What a day we had yesterday!
Our special guest was Brian Longridge. Brian was my main musician at Ballysillan Elim several years ago. My plan was for Brian to become the main worship leader. So I took him to a Worship Conference in Holland, but God had a much bigger plan for Brian.
We heard yesterday how he ended up working for the owners of the Conference Centre; he married their daughter; moved to Wales and became Worship Leader in a large church; he then moved to the USA and became the full time Worship Leader in a large church, but today!!!
He and his wife went on their honeymoon to a leper colony in Indonesia for two months. It changed their lives! From there they went to India and worked in leper colonies. Today they work among the lepers and the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.
As Brian played and sang I was deeply moved, but worse was to come. As he shared his story and talked about those to whom he ministers I felt a deep wound in my heart. For here was a young who could be playing on almost any platform, but has committed his life to serving Christ among the lepers and among people who live on garbage dumps. When he talked about Jesus looking back at him through their eyes I could almost see this for myself.
I will say no more on this but to simply add it was another one of those life challenging and life changing moments. You can watch both services on our Live Stream on the web site.
A word of thanks to everyone who attended. The services were well filled. Last night especially seemed to be well packed even though several of our people were at Randallstown to support the induction of Davy John. I had told Brian we would take up a ministry offering, which would probably be around £300. Well, you excelled yourselves; we gave him £700 and $30! This was such a blessing to him. Thank you.
Davy John & Maureen. As you know Davy was inducted into Randallstown Elim last night. Several of our people went along yesterday morning to support him as he preached his first sermon as Pastor of the church. Then again last night Pastor John Legge and others attended as Davy was formally inducted as the Pastor of the church by Pastor Eric McComb of the Irish Leadership Team. We commend Davy and Maureen to your prayers and wish them well in this new chapter of their lives.
ADVANCE: The first of these special monthly meetings is taking place this coming Thursday at 7.30 pm. Please note the time. This first ADVANCE will be an 'African Night' taken by Dixon and Team. They will be singing and will have a preacher. They will also be supplying some African food after the service, which should last for one hour (the service that is). This should be a great night, so please plan to attend.
Men's Connect Group: This is a new group being set up by Craig Seawright. The first meeting is this coming Saturday at 10 am. This meeting will only last for 15 - 30 minutes to discuss future plans and then go off for a fry and will finish in plenty of time for the Liverpool and UTD match.
Special Team Leaders' Meeting. This is for all Team Leaders and their teams. Saturday 20 September at 7.30 pm at the church. This should only take an hour. It is important that all team leaders and team members attend. Please let me know by return that you plan to attend. We might even get you a KFC before you leave!
Final Thought: I'll finish with a funny! A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to 'Honour thy father and thy mother,' she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?' Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, 'Thou shall not kill.'
See you all Thursday!
Pastor Jack
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