Portadown District MWI Autumn Celebration
The Autumn Celebration took place on 9th October in Banbridge Methodist Church. Mrs Marion McKibben welcomed us to the service which was well attended. This year was the occasion of the installation of the new District President, Mrs Barbara Meneely with the outgoing President, Elizabeth Curran, presenting her with the MWI brooch.
Thomas Street Praise Group sang two pieces and performed a mime. The guest speaker was Mrs Gillian Sloan, our mission partner in Germany. She illustrated her address with pictures of the work achieved there. Gillian told of how, ten years ago, she and her family had to learn the language and work to build up a church under the oppression of 40 years of communism. They had to evangelise without appearing to “preach”. In spite of these difficulties, today they have a Sunday morning congregation in Chemnitz of approximately one hundred. They run a parent and toddler group and coffee after church. There is an English language service once a month and Gillian teaches English to senior citizens. The church also has a brass band. The church motto is “Doing Life Together”.
The Augustusburg church funs a “Book Café” which serves for Sunday morning service also. The children attend an event called “Promised Land” at 9 am on a Sundays. They run an Alcoholics Anonymous group and a 55 plus club.
Our own container ministry helped out when Barry started the “Wesley Scouts”. He asked William Carson for some tents and found they he could provide new scout uniforms also! They hold special Irish evenings and run a ski trip to northern Italy each year. They plan to build a hall in Augustusburg in response to a “Dreaming Dreams” vision to see the work of the church expand here. To help raise funds for this project a special recipe book has been produced called “Heavenly Delights” which is written in both English and German. Gillian challenged us to examine ourselves by asking the questions, “What is God’s purpose for you?” and, “How much passion have you for His work?” We were told to “be responsible for our own joy” and “we should celebrate every small victory.”
A lovely supper was provided by the ladies of Banbridge MWI and the ladies left being challenged spiritually and better informed about how to pray for the Sloan Family.
DUBLIN DISTRICT MWI PRESIDENT INSTALLED
On Sunday 23rd September Bray Methodist Church was the venue for the installation of Mrs Heather Brown as the president of the Dublin District MWI. Heather told how she came to the church in Bray and found her broken and confused faith restored through the ministry of MWI. She took John Chapter 8 as her text and spoke about, “if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed,” and shared how she discovered that only in His will we are free. Her address was followed by the song “Jesus all for Jesus” which has very special meaning for Heather. I was delighted to share in this service with the ladies of the Dublin District and wish them God’s blessing as the seek “ To Know Christ and to Make Him Known”.
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