The Drop

For the last few years Dungarvan Christian Fellowship has had a church youth group.  However, we were not sure what was going to happen with the group because we knew many of the church teens attending would be moving for various reasons.  Our group was dwindling, and we only had a few local ‘non-church’ youth around.   So did it fizzle out?  Nope… it has tripled or maybe even quadruped in size!  It all happened because we read this new book on multiplication…ok that’s not true.    We didn’t do much of anything; God just ‘dropped’ it in our lap, so to speak.

Here’s the story:
A Christian youth group from a bigger town an hour north of us has this youth summer outreach they do, and they came to our church to do it.  They team up with high school youth groups from the States, come together in Ireland, and hold 2-week youth drop-in centers in Irish towns.  They invite youth from the town and tell them to come hang out, play cards, have snacks, games, Xbox and chat.  Well they did exactly that at our church for 2 weeks, for about 5 hours a day, and called it “The Drop.”  We could see this approach was extremely successful.  It is a very casual way to build relationships with the youth in our town.  There isn’t much for them to do around town, and they love being a part of something fun, relaxing, and accepting.  This also leads way to deeper conversations about life, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to be an example to these young people.  So long story short, when the American team left the youth kept coming. We are now open every Thursday and hope to expand as we get more volunteers.  What an exciting time for us as we see God moving in the youth of our town!

This is an incredible outreach God literally ‘dropped’ in our laps.  Our prayer is that God will continue to draw young people to this new youth center, where they can be touched by the love of Jesus.

Horizon Gathering

DCF is a part of the Horizon International Family of Churches. This is a network of churches that has been based on individual church friendships developed over time and with the purpose of encouraging the work God is doing in each ministry. Each year, several leaders form these different churches will come together to worship, pray and support each other with both challenges and encouragements. This year, with Steve as our new pastor, DCF was able to host this gathering. Leaders from Ireland, England, France and Germany gathered together in Dungarvan. It was a great time of reconnecting and even making a few new friends. We were also able to have a special midweek evening service for our fellowship so everyone could get to know each other, as we pray for these churches regularly as a congregation. We look forward to the year ahead and all that God does through these relationships. We have loved having these leaders as guest speakers during the year as it brings a fresh outlook into the community.

Worship in the Park!

It was during a week long session of prayer that Steve got the inspiration for doing Worship in the Park.  As a way to do something for the community, DCF decided to run with the idea, giving it all right back to God.  In the course of just a few weeks, all the details were sorted.  The town gave us all the required permissions, we had sound equipment hired and al the music sorted.  God even brought out the sun in spite of the rainy days prior.  So on the Sunday afternoon of October 16th, the DCF worship team began to praise in the center of Lookout Park.  Armed with tea, coffee and biscuits, some of the ladies served the onlookers and provided lyric sheets for those who wished to join in.  It was a great event with folk from the community attending, even some passersby stopping to join in the music.  It was an exciting thing to be able to declare the praises of God in such a public space.  We are grateful for all those who helped, contributed and showed support for the event.  The feedback was all quite positive and we look forward to hosting another such event in the spring.