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Open Door Weekend In September 2003 (19th –21st) our ‘big event’ of the
year was the Open Door Weekend. The vision for the Open Door Weekend was
not so much as ‘outreach’ as ‘inreach.’ We wanted
to reach members of the congregations who it seemed had not been fully
catered for thus far. But above all whether congregationally committed,
nor whether congregational members or not, our vision was to reach folks
in this area with the good news about Jesus Christ. Our vision was not
only for people personally, that they would give their lives to Jesus,
but also for spiritual renewal for our congregations. Below is an extract
of an article that was written by our minister David Hagan and was published
in Christian Irishman in Feb 2004 Friday Night Our Friday night event was to kick off at 8pm but Donegal being Donegal things didn’t really get going until about 8.30pm. To be fair to Donegal however, this may have something to do with me saying to the speaker for the evening when he came through the door late, something like, ‘Don’t worry you are in Donegal time now!’ (on Sunday night he went on and told everyone what I had said. Talk about being dropped in it!). The event was bill as an evening of Christian Music in Hillhead Church Hall. David Darragh and friends complete with a massive Harley Davison motor bike (which was brought in with some difficulty, to sit at the front of the hall) supplied the music to an excellent and very contemporary standard. Our Speaker for the evening was Andy Mc Court. Andy is the pastor of the growing and very successful Cornerstone Church in Derry. He proved to be an amazingly gifted speaker who was easily able to captivate our audience of all ages. Even the teenagers hung on just about every word—quite a feat for any speaker, teenagers being teenagers. More importantly the Gospel was proclaimed in a very understandable and non-religious jargon kind of way. It was made clear that everyone had a decision to make. The evening finished with a coffee bar. Saturday started at 11am with a Children’s Disco at neutral venue in the town. At the same time and in the same building Aster Mullins from OM gave a talk on the Doulos Ship. (The Doulos came to the Foyle in May 2004). Aster, originally from the Netherlands, has pretty much travelled the world on the Doulos and had many interesting insights to share about living on a ship with people from so many different backgrounds, all with the common goal of sharing their faith in Jesus. Needles to say there were plenty of cakes and coffee on tap (I mean in Carndonagh not the ship!) |