Castle Erin Weekend
Annual Conference
19th
to 21st March 2004
Over fifty people, both residents and visitors attended the annual Lay
Witness Movement conference in Portrush from 19-21 March 2004.
The accommodation and food were good, but after our first session with
the speaker, Pastor Val English, we soon realised that they were of
secondary importance to the Spiritual food Val was serving up. He took as
his theme, 'Tough Times …. Great God!' and looked at it from five
viewpoints: in the World, in the Warfare, in the Witness, in the Word and
in the Worship.
For 'In the World', Val looked at Psalm 142, written by David whilst in
a cave. We were reminded that although we all have experienced being in
the cave, we are also in God; that he is our refuge and that we are to
move to the mouth of the cave and view new and wider horizons.
Psalm 20 was used to expound the theme, 'In the Warfare'. This was a
battle hymn David encouraged his soldiers to sing prior to engaging the
enemy. It is also a prayer, and in a typically apt aside from Val, he
quoted Tozer: The hardest thing is to get people to come to a meeting
where God is the only attraction. i.e our churches' prayer meetings. In
warfare God wants us to develop a sense of praise and thanksgiving and to
rejoice. We are to raise our banner - the Cross- and trust in the name of
our God.
Philip the evangelist (Acts 8:26-40) was used in the third session to
draw out five principles of witnessing; diligence, obedience, guidance,
exuberance and continuance. During this session we heard brief reports of
the missions to Drimoleague in August 2003 and to Hamilton Road, Bangor a
week ago.
For the last two sessions Val went back to the Psalms. Psalm 32,
particularly verses 8 - 11, were used for 'In the Word'. It is the Word
that lets us see how great God is in the tough times. These verses give us
a path to follow, the pitfalls to face and the provisions to find.
'In the Worship' drew on Psalm 107. We were reminded that everything we
think and do in life should be our worship to God. Once again using
alliteration, when focusing on the sailors in verses 23 - 32, Val drew out
their delight, their dilemma and their deliverance.
Tapes of the 5 sessions (priced at £5 including P&P) are available
for a brief period from: allen@laywitnessireland.org
 We
are so grateful to Karen Orr and her accompanists, Edwin on the Friday
night and Judith for the rest of the weekend, for leading us all in
praise. We were all blessed by them and their valuable contribution helped
to make the conference truly memorable.
At the conclusion of the Sunday morning session, special prayers were
said for those present (and also not present) who were going on a Weekend
Mission to Limavady in May.
Next year's conference is planned for 18th-20th March 2005, in the
Glenada Holiday and Conference Centre, Newcastle, Co. Down.
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