Outreach Projects - Summerserve '06' Magheralin
In July and August of this year, I attended an outreach to Magheralin organised by Youth for Christ, as past of the annual 'Summerserve' scheme of teams to several locations across Northern Ireland. Each team consisted of members of different nationalities; Americans, Europeans and some a little closer to home. This year there were 11 teams spread out across the province, one of which was destined for Magheralin - a small village, 5 miles from Moira.
It was with this team of 10 people, four from Northern Ireland and six from America, that I was to spend two weeks of summer, showing God's love in a practical and outreaching way. We were accommodated by the local Church of Ireland parish in the town, and slept in their church halls. We were supplied with food, craft materials and manual help from the people of the parish and basically anything we needed for our work there.
Our outreach activites included a drop-in centre each evening, here teenagers were welcome to come into the halls and enjoy activites such as pool, table tennis and air hockey, make use of our tuck shop or just simply sit and chat with the members of our team and each other. On the second week, we also hosted a Kids' Club with activities to interact with the children. This was a very enjoyable time for the team as we had the chance of playing and having fun with the children, and seeing the smiles on the children's faces was a reward in itself.
Throughout this fortnight, I had the privilege of chatting with and getting to know some of the young people in Magheralin, and I still keep in contact with many of them. As a team we shared many difficult situations as well as having many memorable fun expeiences together. All of these experiences will last long in my memory, and have challenged me spiritually, as well as giving me the oppurtunity to reach out to others in the community and to show God's love and what He has to offer.
I would like to also take this oppurtunity to thank all of those within our church who were praying for me while I was away, and I was grateful for the encouragement and support I received from many people. This was all very apparent within our work, and was much appreciated.
Colin Walker
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