With a team of Martin Garner, Diego Campos, Kelvin Jellyman, and Steve Plumb. (Don Egan who had planned to join us was ill). We headed of early on Saturday morning 18th March.
We were hosted for the weekend by infectious missionaries Adrian and Janice McCartney. Adrian is of N Ireland’s true pioneers having started Streetreach 4 years ago.
This summer Streetreach will take up to 1,500 young people onto the streets of some of the toughest communities (both catholic and protestants) of Belfast - one of the most troubled cities in Europe over the last 50 years.
Like similar ventures Streetreach has had a huge impact, winning awards for crime reduction at one of the most sensitive times of year, beside bring tons of the light and love of Jesus into these areas.
Martin brought a team over leaders from Sheffield to help with the first year of Streetreach and people have been joining in ever since.
Saturday we visited a 24/7 prayer room in the city centre built around St Patrick.
In the afternoon we visited to Hill hall estate in Lisburn where Martin and Sharon lived 5 years earlier, and had been involved in pioneering mission.
It was great to see what was happening.
Lisburn cathedral, under the leadership of Rev. Sam Wright have continued to encourage the ministry.
One of the key players is Billy Moore, a wonderful man whose ministry was recognized by the wider church when in 2005 he was commissioned by the local Bishop as 'lay minister in the Church of Ireland'. Billy leads a church that meets in the local pub.
During our visit Martin took time to visit people in the community and share Christ with them. One lady decided it was time for her to come back to Jesus and so she turned up at the pub church the next morning.
One of the special highlights, was spending time with the local para-military leader.
Martin had the chance to apologise to him for the way that the message of Christ had been miss-represented to him and his community.
It was a chance to agree that we put people in boxes and end up judging them!
Martin also spoke about the fact that people have often real experience of God, but they were rarely talked about. He said that God belonged to these people and was not the God of the ‘religious people’ but was THEIR GOD!
It was great to talk with Wendy who had joined the outreach in the area. Wendy’s family all come from the area and even though she had moved away, God had called her back. She already knew she was making a difference!
We left with the hope to return and make a DVD which could be distributed to every house in the community, with stories of changed lives, and a clear message about God and Jesus (but without some of the unhelpful religious language that is so often a barrier).
On Sunday morning Steve Plumb preached at Wells, Church in Moneyreagh (which was to feature in the next couple of weeks on GMTV in the Sunday morning slot!).
Then in the evening, Martin lead a meeting mostly for men at Wells church.
He talked the tough subject of 'temptations that men face', and the open doors that can be found when we understand that God already speaks to people.
"An incredible time. It was very exciting to see what God is doing amongst the para-military in that particular area of Northern Ireland. The rhythm and the movement in which God led us was very unexpected.
I can only speak for myself, but I must say that what I learnt during those three days by being with Martin will be always remembered."
Diego Campos
"It was inspirational to see the enthusiasm, committment and creativity of the Christians in Hill Hall and Moneyragh as they are 'Getting the message out'. The whole Street reach Project is awesome and I with others from Sheffield hope to be on the team for summer 06."
Steve Plumb
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