Evangelism Teams 2023

Each year the College students split up in to teams and partner with a local church to help them for a week with outreach and evangelism. This year our students went to Castlederg, Coleraine, Keady and Tobermore. Last week we heard from the Coleraine and Keady team and this week we hear from the Castlederg and Tobermore teams.  

Castlederg Evangelism Team

by Ana Rut

Evangelism week was a time filled with wonderful opportunities to share the gospel to different people through different activities and events. We had the opportunity to go to Castlederg Baptist Church and spend a week serving alongside the church, the pastor and his family: Jude, Zara, Micah, Noah and Isaac Colhoun.

We started on Saturday with the youth club. It was the first time since Covid that this event took place. We had the blessing of having around 20 kids and Andrew Gray shared from Colossians 2. We had the opportunity to lead the morning service on Sunday where each of the team members participated in different areas. Reuben Russell preached on Mark 5:1-20 and Andrew presented the kids talk, meanwhile Valerie helped in Sunday School that morning. After the service we had a fellowship lunch at the church where we were able to get to know people at church and see how welcoming they were, after which Josh Porter went to Parkview nursing home with some members of the church. That evening we had a praise service where we had the opportunity to listen to people from the church and the team explain the story behind different hymns or share what the hymns meant to them.

On Monday and Tuesday morning we visited different schools to take the RE lessons. Our theme was ‘the Bible’ which can be a little bit complicated because of how much it covers, but during that time we discussed three questions, ‘what is the Bible?’, ‘who wrote the Bible?’ and ‘what does the Bible say?’, after which we had the opportunity to share the gospel. We also took the SU in different schools; we talked about being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) and what it means for us. We also took an assembly in Edwards Primary School where Andrew shared on how the Bible is all about Jesus. We are thankful for the freedom we had to share the gospel openly and clearly and for those kids who were able to hear it, please pray for those who heard the gospel for the first time and for the teachers who were also present there.

During this week we saw the love that the church in Castlederg has for the local members of the community who have never heard the gospel. We saw it reflected in how involved they were in the outreach activities that took place throughout the week. We had the opportunity to go to into the neighbourhoods to share literature and talk with those who answered the doors alongside members of the church. With Halloween approaching, we had a light party at the church where children from both the church and the town came along. We sang songs and did crafts with them, but we also heard about Jesus being the light of the world (John 8:12).

On Wednesday we had a quiz night, which Olly Roebuck (pastor of Richill Park Baptist Church) hosted, and we also heard an epilogue from Valerie on John 3:16. All these activities gave us great opportunities to talk with people from the community, to invite them and encourage them to come to the different events and discover more about Christianity and our great Saviour.

On our last day we had a stall at an apple fair in Castlederg. We offered cups of fruit with chocolate and literature and had the opportunity to strike up conversations with some of those who came to the stall, and also around the fair itself. We finished the day with a testimony evening, it was wonderful to hear how God had transformed the lives and the hearts of those who shared, but also to see the hope and love that we find in Him.

We thank God for this week and for the church in Castlederg. It was an amazing opportunity to go serve during this time and to see Him working in the lives of those around us.

 

Tobermore Evangelism Team

By Thomas Harpur

The team arrived in Tobermore on Saturday evening and were introduced by the pastor, Alan Dundas, to our different hosts for the week, who made us feel very welcome and took us to their respective homes for dinner. After dinner the team met together at the church hall for Youth Club where Bryan gave his testimony to approximately 70 young people who listened intently.

Sunday was Tobermore Baptist’s Harvest service. Alan introduced the team to the congregation and interviewed our team leader Amos. Luke Keys the assistant pastor preached on God’s faithfulness reading from Psalm 100. Thomas led the evening service and Pastor Alan Dundas preached from Luke 16, The Rich Man and Lazarus.

Our main activity each day was helping James Robinson with The Amazing Journey at different primary schools. Nathanael, Bryan, and Amos took it in turns to dress up as Goliath, and Rebecca took on the role of Mary. We were also joined by different members of Tobermore Baptist Church. It was amazing to see the young people so engaged as they listened to the Bible stories and heard how awesome our God is.

We also did some door to door outreach covering the towns of Tobermore, Desertmartin and Draperstown, each town with differing church backgrounds and beliefs. Apart from a few ‘not interested’ comments, people were generally happy to receive the ‘Someone’s Knocking On Your Door’ tract which points the reader to God’s free gift of salvation.   

The team also had opportunity to speak at Magherafelt High School. Thomas spoke at the Tuesday morning junior assembly, highlighting the biblical view of God, Jesus, and Heaven, while Amos spoke to both the junior and senior SU at their respective lunchtime meetings, speaking on the account of Jesus calming the storm. It was Rebecca’s turn to speak to the High School’s senior assembly on Thursday morning where she spoke from the book of Ruth.

We also had opportunities throughout the week to speak at different events. Rebecca was interviewed by Emily Keys on Monday evening at the ladies meeting where the team enjoyed a beautiful supper provided by the ladies. On Tuesday evening Nathanael gave an epilogue to the different BB sections and on Wednesday evening the team was interviewed by pastor Alan Dundas at the midweek meeting, where we gave some background to our respective churches and our involvement in them.

Thursday evening was the turn of the GB and Rebecca spoke on Psalm 1, living righteously with God, while Bryan gave his testimony at the men’s outreach event, which also included food!

The week ended on Friday evening with the Kid’s Club for primary school children. Rebecca spoke at this and there was also a quiz. The evening was rounded off with the Youth Fellowship where assistant pastor Luke Keys gave a short epilogue.

The evangelism team to Tobermore had a thoroughly enjoyable week as we spread the good news of the gospel, whilst enjoying fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Tobermore Baptist Church who certainly made the team feel very welcome.