It began with a phone call earlier this year. ‘Tom, we would like you to think and pray about leading a Lay Witness team to Knockbreda in November.’

 Past experience has convinced me to trust the leading of the Lay Witness Steering Group, so I readily agreed to let my name go forward to the Knockbreda leaders.

 Very shortly after that a second phone call came from the Rev Greg Alexander extending the formal invitation to bring a team to his congregation.

 The emotions experienced in bringing a team together are wide ranging: amazement, anxiety, frustration and excitement and yet the Holy Spirit never disappoints. There were two meetings arranged for the team to meet and get to know each other; one in September and one in October. At neither of these meetings was it possible to have the whole team together, yet when we did eventually all meet each other for the first time on the Friday evening of the weekend, it was wonderful how, through the Holy Spirit, we felt a wonderful unity in the Lord.

 Out of the team of ten, one was designated to work with the children in meetings held simultaneously with the main meetings. For four of the remaining nine, it was their first experience of serving on a Lay Witness Team. This is quite a high ratio of ‘first timers’, but the team quickly gelled together and the gifts each brought helped enormously over the weekend, particularly the leading in praise by Alan Hutchinson at both the team get-togethers and the evening meetings and Sunday morning service.

 The smooth running of the weekend showed that the local organising committee under the very able leadership of John Ferguson had done its work extremely well. All the meals and the Saturday Coffee Mornings ran without any hitch and more importantly, the amount of prayer support generated for the weekend was already bearing fruit before the weekend began. All the meetings and Sunday services took place in the Church halls and there was a wonderful sense of fellowship right from the beginning of the weekend. After each meeting, there were members of the congregation who sought out a team member, in order to talk to them and in most cases to receive prayer.

 Congregation and team alike received the blessings poured out.

 It was very heartening to hear afterwards how many had been blessed and challenged by the testimonies of the team.

 As is the case after all such weekends, the responsibility remains with the minister and his leaders to respond to the challenges God has laid before them.

Tom Wilson – Team Leader