I was extremely happy to receive a phone call from Lisneal College, Londonderry, this morning, confirming that we are welcome to use their School Assembly Hall for one of the regional rallies in our 'Consider Christ' Campaign, on Friday, 25 September 2009.
This is an excellent venue, with very good facilities for parking. Lisneal College is the largest school ever constructed in the North West, occupying a 22-acre site on Crescent Link, Londonderry, and costing £12m. This state-of-the-art building was opened in September 2007 and caters for nearly 1000 pupils.
Photos of this venue may be accessed at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95933061204
No charge has been set for the hire of this venue; we are simply invited to make a donation to school funds.
We hope to be able to give further updates this week re other venues for the Regional Rallies.
The worst weather I can remember in the month of June for many a year arrived during our sub-Committee meeting in Magherafelt today. Even when we had concluded some lengthy discussions and were ready for a late lunch, no-one was volunteering to be the first to break rank and cover and race to the car!
By the time we were driving through Magherafelt town, the rain had been joined by thunder and lightning, then by a rapid shower of hailstones, turning the centre of the road white and flooding the sides of the road.
This reminds us of the phrase used by many to describe the work of God the Holy Spirit in revival blessing – a real "gully-washer."
In a spiritual sense, how our land needs this!
I plucked a very challenging sentence from a Blog tonight (written by 'Pastor Don'):
"We need to move revival off the emotion meter and place it on the commitment measuring stick. For so long, we have waited for God to send a gully-washer of a Holy Ghost visitation, thinking somehow He won't notice our lack of dedication and honour."
Please keep praying as we plan for our Evangelistic Outreach in the Autumn of this year. May God answer prayer by sending a "gully-washer of a Holy Ghost visitation"!
8 Billboards are already booked for Belfast during the advertising cycle (#19 in the business), 7-20 September 2009.We are now sifting through reams of data, assisted by a few pictures, in an effort to secure other billboard sites that will carry our Campaign across the Province of Ulster.The intention is to book 2 billboards in each town where we plan to hold a Regional Rally:LondonderryArmaghEnniskillenBallymenaNewryLisburnDungannon.A further 20+ centres have been selected as potential locations for Billboards (These will be listed when confirmed. A meeting is booked with a representative of 'Decaux / CBS' Billboards for the middle of this week).
Another meeting of the sub-Committee that is organising the 'Doing Something More For God' Campaign took place this morning/afternoon in Magherafelt FPC.
Each member of the sub-Committee (Revs. Ormerod, Smith, McLaughlin and Brown) had been assigned the task of sourcing and booking appropriate venues for our 8 Regional Rallies that are planned for 25 September and 2 October.
September 25:
Belfast, Londonderry, Armagh, Enniskillen
October 2:
Ballymena, Newry, Lisburn, Dungannon
We have been trying to book 'neutral' venues for each of the rallies, with our top preference being School Assembly Halls. It's rather amazing how much planning is necessary to secure just one venue. (Some schools operate under a PPI Initiative, which means that the final decision re the granting of a request to use a school after its regular opening hours comes from Scotland! Some schools are already booked; others have shown little or no enthusiasm to co-operate).
However, we remain positive, and were buoyed today by the confirmation of two locations as definite venues for our rallies:
• Ballymena North (Sports Complex), Cushendall Road, Ballymena;
• Drumglass High School, Dungannon.
At least one of these has come in at an astonishingly inexpensive price!!
News re others is expected this week.
Once again, without getting much room to manoeuvre, 'VisionSolutionsNI' came up with the goods. This allowed us to distribute Prayer Bookmarks at the Presbytery meeting on Friday, 5 June.
When placed in our Bibles, these will act as a useful reminder to earnestly pray each day @ 12 Noon for the blessing of the Lord on our Evangelistic Campaign.
Most of our churches are taking up offerings for the 'Doing Something More For God' Campaign during the month of June. We have printed envelopes to assist in this offering. These were distributed at Presbytery last Friday.
Part of the writing on the envelope is:
"I enclose my donation to help the DOING SOMETHING MORE FOR GOD Campaign – Our £100,000 Evangelistic Outreach to Take the Gospel to Every Home in Northern Ireland.
'And the LORD said unto him, 'What is that in thine hand?' ...' (Exodus 4:2)."
If you require any further supplies of these envelopes, please let us know.
Our campaign, 'Doing Something More For God,' is now on Facebook.
This should promote discussion – and encourage more to pray for the Lord's blessing on this Gospel Outreach.
You can catch up with us here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95933061204&ref=nf
