Dear Friends

Warmest greetings to you as we move into yet another year. In Deuteronomy 29:29 Moses is speaking some of his last words to the people of God as they are about to enter the Promised Land. He says “The secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever that we should follow all the words of this Law.” In other words, there are some things that remain secret to us as we go forward into another year and that is how God has ordained that it should be. We do not know what the future holds but we know the One who holds it in His hand and that is enough for us. On the other hand, there are things that God has revealed to us, particularly in His Word, and we are responsible for obeying and being true to that revelation. May you know the joy of walking ever closer to Him and may you find all sorts of new and exciting ways to be a lay witness in 2007.

The start of the year always provides us with the opportunity to contact you and keep you informed about the Lay Witness Movement. In the following pages you can read accounts of our missions last year in Mossley and Sydenham. Once again teams experienced the goodness and faithfulness of God as they went out in obedience and faith. It seems that every mission brings the reminder of the power that lies in the simple personal testimony to what Jesus means in a person’s life. The personal word, chosen and backed by prayer, can touch a person in a way that is unlike any other. Let us share one lovely story with you. At one of the missions, a group from the local Church of Ireland helped out in very practical way by coming to do the serving and washing up for the Friday evening meal so that the church people would not miss any of the programme. As a result of being around that evening one of the Church of Ireland people went home and gave her life to the Lord. Isn’t that just great! That is surely the sort of ecumenical cooperation that God honours!

We hope that you enjoy catching up with our news. Please do remember that the Movement depends on each of our supporters. We thank God for each of you who has prayed and encouraged us and taken part in our work. We marvel at the way in which God has always given us people of faith to stand with us and see the work of Lay Witness as part of their calling. We cannot always place you on a team but it would be so helpful to know who would be open to an invitation. Write to us; email us; lift the phone. It is always good to hear from you. Above all, please do plan to come to our annual conference in Glenada, Newcastle. There is no better way of keeping up with all that is happening in Lay Witness.

 Allen                          Errol              

Heather                         Norma

Tom

Website

The Lay Witness Movement website keeps our members and supporters up to date with details od coming events, areports and photographs of missions and past events. It also spreads news of what is happening in Lay Witness to a wider readership and provides an easy means of contacting the Movement for those who are computer literate. 

            You’ll find it at:            www.laywitnessireland.org

We would like to have your email address for ease of contact and sending this annual Newsletter.  Please email us with your details at : contact.us@laywitnessireland.org

We are very grateful to webmaster Alan Hutchinson, Glengormley who has set up the site for us.  Contact him at:     webmaster@laywitnessireland.org

Our Records

We keep a note of your name, address, email address and telephone number together with the mission teams you have been on, if any.  Please notify us if you wish to have any details updated or deleted.  If there are others you think would like to receive this Newsletter, please ask them to contact us c/o:

contact.us AT laywitnessireland.org