GO Team & Church Family Weekend 2017

The last weekend of August was an encouraging time for us as a congregation. With the help of an RP GO Team (short term mission team) we ran our first ever church family weekend!

The team arrived on the Friday afternoon and went to Belmont Care Home where the team entertained the residents and then we introduced and sang a few psalms.

On the Friday night, we watched a new documentary on Martin Luther that's been produced to celebrate 500 years since the Reformation began.

We invited some of the local churches to come on the Saturday and we started off the morning with coffee and scones. Ken Nelson, an elder in Trinity RP Church and part of the GO Team, shared his story of trusting God in the wake of a brain aneurysm. During his talk, the GO Team put on a programme of activities for the children, with a talk, craft etc.

In the afternoon, we were joined by some friends from Ayr Free Church Continuing for a Kids' Fun Afternoon with bouncy castle, candy floss makers, popcorn maker etc. We finished things off with a church BBQ, and then some of the GO team helped the young people in the congregation to make desserts for the church lunch the next day.

On the Lord's Day the team worshipped with the congregation and Stephen preached on the Bible's picture of the church as a family. After worship we had lunch together, and then the team visited Dalrymple Court (sheltered housing) to sing some psalms. In the evening, Stephen began a new series on Galatians and the team joined the congregation for our usual post-service supper.

On Monday, we visited Covenanter sites in Wigtown, where the team also had the opportunity to visit the local secondhand bookshops and coffee shops in Scotland's National Book Town.

We are grateful to God for a great weekend and a growing sense of fellowship among the congregation!

Daily updates on the team as it happened were posted on the GO Teams website:
- Stranraer GO Team: Day 1 (Friday)
- Stranraer GO Team: Saturday and Sunday

Girls' Discovery Camp

Hannah, from our congregation, was recently at Girls' Discovery Camp in Ballycastle. Here's what she thought of it:

I was really nervous for camp as this was my first time going, and I was travelling over from Scotland to an Irish camp! But I was also excited! And it was a lot better than I expected it to be!

Some of the activities we did were: surfing, horse riding and messy games. My favourite activity was the surfing! The talks were really good they were all about women who met Jesus. I learned that Jesus can save you immediately no matter what your sins are. I loved my first experience of camp and I’m already planning to go back next year!

(Taken from the RP Global Alliance website)

As a congregation we are really grateful for all the leaders and cooks who serve God by helping run these summer camps. They have had a big impact in the lives of many and we're so glad that our young people can spend time with other Christians in this way!

Where is God?

We live in a world of terrorist attacks, injustice, deceit, cancer, mental illness and death. Why doesn’t God do something about it? Many conclude that either he isn’t powerful enough to intervene, or he isn’t loving enough to care.

That was the conclusion that people came to as they witnessed the most evil event in human history. It’s striking that as we read through the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion in the Bible, it seems as if God is doing nothing. Those standing around the cross mocked Jesus because it seemed God didn’t love him enough to come to his rescue: ‘He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him’.

Yet although it seems at first glance that God isn’t doing anything, every detail of what’s happening is a fulfilment of his plan. In a series of seemingly random events, Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh to try and dull the pain, the soldiers who are crucifying him have the bright idea of casting lots for his clothes, and he’s crucified between two robbers. As these things happen, God doesn’t even get mentioned. It seems that he isn’t paying attention. And yet each of these acts is the fulfilment of centuries-old prophecies about how the Messiah would die. Although they have no thought of God, and their motives are very different from his, evil men are merely fulfilling his plan.

So just because it seems that God isn’t at work in your life, don’t conclude that he is absent. God’s activity is often hidden, but he is still very much at work.

If you’re not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, he is bringing events into your life to show you your need of him. In your disappointments, pain and bereavement he is showing you the emptiness and futility of living only for this life.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then God’s great goal for you in all that happens is to make you more like Jesus. Often, the process is not one we would choose. Just like refining gold, applying heat to something so precious seems destructive. But just as the goldsmith heats the gold until he can see his face in it, so God applies the heat to our lives that we might reflect him more clearly to a lost and dying world.

Published in Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press, 17th August 2017

Church Family Weekend

From the 25th - 27th August we'll be having a church family week.

On the Friday night, we'll be having a screening of new Luther documentary, which has been released to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

On the Saturday morning Ken Nelson will share his experience of trusting God in suffering. Ken is a church elder who suffered a brain aneurysm a couple of years ago. 

In the afternoon there will be a kids' fun afternoon and then we'll close with a BBQ for everyone. The full timings for the Saturday are as follows:

On the Sunday we'll have lunch together after the morning service, and then in the evening Stephen will start a new sermon series on the book of Galatians, one of the key books in the Reformation's rediscovery of the gospel message.

We have invited some of the local churches and we do hope you'll join us if you're in the area!

We'll have a GO Team with us to help organise some of the activities, and while they're here they'll also be doing visits to encourage the elderly folk in Belmont Care Home and Dalrymple Court.

Summer camps take place this week

Each summer, the Reformed Presbyterian Church organises five summer camps, held in Ireland. On Saturday, eight young people from the RP Church in Scotland, including one from Stranraer, got the ferry from Cairnryan to head off to the four different Junior Camps taking place this week.

Please do remember to pray for the Boys' and Girls' Discovery (10-12 years) and Adventure (13-15 years) camps this week. BDC have been praying for us!

Earlier in the summer, another five from Scotland attended Senior Camp (16+) - three as campers and two as leaders. You can read their thoughts on the week on the RPCS website.

Here's Stephen's take on the week.

The Leader’s Highlights
“Singing psalms with 100+ people is always a highlight – at camp we sing at breakfast, at supper, and plenty of times in between! I always enjoy meeting new people – those at camp for the first time as well as those from other countries and denominations. Now I’m a minister, being able to sit under preaching is a rare privilege, and I especially enjoyed hearing Marty Cowan from Union Theological College preach on the Lord’s Day evening. And a sunny week filled with football and volleyball is hard to beat!”

What the Leaders Enjoy
“I’ve benefitted hugely from camp over the years, so I’m glad to be able to give something back. I enjoy being involved in the planning of camp, and especially having a say in who the speaker is – because that sets the tone for the whole week. I love leading a discussion group of the oldest guys each evening, and seeing their faith growing and gifts developing.”

You can listen to Marty Cowan's sermon (mentioned above) here: