|
|
|
'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'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
