Champions...

Just thought i would put this little video together as a memento of the great achievement of last Wednesday night!

Charity Dinner & Auction...

It's the morning after the auction and despite being exhausted i'm wide awake at 7am! Last night we had our charity dinner and auction for the team of young men from the community heading to Tuum in Kenya this summer. It was a fantastic evening at Edenmore Golf and Country Club attended by 140 people many of whom were family and friends of the team members. During the evening we introduced the team using the video shown below and outlined something of the work we will be doing whilst in Tuum. Following this we had our main auction for which we had many fantastic gifts donated including paintings, designer sunglasses, designer clothing, holiday homes for a short break, Ulster & Ireland Rugby gear, car valet and David Humphreys rugby boots. People were incredibly generous and by the end of the evening we managed to raise almost £6000! I must express a HUGE thank-you to all who contributed to the evening including our auctioneer, those who donated the auction items, and those who decorated the room etc.

We have now reached and exceeded our fundraising target for this team which initially had seemed insurmountable! All of the surplus will go directly to the work of Stephen & Angelina Cowan in Tuum. Thank-you for all of your support! Please keep praying for this team as we prepare for what will be a unique and life-changing experience for all of us!

Updates...

I was away with our Kenya Team for an overnight stay in Portballintrae on Saturday. The purpose was really team bonding and we had such a laugh, helped along by fantastic weather! On Saturday we had a BBQ and then headed to Barry's in Portrush. I went on the ride by the door called 'The Experience' and it reminded me why i don't like rides like that!

We spent the rest of the evening on Whiterocks beach and saw the most beautiful sunset and sat around and chatted. Sunday was a beautiful day and we went back to the beach to find it busy with surfers! A few ice-creams later and we headed home! The guys were very well behaved and we all got along fantastically. I came home even more excited that in 10 weeks time we will all be in Kenya together. I have every confidence now that each member of the team is completely committed to going and will have an amazing experience that will impact their lives forever!














We have our Charity Dinner and Auction approaching in 2 weeks time. Lots to do in a short space of time but it promises to be a fantastic night. We still have to raise in the region of £3,000 so please pray that this evening will go a long way to do that!

Our Exodus Romania team were bag-packing in Tesco in Portadown on Saturday and managed to raise an amazing £817! All of that will go directly to the projects in Romania we will visit in July. It was hard work for the team but very encouraging that people were so kind and generous!

The sense of a goose...

I spoke at our family service on Sunday and shared the following lessons from geese! It was something i stumbled across in my reading but the more i explored geese further the more fascinating it got! Thought i would share it here and widen the blessing!

Lessons From Geese
FACT 1: Do you know why geese fly in a "V" formation? Because the aerodynamics of the "V" formation enable the geese to fly over 70% further than if they fly alone. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an updraft for the bird behind it.
LESSON 1: Do you see the analogy here? They can go a lot further if they work together and help each other out. What a beautiful picture of the synergy of God’s creation – the sum of the whole being much greater than the sum of the individual parts. Christians who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust and uplift of one another. God made us not for independence but for interdependence. That is the means by which his church, the bride will be most effective in the building of His kingdom.

Romans 12:4-6 (Message) In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

FACT 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
LESSON 2: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others. ‘as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we?’

FACT 3: When the lead goose tires (he's working the hardest), it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the lead position.
LESSON 3: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources. This reminds me of that OT story of Moses.

Exodus 17:8-13 (New International Version) The Amalekites Defeated 8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." 10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Team work is required in the work of God’s Kingdom.

FACT 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
LESSON 4: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. What do you ‘honk’ from behind?

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 (The Message) 9-11God didn't set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we're awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we're alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you're already doing this; just keep on doing it.

Sadly we live in a culture that thrives on ‘put downs’. I see this a lot when working with groups of young people where the words used are always negative and nick-names are often hurtful. In such an environment it is unheard off to hear a young person praising another, congratulating them or saying ‘you are really good at that.’ What do your words do? Do they build others up? Or do they destroy and cause division?

FACT 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.
LESSON 5: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong. If people knew we would stand by them like that in the church, they would push down the walls to get in.

Romans 12:9-13 (The Message) 9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. 11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Are you someone who is willing to come alongside others in their time of difficulty? Are you someone who is honest enough to share your struggles and allow others to carry you for a while through the troubles of life? That is a picture of community within the Kingdom of God that we are all a vital part of.

You see God himself is community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and so he created us to live in community. That is why God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone, and created Eve. Philip Yancey provides a useful illustration of this. How do I know when I place my hand on a hob it is hot? God created us with built in safety mechanisms to protect us from harm. Yancey then turns to think about loneliness and describes it as God’s indicator to drive us toward relationships.

Jesus was not a lone ranger in his time on earth. He had the disciples around him, crowds followed him, people who ministered to his needs. He also drew aside to take time with His Father. Jesus thought community was important. Jesus died for community when he died for the world. Indeed what we experience now in this community is only a foretaste and shadow of what God is doing in the world. It all began with God in perfect community with man and will finish one day in heaven in perfect communion with God if you have given your life to Christ.

So don’t search for community in the mason’s or the golf club. Come to the one who is community and created that desire within each of us. Come to Christ and join in the Kingdom work he is doing right here in the community of the local church.

Snowboarding in Italy...

Just got back early on Monday morning from a weeks snowboarding in Andalo in Italy with church. About 140 of us descended upon this small resort in N. Italy for a week of fun in the snow. The conditions where fantastic with good snow and sunny weather as you can see from the pics. The first picture shows Lake Garda in the distance.

I managed to come home relatively unscathed apart from a few bruises and a sore thumb that i thought i had broken on day one after i was assaulted by a tree root!

I also managed to turn 28 whilst away, although i didn't come through that quite so unscathed! Thanks to some of my lovely 'friends' there were a series of embarrassing childhood pictures on display over breakfast. The funniest thing about this was that one family assumed the pictures where Italy's version of 'Sponsor a Child'! Things got worse in the evening with an extremely embarrassing video of 'This is Your Life' featuring interviews with some of my friends, neighbours and work colleagues. I doubt if my face has ever been so red!!!

Winter Retreat 2008...

Edited post: Link to all the weekends videos has been added to the end of this post!

I slept until 11.55am on Monday morning - 13.5 hours in total which can only mean one thing - I'm just back from our 20:20 Winter Retreat. I generally find there is a correlation between tiredness and how good the weekend was so my big sleep is an indication of a fantastic weekend!

We had 50 people attending this year's retreat at Castlewellan Castle aged from 15-21 and a few leaders in the 25-30+ bracket! I remember writing a blog last year about the winter retreat and calling it the best ever so the standards where definitely high approaching this year! However, i can easily say that the retreat this year was of an equally high standard - if not even better!

The theme for the sessions this year (voted by the young people) was 'God's Will - Hear the Call'. Session 1 explored 'How does God Speak?' and for this we engaged the young people in a couple of experiential spiritual exercises that they loved. I'm pretty sure that some young people understood how God can speak for the first time. Session 2 looked at 'What are my gifts?'. In advance of this the young people had completed a heart's desire survey and gifts survey from the Prepared to Serve Course. You may be familiar with similar courses such as Network or SHAPE. This session was very practical and discussion based for the young people and very enjoyable. In Session 3 i attempted to tie the 2 together by encouraging young people to consider where they thought they could best use their gifts to serve God. I also reminded them that gifts used without love are useless (1 Cor 13).

The worship throughout the weekend was fantastically led by the young people themselves and really helped everyone to focus and reflect on who God is, what He was saying, and what response He was calling for.

The entire weekend was made so much more enjoyable by the fantastic range of games and activities organised by the rest of the leaders. We had 'The Price is Right' on Friday night, 'The Crystal Maze' on Saturday afternoon and 'Play Your Card's Right' on Saturday night! I had no organisation responsibilities for any of this which was a great help for me. On top of that the video production and drama team put together some of the finest quality amateur videos i have ever seen - hilariously funny! I will put a link up to the videos once they get put online! The video below is just some footage of the Crystal Maze activities that was quickly put together! So that's it over for another year as they say! I just hope that this time next year i can testify to another weekend of God's rich blessing!

Click here to link to all the videos of the weekend!

Car wash & Coffee morning!

As you are already aware, we are taking a team of 10 to Kenya this summer to build a school in the rural village of Tuum. As a team we must raise £7,000 to finance the trip.

One of our fundraisers is happening this Saturday 1st March - a car wash and coffee morning at Waringstown Presbyterian Church.

Myself and the rest of the team would appreciate your support so i hope you can make it along!

New arrivals...

Updated Post with pictures! First is James and Anna in the pink!

So my family has grown again! Yesterday my sister Claire gave birth to her first children - twins! Baby James Thomas Grogan (4lb 6) and baby Anna Claire Grogan (3lb 5) were born yesterday about midday in Dublin! They were a few weeks early which we had expected but all are happy and healthy, including mum! No pictures yet but i'll stick one up as soon as i get to see them which will probably not be until they move out of the ICU.

I know many of you have been praying for the safe arrival of James & Anna so thank-you for that - God is good. My role as an uncle is steadily growing!

ATL Rock School...

It's a bit short notice for this but ATL Rock School final is being televised tonight at 8pm on BBC2. Three of the young people from our youth fellowship have made it in to the final as a band called 'Wednesday Adams'. Tom McConnell, Rhea Lyttle and Kris Platt formed the band a year ago and have been writing music together and playing gigs ever since. Watch the link above to see a short video of the band and listen to a studio recording!

The programme was recorded in November but i am not going to tell you who the winner is - watch and see! Also look out for an interview with me in Cafe Rigmarole Waringstown about the band's history!!!

5-a day, Padraic & Jake...

This post is a bit of a double story - 2 completely unrelated musings.

Lent starts today, Ash Wednesday, the period of 40 days (not inc Sundays), that leads to resurrection Sunday. Christians are meant to use Lent as time of reflection and preparation for Easter. As Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days, often Christians will give something up for Lent that they will struggle without. Equally some may challenge themselves to do something each day that will be a struggle. I've been trying to achieve 5-a-day (portions of fruit or veg) for about the last 3 weeks and so i plan to sustain this throughout Lent. I know its supposed to be healthy but i have to say it has been playing havoc with my stomach! On top of that i've decided to be coffee free for lent. The greatest difficulty with this one will not be the loss of cafeine but the social aspect - i meet a lot of people for coffee and so it will be odd to drink water or tea! So what are you giving up for Lent if anything???

So I'm doing this training course called PYP (Preparing Youth to be Peacemakers) with PCI. I'm training so that i can facilitate the course with young people in Waringstown. The course explores conflict, specifically within the Northern Ireland context, how this effects us today looking wider than Prod-Catholic, and how we are called to be peacemakers from the life and teachings of Jesus and Scripture.

Yesterday, as part of the course, we got a 2 hour tour up the Falls Road by an Republican ex-prisoner called Padraic, then we met Jake, a loyalist ex-prisoner, who took us on a 90 minute tour of the Shankill Road. What an interesting afternoon! The tour was organised by an organisation called Coiste.

We met Padraic at the Divis flats. Padraic was imprisoned for 15 years in the Maze on 4 separate occasions. The first 3 occasions he informed us that he was accused of murder/attempted murder but there was insufficient evidence for a conviction! He was finally imprisoned and sentenced to 22 years for possession of weapons which came to a head in a shoot out with the RUC in his own home. So having never met a Republican ex-prisoner before i felt a strange tension of discomfort and yet a sense that as we walked up the Falls we were in safe hands! Padraic gave us an unashamedly Republican perspective on Irish history. This was incredibly detailed by someone who obviously had a great passion for the history of our land. He informed me that his interest in history really started in prison as the importance of education was strongly promoted amongst the Republican prisoners. I found the murals interesting along Divis Street very interesting as they highlighted worldwide political issues and oppression such as the Iraq war and the oppression of Palestine.

We met up with Jake at one of the peace barriers that lead onto the Shankill (still closed every evening). This was a friendly handover as the two guides were obviously used to working together. Jake also spent 15 years in prison for attempted murder of 4 Republicans. He said he is thankful now that none of them died but he was caught up in a lot of emotion and hatred at the time. Unfortunately our Loyalist guide came across as much less articulate and educated on the issues at hand and historical facts. Using words like 'them-uns' didn't really help! However, it was evident we were being guided by a typical working-class bloke born and reared in the area through the height of the Troubles. His opening story was his first experience of the conflict and his decision to do his bit as a young boy aged 10, so he went round the area gathering up glass bottles in a pram to aid the petrol bomb industry!

Interestingly, at one point he said that he was happy with the democratic place the country is now in and that he and many of his colleagues would support democratic and fair decisions that come from Stormont. He stated that he and many others in the area are committed to the process and would not lift arms again should a democracy vote for a united Ireland. He acknowledged that he felt this would need to be a slow process of small steps.

All in all it was a really interesting experience to hear two sides of the same story told by men who lived through the conflict and yet view it through very different lenses.

Big 3 for '08...

I know it's been ages since my last post but i make no apologies for that as i had an incredibly busy run up to Christmas and then an extremely relaxing 2 weeks off! Just back to work last week and as i think about the year ahead there are 3 big things that are going to be a major focus in the upcoming months.

Firstly, i will be leading a team of 10 to Kenya in July for 2 weeks. The team is made up of 7 young men aged 17-19 from the local community who are regular attenders of the Basement of Cafe Rigmarole. Myself and 2 other leaders make up an all male team! We will be traveling to help the work of Stephen and Angelina Cowan and their family in Tuum, N. Kenya. We will be involved in building work at the local secondary school as well as getting plenty of time to engage with the local people there and learn from their culture. I am extremely excited about this opportunity which will be my first experience of Africa and i know that the lives of everyone on the team will be changed as a result.

Obviously with the recent unrest in Kenya we have some concerns about the team's future but it is too early to make that decision yet. Please pray for Kenya and it's people at that this time. Pray that the value of human life will become real in people's hearts and that a peaceful resolution will be found.

I am also extremely excited that we will be running an Exodus discipleship programme with some of our young Christians from 20:20. This will include a 16 week discipleship programme that will finish with a 2 week long overseas mission trip to Romania in late July. This team will be led by 2 very capable leaders from 20:20 and i will be taking a supervisory role. We had a leaders training day yesterday and i was so impressed by the organisation and quality of resources provided by Exodus. A fantastic help for leaders.

The team members for this team are currently making applications but we would expect the team size to be around 16. They will range in age from 16-21 and for many of them this will be their first overseas mission opportunity. I am excited because i believe that the course beforehand and challenges and responsibilities they will face in Romania will grow them in their faith! This i believe will have a massive ripple effects in 20:20, our church and into their schools and universities!

The third Big Thing for this year will be the acquisition of the Village Inn pub in Waringstown as a youth and community facility. I am led to believe that we should acquire the premises very soon which is incredibly exciting! This will require the mobilisation of a small army of people to get the place ready for ministry within the local community. Maybe you are someone who could join that army? Have you practical skills to offer or time on your hands? If so get in touch with me and i'll keep you informed.

So as you can see, the run up to the summer and the summer itself are already looking busier than ever but incredibly exciting because it is Kingdom building work that God promises will reap eternal rewards!

10th Birthday...

It was 10 years ago on Saturday 6th December 1997 that i gave my life to God. I remember it very well, and some of you probably remember it too! It happened at Mannafest at the Ulster Hall. Sadly, my memory isn't good enough to remember the name of the guy who was speaking that night but i remember he was particularly talking to people who believed in God but had not received him into their life. That was exactly what i needed to hear as God had been messing with my head for about 2 months. Prior to that i didn't even believe in God!

From that moment on everything changed for me. It's hard to imagine what my life would have been like if i had never become a Christian. I reckon i would probably have pursued a career in Accounting or Finance because that's what i thought i wanted to do at that stage.

My faith gave me an understanding of what life was really all about - a new perspective and purpose that gradually changed my goals, dreams and desires. It has been an amazing journey over the last decade with lots of highs and lows but never once have i ever had any serious doubts or regrets about living for God. I have gotten to know God better in this time and yet i still know i have only scratched the surface of who He is. Here are just a few truths that i have collected and stored along the journey:

• I am not always faithful but God is always faithful.
• There are times when i feel incredibly far away from God and yet those are the experiences that have lifted my faith to an entirely new level.
• Without strong Christian friends i would have given up on faith long ago. Thank-you.
  
• God is incredibly patient with me and constantly reminds me that He is not finished with me yet.
• Sadly there are lots of Christians who give God a bad name.
• God is interested in making disciples not just saving people.
• I am convinced that nothing else can provide the peace and fulfillment that God brings in a life.
  

As for the next decade? Who knows? I'm really happy with life at the moment. I love my job at WPC and can certainly see me sticking around for a few years yet. God is stirring many dreams within me for the local area that i long to see becoming reality. Family and friends are both very important to me in providing constant support and encouragement. What more could a young, single but eligible bloke want! ;-)

Have a little patience...

This term in 20:20 we have been looking at the Fruit of the Spirit. Last week was 'Patience' and our in-house drama team decided to put together this little sketch representing one common situation they get really annoyed with - parents! It's really funny so i hope you enjoy it. I think they are amazing and i believe the next episode has already been filmed and is being edited as we speak. I am led to believe that it is even funnier so watch this space!

Maybe you find yourself being impatient? What are some of the things you get impatient about? Here are my top 8, in no particular order:

1. People who want to try and talk to me when I am watching a movie or TV show like 24/prison break.
2. Strangers who stand too close to me in queues.
3. Bank queues that move really slow.
4. Messiness.
5. Really slow drivers.
6. When my PC breaks down.
7. Family – much less patience for family than non-family.
8. Technical Helplines where they don’t understand me and I don’t understand them.

Here are just a couple of thoughts and quotes on patience i shared last week.

Our prayer is not ‘Lord, take away all the things that drive me crazy’. No, God wants us to grow in patience through our troubles. Thomas a Kempis wrote:

‘Patience is necessary in this life because so much of life is fraught with adversity. No matter how hard we try, our lives will never be without strife and grief. Thus, we should not strive for peace that is without temptation, or for a life that never feels adversity. Peace is not found by escaping temptations, but by being tried by them. We will have discovered peace when we have been tried and come through the trial of temptation.’

Finally, another fantastic quote about patience i found in Wikipedia:

"Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith." Adel Bestavros

We'll support you evermore...

Got back from Gran Canaria at about 7.30pm tonight! Just 12 hours traveling to get home, compared to 18 hours on the way there - nightmare! It was a really fun trip even though we didn't qualify. As always, the Norn Iron fans just sang all the way there and back. Below is a couple of videos i took to prove it! The first is on a public bus on the way to the match - it was hilarious! The second is after the match finished and the team gathered to applaud the fans.

It was 29 degrees in Las Palmas and i think i am struggling to re-acclimatise to the harsh N. Ireland temperatures!

We're all off to sunny Spain...

...Viva Espana. So i was there on Saturday night to witness an awesome victory over the Danes. Nearly wet my pants when Healy scored the winner - what a goal! If you didn't see it then you can watch it in the clip below. It's actually a really funny clip to watch as you hear the co-commentator on BBCni laughing the whole way through!

It's great news for N. Ireland fans as it leaves us with a ray of hope that we can still qualify for the European Championships next year. So myself and a few mates are jumping on a plane (actually, make that several planes) bound for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria for the big showdown on Wednesday night with Spain. Direct flights to Las Palmas where ridiculously over-priced because of the match so we are taking the scenic route of Dublin-London-Madrid-Las Palmas! Sure it's only taking us about 12 hours to get there (and the same home!)! It'll be my first away game for N. Ireland and what a showcase to go to!!!

Anyways, i'm leaving at 5.45am so i'd better sign off, do some packing, and get to my bed!

MAD 9...

Just Back from MAD 9! For those of you out of the PCI loop (like me until i started this job!), the MAD weekend is a youth weekend for 11-17's run by the PCI Youth and Children's Dept and this was the 9th year of it. The weekend is held at University of Ulster, Coleraine and the 800 young people that go each year sleep in local church halls. This was my first MAD experience and we decided to take our Fusion age (11-14) to it. 19 of us went including leaders and it was an excellent weekend all round - the young people had a ball! It was great fun for them and on top of that i believe they all experienced God and got to know Him a bit better.

I was so encouraged over the weekend to see our young people really engage with the God stuff. Andy Flannagan was leading the worship and did a fantastic job in getting the young people excited about worshiping God. It was loud and high energy and our guys loved it! Mark Oestricher from Youth Specialties was the speaker and he was excellent. With our guys being very young i wasn't expecting them to enjoy the talks too much but they loved Marko because he was dynamic, funny, had good stories, had a simple message and he never spoke for longer than 20 mins. The theme for the weekend was 'One Life' and all of our young people were challenged in some way about their relationship with God and making the most of their lives.

Our young people really amazed me over the weekend! I think because i had no interest in God until i was 17, i have little expectations of their interest in God or faith until they get a little older. God really challenged me about this over MAD 9 and not just because the young people loved the worship and teaching. On the Friday night as i was getting ready for bed (at 2.30am might i add!), one of our youngest guys was using his mobile phone as a torch to read his Bible! Speaking to him the next day i found out he tries to do this most days, usually in the mornings! Also, at the very end myself and the other male leaders got all our boys together to have a time of prayer. Again, i wouldn't have been surprised if none of them had prayed but every single one of them prayed, and they prayed really personal prayers to their personal God - it was awesome!

One of my favourite verses is 1 Tim 4:12 as it informs us to 'set an example in speech, life, love, faith and purity'. I've been reminded this weekend by my own young people that there is a first half to this verse too:

12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Exciting news for the future...

Haven't blogged in a wee while, no real excuse for that except busyness! Got some exciting news to share though, although many of you will have already heard! I work with young people in the community who have no interest in church. This started about 18 months ago with detached youth work and then we progressed into the Basement of Cafe Rigmarole in December 2006. Since then we have been open 3 afternoons and 2 evenings per week. We have contact with 40 young people and have approximately 270 users each month, facilitated by a team of 6 volunteers and myself. However, the Basement is tiny which really restricts the amount of young people we can engage with and what we can offer them in terms of facilities.

So what do we do with them? The work is primarily relational - hanging out with the young people and getting to know them and what is going on in their lives. We also have engaged in group work and ran a Youth Alpha course which was a great success.

Has there been progress? Yes i believe there has been! There seems to be less evidence of anti-social behaviour in the village as supported by the Neighbourhood Watch and the PSNI. As leaders, we have seen HUGE changes in the young people over recent months. At times relationships have been very frustrating with young people showing little or no respect or appreciation towards leaders or the facility. However, recently that has certainly not been the case and we have seen a much more settled atmosphere in the Basement with significant progress in relationships. Through this ministry i have had the opportunity to talk to young people aboutmany of their struggles:

• struggles at home.
• struggles with a sick relative.
• struggles with their sexual activity.
• struggles about life being rubbish.
• struggles with whether God is real or not.
• struggles with a parent who has left home.
  

In all these conversations, myself and the rest of the leaders are able to give God answers.

So what about the FUTURE? Well that is the exciting news! We have been offered use of the Village Inn as a community facility for the next 2 years until it is ready for development. The VI is a huge facility and will allow us to do grow and expand the work with the young people as well as develop work with other people groups in the community.

My vision for the youth work in the community raises some challenging questions for the people in our church family:

• why not think bigger?
  
• why not contact with 80 young people?
• why not open 7 nights per week?
• why not a team of 30 volunteers?

It's not everyday that you are given a pub! God is doing something in this community and it's exciting to be part of it! In fact, at the moment i am struggling to keep up with what God is doing but it's a great place to be!

3 great fires...

I have had many great nights with people around a fire. It's something i absolutely love doing with friends or with groups of young people as i always find it a 'memory making moment'. As such, this has been a good week for me with 3 memorable fires. Let me share them with you...

As you know, i work with young people in the local community through a little drop-in centre in the village. These are primarily young people who do not go to church. One of these lads, aged 16 headed off to the army on Sunday so we a had a bit of a farewell night for him last Thursday round at my house. About 25 young people showed up and half a dozen leaders and we had lots of desserts to go round. I had got my hands on a firepit for the back garden so we were able to light a fire and sit round it. I had got a a little farewell gift which i presented and said a few words about how he would be missed but i would be thinking and praying for him. What happened next was amazing because everyone in the circle shared a few words of encouragement for their friend who was leaving. It was a lovely moment to listen to all these nice things being said to this guy, i could tell he was really moved and just didn't know what to say!

Then last saturday myself and 9 other youth ministry leaders from church headed up to Donegal for an overnight retreat. This had been programmed in for a while as i felt i really wanted to get away and have some quality time with leaders before we launched into another academic year. The purpose of the retreat was to build relationships amongst the leaders, to listen to God's call for us and the ministry for the year ahead, to think about our roles and to engage in some basic planning for the year ahead.

Of course we also had lots of time to just chill out and on the Saturday evening we ventured down to the beach and lit a wee fire and sat round it for a good few hours sharing stories and laughing a lot! I'm excited about our team of leaders and feel privileged and blessed by every one of them. There is a strong group there who give sooooo much to the young people week in and week out and they are deeply committed to it and love it - what more could you want from a group of leaders!

Much of the content for this retreat came from a book i read recently called 'Contemplative Youth Ministry' by Mark Yaconelli. The book is excellent and one of the areas of teaching he focuses on is how we can be 'present' with young people and increase our effectiveness in our relationships with young people. He highlights 5 keys:

1. Seeing - we need to see young people with the eyes of Jesus. Do young people feel noticed in our ministry?
2. Hearing - young people remember when they feel genuinely listened to by someone else.
   
3. Moved to Compassion - when we see young people with the eyes of Jesus and hear them with the ears of Jesus then we cannot be failed to be moved to compassion by the heart of Jesus.
   
4. Acts of kindness - the compassion we feel will move us to small acts of kindness that can bring so much healing to hurting young people.
   
5. Delight - we know we are genuinely called to youth ministry when we find ourselves being amazed by young people and therefore a sincere desire to spend time with them.
   

There is lots more in this book i could share here but i don't want to make this post so long you stop reading! Get the book if you are involved in youth ministry.

Tonight was the launch of our youth ministry programmes, Fusion and 20:20 for the academic year. We did this with a trip to Murlough Beach for a BBQ and, you guessed it, a bonfire! I booked a 57 seater bus last week and was confident we might have 50 young people there. By Wednesday we had 60 signed up and the final numbers for tonight including leaders was 80 people! A fantastic night had by all i believe. We had a bit of a 'moment' at the end of the evening around the fire, with everyone putting an arm round the person beside them as we prayed for the year ahead in Fusion and 20:20.

I'm excited for this year ahead! To see young people grow in faith and maturity is such a privilege and a gift that i am very thankful for!

Wild at Heart...

Recently i was at a meeting where this book by John Eldredge was given a very critical review. If you were there and have never read the book you are probably never going to read it. If like me, you were there and have read the book and found it excellent, then you were probably left feeling embarrassed.

I've been thinking about this a bit over the last few days and felt i had to have an outlet somewhere where i could review the book from my perspective to add a little more balance to the argument.

I have read this book probably about 3 times and have given countless copies away as gifts to other men. I have found it to be a great book to read with a few guys as it provokes a lot of positive discussion amongst men who are perhaps not that open and vulnerable but yet they are able to find some truths within the book that they can relate to at the deepest level of their own experience.

I found the book brought me to a greater level of understanding myself, why i am the way i am, and it often reassured me that i am normal! Eldredge spends a lot of time emphasising the importance of parental roles, especially that of a father, in child development and how this can impact our behaviour throughout our adult lives. Parents (or significant adults) have a massive role in affirming their children. Men and women each have a deep question that needs to be answered. How these questions are answered during growing up will affect them for the rest of their lives. The question for men and women is different.

The question for men is ‘Am I really a man? Have I got what it takes?’ A man’s strength, not just physical but also at soul level, is very important to him hence the desire for adventure, climbing trees, wrestling, etc. If this question is unanswered or answered negatively then it makes for weak men in adulthood who lack commitment in relationships and when the going gets tough, they up and leave. The question for young girls is ‘Am I lovely?’. A woman’s beauty is very important to her, not just physical beauty but also her heart. This explains the desire of young girls to dress up as a princess and look beautiful. If this question is not answered positively for a young girl then it can have devastating effects on her self-esteem throughout the rest of her life. Only parents or significant adults can properly answer these questions.

The book, as you would expect, also highlights some of the struggles that are exclusive to men and sets them within a useful context that helps you to understand why certain areas could be weaknesses for men. Eldredge emphasises that we all have a 'battle to fight' as we seek to be more like Christ and presents a helpful strategy for this.

The book of course has criticisms. Firstly, it is American written which presents obvious cultural differences that come through as Eldredge talks about his family life and experiences but i think the discerning reader can look beyond this and find value from his teaching. Secondly, if you are looking for a Bible Study of considerable theological depth then you will be disappointed. That said the book has Scriptural references throughout to support and communicate the views presented in the book.

Personally speaking, i would happily recommend this book to anyone (male or female). I would be interested to hear other opinions of the book in the comments section below to see what the general consensus is!

Youth Week 2007

Youth Week finished over a week ago but i think i'm still recovering! I showed this video of highlights on Sunday morning at church so i thought i would stick it up here too! It was a great week of fun activities with a fantastic group of young people! The video says it all!