'To
God be the Glory great things he hath done.' These
words were on the lips of the people of God at the
conclusion of the Lisbane tent Mission. The Lord
was pleased to come down amongst us and manifest
His saving power.
It
was in November 2005 at a meeting in the
Minister's room in Ballygowan that the idea of a
joint Gospel Tent Mission was first mentioned.
This involved Revs T Murray, Greenfield, Dane and
Smylie. From then on the Sessions of Comber,
Newtownards, Crossgar and Ballygowan decided to
combine and plan for a Mission in Lisbane in
August/September 2007. An organising committee was
set up and began to meet in early 2006 to make the
necessary arrangements.
Mr
Roy Moore kindly granted his field for the mission
and we approached the Rev William McCrea to be the
Evangelist. We were delighted that Rev McCrea
consented to come along and preach the gospel in
Lisbane.
Prayer
Meetings were arranged from September 2006 right
through until the commencement of the Mission to
pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit among us.
We decided to get the Young people of the churches
together to form a Youth Choir who would sing along
with Rev McCrea during the mission. Also a
children's mission was arranged for the first week
of the mission with Mr Everett Smyth as the
Evangelist.
The
Lord was with us in all the arrangements, in the
visitation of the homes by some students from the
College, prior to and during the first week of the
mission. Also thousands of invitations were posted
out to a wide area.
The
weather was a big worry considering the summer we
had, but wonderfully the Lord dried up the field the
week prior to the mission and we had glorious
weather during the time of the mission. We also had
a great crowd of men who helped erect the tent and
the portable hall and also to take them down at the
end of the mission.
Most
of all the Lord came down among us from the first
service of the mission. Rev McCrea preached with
great power, the choir sang beautifully as did Rev
McCrea and most of all hundreds of people flocked to
the tent night after night and best of all 12
precious souls were counseled during the mission. We
believe that the Lord spoke to many more and it is
our earnest prayer that others will yet come to
Christ a a result of the mission. Many came to the
tent who had not been seen in gospel meetings before
and some came back night after night. There was a
real spirit of unity among all ages involved and a
great desire among the people of God to see souls
saved and backsliders restored! So many said 'Why
don't we do this again?
I
would like to thank the organising committee, Rev
McCrea and everyone who helped in any way with the
mission. We can say 'The Lord hath done great things
for us whereof we are glad'.
