at NBS2GO…to bring together ordinary people to discuss “real life” with one another, building trust as we interact with respect while being wrapped up in the Word of God.
How do we do this? Ideally, we regularly meet in person to study scripture together and share answers to questions that cause us to think deeply about the passage at hand. But when Covid hit, that disrupted our meeting in person. We decided it was important for us to continue meeting, but we would meet by video. So we all had to be willing to learn a new skill….Zoom. Many of you had to learn this for work or personal use as well.
Fortunately my team was using Zoom regularly, so I had some experience. If a meeting could take place by video call, why not have a Bible study online as well. So that’s what my group of 10 ladies did. We all learned to use Zoom, but there was definitely a learning curve. The first couple of meetings consisted mainly of phrases like “I can’t hear you, you are on mute”, “I can’t see you, turn your video on”, or “I can hear you now but also your dog, your kids, and your TV; please mute.” When we couldn’t get a message across, we found ourselves writing it on paper and holding it up to the screen. If that didn’t work, we would resort to calling each other on the phone to explain how to unmute. It was funny at times and frustrating at others, but learning was necessary to continue our weekly connection. It was definitely worth it. One lady said that it was her favorite day of the week because she knew she would be with friends.
The connection was great for many reasons: human connection, encouragement, and staying grounded in the Word of God during a trying time. During the years of Covid several of the people in our study moved away. Marsha moved to Florida to be with her grandkids, Linda and her husband to Indiana, and Karen now lives in an RV with her husband and is at a new location across the US every month. So even though we can’t meet in person, we now have a hybrid meeting. Those who can come in person do, and those who are far away connect by Zoom. I connect my computer to the TV with an AV cord and plug in a speaker to the computer as well, so people in the room can be easily heard.
So that is how we are staying close to one another. The definition for the word zoom: to change smoothly from a long shot to a close up. That is definitely what it has done for us. It’s almost like we are all sitting in the living room together. I hope that if you have the desire to stay connected to those who are far away, you will consider Zoom as an option. Maybe you will be singing the song along with me. Come on, give it a try!
If this is your first time trying a study, I recommend our LIGHT study based on 32 stories about Jesus from the gospels. Or try our Mommy study for those busy summer days when you need a reminder about relying on the Lord for your daily strength for your family.
