C.Y in the Mournes

Sorry theres been a delay in this post, cable for the digital camera went missing so that had to be found. Our first lesson this CY term was of perserverance as headed up the Mournes one class Saturday to have a little dander.

Me and our "easy walk"

Now being a Rugby man, I had to leg it up Bloody Bridge an hour and a half after our group had started to try and catch up (some weren't up to the challenge!) in the 35 Minutes it took me to catch up (beat last years record!) I embarassed myself by thinking I saw our group, me sprinting towards them then realising it wasn't our group and swiftly changing direction again. When I did catch up we got to the call, had lunch then headed up and down Donard in time for a Mauds and then parted our ways.

Though on the way, it got me thinking, some of our lives could maybe be described as this. An uphill struggle, until we find God and then looking down at the beauty of life and how we can rejoice in the things we have. Then half way on the journey down we realise it ain't so easy either with our feet getting sorer and sorer and things not going the way we like it. Its at these points I think we've got to really got to stop and trust in the Lord to get us the rest of the way down untill we reach Heaven. There will always be our connection with sin and we will continually disappoint our Heavenly Father but the trust we have in Him to see us through will only develop through this.

Psalm 22 vs. 8 "He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

The Gang

Me and Tom being the tallest people in N.I at that time

Moutains of Mourne

Other DMFWS news, our first meeting of CY took place last Friday night and we opened with Psalm 92 and Dad introduced it, and after a time of prayer we had a time of psalm singing, 1 psalm in James announces that he would like to sing Psalm 92........the unknowing look on his face was priceless as we stared at him with bemusement! Ah it was quality.

Also with severe competition from Jeremiah, Gregg still remains our Hero.

Alastair

"Great Changes"

For my A-level English I am currently reading Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. I'm not very far into it yet but I'm enjoying it so far. Don't spoil it for me and tell me how it ends! At the end of chapter nine the chief protagonist (that's A-level English speak for main character!) and narrator Pip makes a very interesting comment whilst reflecting on the experiences of one day. He says:

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the
same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how
different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a
moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never
have bound you but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

As Christians we don't believe in fate but there is a lesson to be drawn from these words. We all know that one day or event can make "huge changes". Whether it is on the world-scale, such as 9/11, or in an individual's life. If you have placed your trust in Christ you will be able to see the impact that it has made on your actions, priorities and life. We aren't however to keep the good news of the gospel to ourselves Jesus has told us to "Go and make disciples"Matt29:18 (ESV). If we share the gospel Christ may choose to use us to tell someone the message that will make "great changes" in their life and place it on a different course, heaven-bound instead of hell-bound.

Picture of the copy of the novel I own. Notice the £2 proudly stamped on front cover, no expense spared by the English Department!

Lisburn GO Week

Lisburn held their 3rd Go Week this Summer and it was once again a huge sucess.
Our day was pretty much 10 to half 9 for 5 Days solid so I was wrecked after the end.
Over the course of the 5 Days we had different ministries. It went as follows.

• 10am - Bible Study - Led by one of the Elders each day, studying the book of Acts with a book called Acts - A Church on the Move.


• 11-11.30am-Coffee Break, a vital part of the day for most, a few cups and biscuits plus a game of pool with Tom to get the body ready for the days work!



• 11.30-1pm-Literature Distribution, gave out 5000 Leaflets over the course on the topic of 'What does the Church Mean to You', 5 Church Members gave their fews plus pictures, unfortunately we had to post Tom's Ugly Mug through 5000 Homes in Lisburn.


• 1-2.15pm-Lunch Time, I presume you know what happens during this time.


• 2.30-3.30pm-5 Day Club, held on a Local Estate Green, biggest encouragement of the week was seen the group of Boys who disrupted the Club hugely (they became very interested in our Lisburn RPC sign and a few cones) on Monday sitting and listening to the Story on Friday. Had about 15 Children come along which was great.


• 2.30-3.30pm- Caring Ministry-Church Members would go out and visit a Housebound Member of the Congrecation and a short time of Worship was held with them, this was great way to encourage the senoir members of Lisburn from these vistits. One of our members, Mrs.Henry celebrated her 85th Birthday on the visit so a cake and card was presented to her.
  
• 4.30pm-Each day we watched a video on the Reformation, most days accompanied with Mauds Ice Cream! We followed the work of men such as John Huss, John Calvin, John Wycliffe and William Tynedale.


• 7-8pm-After Tea and some relaxment we had our Holiday Bible Club at the Church, focusing on the same theme as the 5 Day Club on Joseph, can steadily growing Numbers at it about 20 most nights, this was an enjoyable time with the kids enjoying themselves and behaving well too.


• At the same time Door to Door went on with people who had arrived after work, our leaflets were the main started for conversations and a few encouraging discussions were had.


• 8-8.30pm- Review and Worship, had a short time of devotion led by men from the church and then a comical powerpoint presentation of photos from the days work.

Other Highlights of the week

• I was introduced to the game which was Sardines, its class!
  
• On Wednesday I was out of action as at Pre Season for Rugby had abit of a freak accident and was tackled and my head hit the post (I did not run into it so dont listen to any rumours spreading from Newtownards.) So there was sympathy galore from the Ladies of the congrecation which was all gladly accepted!


• Our BBQ was held on Friday night which parents of the HBC Kids were invited to and they basically all turned up which was absolutely amazing, never seen so many kids in the church before. Had a great time of fellowship with them. After Uncle Rob had Worship we watched Amazing Grace and was a fitting way to end off the week.
  
• Tom was added to my mortal enemy list as he joined some rubbish school in Lisburn!
  
• Uncle Robert finished the GO Week with our Guest Service based on Acts 8 - Persecutor to Persuader, see the http://www.rpc.org/ for the audio sermon! Had a few guests and friends were invited along.
• Other big news, Lisburn started using the ESV Edition of the Bible last Sabbath which is all exciting stuff.

Tom

Jeff beating us at James Bond

Action from the Club

Sister Dearest

Thanks for all your prayers over the course of our Week in was brilliant and hopefully we will see some fruit for our labour over the next few months.

Ali

Snow Patrol

Another quest appearance here from Andy about an amazing day in Bangor!!


So James asked me to post something about Snow Patrol...


Ward Park


Catherine, Esther, Gillian, Rachel, Erin, Mary-Lynn, Beka and Heather


Beka, Heather, myself, Sam, James and David






We Are Scientists


ASH


Snow Patrol


Nathan from SP


Snow Patrol's first song, Hands Open




Run. Enough said.



All in all, it was a great day. Snow Patrol were immense, ASH and We Are Scientists were worthy support. More pictures here.

Andy Morrison

ps, thanks to Beka for some of the pictures, even though she doesn't know I took them
pps, the right hand side of all the pictures doesn't seem to be showing :( see the full pictures at the link above

Glory Days Are Still Ahead

The summer has sadly come to an end. As you reflect over the past few months maybe you wonder if there'll ever be another summer quite like it or perhaps the endless rain left you disappointed and you felt this summer was a bit of an anti-climax. This sense of reminiscing times past appears in of the much music that we listen to whether it is the Lost Prophets' song "Last Summer", Bryan Adam's "Summer of '69" in which the line "Those were the best days of my life" is repeated or a personal favourite Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days in which he expresses his view that:

"Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye"

Whilst these songs can be great for remember good times, for example "Last Summer" always reminds me of Termonfeckin 2006 as it was the last track on the CD our tent produced for the week, I can often find myself despondant and wishing to be back in the same place and time with friends or family. The thing is, as Christian we don't need to be dreaming of the past because we have an amazing future ahead, in this life and in the life to come. God has a plan for our lives:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

Our usefulness to God will not end at 30,40,50,65,100. Every minute we spend on this Earth God has a purpose for. Every day that passes he is changing us through his Holy Spirit. The best days are yet ahead. This is true ultamitely in heaven where we will glorify and enjoy God perfectly.

If you're a non-Christian reading this you do not have this assurance. You may never have it this good again. In fact you probably won't. If your life is based around pleasure rather than God you are on a downhill slope towards destruction rather than a climb upwards. Turn to him who can save you from hell now. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then "Glory Days" will never "pass you by" and you'll spend true glory days with your Saviour for all eternity.

Romania Go Relief Team 2007

I hope this doesn't sound like something written for the Messenger..

The 2007 Team consisted of 62 members, around 40 of whom flew out on Wednesday, with the rest joining on Friday. I went with the majority on the Wednesday morning, although I actually left home at about 11.45pm on Tuesday. The flights and all that went smoothly and we arrived at Casa Shalom at about 5.30pm local time after a journey on our lovely bus, Bessy. Now I’ve been on some ropey buses in my time, but this just took the biscuit.

We then had an interesting meal which nobody was really sure how to eat, or what went with what. I should have taken a picture of it. Among other things it consisted of honey, gherkins, corn bread, strong cheesy stuff and sugar. Still, it was nicer than the rubber breakfast we had on one of the flights.

We were staying in what I must say was very nice accommodation. The building has been just finished in time for our arrival, so I think we were the first people to sleep in the rooms. So after little no sleep for a very long time we went to our rooms and hit the sack.

Thursday was a pretty normal day, up at 7.15 for Team Devotions, Breakfast at 8.00 and starting work at 8.45. I spent the morning scraping a tin roof with Michael (as in Michael was also scraping, not that I was using Michael to scrape the roof) which wasn’t all that bad. After lunch we were painting the underside of a canopy and although it was quite tedious some of the kids were running about so it was a chance to get acquainted with them. Of all the children, Maria was probably the most active and talkative, so it was very sad to hear that she had broken her leg that night, and as a result spent the week in plaster. Still, she was always smiling and was generally great.

On Friday there was a bit of a rush to finish off the building that we were staying in, as the remainder of the team were arriving that night, and their rooms not quite ready, so a lot of us went inside to help finish off the rooms. Painting inside is not half as much fun as outside as I soon learned. That evening, the children sung for us, both in Romanian and English. It was mostly hymns, but like whatever, it was a great evening, you could see how much the children were enjoying it, especially Vali, and that they actually understood the words they were singing.

At the end, Marius got up and played us a tune on his Mandolin, which was class. Another day over.

Saturday was much the same, but in the evening we went into Bucharest for the first time and a walk round Cismigiu Gardens.

Despite being around 10pm it was probably hotter than it would be here at midday, which was a bit of a strange sensation. In the park, Calvin, Matt, Sarah and Marius rented out boats to go on the lake. That was quite fun, especially jumping up and scaring all the people in the posh looking hotel. Yeah.

After that we had time for quick, but much needed dash to McD’s. And that was lovely.

Sabbath was a slow relaxing day, as it should be. In the morning John Hawthorne took worship, and it was translated into Romanian by Nelu (who is quite simply the man). Lunch was a bit dodgy, so I had a sleep in the afternoon. Evening worship wasn’t the usual, various people spoke about their experiences and stuff including a few of the older children, and that was really encouraging.

The rest of the week consisted mostly of painting, messing about and a couple of bonfires. On Monday evening we had worship around the bonfire. Ian took it because Captain Ronnie who was supposed to be taking it was out shopping (seriously). After that we were talking about what we could do with the bonfire. Eventually, Phil ran over and threw in a can of lynx, and you can watch the results below.

Wednesday was our free day and we were to go to the Black Sea for some big European Naval display but because of Maria being immobile and the thought of spending 7 hours on Bessy it was generally agreed to scrap that. Instead we spent the day in Bucharest. We visited the big palace that Ceauşescu was building for himself.

Easily the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, it was a very impressive building. We had a tour of it, but it was a pretty rubbish tour to be honest, all we got told about were the floors, the ceilings and carpets. I don’t have any photos from inside as you had to pay about £6 for that privilege.

After that some people returned to Casa Shalom to continue with the ground work while the rest of us ventured into the centre of Bucharest. Sadly the places where we were were very Westernised. The shops and prices were much the same as here, which I found a bit surprising. Still it was fun..

After that we went down to a lake, hired out boats and a had a waterfight. It was class.

Thursday was results day for the A/AS-level people so that was the main talk of the morning. Yeah..we all got on alright. Later that day Calvin decided to paint me. Well it wasn't quite that simple, but that was the end result.

On Friday evening all of the children were given gift boxes, and 4 new mountain bikes we given to the home. After that, all of us were given a small present. After sitting in the same seats for almost 4 hours we went outside for another bonfire.

And with that done, we stayed about talking with the kids for a while, and then slowly drifted off to bed, although there was not a great deal of working going on.

On Saturday morning there was a still a bit of work to be done, so it was an early start at 7.30am. The rest of the day was spent taking photos, hugging and saying bye. It was quite sad because chances are we're not going to ever see any of these people ever, in this life anyway.



Overall, I would say that this was easily one of the best weeks of my life, I learnt a lot from the children. For example when Becky asked for someone to come up to the front and pray about something, there was always 5 or 6 children crowding round her. I think the project that was chosen at Casa Shalom was very good in that you were able to talk and interact with the people who were benefitting from what you were doing all the time, and you could see that they were really appreciating what you were doing.

Definetely a case of getting far more out of it than you could ever put in. I've left out a lot things that went on during the 10 days, but it would be impossible to cover everything that went on. To understand the full scale of what went on, you really had to be there.

I'll end with a few prayer points that I took from the week.

• The little girl, Maria, who has a broken leg at the moment
• This week the children who have someone to go home to went home, pray that as they leave Casa Shalom they will be kept safe
• The older children, especially Marius, as they leave the home and go out into the world
• Becky, who is the president of the home, as she carries out her work and teaches the children, that she would be kept healthy and strong

I'm sure there are lots more, but that will do for now.

Click here for lots more photos..

The End

Andy Morrison

Cloughmills Go Team 2007

Last week was the Cloughmills Go Team. My first ever go team! It was a really good week but because I'm now in the middle of the Dromore team I'm not able to write any more but Amy McCollum kindly made this video of pictures from the week. Hopefully I'll be able to write more about it at a later date. The captions and all are Amy's so the video is probably considerably funnier than if I'd made one. So big thanks to Amy and enjoy!

Boys Adventure Camp 07

With James being too mature for this years Adventure Camp (yeah right) I was the sole representitive of DMFWS so its my duty......nay honour to bring you a report of what happened.

Without trying to sound like a Messenger Report here it goes:

Well this years Camp was held like every other year at Larne, at I think it does prove that with time............things rot, but nevertheless that didn't stop 51 Boys and 11 Officers from spending the week. On arrival, we played Football for 2 Hours untill tea was ready, and then after we had our first talk on Daniel, these talks opened my eyes on this book, it was very interesting to how we as young men could relate to Daniel in the different trials he faced in his walk with God. There was many different challenges in these that would be helpful as we left Camp and went back to School. The methods to rouse the crowd of drowsy campers differed from Officer to Officer. Tims was my favourite, chucking a glass of water around boys, which got some ones Bible soaked, thats one way to start paying attention! Watch out whatever Congrecation calls him! :)

After the talk we had the infamous Campzai which activites varied from Egg Throwing, to piling into Chris Lee's Fiesta and pushing his Fiesta, which the mighty Alan Blackwell won!
On Sabbath we worshipped at Trinity and Larne, Larne helped me remember those congrecations who don't have big numbers and remember to pray for the coming GO Team.

On Monday, Squad Games commenced and in the afternoon, we Bowled and played Crazy Golf at Dundonald. In the evening, we played Messy Games, which lived up to its name, where games included, dunking heads in cold spaghetti hoops to retrieve marshmallows, decorating a squad members face with shaving foam and fives and eat through a jelly which had peas and a skittle in it.

On Tuesday, I got broke during Squad Games by Desmond Scott, he's on the run at the minute, if you see him, give me a call. This resulted in my ligaments in my ankle being damaged and missing 2 other cricket matches that day. In the afternoon I had to hobble about and referee the Officers vs. Boys Match, also being Boys Team Manager I was perhaps biased, but the officers romped home on 3 Occasions. The Cooks making a surprise appearance in the 3rd Game for the Officers, they were more talented than most of the boys! We had Water Games that evening too.

On Wednesday, Team Challenge took place and we got sufficiently muddy and eaten alive by Midges, on Thursday, we had Watersports at Craigavon and did Tubing at the Ski Slope which is very fun, I also shrugged off my injury to return to Squad Games where I scored 2 Goals.

On Friday, squad games concluded, myself finishing with 14 Goals over 9 Games, then we went into town to buy sweets and a present for our Officer - Andy McKelvey, who actually can't do every thing as I witnessed him not being able to juggle! After Lunch we went off to play Skirimishing which was as ever great fun. That evening 2 Hours of Football cancelled the Officers Hunt and the Tournament Finals were held, where I witness the longest 6 Ball Pool Match ever and I was beat by Joel Cromie in the Table Tennis Final.
We saw the early hours of Saturday Morning in the Chalet before resigning to Bed and reflecting on a pretty darn good camp!

If you have never been to an R.P Camp before, I would definately recommend them as they are a great week of fellowship with other guys and dolls your age. Watch out Senoir Camp Next Year! Don't Make Friends with Salad T Shirts will be on display!

Prayer Points relative to DMFWS: Cloughmills GO Team (where James is at)
Lisburn Go Week 19th to 24th
Dromore Go Team 11th to 18th

Alastair