Aghavea Parish Church

It's Harvest time in Aghavea - and the kids ad adults responded brilliantly to the challenge of making Veggie people and animals.  The church has been decorated superbly, and looks (and smells) fantastic. We give thanks to God for his eternal provision of our food, our clothing, our families - and most of all for his free gift of Salvation! Praise be to God!

One thing  I ask from the  Lord ,  this only do I seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the  Lord   all the days of my life,  to gaze on the beauty of the  Lord  and to seek him in his temple.   Psalm 27:4 We are now entering what I refer to as the second stage of settling in at the rectory.  We've moved in, and put our furniture in roughly the rooms where we thought they'd fit and suit - and now that we've been here for almost ten weeks, we've started to realise that our initial thoughts might need to be revisited.  In particular, we soon discovered that our snakes and lizards needed to be brought back out so that we could see them better, so we have had to rearrange our furniture to bring them out into the open.  I assume that this isn't the only change we will make - who knows where half of our furniture will end up! We all do this with all aspects of our lives.  We start out with a routine that seems to work...

"Back to school" - the words children dread!  It means a return to early mornings, packed lunches, and playgrounds - and the inevitable routine of study and homework!  To the parents, it means a return to the school runs, more traffic, and cleaning and ironing clothes, trying to remember how to spell certain words (is it i before e, or e before i?), and tricky maths problems again. For some of our young people it means a new chapter - starting in a new school, college or university.  It may signal a long year facing exams next year, or for some of our younger kids, it may even mean Transfer tests in November.  Children seem to be under more and more pressure to perform each year, and feel that they must succeed at all costs - and we need to assure them that they should just t=do their best, and expect nothing more of them. Even in our Church life, "Back to school" signals the end of the summer period.  For our own parish in Aghavea, it signals the re-start o...

We've had a busy few weeks throughout July.  While other parishes may take that time to "put their feet up", Aghavea parish has been hosting events to raise money towards the restoration of our church. We had a very successful time at the Twelfth Celebrations in Brookeborough, raising almost £4000, and then we had an extremely enjoyable sponsored walk, which has raised almost £1500.  We are looking forward to bag packing in Asda on 11th August from 10am to 6pm, and hope that we can raise another significant amount then too! Whilst it's important for us to raise these terrific amounts of money towards a very significant project that we will be undertaking soon, there's something much more important underlying everything we do.  Each event gives us the opportunity to fellowship together outside a traditional church setting, getting to know each other better. This is so important for any Christian community, and a fantastic chance for the new rector to get to kno...

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us My Verse for the Day this morning reminded me that we do not work in isolation, but rather as part of a team.  That team was very evident recently when a group of men and women gathered at the parish halt carefully pore over the plans for the renovation of the church building.  They carefully considered the individual plans, and the details in the small print, as well as the large plans - and they thought about the different ways it would affect the building. As we started, we reminded ourselves that we were simply the latest guardians of the building in the parish - and that we were preparing the way for the future.  We gave thanks for the many generations of worshippers that had gathered in the church throughout the years in the parish, and we pr...

1 Timothy 4:12   "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Dear Mom and Dad,    Our leader, Mr. Cobb, told us all to write an email to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried about us. We are OK.  Only 1 of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yes, please call Chad's mother and tell her he is OK. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for all the lightning.    Our leader Mr. Cobb got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him but it was during all the shouting at the fire, so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? ...

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Matthew 14:16 We've just experienced the Twelfth celebrations in Brookeborough.  It was a day of  colour, noise, and people from all over our little corner of the Province.  It was a very good-natured and peaceful event, which was enjoyed by folks from every part of the village.  In short - this is everything that is good and true about our society, in that we can come together in peace, and share our culture.  There was a distinct absence of the violence that dogged the celebrations in other parts of the country. It was also a day of burgers, hotdogs, salads and queues!  The weather was almost perfect for the day, which brought large amounts of supporters along to our beautiful village.  They needed to be fed, and many of the local churches took the opportunity to extend a hand of friendship, fellowship and food in the attempt to raise some much needed funds for the diff...

Lamentations 3:22 “ The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness ” I wonder if you've ever experienced a moment when you found yourself wishing that you could stay there forever.  Possibly seeing your children being born; a fantastic experience that you've had on holiday; holding a loved one's hand as they are ill or dying; a time when you thought you could live in that instance forever. Unfortunately that is not possible for us in our human terms.  Time moves on inexorably.  There's nothing we can do to stop it.  Each of us gets older at the same pace, although I've spoken to a few that would try to debate that fact!  Each day brings its own challenges and opportunities; some we take, so we leave, so we try to deal with - and each day we move on to the next. In our lives, we allow some days to pass just like the last one, but with a different outfit.  We think...