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Newmarket Personal Ministry Experience

Newmarket Personal Ministry Experience

Personal ministry is a relatively new venture for Newmarket-on-Fergus Seventh-day Adventist church. At the same time, one could say that it is not new to Newmarket-on-Fergus church at all, given that our church exists because one lady, named Eithne Amos-Nunez, engaged in personal ministry in Western Ireland. Indeed, the pastor and the founding members still present are here either directly or indirectly through the personal ministry of Eithne. So, really, we’ve just returned to our roots.

Personal ministry existed at our church in other forms prior to 2020, such as cooking classes and book distribution, but now it deservedly has its own department. Although 2020 has become a byword that one struggles to pronounce without a negative visceral response, 2020 saw the Personal Ministries department establish a presence on social media with Facebook and YouTube, making it easier for the local community to interface with the church. Members of the local community have indeed interacted with our Facebook page and this has resulted in the forming of several, enduring, life-changing relationships.

We launched 2021 with a revival event: a local 10 Days of Prayer experience for our church members, called Seeking Revival. This event combined spiritual revival and practical training. While church members led most of the days, we also invited guest speakers, former Outreach Coordinator for the PEACE Centre of Evangelism, Sam Walters, Heather Haynes, much loved former missionary in Ireland, and Dr Kirk Thomas, Director of number of areas at the British Union Conference, including Evangelism, Personal Ministries, and Discipleship. Our experienced guest speakers inspired us and taught us invaluable information about the Cycle of Evangelism, community research projects and outreach care plans. While it was a challenge to implement these initiatives in our church, the Seeking Revival event spilled over into a Sabbath morning prayer time dedicated to seeking the Holy Spirit for mission, a prayer time that has endured into 2023.

2022’s highlights have been the establishment of a church service livestream, collaboration with Discover Truth, collaboration with Limerick Seventh-day Adventist church in their Doug Batchelor prophecy event, and the family veggie market in Shannon. The Discover Truth collaboration has been particularly valuable in getting our church members involved. Distribution of books and flyers by many members has seen a marked increase and we have had no shortage of volunteers for Bible deliveries – no shortage of testimonies either.

During 2023 our focus will be on further implementing the information given during our 2021 Seeking Revival event, strengthening our collaboration with Discover Truth, and this year’s planned prophecy seminar in Ennis (stay tuned to our Facebook for further details). We praise God for the growth witnessed thus far and solicit your prayers for the future.

 

Written by Omari J A Norman

 

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