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!
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Thursday, 9 August 2007
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
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
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Update
Dear readers (both of you!),
Just to apologise for the lackage of posts the past week. Believe it or not I've been working hard and not just at my Football Manager career! I've basically been painting an entire house, not a picture the real thing, and this has severley limited blogging time. Young Alastair has been off at the legendary Boy's Adventure Camp which I have sadly missed this year. Hopefully he'll be able to give you a full BAC report sometime in the not so distant future! I'm heading off on the Cloughmills Go Team on Sabbath and I would value your prayers for the week.
Fantasy Football. If you're an RP and you want to join the RP fantasy football league.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
And our league code is 314786-63387.
Come and see if you can challenge some of the best teams in the Country! Only join if you know me too as the thats the fun of it, beating other people you know!
Another thing to check out is Andy Mo's latest compilation video on BATW. Well worth watching and who knows if loads of people watch it he might even smile!
Finally, we really appreciate any feedback. Comments or emails. We'd like to know what you'd like to read more of here on DMFWS. So get in touch via dmfws@hotmail.co.uk.
James
Just to apologise for the lackage of posts the past week. Believe it or not I've been working hard and not just at my Football Manager career! I've basically been painting an entire house, not a picture the real thing, and this has severley limited blogging time. Young Alastair has been off at the legendary Boy's Adventure Camp which I have sadly missed this year. Hopefully he'll be able to give you a full BAC report sometime in the not so distant future! I'm heading off on the Cloughmills Go Team on Sabbath and I would value your prayers for the week.
Fantasy Football. If you're an RP and you want to join the RP fantasy football league.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
And our league code is 314786-63387.
Come and see if you can challenge some of the best teams in the Country! Only join if you know me too as the thats the fun of it, beating other people you know!
Another thing to check out is Andy Mo's latest compilation video on BATW. Well worth watching and who knows if loads of people watch it he might even smile!
Finally, we really appreciate any feedback. Comments or emails. We'd like to know what you'd like to read more of here on DMFWS. So get in touch via dmfws@hotmail.co.uk.
James
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Motive Check
Currently I'm reading Andrew Bonar's biography of Robert Murray McCheyne. I'll give you a full book review once I'm actually finished it but I came across a challenging quote from his journal in regard to our eagerness to serve Christ in missionary work, such as Go Teams, in comparison to our service of him where He's placed us now, among our friends and family.
"Self-examination. Why is a missionary life so often an object of my thoughts. Is it simply for the love I bear to souls? Then why do I not show it more where I am? Souls are as precious here as in Burmah. Does the romance of the business not weigh anything with me? - the interest and esteem I would carry with me? - the nice journals and letters I should
write and recieve? ... Am I wholly deceiving my own heart? and have I not a spark of true missionary zeal?"
Monday, 23 July 2007
How To Be A Completely Ineffective Church Member (Part 2)
Only Pray Occasionally
Paramount in your quest for ineffectiveness in church life is that you have infrequent communication with God. Infrequent prayer will develop an icy breeze that will blast through your character and cool down any heart warming for a closer walk with God and a love for others that might be heating up within. Don’t be misled into thinking that the simplest route is to abandon prayer completely. Such a drastic step has the possibility of sparking feelings of guilt, which will hinder your slip sliding away approach to church commitment. Remember that a slow death of spiritual vigour is the easiest to handle, so you do need the odd gasp of the vital breath of prayer to make the whole process a lot less painful. On a personal level there are some basic components that assist in developing an irregular prayer life. A meaningless repetitive grace at mealtimes can help make the whole sphere of prayer a mere recitation. It is also advisable for those infrequent excursions to your knees to gather up as many little clichés as you can. These will ensure that your infrequent prayers don’t get too personal, for that again tends to stir up the spiritual juices. Try hard to limit your praying to cover the big decisions of life – what your opinion should be on global warming, the expansion of the European Union and the pros and cons of world trade embargoes. Such an approach will help you work into your life a sense of the utter futility of prayer.
Do not at any cost start talking to God about who He is, your sin, what you have to thank Him for or communicate with Him about the details of your everyday life. Keep prayers really vague, “God bless all missionaries everywhere all the time.” These generalities will mean that you will never be aware of God answering prayers and the desire will decrease. Remember also to only pray when you feel like praying. Never force yourself to your knees. No matter how many times the minister asks for prayer for himself and the church missionaries you must resist any tendency to do this on a regular basis. Once a year would be a reasonable approach for such prayers as a good conscience salving measure. When the church has a bookstall, divert your eyes from books on prayer and any study guides for exploring Bible prayers. If the minister announces a forth coming series on prayer you must initiate Getaway Plan A, that long planned visit to your mother’s second cousin twice removed in Outer Mongolia. Sitting under preaching on prayer will scupper any progress you are making.
With regards to prayer at a corporate level there are ten golden rules for utter ineffectiveness in church membership: Only appear at the Sabbath morning prayer meeting when you have a doctor’s certificate to say that such an early start will not seriously damage your health. You need your lie in. Make several guest appearances where you talk about the importance of the prayer meeting to as many as possible. Such holy chit chat will give the impression that you are there all the time. A few well-timed appearances at the prayer meeting just before the annual session oversight visit to your home, will keep at bay any pleas for commitment to corporal prayer.. When the elder who leads the prayer meeting asks for prayer points keep your head down and your lip firmly buttoned, unless of course you have some juicy gossip to share. During your infrequent appearances try to tune out the passionate prayers of others in case such godliness rubs off. Think rather about your busy schedule for the incoming week. Thinking about going more often than you do is quite sufficient. After all it is the thought that counts. If your congregation issues a prayer diary each year leave it in your pew or at least stuck at the back of your Bible. When mission activities are coming up in congregational life avoid those extra prayer times that will be announced. Your life is too busy. Tune out the pleas of the minister for a deeper commitment to prayer in the congregation and don’t believe him when he says that without prayer there will be no blessing. Don’t allow guilty thought patterns to develop. You do go to the prayer meeting. It is just that the times that they arrange don’t fit in with your hectic lifestyle. Remember a regular prayer slot in the Christian life is like breathing in invigorating fresh mountain air. Start praying regularly and you will soon find that your “Royale family style couch potato” lethargy will begin to disappear and the next thing you know you’ll be one of those active members that encourages everyone in the congregation. You’ve been warned – Keep off the knees.
Bible Bits to keep clear of: Philippians 4:6&7; Nehemiah 9, Luke 11:1-13
David McCullough
Thursday, 19 July 2007
A Tribute
All good things come to an end. Including Brian Wright's stay in Northern Ireland. Today he is sadly flying home to Boston. This, the first post back after my holiday, is a tribute and a thank you to him. I'm sure many of you reading this also got to know Brian and please leave your own comment in tribute to the "American Refugee".
Some of you may have been confused in the past be Brian's many names. Credit for this has to go to Joel Sommerville who decided "Brian" didn't sound American enough and began to refer to Brian as "Brad" the trend was continued at the Sommerville's legendary New Year's Eve Party where the name "Buzz" was created by Brian Rankin. Many other names have been coined since including "Sugar Buzz", "Bard", "Bingo" etc. In my opinion Brian sums up most of what is good about America. Good crack, good music and a powerful and reliable ally in times of trouble. Hopefully he'll be able to write some articles exclusively for this blog in the future so watch this space!
Below are some pictures and a cover of Chasing Cars done entirely by the man himself; vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, mixing etc. If there are any record producers out there interested in this unsigned talent let me know as I have appointed myself his European Agent!
Some of you may have been confused in the past be Brian's many names. Credit for this has to go to Joel Sommerville who decided "Brian" didn't sound American enough and began to refer to Brian as "Brad" the trend was continued at the Sommerville's legendary New Year's Eve Party where the name "Buzz" was created by Brian Rankin. Many other names have been coined since including "Sugar Buzz", "Bard", "Bingo" etc. In my opinion Brian sums up most of what is good about America. Good crack, good music and a powerful and reliable ally in times of trouble. Hopefully he'll be able to write some articles exclusively for this blog in the future so watch this space!
Below are some pictures and a cover of Chasing Cars done entirely by the man himself; vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, mixing etc. If there are any record producers out there interested in this unsigned talent let me know as I have appointed myself his European Agent!
The man himself
Fun times
East-side!
Fantasy Football
Totally unrelated but the RP fantasy football league is back with more vengencethn a Robbie Savage tackle. http://fantasy.premierleague.com Contact me for the league code!
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Strawberries and Cream
As it seemed like every one had headed off to Senoir Camp, I was left on Monday wandering what to do with myself, I turned on the T.V and suddenly remembered how to pass this first week of the Summer, watching Wimbledon! However, this years event has not all been Strawberries and Cream, seeing the covers being pulled on and off every 10 Minutes got me thinking.......
Do we, as Christians, some times pull on the covers, straightaway at the first sign of danger in our lives? Now i'm obviously not talking about stopping the grass getting wet but more protecting ourselves from potential embarassment or maybe verbal abuse. Its a problem i'm sure nearly every one of us has encountered at least once in our lives so we all need to work at it.
Do we some times quickly change the subject after being asked what we did at the weekend? Or perhaps sneak off to S.U in school as we're embarassed by people seeing us?
It is an aspect we must work on in our lives, the Bible gives us always should give us huge hope as in Romans 8 vs 31 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' (NIV)
By now, shouldn't be already be trusting in the Lord as sovereign in our lives after every thing we've learnt, read and heard?
Jesus in Matthew 8 vs. 23-27, rebukes the disciples as they did not have faith in Him as they thought they were in severe danger from the raging seas. So how should we respond to these "storms" in our personal lives? We shouldn't be afraid, rather we should know that Jesus has control over every thing, sickness, weather, demons, the lot.
So rather than pull on the covers straight away, call on the Lord in prayer to help us know that he is sovereign and that it would reflect in our lives.
Alastair
(I'm heading off to Co.Galway for a few weeks now too so keep watching this space, hopefully it won't be dormant for too long!)
Friday, 29 June 2007
Carrying Empty Guitar Cases
I love adverts that make me laugh. Infact I think there should be a law passed declaring that an advert cannot be published in any form unless it is funny! The last advertisement which made me laugh out loud is a poster advertising Sprite in Lisburn. Sadly due to the internet's ability to let you find anything except the one thing you want I can't find a picture of it online. Anyway, the advert says "Girls love musicians, carry an empty guitar case around with you". Despite neither me nor Ali needing an empty guitar case, I did laugh as I wondered how effective it would be!
The sad truth is that as you look carefully people really are carrying empty guitar cases. Every world religion apart from true Christianity is based on carrying empty. Doing outward good works but it doesn't change the inward reality, we are born sinful and cannot do anything to change ourselves, we are rotten at the core. "There is no one righteous, not even one;" Romans 3:10 (NIV)
Maybe you're a nice person and don't do anything to hurt others but if you haven't trusted i
n Christ for salvation you are trying to get to heaven by your own good works, you are carrying an empty guitar case. Undoubtedly if someone were to carry an empty guitar case around long enough they could convince themselves and others that they were a musician. Similarly you may be able to fool yourself and those around you as to where you will spend eternity. The truth is you won't be able to fool God.
You may be thinking "I'm not trying to impress anyone, I don't believe God exists". Well the truth is you are doing something even more ridiculous than carrying an empty guitar case, you've put it over your own head denying that God exists, ignoring the stunning evidence all around you. "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water" 2Peter3:5 (NIV)
Finally as true believers we can also be guilty of carrying empty guitar cases. Wanting people to think that we are better than we really are, making a show of our faith or knowledge and allowing sinful pride to contaminate our service of Christ.
James McCullough
P.S. This will be my last post for a while as i'm away to sunny Cornwall!
The sad truth is that as you look carefully people really are carrying empty guitar cases. Every world religion apart from true Christianity is based on carrying empty. Doing outward good works but it doesn't change the inward reality, we are born sinful and cannot do anything to change ourselves, we are rotten at the core. "There is no one righteous, not even one;" Romans 3:10 (NIV)
Maybe you're a nice person and don't do anything to hurt others but if you haven't trusted i
n Christ for salvation you are trying to get to heaven by your own good works, you are carrying an empty guitar case. Undoubtedly if someone were to carry an empty guitar case around long enough they could convince themselves and others that they were a musician. Similarly you may be able to fool yourself and those around you as to where you will spend eternity. The truth is you won't be able to fool God.You may be thinking "I'm not trying to impress anyone, I don't believe God exists". Well the truth is you are doing something even more ridiculous than carrying an empty guitar case, you've put it over your own head denying that God exists, ignoring the stunning evidence all around you. "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water" 2Peter3:5 (NIV)
Finally as true believers we can also be guilty of carrying empty guitar cases. Wanting people to think that we are better than we really are, making a show of our faith or knowledge and allowing sinful pride to contaminate our service of Christ.
James McCullough
P.S. This will be my last post for a while as i'm away to sunny Cornwall!
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