Friday 9th July 10: A new venture for Donaghey Church began with a trip to Portstewart for a barbecue and a walk along the promanade (with ice cream of course!). Donaghey Youth Fellowship or DYF is run for our young teenagers within the church, to get them together and encourage them in their Christian lives. Our plan is to meet two times a month, beginning in the new church season in September.

Sunday 4th July 10 pm: Keith Lindsay, Co-ordinator of Acre International was invited to take part in the evening service. Keith spoke on the work of Acre, and in particular the country of Portugal. Our own church member Jeffrey Ferguson also spoke on his recent trip with Acre to Portugal in May 2010, to help with the Fatima Outreach there. Pictured above: the Outreach Team to Fatima, 2nd from right, Keith Lindsay, back centre, Jeffrey Ferguson.

Our annual church outing took place on Saturday 5th June. A good number of folk young and old joined us as we headed in the Lisburn direction, stopping for coffee before going on to visit the Every Home Crusade printing factory (pictured above). The organisation have recently established a new factory, and gave us an extensive tour of the premises, explaining what they do and how the printing machinery works. They provide Christian literature in many languages to missionaries all across the world, free of charge. Everyone was truly amazed at the volumes of material that the factory produces, and still the demand for the literature cannot be met. After the tour the next stop was in Sprucefield for some lunch, then on to Banbridge shopping, and finally an evening meal to finish the day.

We were delighted to welcome home our own Glen Charleton at a recent Sunday night service. Glen and Prisca, with their three children Joshua, Timothy and Miles are missionaries in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They established and now run the organisation called 'Building for Christ'. To read more about their work, read about them on our Missionaries page.

Thanks to the technical expertise of the folks at our Ballymena church, they, along with Mrs Mabel Shaw now have the Congregationalist Magazine available to view online. The Ballymena folks also work hard to produce an audio version of the Magazine for those who would rather listen to the stories contained within. Follow this link to the Ballymena Church Website, or click on our links page and follow the link: Congregationalist Magazine

We were delighted to have the Rev Stephen Hanna (pictured left), assistant minister in the Ballynahinch Church along for two consecutive Sundays to take our Sunday Services. Meanwhile our minister, the Rev Nigel Kissick (pictured right) went to Ballynahinch to take a series of meetings there. We trust that both churches were blessed under the preaching of both these men. We would wish Stephen every blessing in the coming days as he continues to serve the Lord as a minister of the Gospel..

We said farewell to Richard and Heather and baby Susannah at a recent Sunday evening service as they head back to Asia. The couple have been home with us for a while during which time Susannah was born, and we will miss them from our congregation. We extend to them every blessing as they leave shortly for Asia.

We have been blessed over recent weeks to have had some new arrivals into families of our Congregation. Richard and Heather, our missionaries with WEC had a baby girl, called Susannah. Stephen and Cynthia, our missionaries with the Faith Mission, had a baby boy called Benjamin. Lee and Ashley, members of our congregation, had a little boy also, called Matthew. We give thanks to God for these little lives, and pray that both parents and children will be blessed in the coming days.

The annual church dinner was well attended as family and friends gathered to enjoy a meal together. A lovely meal was provided for all, and following the meal, a table quiz was organised by Derek and Sandra Weir, and Paul Irwin came along to sing some Gospel songs.

Santa Claus made his usual stop off at the Sunday School and Good News Club party to bring some gifts to the children. He was well received by all, and many smiling faces were seen as the famous man in the red coat stepped through the hall door. As he had come on his own, Godfrey McFarland agreed to step in and be 'Santa's little helper' for the evening (pictured above). After briefly speaking to all the children and confirming their Chirstmas lists with them, he left just as quickly as he had arrived, stating that he had quite a bit of work to get through before the 25th December!

Some of the young people pictured at the Congregational Youth Quiz night held at Spamount Congregational Church. Congratulations go again to Straid young folk who have won the quiz for two years running. Thanks also to the Spamount young people for hosting the event.

The church was beautifully decorated for our annual Harvest Thanksgiving services. Various produce from this year's harvest were put on display as thanks were returned to God for His provision. Rev George Speers from Ballynahinch Congregational Church was our guest speaker on the Sunday, and Mr Paul Acheson from the Faith Mission came along on the Monday night to sing and preach from God's Word. We thank God for the physcial harvest, and continue to pray for a great spiritual harvest in the coming days.

Revival was the subject of a series of meetings which were held in the church recently, conducted by Rev Tom Shaw (pictured above). Many of us were challenged through his messages on the need for revival to come to our generation.

It was a case of 'many hands make light work' when a work day was held at the church to carry out some much needed repairs and general maintenance to the buildings and grounds. A good number of people came to help with the various jobs to be done, and with the Rev Kissick acting as foreman for the day, no one was left with nothing to do. Various tasks carried out were: power washing of the main car park, painting the youth hall, cutting back some trees, cleaning out the guttering, and washing windows, to name but a few. Many thanks to all who gave of their time to come and help out.

Pictured above on the left is the Rev K Finlay, who was minister of Donaghey Church over 45 years ago, and on the right, Rev Kissick, our current minister. The Rev Finlay was invited to come and bring an account of the history of the church, and how the church was originally formed. He brought a very interesting and challenging message to the congregation, stating that the Rev Hugh Kelso had brought the fire of the gospel to Donaghey as a result of the 1859 revival, and that it was up to us as a church to keep that fire burning brightly in this place, as has been the case down through the years.

For further information on the history of the church click here

We were delighted to be able to join with Willie and Alice Ferguson in celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. Tea and refreshments were provided after the Wednesday night meeting, and the couple, who were married during the reign of King George VI, were presented with some gifts, and a cake which the couple cut together. Willie gave a short word of thanks and indicated that time had gone so fast, and made reference to a loaf of bread as being amongst the wedding gifts which the couple received back in 1949. We wish them God's richest blessing in the days and weeks to come.

During the first week in August, the church held their annual Holiday Bible Club. This year the theme for the club was 'The Wordless Book', where various colours are used to represent different messages from the Bible, such as the yellow page which speaks of Heaven, and the red page which speaks of a Saviour who gave His life. Bewteen 80-90 children came along each night to hear Bible stories, learn memory verses and have fun in the quizzes. On the Friday night, parents and friends were invited along to the meeting, and there was a barbeque afterwards. Many thanks to all the parents for sending their children along, and to the helpers from Donaghey who helped make everyting run so smoothly.

Over 50 of our Youth Focus members went to Dundonald Ice Rink on Saturday night for the annual Youth Focus outing. Everyone enjoyed the fun on the ice and at the 10 pin bowling, and after using up all this energy a stop off in McDonald's finished off the evening nicely. Left: Elaine and Lois steady each other on the ice. Right: Rev Kissick proves to the other leaders that it isn't that hard after all!

Donaghey was the first stop for a group of people on a tour of some of the Revival Sites within Northern Ireland. The tour, organised by the Faith Mission, met at Donaghey where a short meeting was held, a brief history was given on the church at Donaghey, which was formed as a direct result of the 1859 revival, and refreshments were provided before boarding the bus for other places such as Connor and Coleraine. Various 'tour guides' were taking part throughout the day, including the wife of our previous Pastor, Mrs Mabel Shaw, who gave the talk at Donaghey and also at Connor.

To find out more about the history of Donaghey Church and how the church was formed, click here for a full account of events which took place.

Some members of the church recently travelled to the Ballymacashon church near Saintfield to support the mission being held there. It is planned that after the mission, a Sunday service will commence in the church, and eventually a fully functioning Congregational Church established. Please pray for the mission and the ongoing outreach in this church, and for those involved in this work.