Blog Postings
Grow in Grace - Summer Missions Trip and Training
Always a firm favourite on the calendar, this year's Amongst Ourselves meeting did not disappoint. Taken solely by the regular attenders of the Listooder meetings, the evening was capably led by Andrew Pentland who announced serveral choruses and hymns before introducing the following portions of the meetings:
CEF Junior Summer Outreach - Rebecca Hutton (Listen)
At the end of June 2014, Rebecca spent 5 days at the Junior Summer Outreach Training Camp, held at the 'Seaview' in Kilkeel by Child Evangelism Fellowship. With a firm focus on prayer and the Word of God, the key aim of the camp was to teach young people the importance of bringing the message of Salvation to boys and girls, and provide training and advice to those who had a desire to serve the Lord in this way.
Mission to Romania - John Neil and Alex Rea (Listen)
John and Alex travelled with 17 other local Christians, in August 2014, to reach out to the small community of Kisszántó in Romania, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As well as assisting in the work of the local Reformed Church, the team ran a Holiday Bible Club in which over 50 children attended. Lessons from the Bible were presented to the children (via translation!) as well as memory verses, singing, games and craft.
Camp Sonshine Portugal - Catherine Harvey (Listen)
In July 2014, Catherine made the journey to Portugal to join up with the other leaders and campers at Camp Sonshine. The camp welcomes 7 - 11 year old children from various backgrounds to a week long camp where the Gospel is taught. This presents challenges, not least in language, as the leaders are often with children who speak no English.
Closing Message - Jonny Rice (Listen)
Jonny Rice spoke briefly about the need to grow as believers in Jesus Christ. Just as a child must learn to talk, to eat and to walk, becoming more and more independent and increasingly able, so a child of God must learn to develop in these things.
A child of God must learn to talk, communicating with God on a regular basis, learning to listen to His voice and speaking often of Christ. In the same way a child learns by watching, listening and repeating, so must we find ourselves in the places where prayer takes place, listening to the teaching of the Word and chatting about the things of God with our friends.
A child of God must have a desire to feed on the meat of the Word, exploring the Scriptures for themselves rather than just sitting in church, Sunday by Sunday, with your mouth open, waiting to be fed. Explore the Bible for yourself, question the things that you learn and take them all back to the Word and make sure it checks out.
Finally, a child of God must begin to put the things he/she learns into practice, learning to stand strong and walk on for God in a sinful world, all the while growing in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and learning to love the things of God.
Sadly many believers, young and old, fail to grow. They miss out on the leading of God, the instinctive discernment of the Holy Spirit, in their lives, unskillful in the Word of God (Hebrews 5:12-14) and a weak force for the Gospel. Let's be strong for God, growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ as we both learn and teach, in Listooder and beyond.
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." - 2 Peter 3:18