Nigel Woods, Team Leader writes...

While reading a little booklet once, a sentence at the bottom of the page stood out, it said, “WANTED Messengers to deliver the good news.”    This was what God wanted the Lay Witness Team to do for Him at Glenburn - to be messengers.

GLENBURN TEAM

Mark Liddicot, Ian Richardson, Anne Watson, Adam Pearson, Nigel Woods, Gary  Keenan

Lorna Douglas, Karen McIlveen, Valerie Keenan, Judith Woods, Merlene Woods, Jacqui Galbraithe

Wesley and Margaret Sterling, Frances McKinney

 As we talked with the local co-ordinator in Glenburn, Lorna and I became aware that the message for the week-end was to challenge folk, many of who were full of good intentions but never got any further, to fully commit their lives to Jesus Christ.

God really does know our needs and as we prayed, He met them by giving us His anointed servants as team members.    During the week-end each member had a story to tell that touched lives in the congregation, and it was amazing to hear team members tell of blessed times of ministry with people who attended the various meetings.

In the Coffee-Morning groups we met folk who ‘intended’ to walk closer with God.

At the Sunday morning service I used an illustration entitled, “A vase full of good intentions”, where the character, from the Peanuts cartoon, Marcia, brings a bunch of flowers to her teacher.  Seeing this and not wanting to be outdone, Peppermint Paddy thinks to himself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” and then says to his teacher, “Would a vase full of good intentions do?”

We talked and prayed with people who decided to recommit their lives to Jesus Christ and with others who committed their lives to Him for the first time.

As we left on Sunday afternoon, we were aware that some of the Glenburn folk were a little disappointed that more people hadn’t come to faith in Christ.    I assured them that the work would be ongoing, that God’s love is persistent but never pushy, and as I write this report how wonderful it is to be able to tell that another person has come to Christ for salvation as a result of the Lay Witness Weekend.    Praise God, may He continue to do great things in Glenburn Methodist Church.  Amen.

Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it.”

David Rodgers, Local Co-ordinator, writes...

Six months earlier the Church council had decided to host a Lay Witness Weekend and I was asked to coordinate the home team.

In those six months the Church had an unexpected change of minister; we said good-bye to one minister and his family, and welcomed the new man to the manse.

The home team came together very well and the folks, once given their areas of responsibility, headed off and pulled others in to help. This made my job very easy.

I enjoyed working with Nigel and the Lay Witness team and I would like to thank him for including me in the preparation meetings held in the church.

When you are involved in running anything in a Church, you do wonder will any one turn up, and as the Friday was coming closer, not many had returned reply slips for the meals. In Glenburn we have a group of ladies who don’t panic about this and they decided to cater for 100.  That covered the people who turned up on both nights.  They had more faith than me.

I asked Nigel sometime before if he could include in his team people that would talk with children and teenagers, which I believe is a new departure for Lay Witness. I have 2 teenagers and the feed back from them was very positive. So were the encouraging comments from the parents of the younger children. Perhaps this is an area that Lay Witness could consider for the future.

On the Sunday morning, two of the young people gave their lives to the Lord and on the Sunday evening one of them started the service off by sharing what the weekend meant to him.

It was a pleasure to listen to each of the team members share with us what the Lord had done and was doing in their lives. Nigel had said to me many times he felt that Glenburn was a work in progress - people had issues that needed to be dealt with and God was dealing with those issues and the week end would help. I was expecting to see a major outpouring of the Holy Spirit over the weekend in such away that every one in Glenburn would have no doubt that God was in the Church. This did not happen in this way and I was disappointed in God.  However as I write this 4 weeks after the weekend, the insight that God had given Nigel regarding a work in progress is happening.  Alan Wardlow has stated people are asking questions and several weeks after the weekend,  Alan lead a member of the congregation to the Lord.

Glenburn is a work in progress. God in his time, not ours, is working in our Church, so once again thank you to Nigel and the team and to the Lay Witness Movement. Keep up the good work!