Christian Aid visit to South Africa

The team, Deborah Doherty (Christian Aid), Louise Monroe (MCI), Lesley-Ann Wilson
(PCI), Alf McCreary (religion correspondant), Bishop Patrick Rooke (CoI)

So I’ve been in South Africa for four weeks now and it has certainly been an amazing and varied experience!  From the few days of project visits with Christian Aid in Pietermarritzberg and Johannesberg, doing the touristy thing in Jo’berg and three days holiday in Cape Town.  Then Bishop Patrick went off to Swaziland, the rest of the guys flew home and I continued on to the rest of my Big Adventure.

The project visits with Christian Aid gave an opportunity to really see the work that Christian Aid supports.  But also a chance to see where some of the money we raise as a Church really goes and actually meet some of the people who benefit from it which was a very humbling experience.

We had the chance to meet with three organisations; Church Land Programme (CLP), Kwazulu-Natal Christian Council (KZNCC) and Bench Marks

Here I am just going to give some of the highlights of the experience for me as there are too many things to note here.

Kennedy Road informal settlement

With CLP we met with some the shack dwellers who live in an informal settlement called Kennedy Road in Durban.  The group of people we met are a committee that have been put together to try and improve their life conditions.  

Bishop Patrick presenting the cross to Mama Zodwa

Graham Philpott the Director of CLP

But the CLP visit I want to talk about was to Ladysmith, home of the famous Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing group!  We were taken out to a rural settlement where the residents had been forcibly removed during apartheid.  Sometimes it was because it was rich fertile ground that could be used for farming, sometimes to create residential areas.  But more often than not the land was not used for anything and just left vacant after the people who had been living there had been removed and their livestock shared out among the local white farmers.  This was the case in the place we visited and met a lady named Zodwa, who had experienced the violence and humiliation of the removals back in the 1970’s.  She shared her moving story with us but her real pain was the loss of her Church.  The Church building was just a little way from her home and it had been destroyed during the removals, and when they were allowed back to their land in the 1990’s there were all sort of promises from the government about restitution for these losses but she is still waiting for her Church to be rebuilt.  She took us to the rubble, showing us the original foundation stone and where the pulpit would have been.  There was a very moving moment when Bishop Patrick gave Zodwa a St Bridget’s Cross on the site of the pulpit.  This was very poignant because of the very deep links that cross has with women within the Church and the link with the woman at the well.  What made this all the more poignant was the image of a well in the background.  We then held hands in the rubble of the Church and said the Lord’s prayer together, a very moving moment.

The church does still meet in a makeshift building in Zodwa’s homestead, proving that God’s people will never be kept down.  It did, however bring up questions for me about the importance of a building, something I will perhaps share at another time! 

We all went into to the Church building were we met ladies who were representative of a number of groups around the area who are involved in income generating projects.  In this case it was mainly bead work.  These groups of ladies work with beads making beautiful jewellery and craft work which is then sold giving them a small income.  So often when you are in African countries you see beautiful local crafts and you are told the proceeds go to those who have made them.  Often you can become cynical about this, but it did my heart good to actually meet these people who make crafts and sell them to make ends meet.  It was such a humbling experience to meet with them and to be able to buy some of their crafts directly from them.  Although most of them were actually working to orders.

Now on to KZNCC.  With this group we had the chance to see some of the work they are doing to help the huge problem of AIDS and HIV that plagues South Africa.  We met with an HIV support group who meet frequently to share with one another, to find friendship and understanding which quite often is not available anywhere else.

Very sadly this can also include the Church.  One lady shared with us that when she discovered she was HIV+ her husband left her, leaving her with children to feed.  Sadly she found only discrimination from her Pastor and Church.  So when she was put in contact with this group she found people she could confide in share her problems.  Sadly at the minute that is all they can do as they are struggling to get funding and help to get food which these groups all have a right to.  But it can take up to a year to register a group for a certificate which allows them to receive bread and various other small items.  The problem is when taking meds, like the ARV’s you need food to take them with and if you have no income you can’t buy food.  They would be keen to start a vegetable garden which would provide fresh healthy food, but again there is the issue of money for seeds etc.  But yet the group is still vital for these ladies as it is a vital lifeline for them.  You may have noticed I have only talked about ladies here, that is because men are reluctant and often refuse to be tested for the virus which means it will continue to spread due to ignorance and naivety.

One of the toxic tailings

And so our final visits were with Bench Marks and a very intense and full day was spent with them on the ‘Toxic Tour’ of the greater Jo’berg area.  They are involved in many social campaigns and advocacy work and one of the main things they work on is the issues of the local Gold mines.  The waste that comes from mining for gold and other precious metals are dumped in large areas that become known as tailings. In many instances there is toxic material in that waste mainly due to the uranium that is often present.  This causes issues with the water system, rivers can be seen to flow bright green or a deep red.  With high winds the dust can be blown in to residential areas which are dangerously close.  The worse case we seen was an informal settlement which was built pretty much on top of one of the tailings and children play daily in an area that has been registered as dangerously radioactive on a Geiger counter reading taken by Bench Marks.  Many local people are totally unaware of this very dangerous issue.  The next project which Bench Marks is taking on is a health survey within Soweto which is surrounded on at least two sides by tailings.

A river running green

So this is a little bit of what I got up to during the Christian Aid visits before our short trip to Cape Town which is a beautiful city.  But I would ask you to pray for the people I have mentioned above, people I have met and listened to their stories first hand.  But also for the many many others in this country who are in exactly the same position.  A beautiful country but one of such division, diversity and extremes.

Essentials of Christian Faith

In my random reading toady I came across the "Wesleyan Essentials of Christian Faith" which were adopted by the World Methodist Council in 1996, under discussion as to whether there was in fact an overriding Methodist Doctrine or Theology because John Wesley never actually produced an official set of doctrines.

Anyway...the one that really struck me was...

We serve the world in the name of God, believing that our commitment comes to life in our actions, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's so easy to fall back in to the way of thinking that everything we do is done in our strength, when really it's not!  We may be the hands and feet that give physical identity to what we do but then we have to sit back and let the Spirit work, for it is in that moment alone that the power of God is felt as he works 'supernaturally' through our 'natural' actions.

What a privilege to be that vessel.

Are you there God...it's me??

I haven't written here in ages and lots has been happening in life with church, college now that im living in Koinonia House and various other things. But i feel the time has come after the past weekend.

We had a Lay Witness Weekend in Seymour Street with a team of 15 fantastic people who came to share with us as a church family. If im honest I was really excited about the weekend, i've had a few struggles over the past couple of weeks, so I was really excited about what God was going to do in our church and in our lives individually. But I was a little let down...the meal on Friday night was great and i believe I was sitting beside the person i was meant to as we had wonderful conversation about things that were on both of our hearts but I left the event feeling a little...empty!! I was really disappointed that God hadn't shown up for me, why when I was so open and excited to receive was I leaving with such a disappointed empty feeling. Or maybe I wasn't as open as I had thought and God had shown up but I just didnt recognise it?!

Saturday came and I went to one of the coffee mornings, a wonderful time of fellowship, friendship and sharing with an awesome and powerful testimony shared very openly with the group and yet i was still asking, "God where are you in this? Why can't I hear what you are saying to me?"

If im honest once more, I was reluctant to go again on the Saturday evening but through the persuasion and encouragement of a good and caring friend I went. After all, how could I expect God to move and give if I wasnt there and open to receive. Again it was an enjoyable time of fellowship and sharing with the Witnesses who very openly shared their story of their walk with God. But once more I couldnt understand why God was being so silent to me. After being so excited and so expectant.

It wasnt until the Sunday that I 'woke up'...during the service on Sunday morning i had such a sense of God's presence and a real sense of being told 'I am with you and I will be there the entire way'

This continued into the evening service which was a true blessing...so many people shared an encouraging testimony/story of what they had received from the weekend. I also received an image of what our church was part of...during one of the first songs we sang during worship "The Splendour of the King", I had an image of our church standing in front of the throne of God which was blazing with light, shining golden and we were joining with hundreds of other people from everywhere alongside Angels and Archangels, all the hosts of heaven in bringing praise and glory to our Father and God. It was a humbling and amazing image and a very special insight into how we as a fellowship are part of the bigger picture of God's fellowship.

So after struggling to find God in what was happening He made it very clear to me that He was there all along. If anything I was depending to much on my emotions and feelings to know that right from the start. Sometimes we just need to relax and know....

Surrender...

I had a wonderful experience of worship today.

I think Diyonus, the college caretaker is a little concerned about me being on my own, especially as Derek has now returned to England leaving me in the apartment on my own. So this morning in extremely broken English he asked me if i would like to go to church with him...at least at the time I assumed that was what he was asking!! So i agreed as i had no other arrangements made.

So we set off for a church that I had kind of gathered was pretty close by and it was indeed only a short walk from C.T.S. The sign out the front told me that it was a Dutch Reformed Church of Sri Lanka and that the English service began at 9.00am and that was the service that Diyonus had very thoughtfully brought me for. We went into the grounds and he introduced me to a few people and in chatting we discovered that this week the English service and the Sinhalese service had actually been switched as the English congregation were having an Alpha thanksgiving service. I decided that this was the perfect chance then for me to experience a Sinhalese worship service and tild Diyonus that i would stay for this service rather than come back for the English. So he introduced me briefly to the minister who was preparing to start, then took me to a house that was in the grounds ringing the bell numerous times until someone came to the door. A man cam out and Diyonus introduced me, I assumed this was another minister of the church as each different language congregation appear to thave their own pastor. It turned out in the midst of conversation that he was in fact the President of the Dutch Reformed Church!

So i was guided in to the church and Diyonus tried to get me to sit in one of the front pews but no the Methodist in me kicked in and I headed for the back sitting under a very welcome and cooling fan. Sadly as the service began the electricity cut out, the fans stopped and there was a little reorganisation as song books had to be found because they couldnt use the OHP! It was a wonderful service with A time of lively worship led by 2 young men from the congregation, backed up by a small band consisiting of a piano, guitar, drums and bongo drums. There was then what i could only assume was a time of confession and testimony when many people - all women it has to be said, stood up and spoke briefly.

The pastor, Rev Faber then brought the message, speaking on Hebrews 11:13-16, how we are strangers on this planet and our real home is the one prepared for us in Heaven. He very thoughtfully threw in a few English phrases for my benefit (very like some Sinhalese TV programmes when every now and again you quite randomly catch an English phrase...very amusing!!) to try and summarise his points. I did however catch that he spoke about Michael Jackson at one point, not quite sure how that fit in to what he was saying!! Halfway through I was very grateful when the electricity kicked in once more as it was really starting to get very hot in that little church - even with the slight breeze coming in the door!

All in all it was a wonderful act of worship with lively praise and from what i could tell of the way the preaching was delivered very passionate and so despite the language difference and not always understanding what was happening or being said I could most definitely feel God's presence amongst His people in that little church. For me that is what truly matters God's presence with us ministering to His children in the way they need most. During the service there was one word that kept coming back to me and that was 'surrender'. Surrendering ourselves...myself...to God's moving around me and within me. Letting Him minister to me where i need it most, it may not even be something that I know needs dealt with but He does. So i must surrender myself to Him, make myself vulnerable to His power working and healing within me and make myself available to what He asks of me...no matter what.

Remembering...

Well i've had a few days to get acclimatised and i'm getting used to the heat(!) humidity(!) and the food.

This morning was the first I have ventured out of the College complex and I was really looking forward to going to church at Kollupitiya Methodist Church as it was one of the churches we had worked with back in 2000. Ivor picked us up shortly after 8.00am and we made our way into the heart of Colombo.

It was great to see areas that were starting to look familiar and I recognised the church straight away. We were welcomed by Rev Duleep Fernando while the Tamil congregation left, as their service is before the English service (and the Sinhalese service is held shortly after the english) then I went off to find a seat.

The worship was led wonderfully by a young woman whom I think was a member of the choir and the Message was brought by Rev Dr Derek Tidball who spoke engagingly on Psalm 103

"Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits..."

I was however a little disappointed by just how traditional and reserved the service was - I found that I have actually no recollection from all those years ago as to what worship was like and was expecting it to be a little more lively, I guess with my most recent overseas experience being in Africa. But none the less it was a wonderful act of worship and as Derek reminded us we are not alone in worshipping but join with congregations across the globe and with the Angels and Arch-angels worshipping around the throne in heaven.

We had a chance to chat for a short time after the service and as per ususal the Irish connections were made...Duleep spoke of Rev George Good and his grand daughter Tara, who was of course on the team with me back in 2000, so we chatted about them and of course Rev Norman Taggart and Rev Stephen Skuce...Methodism really is such a small world! :)

Myself, Derek and David Griffiths, a field worker for CSW were then wisked off by Mano a member of the CTS (college) staff for drinks at the Galle Face hotel before lunch. This is a beautifully grand old colonial building situated right on the coast and it was wonderfully cool sitting chatting in the shade with a fantastic view of the Indian Ocean (I think!!) and the sound of the powerfull waves crashing against the rocks.

David, Mano and Derek by the Beach

The Galle Face Hotel

The hotel is extremely proud of its heritage and has many plagues stating the names of famous people who have stayed and even boasts a small museum containing Prince Phillip's first car!!! I have one memory of the Galle face from my last visit and that was of coming for drinks one evening with the team, and that is of Raymond sitting with a rather large King Coconut with a straw sticking out of it...strange the things you remember!

Mano then took us to the Chinese Dragon Restaurant (the first restaurant we ate out at back in 2000!!) for a wonderful meal.

On the way back to CTS she stopped off at the side of the road to buy some fruit to let us try...sadly i cant remember the name of it. [NB: Just discovered they are called Rambutan and are indeed realted to the Lychee!!]


To me it looked llike one of those odd bouncy ball type things and when you open it you get something that looks like an eyeball!!! But it is very nice indeed, almost like a cross between a grape and a lychee, so very tasty and quite refreshing.

This afternoon I thought I would take some photos of the college so you could see where Im actually talking about...so here they are.

The main college building
Me outside the College Reception

Church family...

I really enjoyed church tonight!!

As I was sitting waiting for the service to start I became aware of the low babble of noise which was the congregation...friends...family chatting, greeting each other, chatting over the week or the day.

That made me smile as I thought about friendships and relationships that grow within the church family.

The service itself was great with a passionate preacher who exudes faith and as he speaks and prays it would be difficult not to see the wonderful and close relationship and journey he has walked with God and that is what he wants to share.

I couldn't help but wonder how I would experience worship next Sunday in Sri Lanka, I've no doubt it will be different but at the heart of the experience I will be worshipping the same God with our extended family. I was however very touched by the well wishes of my Seymour Street family who I know will be praying for me during this summers adventure and it is greatly appreciated.

I'm really looking forward to finally getting there and travel on Wednesday which means I have a lot to do between now and then including packing...which is not my forte at all!!!

He Has Risen

I really like Easter.

I think I would even say that it is my favourite time of the year - yep even more so than Christmas!

I had quite an odd conception of the period of time between Christmas and Easter when I was younger. It was like we prepared for Christs birth in December and then all of Jesus' 33 years and the entire gospel message fit in to 3 or 4 months depending on when Easter fell. After that there was some kind of Summer-y abyss when nothing happened!!

I guess in a way that is where we are in present days...in that summer-y abyss but we live in hope, hope of the return of the one Who Has Risen and it is only because of that fact we have any hope at all.

So yeh, Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday is my favourite week of the year and it was celebrated wonderfully this year throughout the Lisburn circuit. It was particularly interesting to be part of a Passover/Seder meal on Maundy Thursday when all of the elements of the meal and their significance were explained as we shared in it together, this was significantly brought to a close by sharing in communion together, the Christian Eucharist or Love Feast which Jesus asks us to do in remembrance of Him and which He shared with the 12 disciples at his final Passover meal.

Good Friday seen the carrying of the cross up Bow Street by the leaders of the main city centre churches. I had intended to get some pictures of this but as soon as the procession led by the cross began to move the heavens opened soaking everyone but the message of the cross was still proclaimed and celebrated.

The celebration that I look forward to most of all is the dawn rise service at Hillsborough Lake. As much as it may surprise many people I enjoy getting up really early to go and worship the risen Lord as the sun rises up over the lake. It may be cold, it may be damp and there may be lots of little flies eating you for breakfast but for me there's just something really special about being there to greet Easter morning and I don't think my Easter would be the same without it.

Then there was our Easter celebration service, a service full of life and Joy as well as a few surprises - especially for the young boy who had an egg smashed over his head by Rev Brian!!! Fair enough it was an empty shell but i'd have loved to have seen his face if it hadn't been - he was surprised enough as it was!!!

Brian shared a wonderful poem with us that really captures the essence of Easter....

Because He is Risen

Because he is risen
Spring is possible I
n all the cold hard places
Gripped by winter
And freedom jumps the queue
To take fear’s place as our focus
Because he is risen

Because he is risen
My future is an epic novel
Where once it was a mere short story
My contract on life is renewed in perpetuity
My options are open-ended
My travel plans are cosmic
Because he is risen

Because he is risen
Healing is on order and assured
And every disability will bow
Before the endless dance of his ability
And my grave too will open
When my life is restored
For this frail and fragile body
Will not be the final word on my condition
Because he is risen

Because he is risen
Hunger will go begging in the streets
For want of a home
And selfishness will have a shortened shelf-life
And we will throng to the funeral of famine
And dance on the callous grave of war
And poverty will be history
In our history
Because he is risen

And because he is risen
A fire burns in my bones
And my eyes see possibilities
And my heart hears hope
Like a whisper on the wind
And the song that rises in me
Will not be silenced
As life disrupts
This shadowed place of death
Like a butterfly under the skin
And death itself
Runs terrified to hide
Because he is risen

By Gerard Kelly

All of this is possible because He is Risen...because Christ died for each of us...but rose again conquering the grave. The service was closed in sharing the Eucharist and a rousing version of 'Thine Be the Glory' (prompting another childhood memory for me. My Nanny would have taken me to Newcastle Methodist on the odd occasion during 'caravan season' and i have a distinct memory of singing this song one Sunday morning after they had shared communion and I was convinced in my innocence and naivety that the words were 'Risen Concrete Sun'!!!) but there seemed to be a real sense of pure worship and expectancy and so may we take that attitude of worship and expectancy out in to the 'summer-y abyss' knowing our Risen Lord walking by our side.

SNASS weekend

This weekend 28 SNASSers are heading off up the North Coast to Ballintoy for our annual weekend.

Im just home from doing a huage food shop, my car is so full and Im now trying to put final things in place!!

It's always a great weekend of fun, fellowship, banter, a few adventures, undoubtedly some embarrassment and really not much sleep but we love it!!

Anyway, I've lots to do so i'll fill you in on monday with how we get on...that's if I survive to tell the tale!! :)

What prompts us to serve??

I have been using Oswald Chambers 'My Utmost for His Highest' during my devotion time recently and each day there has been a phrase or a thought or something that has really got me thinking and today was no different. But I thought I would share the particular thought that got me thinking today!!

"It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because then you are not bothered by what He requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion, becomes your guide."

My thinking around this is not very clear at the moment, so in a sense I am thinking out loud. Where I'm kind of headed with it is a sense of hiding from God in our service to Him...denying our true calling or even blocking it out and instead deciding ourselves where or what we should do to serve - therefore is that for our own ends and not for God's glory. Yet will He use it to make something good come from it - yes?...because He can.

But then on the flipside my mind goes to why would you bother serving if it wasn't ultimately for God's glory - is that where the 'christian emotion' comes in? Knowing the theories, the words to say, what is expected of a christian...and then doing it!!

Here I want to call in a term used by one of my favourite authors - Terry Pratchett in his discworld series. He writes about a group of witches (its purely for escapism and he is very very funny!!) and Granny Weatherwaxes form of magic is 'headology'...not hocus pocus but instead making someone believe something.

Is it a 'headology theology' of service...our head tells us and convinces us this is what we must do so we do it. Instead of a sacrifice that comes from a sense of compassion for others and wanting to share the gospel message...from the heart.

So is it easier to say that what we are doing is for God than actually listening for the small still voice of God to guide us to the task that he wants us to do. Are we looking for the recognition and taking the glory for ourself instead of directing it towards the One whose name in which we work and who deserves the glory? Are we scared to listen because the job we are asked to do will be too difficult...or even...too menial without any recognition?

I'm not sure if any of this makes any sense...I'm not even sure it makes any sense to me...so I'm just throwing it out there!!!


(Just to note, Oswald Chambers is not suggesting that we serve without a sense of call...it was his leading in to a thought on why we serve...to read a version of the full devotion check it out here)

Global Vision 2009

Today was Global Vision...a yearly conference held by the Methodist Missionary Society (Ireland) to highlight overseas mission and to inform people of what is going in out there in the world of overseas mission, with our overseas mission partners and other current issues.

There was a great range of seminar topics to choose from including feedback from a mission partner recently returned home from Tonga, the story of a previous Muslims conversion to Christianity, the changing face of mission, Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan.

Everybody that spoke had a wonderful and engaging story to tell but for me the best part of the entire day was the last 15 minutes or so when the General Secretary summed up the day and added his thoughts. What were we going to do with what we had heard, learnt or felt called to. Would we go home saying we had, had a great day or would we go home changed...prepared to make a change...go home to pray...fast...and if we need to cry...but most of all let God use it and listen to how He wants to use it.

All for love...

We have been following a series on Grace and Gideon in our evening services over the past couple of weeks which Ive really been enjoying or perhaps to put it a better way Ive got a lot out of it and learnt a lot.Something that just seems to keep popping up for me at the minute is just how incomprehensible God is. From studying Job who's suffering is inflicted by the Satan with God's approval. But suffering is not the only topic to be found in Job but also the journey that Job takes with God coming to the point of submission because he will never understand God's ways or means. Then there is the divine name of God...'I AM who I AM'. This is something that has always intrigued me...there is just so much meaning in those 2 very small words I AM. 2 words that sum up the essence of my God who was, is and evermore shall be...transcending all space and time...any wonder we could never possibly understand all that He is.

This was the conclusion I had come up with regarding the sacred name for my Old Testament exam but never got to use...but that's a whole other story!!!

In the diverse cameos which emerge in an attempt to unravel the complexity of the origin, meaning and significance of the sacred name YHWH, a rich tapestry of challenging ideas can be taken for our worship today. When we enter God’s presence is there the same echo of excitement which evokes an ecstatic cry from the depths of our being as we reflect on the otherness and greatness of God in creation and all of life. We often have a casual familiarity which can easily degenerate into a performance. But as it is revealed in the culmination of the passage in Exodus in which God’s name is revealed, Yahweh’s name and nature exists in all time, in all directions, for ever and for all generations. God is essentially the God of presence in every conceivable experience that life throws at us demonstrating that the unpronounceable I AM speaks in the life death and resurrection of the One who claimed in John 8:58 – ‘before Abraham was , I AM’.

It can really be quite mind bending stuff which i guess for me is where faith comes in...He is the great God...Yahweh...I AM...and He cares about me...how awesome is that. The creator of the universe who breathed life itself wants to know about me...even though He already knows everything about me, He still wants me to chat to Him about it!

And it was this I was thinking about as we thought a little more about grace and prepared for communion on Sunday night and there was a verse that kept running through my head...

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:19

How can we understand a love that is prepared to die for us...a stranger...but that's just it...we aren't strangers as God knows every little intimate detail about us and just loves us that much.

Imprisoned for a day...

Wow...today has been pretty full on with lots packed in.

Its started this morning with church in Magheragal Methodist where a few of the Ghana team were sharing a little of our summer adventures in the service. We were made to feel very welcome and it was great to be able to share with them as part of our circuit, particularly as Clem, one of our team members is part of the congregation.

We were then treated to a wonderful lunch prepared by Clem's wife before a few of us headed on to our next engagement at Meghaberry Prison, to share in their afternoon service also about our Ghana adventures. I was really looking forward to this opportunity but as the time grew nearer I started to feel a little anxious and could feel my nerves rising. Especially when we got through the first big security gate and I could see the actual prison building up close. It just looked so grey and dismal, a foreboding place. We were met at the prison by Rev Dennis Bambrick who has been involved in prison chaplaincy since he retired.

We had to go through security checks which involved having our palms scanned to allow us through the many security doors. I was first to have my palm scanned and id card produced...but the last to actually get in through the security door. For some reason my id card and palm scan weren't matching - not even able to get into prison!! Eventually the very patient warden discovered the problem and i was able to go through. Many security gates and a scan later we made it inside and Dennis guided us to the chapel. It was simple but serene, a little bit of peace in what I can only imagine is a dark and horrendous existence. We were shown in alongside the inmates and it was a extremely strange sensation to be walking in alongside them. We had been told by one of the guards along the way not to be under any illusions as to why they were at the service. Some of them would be there genuinely to worship and hear the word, whereas for others it was a rare opportunity to see inmates from other 'houses' and a chance to exchange 'goods'. I have to admit though that they all appeared to be very polite and welcoming to us. There was some noise while we were talking to them but then if your involved in any youth stuff you're used to that anyway!! All in all it was a very positive experience for me and we didn't have much of an opportunity to chat to them afterward as time was short and we had started late but a couple of African guys did approach and to say they were so pleased that we were involved in the work in Ghana because Africa needs so much help and they need to hear the message we were bringing. One of them explained to us how he was Ghanaian and his father lived in Accra...it really is a small world!

That was us finished, back out through all the security gates and freedom!!...and yes they let us all out!! The chaplains and prison fellowship do a wonderful work there with a group of men who need to hear the message of love. It's not a witness that I really thought much about but I am grateful for experience and I am pleased to have been able to be involved in it in a small way.

Well that was half way through my day...the next couple of hours were spent at the Lewis household enjoying tea, cookies and chilli!!

Before we went to Seymour Street for the New Members Reception Service...including a surprise interview sprung on Helen and I!! Five young people were received into full membership of the Methodist Church, four of which were SNASSers. One of those services that fills you with pride having seen how these young people have grown and matured in their own confidence and faith. Also one of those services that helps to remind us why we do what we do :)

shell club update....

Check out the update on what the Shell Club have been learning about this year on the Seymour Street Blog :)