Northwest News!

I wanted to just give a quick update of what happened on Sunday at our church.  We had a good time together of fellowship and growing in our knowledge of and commitment to the Word of God.  In Sunday School, we went over our Discipleship Lesson on Baptism.  In the morning service, I preached on “Who Is The Antichrist” from 2 Thessalonians 2.  In the evening, we looked at The Church’s leaders from 1 Timothy 3.

The Lord gave us 18 in Discipleship Classes, 26 in the morning service, and 17 in the evening service.  Our average attendance on Sunday mornings for the month of April was 28.5, which is up from 24 in March.  Our average attendance on Sunday evenings for April was 22, which is up from 17 in March.  God is very good!  I am excited about all that He is going to do in the future.  We are working on some new tracts, we have a great conference coming up next month, and we are going to be officially organising our church with our first members on 25 May!  I am looking forward to all of it.

We started the day with walking some of the steepest hills in Derry/Londonderry.  We put tracts and invitations through the letterboxes of 260 houses today.  Thank you, David, Teri and Victoria for your help this morning.

In the afternoon, we did a sponsored charity car wash to raise funds for our mission trip to Bury, England.  We started around 1.30 PM and quit at about 6.00 PM.  I think we washed about 20 cars and made £100! 

Mark, David, Kyle, Lorraine, Sophie, and Victoria - thank you so much for all your hard work.  We had an absolute blast!  The Lord blessed with great weather.  The hotel we meet in was very generous to let us use their car park, water, and electricity.  Many people gave generously.  We will do more fund-raisers in the next couple of months, so stay tuned for how you can help.

One thing about it, a day like today will show you how out of shape you are.  I am “shattered”.  I am looking forward to the services tomorrow as we look at “Baptism” in Discipleship class at 10.30 AM, “Who is the Antichrist?” at 11.30 AM, and “The Church and Its Members” from 1 Timothy 3 at 7.00 PM.

Again, thank you very much for your help and prayers today.  I praise God for the praying and hard working church we have.

Here is a reminder of some things that are coming up in the life of our church:

Sponsored Car Wash - Tomorrow, 26 April, 2-4 PM

• Location: Everglades Hotel Car Park (Prehen Rd, Bt47 2NH)
• Purpose: Raise fund to send a mission team from our church to Bury, England to help Bible Baptist Church  with their holiday Bible club.
• How Can You Help: Bring any equipment (buckets, sponges, hoses, old towels), two hands, and a willing heart to help us wash cars for a couple of hours.
• We will try to get there at about 1.15 PM to set up and start early!

Sunday, 4 May - All Meetings at Broomhill Hotel

• The Everglades Hotel is not available for us on Sunday, 4 May, so all our meetings will be at the Broomhill Hotel on the Limavady Rd.

Friday, 9 May, 7.00 - 9.00 PM - Youth Canoeing Activity

• Location: Creggan Country Park
• Cost: 8 pounds/person
• Lifts are available from the church office at 6.15 PM and we will be home by 9.00 PM.

Saturday, 17 May, 1-6 PM - New Members Class

• Location: Snodes’ House (10 Pelham Rd, Knightsbridge)
• Purpose: To talk about the importance, privileges, and responsibilities of being a church member.
• For Whom:  All those interested in becoming or learning more about becoming a church member.

Sunday, 18 May - Community Appreciation Day

• Location: Everglades Hotel
• Honouring those members of our community who serve us every day such as the police, fire, health workers, postal workers, politicians, etc.
• A special gift and thank you for each community servant in attendance.

Wednesday - Sunday, 21-25 - Bible & Local Church Conference

• Guest Preacher: Austin Gardner
• Services: Wed - Sun at 7.30 PM; Sunday 11.30 AM & 7.00 PM
• Training Sessions: Thur - Fri (10.30 AM - 1.00 PM)
  • Training local church workers in evangelism, discipleship, missions and Christian growth.

Our friend that we have been praying for received a good report yesterday about the tumor in his lung.  Thank you for keeping him in your prayers.  Here is what he wrote on his blog last night.

I just got back from the lung specialist (Pulmonologist) and have some news. The tumor that I have in my right lung is called a Carcinoid Tumor and it is benign. That’s great news. So I won’t be dying from this problem but we are going to have to take care of it. The Pulmonologist has been treating lungs for 25 years and has only seen this in two other occasions. The tumor has been growing in my right bronchial tube over the last year. It has caused my right lung to fill up with blood. They have removed some of the blood and are going to have to wait for the rest of the blood to be absorbed into lung before they can remove the tumor with a laser. That is what we are hoping anyway. I will hear back from the doctor tomorrow. She has told me that I won’t be able to travel back to North Africa for a couple months until they can get this tumor removed. So I am praying for the quickest possible solution. So we can praise the Lord that it is nothing malignant. 

I don’t have much of an update on Aaron today.  I did call Mark Coffey who is up with him in Ohio at the moment to find out how they are doing.  They do not know anything further today, but they should find out something tomorrow.  Please continue to be in prayer.

This will primarily be a notice for people who live in the States.  Our sending church, Vision Baptist Church, is hosting the 4th Pastor’s Conference for World Evangelism on Monday- Wednesday, May 5-7.  I believe the conference will be a big blessing to challenge and equip you to lead your church to be a world evangelism church.  My pastor has tons of experience of working in and leading others to get involved in world evangelism.  I know that he and the speakers will be a big blessing to you.  The cost is Free! Find out more details here.

The Lord blessed in a great way today on our Friend Day and our BBQ at the Park.  We had a great crowd with 43 in attendance and 5 first-time visitors.  The weather was wonderful for the BBQ and everyone had a great time and good food.

After the morning and afternoon service, ten of us went up to Glengormley to be a part of Steve and April Baker’s  departure service.  It was a real long day and i am absolutely “shattered” as they say here, but I must say that I enjoyed it with all of my heart.  It was a really good day for our church, and I am looking forward to what God is going to do.

Thanks for praying.  Thanks to David for his hard work with the music and the cooking.  Thanks to Rodney and Christine for bringing the tent for shelter.  Thanks to all the ladies for the good food.  Thanks to Jonathon and David for tearing down the equipment at the church.  Thanks for coming and bringing your friends.  Last but not least, thank the Lord for His continued blessings on us.

We had a good day today.  We passed out about 150 flyers, then we had our greeter training day at the office.  Four folks came to the training session.  I am excited about our greeter ministry, and I want our church to be the friendliest church you will find.

God willing, we will have good weather for tomorrow.  We start at 10.30 AM for discipleship classes for all ages.  All are welcome to join us for these classes.  We are covering the basics of the Christian life.  Then at 11.30 AM, we have morning service.

After the service, we will take off for Ness Woods, which is about 6 miles out of town on the Dungiven Road.  We will have a BBQ, a time of games and fun, followed by some music and a message. 

In the evening, a gang of us are planning to drive up to Glengormley to hear Stephen Baker preach at Faith Baptist Church.  This is their last service before they leave to go back to the States for a little while.

I am looking forward to the day and to spending time with you all tomorrow.  It is going to be loads of fun!

Bro. Smith is a missionary pastor in Cork.  His daughter had surgery today for a cyst on her brain.  Please pray for her as she is recovering.  She is in alot of pain, quite nauseated, and running a fever.