Report and Photo Gallery - Go-team, 9 - 13 August 2010
The members of the team were: Steven McCollum, Anselm McDonnell, Elise Allen, Hannah Drennan, John Fallows, Lois Kelso, Michael Hamilton, Rachel Nelson and Scott Drennan, as well as other young people from the congregation. Some had remarked that the team members this year were quite young, but hopefully we lived up to the high standards set in previous years!
Our main activities for the week were helping to lead and participate in the church’s annual Holiday Bible Club in the morning and the Senior Youth Club in the evenings. We were also involved in other outreach activities including leaflet distributions, inviting members of the community to a guest service taken by the Rev Albert Baxter on the Sunday evening, community service, and an afternoon organised for pensioners in the local community.
Each day began quite early with our meeting together at the church for our personal quiet time: a member of the team shared a thought taken from God’s Word, this was followed by a short time of prayer before the Holiday Bible Club commenced. This time together was repeated after the Youth Club each evening. There was also a time of prayer before lunch to give thanks for the morning’s events, and a team Bible study led by Steven in the afternoon. It really struck me how much time was spent in prayer and study throughout the week; and we were aware of so much blessing given as a result. We saw answers to these prayers, in large and small ways throughout the entire week, in what we were enabled to accomplish. We were also very conscious of God sustaining us, especially when energy levels were starting to show a few signs of flagging towards the end of the week.
The Holiday Bible Club was a great success, with a very high turnout of 50+ children from the community on most occasions. Many children invited their friends along throughout the week; and a good many parents attended the evangelistic parents and friends morning on the last day of the club. It was very encouraging to see so many children enjoying themselves and at the same time taking God’s Word into their hearts. Some mothers sent letters thanking members of the Cloughmills congregation for their active part and positive input in the community.
The Senior Youth Club experienced similar blessings each evening and was well attended. The young people took part in activities that included sports, and board games such as ‘Pass the Pigs’ (introduced to us by Mr Andrew Lytle and which I’m still trying to understand!) For those who preferred less strenuous options there were crafts such as painting clocks and cupcake decorating, which proved to be very popular. On Thursday evening there was a Club outing to Lisburn swimming pool and a McDonald’s meal, which fully made up for the pool’s early closure! The Youth Club was one of the less formal activities of the week for us. Its aim was for us simply to get alongside the young people and make friends. It was a good way for us to establish contacts that could be kept up after the team left.
The ‘Pensioners Tea-party’ took place on Wednesday afternoon: older members of the community were invited to the church for a varied programme of entertainment and psalm singing by members of the church and Go-team. Rev Peter Jemphrey gave his testimony and delivered an evangelistic message. This was followed by tea and buns in the hall. The afternoon was very well received and we were given a very touching vote of thanks by the president of the Cloughmills ‘Golden Oldies’ association. Often we forget this important section of our community. Reaching out to the elderly community is a mission we were challenged to take up in our own churches.
On Friday afternoon we painted (most of!) a brown fence in the village black, something that, I’m sure, will greatly increase Cloughmills’ chances of winning ‘Best Village Award’ in 2011. Those who live nearby evidently noticed our small act of service: a resident of one of the houses came out and provided us with refreshments, which we greatly appreciated, in return for our work.
Looking back on the week I’m sure I speak for the whole team in saying that it was a time of great blessing for us, and God was evidently at work through the congregation. Their warm welcome and hospitality, and their selfless dedication and service to others was a massive encouragement and inspiration to us. Many thanks are owed to those who opened their homes to us for the week and provided all our meals. We hope it was a week where the congregation benefited, as much as we did, from serving God together.
Lois Kelso