Shall we Sing a Song for you?

Renwick recorded their 3rd victory over Church of Ireland in 3 attempts at the Ozone on Wednesday. It was a very different looking Renwick team than usual that took to the pitch however. It seemed we had avoided the idea of drawing positions out of a hat, but approaching kick-off we had positions dictated to us. I was sent to right back and AJ was banished to nets, though Phil somehow managed to be allowed to continue his attempts to emulate Christiano Ronaldo on the right wing, for the first half at least.

So after that was all sorted out we started off, and it took me only slightly longer to break into the box than it took James Quinn to break the first England player in NI v. Inglin. At the other end we were doing our best to protect AJ, with Matt marshaling the defence from center-half and Strob putting in some great tackles beside him. However it was Gary Neville himself putting in a man-of-the-match performance at full back if I do say so myself, with the highlight being a last-gasp block at full stretch in our 6-yard box to prevent a certain goal.

Up front it was Jonny and Stevie trying not to look like Polar Bears in the Jungle (ig lost), and Jonny was showing some nice touches and combining well with Phil. It was the special one himself who gave us the lead however, direct from a corner. Our lead was cruelly snatched from us however after an unspecified period of time as Strob tried to clear the ball across a COI striker and it hit off him and went in. Particularly gutting from a defender’s point of view.

Rather than spending half-time leisurely lying about in the sun, we spent it trying to decide who’d be keeper for the second half. After much discussion it was agreed that Phil, Pie and me would do 15 mins each. In the meantime however, the core of the team, ig me and Pray J, moved back up front. The defence suffered immediately of course, and seemed to be going through the same amount of doubt and confusion that goes through Dida’s head during an average match. After a particularly shambléic piece of messing around, Piemonger took matters into his own hands and brought down the nearest COI player he could find. Phil couldn’t keep out the resulting penalty and it was 2-1 to the Prayer Book Warriors.

The ref shouted to Phil to come out of nets only 10 minutes into the half, and as I looked back in disbelief at the thought that the world has been speeded up, Piemonger took the jersey. By this stage it was quickly becoming apparent that this was the worst half of football we had ever played, and the ball spent about 5 minutes in touch for every 1 minute in play. Suddenly however things brightened up as Joel burst into the box and hit a shot which deflected off two COI defenders on its way into the net, for his second goal of the season. After that it was back to tedium, with a few long range shots about all we could muster. AJ had earlier had a header/shot which looked to be going in but the keeper recovered to punch it away. Thankfully Joel, having got his goal, went in nets for the last 15-minute slot.

At the end of a lot of stoppage time (needed for all the times the ball was out of play!), the match ended in a draw. With few people wanting it to end that way, we had a vote to see if we’d play extra time or go straight to pens. The peno party prevailed and COI hit first. Joel pulled off a tremendous save, diving to his right and tipping it on to the bar. Mark then stepped up for Renwick and hit the ball to the top right of the net to give us the lead. Church of Ireland’s second penalty was an easy save for Joel. Phil hit next for Renwick and the COI keeper tipped it onto the post, but it rolled in to the net. With Renwick leading 2-0, it was third time providential (if they believe in it) for the Ritualists. Stevie then sent the keeper the wrong way to make it 3-1 . COI were then in the situation where they had to score to stay in it, and did so, presenting Jonny with the chance to win it if he managed to hit the net for the first time ever in a Renwick shirt. The outcome was never in doubt however as his penalty went in to the right under the body of the keeper, and the celebrations began. Well, with me and Jonny anway.

No photos from the match as for the first time ever no Renwick fans turned up (well, not for the other 10 players anyway…)

It doesn’t look like the ministers re-match will be played in the near future, however Jonny is in the process of organising an away match with Cullybackey BB for June. Before that however is next week’s highly anticipated Gala event… :-)

RENWICK: A Johnston, S Steele, M Jess, R McCollum, P McConaghie, P Dunwoody, J Loughridge, M McCavery, A Currie, J McCollum, S McCollum

Sinclair Ferguson

Iain Murray

Complete Collection

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And here’s a photo from the closing lecture (ht Sam McEwen):

New sermons

I’ve added a lot of sermons (as in links to other sites) to the site over the past week or so. A lot of Ted Donnelly sermons but also Olyott (thanks Mark), Dick Lucas and about 3 interviews with the Beggster. You can access them via the links down the right.

Airdrie Mission

Remember to pray for the Airdrie Mission, which finishes tonight. As you may have seen from emails from Airdrie, GO Team emails, or “Text Messages” (Joel), they’ve been having between 20 and 30 visitors most nights, giving them a congregation of around 100. From the latest email:

GIVE THANKS
- God has been bringing people back during the week.
- People are hanging around after the service and asking some serious questions.
- Give thanks for the prayers of God’s people – they have been a real encouragement to us.

PLEASE KEEP PRAYING THAT:
- God will give Andrew the physical strength to preach with clarity of thought and boldness the last sermon tonight.
- God will send the Holy Spirit and we will see sinners saved – FOR HIS GLORY!

Important Sermon:

I would like to encourage you all to listen to the above sermon by Andrew Quigley. We all long to see our churches grow – but if they aren’t growing is it all right for us to sit around and congratulate ourselves for being faithful and say ‘this is the day of small things’? You may not agree with all of it, but just listen to it and it might at least provoke a bit of thought – even listen to the first half hour. It’s important stuff. Here’s an extract:

“We need a generation of preachers who will no longer look upon the church as a group of volunteers, some of whom are more committed than others. We need a generation of ministers who will go out and proclaim the Word of God with the authority of Haggai, and say to men and women “If you profess to be a believer in Jesus Christ, then, within the norms of life, I’m going to call you to be that. I’m not going to allow you to drift, I’m not going to allow you to go off and do your own thing. Why? Because it’s neither in your interests nor God’s interests to do so.” It’s no interest of the leader in the church to allow the people of God to drift into a situation where they’re spending all their time labouring and not getting the return or the harvest they should do because they’re walking in disobedience.”

In an effort to end discussion about Lamps, here are some photos which appeared in the Belfast Telegraph last month:

Strob, Simon, AJ, McKelvey, and others