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THE REVEREND TREVOR MORROW OPENED THE SERVICE BY CALLING ALL THE CHILDREN FORWARD AND ASKING THEM WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES. HE THEN TOLD THEM THAT THEIR NAMES ARE IMPORTANT SINCE THIS IS HOW SOME PEOPLE RECOGNISE YOU, NOT ALWAYS BY YOUR LOOKS BUT BY YOUR NAME. TREVOR THEN READ FROM 2 CHAPTERS IN THE BIBLE “ISAIAH CHAPTER 43 VS 1-4” & “JOHN CHAPTER 10 VS 1-8”. IN THE READING FROM ISAIAH GOD ASSURES THE ISRAELITES THAT THEY WILL ALWAYS BE GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE AND HE WILL PROTECT THEM EVEN TO THE END OF THE EARTH. IN JOHN’S READING JESUS EMPHASIS, TO HIS FOLLOWERS AND, HE ALSO TELLS THE PHARISEES THAT HE IS THE GATEKEEPER, AND ANYONE WHO DOES NOT ENTER BY THE GATE, BUT CLIMBS OVER THE FENCE IS A THIEF OR A ROBBER. THE ONE WHO ENTERS THE GATE IS THE TRUE GATEKEEPER AND WHEN HE CALLS HIS SHEEP THEY WILL FOLLOW HIM. THEY WILL NOT FOLLOW ANYONE WHO THEY DO NOT RECOGNISE HIS VOICE. TREVOR SHOWED US A FILM CLIP ABOUT A FARMER (SHEPHERD) WHO GOES INTO THE HILLS AND CALLS HIS SHEEP. BECAUSE THERE WAS A THICK MIST OVER THE VALLEY, THE SHEEP COULD NOT BE SEEN, SO OF COURSE THEY COULDN’T SEE THE FARMER. SO HE CUPS HIS HANDS, INTO A FUNNEL, AND CALLS THE SHEEP BY THEIR INDIVIDUAL NAMES, UNTIL THEY ALL COME TO HIM. HE THEN FEEDS THEM AND TAKES THEM BACK TO THE FARM SO THAT THEY WILL BE PROTECTED FROM WILD ANIMALS. HE EVEN LIES IN FRONT OF THE WOODEN GATE SO THAT IF THE SHEEP WANT TO GO OUTSIDE OR COME BACK INSIDE, HE WILL OPEN THE GATE FOR THEM AND MAKE SURE THAT THEY RETURN TO THE SAFETY OF THE ENCLOSED BARN. SOMETIMES WHEN SHEEP FROM DIFFERENT FLOCK ALL GATHER TOGETHER AT A WATERING TROUGH, AND THE SHEPHERD DECIDES IT IS TIME TO GO, HE WILL EITHER CALL HIS SHEEP BY NAME OR A WHISTLE, WHICH THEY RECOGNISE, AND ONLY HIS SHEEP WILL FOLLOW HIM. YOU MIGHT NEVER SEE JESUS BUT YOU KNOW HIM BY HIS NAME, BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY IS THAT JESUS KNOWS EACH OF US AND CALLS US BY OUR NAME, TO BE HIS DISCIPLES. HE WILL KEEP CALLING UNTIL HE GET ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO FOLLOW HIM AND THEN, HE WILL LOVE AND PROTECT THEM FROM ALL DANGERS. IN FACT JESUS TELLS HIS AUDIENCE THAT THE SHEPHERD IS EVEN WILLING TO DIE TO PROTECT HIS SHEEP WHEREAS A “PAID HAND” WOULD RUN AWAY IF HE FELT HIS LIFE WAS IN DANGER.
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The Service was by Rev Terry Price The service was opened by Emily with announcements and she then handed over to Terry. Terry said how glad he was to be "Home"after his holiday to Wales. He received a round of applause for that as he is much loved by the congregation. He then mentioned that he had brought along his "doggie bag"and started off by asking what he had chatted about previously... to which the answer was "The RNLI and their efforts to help those in the sea needing saving". Terry also said he had forgotten to give out some pencils with a lifeboat on then and proceeded to hand them to all the children gathered in the front rows of the church. Terry also produced a flag....from Wales which he showed to the congregation. Terry also asked if anyone could remember the question he had at his previous sermon about the message on a picture. He reminded us that it was asking "Who does Jesus love ? "and he had then turned over the picture to reveal a mirror so that everyone could see themselves in the mirror and be reminded that it was each and every one that Jesus loved. Terry then gave the sermon which was from Ephesians 4: 1 - 8 Terry also showed a picture of a three leaf clover and said that St Patrick had showed that as being the trinity with the top leaf being God and the lower two being Jesus and The Holy Spirit but all together in one. Terry reminded us that it was Pentecost and that that was the time when the holy spirit had descended to the disciples and other followers of Jesus on the seventh Sunday after Easter. Thanks to Lesley for the music and to Jamie for doing the sound and picture presentation and to Trevor and Elaine and also everyone who contributes in the background to make our church so special.  Service was by Gary Nesbitt The service was opened by Gary McDowell who announced that the application for a new minister had been successful and that the process could now go to the submission of applications for which the information is on the website on the GET INFORMATION page. Emily then followed with this weeks announcements. The service then began with Gary Nesbitt chatting to the children about his experiences in Australia from which he showed some slides of himself in Sydney. Pauline did the reading from Haggai  Gary then went on to discuss how we should do what was not done in the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem where we rather pursued our own personal goals in preference to the goals of God to rebuild his temple. Gary then led the congregation in a hymn "Jesus loves Me" with actions to suit the words. Thereafter made an appeal to place Gods work first and expanded on the work being done by the United appeal which is a PCI initiative supporting the training of new ministers, facilitating child, youth and student ministries, and supporting local and overseas missions. It helps advance Gods Kingdom sharing God's love in action to hundreds of thousands of people. Envelopes are available for donations and should be marked accordingly and placed in the collection plate during June. We have the profile document for the new minister available here. Should you know of someone who may wish to have the information please forward the document to them. Download the document HERE If more information is required, please get in touch with the convener of the vacancy commission Gary Mc Dowell on 0858714786  Great News today !
 Today's service was by Rev Jim Carson  The service was opened by Emily who then handed over to Jim He then asked Leslie Anne to join him and the lesson was to teach the children the ease at which lies could escalate and become part of our daily lives. They acted out a scenario where the teacher Mrs Knowitall gave the student , Dontwantto, a task to write out a one page lesson. She then left the classroom and Dontwantto decided that instead of doing the task he was given he would try and play the piano. On her return the teacher asked him if he had been playing the piano to which he answered "No" She then asked if he had done his work to which he answered "Yes". She looked in his book to discover that he had in fact done nothing. "Why do we tell lies ?" was the question that was posed to congregation. The answer given was "to get out of trouble" But is that the right thing to do ? Because then we begin telling more and more lies as part of our dail;y lives and eventually people will not trust us or be prepared to leave us alone to do things on our own. Also they will always question whether the things we say are true. But is this what God want of us ? Jim then proceeded with his sermon which was from Philippians 1: 1-8   The key things we should always keep foremost in our minds are That what we do is TRUE, NOBLE, PURE, LOVELY and ADMIRABLE.  Service was opened by Emily with announcements about the upcoming Session Meeting and also that the next meeting with Presbytery in Belfast. She also asked for everyone to pray for Kim, Dessy and anyone else that needed prayers. She then handed over to Aleida who opened in prayer and went on to produce a box of liquorise all sorts. She asked what the sweets were and also what they all had in common and how that was like us ? The answer was that they were all different and they all had one thing in common, that they all contained black. The black was then compared to the sin within each of us and we were told to be careful not to allow it to become too nice that we let it rule over our lives. Aleida then asked Rob to do the reading which was about the first sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After Robs reading Aleida continued with her sermon from Genesis 3 She mentioned that the word SIN had a letter either side and I was in the middle. This meant that everything revolved around your decisions on what to and not to do. She also mentioned how easily we could be overtaken by bad things, like the weeds in our now blooming garden beds that could easily take over the beds and control the garden. We need to constantly be removing all the "weeds" from our thinking and actions to grow strong in God's garden.   The Service today was by Rev Terry Price It was great to see Emily back at the front of the church opening today's service. Glad to see her and Brian back from their trip and also looking much better after both being so ill recently. Emily made the announcements and sent sympathies to Kim Lloyd with the passing of her mom in South Africa. We also were asked to pray for a speedy recovery for Dessie who is in hospital. Terry then took over the service and as usual presented his ..... now famous Doggie bag. Terry stated that today's bag was in fact a bag in a bag. He pulled out a bag which had the logo of the RNLI on it. He asked the children if they knew what the letters RNLI stood for ? He then told tham that it stood for the Royal Naval Lifeboat Institute and that they were the people who risked their lives to save anyone who needed help whilst in the sea and who ran into trouble. Terry went on to explain that yesterday there had a large launch service for the new rescue boat that had been purchased for the RNLI in Wicklow. He mentioned a figure of over two million Euros that cost to replace the new rescue boat. Terry showed them a minature model of what the new jet powered rescue boat looked like. He then gave each of the children a card with a picture of the lifeboats on it. Terry then told us all that he had a link between the lifeboats, the Walking from Darkness into Light and God. He then mentioned a walk that had taken place yesterday morning early called Walking from Darkness into Light where people from Wicklow walked in the early morning using torches and ended up looking at the rising morning sun as it rose in the East.  Terry then read from Colossians 1 - 14 He read how Jesus had given his life to bring us out of the darkness and into the eternal light. His life was valued far greater than lifeboats as was described in the reading that a man with everything he could ever want or own could not come close to the value that we have received from God when his son gave his life to allow us eternal light and to share in his Inheritance. Terry also told a story about a man in hospital who had a visit from a minister in the local church. He told us that the man was not a believer and when the minister entered, his daughter left the room to allow him to chat to the man in privacy. The minister spoke to the man and assured him that was qualified to go to heaven. The man burst into tears. Not knowing why the man was crying the minister summonsed his daughter into the room. She ask him what he had spoken to the man about and when he told her that he had said that he was qualified to go into Gods Kingdom the daughter also burst into tears as she explained that all of his life, the man had said that the most important thing to do in life was to make sure you were always suitably qualified before you began anything. The message was so appropriate and allowed the man to accept his Saviour and be given his qualification to got into the Light.   Who does God love ? Todays service was presented by Rev Terry Price. Aleida opened the service and extended all of the blessings and wishes for a safe recovery to Emily who has not been well recently. Terry produced his infamous doggie bag. The little folk in church went forward to see what he had in the bag. Terry pulled out a picture frame with a message attached to the back of it and read out the wording on the back. "Look at the other side to see who God loves " Terry then turned over the picture frame to reveal.... A mirror.  Terry then proceeded to walk arounf the church and show everyone in the church who God loved as they saw themselves in the mirror. Terry then led the congregation in a hymn   - 1-11 Corrinthians 15Terry then prayed for the Sunday Class for the small folk and they left the hall. Terry gave the service which was from Corinthians 15: 1-11   Terry told us of how Peter denied knowing Jesus, Thomas would not believe that Jesus was who he was claiming to be until he saw with his own eyes or touched the wounds that Jesus had and also how Mary Magdalene Was told of Jesus having risen from the dead and left his tomb to reappear to his disciples to let them know that he was risen and that they should continue the good work they had started. Terry reminded us that if Jesus had not died to save us and risen three days later then we had nothing to believe in, and that his death would then have been in vain. Thanks to Terry for the service, Jamie for the sound and visuals, Lesley for the music , Pauline for the flowers and Tea, Coffee and snacks and Aleida for the background administration. Please all pray for Emily and Brian as they prepare to go on their international trip to the USA and that they are both well in time to travel safely.  Easter Sunday - "He is Risen"Todays service was in celebration of the rising from the dead of Jesus The service started with Terry presenting his famous bag and inviting the little people to come forward and guess what was in the bag.... with a bunch of flowers popping out of the bag, everyone expected the first guess to be "flowers" but instead they chose chocolates as their choice....maybe Easter Eggs could have had something to do with it ! Terry put his hand into the bag and pulled out a large Easter egg in a box. Expecting to have some description of what Easter Eggs were all about, there was a surprise announcement....It was the birthday of a long standing member of the church.... It was Dessie's birthday that day.... The entire congregation stood and sang "Happy Birthday" to him as he was presented with the chocolate egg.   Terry then asked what else was in the bag, and the children followed with "flowers". Terry pulled a bunch of flowers out of the bag and said that he wanted them to go to someone that works extremely hard for the church and who has not been well recently and unfortunately had again fallen foul of a virus and was not in church. That was Emily Kearon , our Clerk and senior elder. Terry presented the flowers to Brian and asked him to wish her well and send all of our love and prayers. Next guess on "What else is in the bag ?" got answers of "Easter eggs" to which Terry produced a bag of Easter Eggs and shared them among the young attendees ( with the permission of the parents - naturally ) . The message here was that it was a time to share a great message that "Jesus has risen and that He lives again to save us " Final question was "A Rock" as they peered into the bag. The significance of the Rock was that it had been a large rock that was rolled away from the front of the tomb where Jesus was buried in to reveal that Jesus had risen and had gone to His father. We sang a hymn called "He is Lord" . The children then left to go to Sunday class and Terry proceeded to the service which was from Matthew 28: 1-24 |
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June 2019
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