I have had the privilege this summer to serve on several different Go Teams across RPCI and I’ve been asked to share a bit about the two Go Teams that took place in the South of Ireland. They took place in New Life Fellowship Letterkenny & Milford RPC, and in Covenant Christian Fellowship, Galway.
First was the team that encompassed two of the four RP churches in County Donegal- Milford and Letterkenny. It ran from 22nd-28th June. The two churches are a joint charge and are pastored by Rev Mark Loughridge and Rev Jonny McCollum. The congregation in Letterkenny is my own home congregation, so it was really exciting to see a Go Team come to our churches after a long time without one. A team of 7 joined our own young adults and Senior CY girls to serve in a number of different ways throughout the week.
We met in the new church premises in Milford for a Bible Study and prayer time each morning. This was a great time to delve into God’s work and get ready for the day. There was a real emphasis on intentional prayer- learning how to pray God’s promises back to him, using Psalms to fuel our prayers and praying specifically for the people in the two churches and the surrounding Donegal areas.
As well as focusing on prayer, we distributed invitations door-to-door for ‘The Bible Course’ which is being run in September and for a ‘Cuppas and Cakes’ fundraiser for Milford Athletics Club. We also helped to host this tea party/mini fun fair. It went really well, and it was a great opportunity to connect with the community and to invite people inside the new church building.
Another objective of the Go Team was to invest in the Junior CY kids, many of whom have few or no other Christian friends at school. They currently meet monthly, with kids from all four Donegal churches joining together for this. We ran a three day Junior CY programme to teach and encourage the children. It was great to see the kids having the opportunity to bond with and learn from the Go Team members, because there aren’t many older teens or young adults at church.
We also had a ’Tea and Testimonies’ night with the Letterkenny congregation, where we joined together for a meal after which some members of the team and congregation shared how God had been at work in their lives. It was a really beautiful and encouraging evening hearing stories from so many different backgrounds.
The Galway Go Team ran from 6th-13th July, straight off the back of Senior Camp (RP young peoples’ summer camp)- so the Saturday and Sunday were quite relaxed as we recharged! We got to know the church folks with a church lunch and learned a bit about Galway and about the plan for the week. There were 11 on the team who joined the 5 or so young adults from the church.
We began each day with a study in the Gospels before launching into the day’s activities. The theme of the week was “Story” and throughout the week the team was split up over several different locations, and rotated throughout the week. The daily activities included:
- A free pop-up cafe which was held in the front welcome area of the church
- Door-to-door with a community questionnaire for the homes near the church about the area and Christianity
- Preparing lunch for the team
- A morning prayer group, who prayed for an hour during the morning cafe slot
- Working in the Aisling Family Bookshop in Galway City Centre, which is run by the church
- Giving out music-themed tracts and invitations, while members of the Peel Family busked in the City Centre outside the bookshop
- ‘Story Evangelism’ in the City Centre in the afternoon, where we collected stories from passers-by and invited them to the week’s Story-themed events
It was a really interesting and exciting week as we all got the opportunity to serve in many different ways. We were able to meet lots of people from the local community and start to build connections with them. The church premises is in a retail park, so it was great to have the lights on and the door open during the “9-5 Mon-Fri” hours that the neighbouring businesses keep. It allowed employees and shoppers to be inquisitive and see inside the building and see that there is life and activity in the unit.
A few special events were held throughout the week as well. The first was a Story-telling evening on Wednesday night. Three members of the congregation shared a story about their lives around the theme of Belonging, with one of them interlinking with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well. The second was a ‘Story Soundtrack’ evening on the Friday where Warren Peel gave an overview of the story of the Bible with musical reflections from members of the congregation picked to match where we were in the storyline. Both evenings were well attended, and we had some really encouraging conversations with visitors.
The Donegal and the Galway teams this year offered many the opportunity to experience a different cultural context. Lots of people were from Catholic backgrounds, had recently moved to Ireland or were maybe first-generation Christians. So we had to be clear in how we communicated who we were and what we were doing with the church for the week, rather than using a lot of unfamiliar Christian terminology like ‘mission team’ and ‘outreach’.
It has been really encouraging hearing reports of a couple of people who have been out at church a few times since the teams were there, and we continue to pray that these churches would see more fruit for their faithful labour week by week. It was a joy to serve on the two Irish Go Teams, to see God at work in the communities and to see other RP young people excited to come and serve alongside us in the South. Please continue to pray for the work that was done and will be done in Letterkenny, Milford and Galway.
Eva Loughridge, New Life Fellowship Letterkenny
