Rise & Shine Mission 2008

At the morning Praise Service in Magheragall Parish Church Sunday (9th March) are L to R: Nigel Adams (Rectors Warden), Rev Nicholas Dark (Rector), Bronwen Dark and evangelists Paul Hoey, Roger Murphy and Paul Woodman.

A morning Praise Service and evening Thanksgiving Service last Sunday (9th March) brought nine days of Christian outreach entitled ‘Rise & Shine’ at Magheragall Parish Church to a successful conclusion. Led by evangelists Roger Murphy, Paul Hoey and Paul Woodman, the programme included: Mothering Sunday Service, Songs of Praise, Youth Drama, Coffee Mornings, Kids’ Club, Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Girl’s Nite In, Lad’s & Dad’s Nite In, Senior Citizen’s Club, Couple’s Nite Out, Men’s Breakfast, Spring Dander and Karting

The Rector, the Rev Nicholas Dark led the morning Praise Service assisted by evangelists Roger Murphy, Paul Hoey and Paul Woodman. During the service Paul Hoey interviewed Magheragall Mission Team members Nigel Adams and Margaret Leslie; and Roger Murphy interviewed the Rector, the Rev Nicholas Dark and his wife Bronwen. Margaret Nelson presided at the organ and was accompanied by Bronwen Dark and a group of musicians and vocalists in leading the lively praise which included: ‘Jesus, all for Jesus’ and ‘To God be the glory’.

In his address Roger Murphy asked the question “who do you say I am - am I Lord of your life or not?” He explained that there is no middle ground, we either accept or reject Jesus saying that if we want to make Jesus Lord of our lives, we need to say yes and receive Him into our lives. Emphasising that being a Christian means to deny ourselves, he said that Jesus gave His all on the cross for us and referring to the hymn ‘All for Jesus’ he went on to say that Jesus wants us to give our all for Him.

Paul Woodman, a Christian escapologist, also gave a short talk.

A review of the week’s events in no particular order.

Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook!!

Were you there? What a feast of fun and fellowship. A wonderful evening was enjoyed by a very large audience on the Tuesday evening of the Mission. The two “Reverends”, Rev. Raymond McKnight and Canon Wil Murphy, entertained us all in their usual witty manner, as there was lots of laughter heard throughout the Church Hall. Margaret Nelson did a sterling task in keeping both the “Chefs” in check and demonstrating how to make a “pizza” followed by decorating a “pavlova”. They both made a good attempt at these interspersed by lots of banter and jokes.

Paul Hoey interviewed Joanne, from Kilkeel, who gave a very personal and harrowing account of her coming to faith in Christ and how that faith had helped her in her daily life.

Roger Murphy based his talk on Mark 13, “Are you ready”? which was well received by all.

A very welcome and enjoyable supper was provided by the members of the Mothers’ Union who hosted the event. To everyone involved a “Great Well Done”!! for a thoroughly delightful evening.

Margaret Leslie

WERE WE BOWLED OVER?

Thursday night's Bowling Fun Pairs Event was a great success with 14 pairs participating including 11 visitors and Missioners Paul and Roger. Even the Rector tried his hand. A few people did not know their own strength when delivering the bowls at first with Margaret Leslie nearly demolishing the back wall of the hall! However everyone soon got the measure of the mats and enjoyed the experience. We hope to see the membership of the club increase when the club resumes in September. The very popular winners of the Competition were Charlie and Roberta's son Robin and 9 year old grandson, Kyle Thompson who regularly hit the jack to great cheers from the gallery! We hope to see them back in the future.

After the competition Magheragall Magician Missioner Paul was at his work again, upending a saucepan full of milk on Charlie's head without spilling a drop. What an act of Faith! Roger's talk illustrated Christ's presence everywhere with a photograph of a snow scene in which His face appeared when we looked for it. All very thought provoking! The evening was concluded with a lovely supper and chat.

Gil Colvin

School Connection!

During the Rise & Shine week of Mission Roger, Paul and Paul visited several schools in the area, including Ballycarrickmaddy Primary School, Knockmore Primary School, Lisnagarvey High School and Forthill High School to take part in the School assemblies and in one case the Scripture Union meeting. Paul Woodman is known to have sawn off the hand of at least one P7 teacher and to have emptied a saucepan of milk over the head of a P1 teacher much to the delight and the concern of course of the pupils. After all that he was even invited to take part in an awards ceremony.

Thank You from Ballycarrickmaddy

I would like to thank you for arranging for Mr. Woodman to visit our school. It really was an amazing assembly. The children and staff have talked about it all day. It is terrific to have such a special guest to our school.

Thank you for your support and pass on our appreciation to Mr. Woodman.

Mrs. A. C. L. Thompson
Principal
Ballycarrickmaddy Primary School

Mums & Todders Group

On Rise & Shine Mission Week, the Parent & Toddler group held their “Teddy Bears’ Picnic”.

The girls , boys, mums, childminders and a few grannies arrived with their teddies of all shapes, sizes and colours - even Pooh Bear was there!

There was plenty of noise as 17 children played with all the different toys.

Our Missioner, Captain Roger Murphy from Through Faith Missions chatted to everyone and kicked a ball about with one of the boys.

To end the morning we all enjoyed sandwiches and chocolate buns, with a cup of tea and orange juice.

A big thank you to everyone for making the “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” a great morning.

Beryl

Mission Week “Spring Dander”

On Saturday the 8th of March 2008 the Rambling Club organized a Spring Dander as part of the Church Mission Week.After meeting in the Church Car Park at 12 noon we travelled to Minnowburn Car Park near Shawsbridge. With a group of fifteen people made up from Rambling Club members, Church Parishioners and Friends and accompanied by missioner Roger Murphy we set off.

The first leg of our walk took us under Shawsbridge and along the side of the River Lagan to the Lock Keepers cottage where we entered Belvoir Forest Park. At this point we encountered our first hill, but with no one having any problems we continued on for another half hour before reaching Belvoir House. By this stage everyone was well ready for their lunch and if I had tried to go on any further I probably would have been on my own. As there was a picnic garden close to the house, this was an ideal place for us to have our lunch and also a chance for Roger to speak to us.

After having lunch we all gathered under a beautiful big oak tree and Roger gave us a very interesting talk about himself and his faith. From here we continued on into the forest, but we had not gone very far when a shower of rain came on and we took shelter under a tree. While we were waiting Roger told us about an accident that he and his family were involved in some years ago, and about a man who stopped to help them by getting their car to a garage and then taking them home, when Roger asked the man his name and offered to give him something he declined and said he was only there to help and drove off. Roger said he believed that this man coming along was more than just a coincidence, maybe a guardian angel and just at that the sun came out and we were able to move on “so who knows”.

We then continued on along the forest paths enjoying the beautiful scenery before crossing over the River Lagan to join the Lagan towpath. After a short break we made our way back following the towpath along the Lagan via Wilson Park to Minnowburn. Everybody then said their goodbyes and we headed for home well refreshed after a very enjoyable afternoon Dander.

Ian Park

Did You Know?

The title for the Mission was taken from Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, Jerusalem, and shine like the sun; the glory of the Lord is shining on you” and the programme is designed to share the good news of Jesus Christ within our church family and throughout the community.

The Missioners Were:

Roger Murphy, Paul Hoey and Paul Woodman:

Roger Murphy Roger is a Church Army Captain, who is an itinerant evangelist working for ‘Through Faith Missions’ and he lives in Warwick, England. He is married to Jill, an auxiliary nurse and they have two grown up children and two grandsons. Roger has been a frequent visitor to Northern Ireland for over 10 years leading missions across the province, since he first came on Walk Ulster in 1995. He is also a keen Chelsea fan!!!

Paul Hoey Paul was born in Belfast but has lived for nearly 25 years in Co. Fermanagh. His wife is Sharon, and he has three grown up children, Ruth, Grace and Aaron. Paul has been a Church of Ireland minister for over 28 years most of it in parish ministry in Belfast, Portadown and Fermanagh. Since 2003 he has been working with CPAS as Ministry Adviser for Ireland covering the whole island - preparing churches for outreach, training church leaders, facilitating churches for strategic planning and development and anything else that will help them be more effective in living and sharing the message of Christ in the local community. Paul enjoys anything to do with music – listening, playing, singing etc. - also general reading, travel, anything arty and Bono (his faithful dog) and has a passing interest in Liverpool football club.

Paul Woodman Paul is a full-time leader in City Life Church, Southampton. He is married to Susannah and they have two children. He first started presenting the Christian message using escapology and illusions in 1989 and widely travels to speak at schools, community centres and prisons. Paul’s main focus in Southampton is developing church projects that reach into the community, such as Splash working with children and CLEAR supporting refugees.

For the past year the Mission Planning Group have been preparing for the nine days of outreach and have drawn up, with the support of the parish organisations, a varied and exciting programme of events and services. In preparation for Rise & Shine and to enable us to share our faith naturally sixteen adults have participated in the Lost for Words Course by CPAS led by Paul Hoey and Marion Wilcox. Prayer has underpinned the preparations as we seek God’s guidance, endeavour to honour the Lord and wait on the Holy Spirit to touch lives during our Mission.

Fun, Faith & Fellowship…
@. Paint me.. Glaze me…

The paint me glaze me was a huge success.  The children really enjoyed the painting and I was amazed at how well they all listened to Paul who kept their attention by continually pouring water from a jug.  Where did that water keep coming from?  The toast went down well at the end, with most of the parents thinking "great, no supper to make when they went home!! " Sam brought along a friend from another church.  He had a "ball" and his mum was really proud when she saw the rabbit her son had painted. Overall I feel all the children and adults had a great time!  
Gillian  

I think it was a wonderful evening. It was great to see families painting together. The children really enjoyed themselves and so did the parents….
Susan

It was a great way to start the mission week as the kids really enjoyed painting, getting messy and having their supper. They also found the missionary talk very interesting, as they were all as quiet as wee mice!

Sonya

Rise & Shine…with Tea & Toast! We had a great evening on Monday 3rd March with children, parents & grandparents all under one roof in the Parish Hall enjoying the fun craft. It was a lovely way to share our Mission outreach with the boys & girls..

Patricia

N.B. Anyone who painted a craft item can collect it from the Parish Hall on a Monday night from 6.30 pm.

ACTSODUS

Actsodus is a drama group aimed at teenagers and young people to introduce them to Jesus in an exciting and thought-provoking way. They are connected to the Elim Pentecostal Church and have been together for many years. They entertained us to various mimes, music and film- the most memorable for me being one where a young man had spent the day with Jesus by his side. A friend invited him out and at this point he decided Jesus would stay at home uninvited – this young man was quite happy to have Jesus in his life part of the time but was selective about which parts that was. He wasn’t prepared to have Jesus in his life when he went out to meet his friend. As a Christian, I strive to make Jesus my central focus in every aspect of my life- chatting to him and praying throughout the day at all times and in all situations. It’s not always easy to do but if I put Jesus central to everything I do and am involved in, other things in my life seem to fall into place. Jacqui

Here are the thoughts of some of our young people:

As part of our Mission, Actsodus came on Sunday 2nd March. It was mostly for Year 8 and upwards. Actsodus is a drama group- they do mimes and sketches. Everyone enjoyed themselves! They did mimes about the Easter story and we watched a short film.

Megan

On Sunday 2nd March, Actsodus youth group came as part of our Mission week. The entertainment included mimes, drama and music. It was an enjoyable night. Also we watched a short dvd of Jesus on the cross.

Katie

We really thought that Actsodus was a really fun event. The dramas provided a strong message in a way that we could understand

. Lianne and Laura

Alison said, “I really liked the Actsodus youth group because they had very good ways of teaching people about Jesus. The sketches were really good and funny at the same time!”

Bronwen said, “The ‘at home’ sketch really challenged us to think about Jesus being part of our whole lives and not just a bit of it! The fast pace of music and drama held our constant attention and we could have watched lots more! Brilliant talent!”

KARTING

On Saturday the 8th March, a group of 15 young people set off in two minibuses to “Raceview Karting” in Ballymena. Seven adult helpers attended. These included the Missioners, Rev Paul Hoey and Christian illusionist Paul Woodman..

“Raceview” is a really professional set up and before the races, there was a safety talk. Then overalls, balaclavas, gloves and helmets were donned for a series of heats around the challenging indoor track.

Prizes were awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd fastest times and then Paul Woodman talked about his life and about the Christian faith.

We stopped off at McDonalds before setting off for home.

The teenagers all seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day and it was great to see them interacting so well with each other. We may even have a future Lewis Hamilton among them!

Nigel

“Devote yourselves to prayer...”
Colossians 4:2

Mission Verse

"Arise, Jerusalem, and shine like the sun, the glory of the Lord is shining on you!"
Isaiah Chapter 60 Verse 1

The Mission Prayer

Loving God,
Make my life a sign of your engaging love, May my heart be penitent, My actions generous My words sensitive. Fill me with longing to share with others the good news I have received, Help me to see people as you see them, And anoint my life with your Spirit that Jesus be formed in me. His tongue to speak to me, His hands to work in me, His heart to beat in me. And so through all I do, and all I am, And with the people where you call me to witness, May Jesus be known And His kingdom established. Amen