Before I put on the photos from the weekend I better do a post on Rathfriland if I want to have any chance of getting 5 stars in Mrs G’s Book of Blogs (tho I fear I face some stiff competition from Norwegian flower pot blogs)! Especially after she was emotionally scarred by the picture of Stevie in the last post…
So anyway, the team arrived in Rathfriland last Monday morning after my heartfeld plea at the CY Summer Conf (where I was NOT laughing at my own joke – Jonny, Joel!) failed to pick up any new members for the team (and in fact for a time during the next week we were reduced to 2 before an 11th hour offer from Catherine Morrison brought us back up to a healthy total of 3).
The activities for the week were to do door-to-door during the days, and meetings in the evenings (preceded by a time of prayer), on the theme “God changes lives”. On the doors we were accompanied by Barry and the indefatigable Tom Cromie. Speakers at the meetings included the minister of 1st Rathfriland (“God is changing lives in Rathfriland”) and Barry (“God changed the life of a famous politician” – Wilberforce).
Ok, I’ll spare you another photo of us, here’s one from the pilg!
The best thing about the team was getting to know the people of the congregation, and we were out at different members’ houses for tea in the evenings, as well as being wonderfully provided for by Hazel at lunch times :-)
On the afternoon off on Wednesday, Mrs G took the girls shopping and I went to see Gary, who was house-sitting a mansion.
On the Thursday morning, Prof. Robert McCollum (the distinction is becoming more necessary than ever!) came to give a presentation to the older people/people who were free during the day on the Covenanters.
Rathfriland Covenant Renewal 1854
In the evening there was a Coffee Bar for the young people of the congregation, although with pizza and ice cream sabbaths / floats (sortof like milk floats but not) instead of coffee. We also tried to encourage them to get more involved in the wider denom.
…but just in case they don’t, here’s a photo of them playing volleyball!
A healthy amount of football was also played
The team departed on Thursday night, as we were going on to the 2 weekends, having had a thoroughly enjoyable week in Rathfriland. We got to meet some great people, including some ‘outside the box thinkers’, and can now pray for Rathfriland with a far greater knowledge of what’s going on.
And so do please that God would keep on changing lives in Rathfriland, more and more, and that He would use the booklets given out, the conversations had, and the talks at the meetings to bring people to Him.