Church Hopping in Northern Ireland

I have been very pleasantly surprised by our experiences so far. We came to serve and minister and today the churches we visited ministered so much to us! In the morning my group went to a small church of the Elim denomination. We actually had a guest speaker who was Irish but had served the past couple of years as a missionary in Mozambique Africa.

He shared his style of ministry, where instead of just planting churches or making buildings, he wanted to build the church on the inside. He spoke about pastors who had so much vision but no church yet, and he would send them out to evangelize and build the church body before he helped with their construction. I was blown away at the testimonies of pastors who came back with a group of members presenting him with their attendance records, offering records and staff--wow now that is making disciples...

That is my prayer that we will not just help the people of Ireland for one day, but equip them for a lifetime of living for Jesus and sharing the good news.

-Joan Pastrana

This morning Kate, Jill, and I had the opportunity to go to a Brethren church. The experience was quite interesting. There was no ordained Pastor; the service was constructed by any man that wanted to speak. It started with a hymn, followed by silence, prayer, and then speaking. This process continued for an hour and a half. There was no structure to the service. Also, church rule, all the ladies had to have their heads covered (using a hat or scarf) during the whole service!

Another thing that I did not personally like was the communion. There were two goblets and two loafs of bread, and two sides of the tiny room. So, everyone on one side of the room ate off one loaf of bread, no big deal, however, the big deal for me was drinking juice out of the same cup as everyone on my half of the room. There were a lot of elderly people, who were coughing during the entire service, and blowing their noses… it was flat out gross having to drink after them!

The service all in all, was nice. It was a great reminder that church is not all about the music, the speaker, and definitely not a fashion statement. Today during the service, we had five different men speak at random. There were ten different men that stood up during the service asking us to sing different hymnals, at different times, after prayers, and in between speakers. Going to a different church opens my eyes to how even though we are all Christians, we do not all worship God during a church service in the same way.

-Brittany Rhodarmer

So today a part of the team went to the Methodist Church in Dundrum. We knew we were leading some part of the service, but we didnt realize we would be leading the entire service until we arrived (Olive, the organist, did not arrive). After rearranging the service plans several times, we commenced with worship (3 hymns) and then a Christmas message. Travis gave a wee (little) message and then individuals from the group took turns reading the Christmas message while the worship team intermittently played Christmas carols that corresponded appropriately with the text. The service was supposed to be an hour long exactly, but somehow we managed to finish everything (including the closing hymn) in 30 minutes. Erick promptly stood up and gave us a testimony about his life and how God has brought him through difficult times. We still ended fifteen minutes early, however the overall service was warmly accepted and the congregation welcomed us wholeheartedly afterwards. It was a beautiful Sunday in Ireland and I am so glad we are here! After a long day of visiting more churches and informational meetings, we are all knackered (tired) but anticipating a grand day tomorrow! Erick is keeping us all awake with his bantering and childlike antics with his blanket, so some of us will be tired! But God will see us through!

-Benji Beckwith