Just as others are gathering in, folks, we'll sing together the hymn, What Gift of Grace? Is Jesus my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. We'll just keep our seats. The gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer, there is no more for me. ♪ He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom ♪ ♪ My strength, my love, my demon, my retreat ♪ ♪ To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus ♪ ♪ For my life is holy unto Him ♪ ♪ Oh, what strength and delight I can sing ♪ The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the Savior he will stay. I leave her all in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need This, I hope, my shepherding may be, Through the deepest valley he will lead. Olden nights, I sleep on, and I shall, O for a man I'll die, But through Christ in thee. I know I am moving. The future's sure, the rising has been made. For Jesus bled and suffered for my garden. ♪ And he was raised to overthrow the grave ♪ ♪ To this I hold my sinners redeemed ♪ ♪ Jesus, now and ever is my plea ♪ ♪ All the chains are released, I can sing ♪ ♪ I am free, and now I'm a free man ♪ ♪ With Christ in me. ♪ ♪ With every breath I love you, Lord Jesus. ♪ ♪ For need I say that he will bring me home. ♪ ♪ And day by day I know he will lead me. ♪ In this I hope, my hope is only Jesus, all the glory and honor to Him. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat and cry, but through Christ in me. Opening hymn tonight is a very well-known missionary hymn, 675. Far, far away in heathen darkness dwelling, millions of souls forever may be lost. Who, who will go? Salvation's storytelling, looking to Jesus, minding not the cost. In darkness dwelling, hidden souls forever may be lost. Who will know salvation's storytelling, looking to Jesus, finding not the cause? All power is given unto thee. All power is given unto thee. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, and oh, I am with you always. Open doors inviting, soldiers rise, arise and enter in. Christians awake, their forces all uniting, stand for the gospel, break the chain. All power is given unto thee. All power is given unto thee. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, and know I am with you always. I really, I, the voice of God is calling, I really, I, re-echoing His name. Jesus, I, to save from death I'm calling, Life and salvation, therefore go proclaim. All power is given unto me, All power is given unto thee. O ye in turn of work and preach the gospel, and know I am with you always. God's sweet name, and those of every nation, glory to God, triumphantly shall sing. Crowned supreme, rejoicing in salvation, shout hallelujah for the Lord is King. Amen. May we be seated. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Let's call upon his name. Our heavenly Father, we come to the house of God tonight as your people. We come with expectation in our hearts to meet with the Lord most of all. And so we pray from the beginning of this time together that there will be that very conscious sense of the Lord's nearness, that your presence will fill this very room in which we gather and indeed your presence will fill our hearts tonight. We meet upon the grounds of redemption. We have no other plea, we have no other argument to bring but our mediator and the great work that he accomplished at the cross of Calvary. We thank you that we can say Jesus is our righteousness. We are covered tonight in that robe of righteousness and we are cleansed by his precious blood. and we can rejoice in the reality of sins forgiven and the knowledge that it is well, it is well with our souls. And we thank you, Lord, for this night. that finds us together in your house, a missionary night, when special thought will be given to the Great Commission. And we've been singing about that commission already. And we think of those days of the resurrection, when the Lord showed Himself by many infallible proofs that He was raised from the dead. And in those times of showing and revealing Himself, He gave them over and over again the Great Commission, sending them forth into the world to preach the gospel. And we thank you for the equipment that they were given. For when Jesus ascended to glory, he sent the comforter. And 10 days later, the Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost and filled those men. And out into Jerusalem, they went to preach your word. And that word was to be preached first of all in Jerusalem, and then in all Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. And Lord, we thank you for the promise of your presence to all who go forward in the Lord's great name to do his work and to preach the glorious gospel of Christ. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. We thank you for your servants who have come tonight to speak to us, to open up your word and set before this congregation the burden of their heart and the calling that God has given to them to go into the world and to be that ambassador for Christ. As our brother comes and opens up your word tonight, we pray that you will bless us in what he has to say. And as we look at the DVD presentation, Lord, make it a blessing to us and a real challenge to our souls. And we pray for Emma, too. She would set before us prayer requests, whatever part she has in this meeting. Lord, we pray that that will help her. meaning tonight be characterized with a real conscious sense of the presence of God, wherein your voice is heard. Speak to our hearts. We pray that every individual here this evening will hear what God is saying in a very personal way and a very powerful way also. Renew your vision. Lord, help us to lift up our eyes afresh and look in the fields that are white already unto harvest. And Lord, we pray that you'll bless those that are involved in your work and bless those that are preparing for future service as well in this meeting and Lord remember the congregation, because surely among this number there are others, and the Lord will speak to them and challenge them tonight. May it be so. This could be a meeting where some life is touched by the Lord and some young person is called by the Lord and sent forth into the world to preach the gospel. Lord, hear and answer our prayers tonight. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 680. He was not willing. that any should perish, Jesus, enthroned in the glory above, saw our poor fallen world, pitied our sorrows, poured out his life for us, wonderful love. Glory above! Star-burned, golden-burned, be our star, for it is light for us. Perishing, perishing, thrown in our pathway, martyred with burdens preparing to die. Jesus was saved, but there's no one to tell Him, no one to lift Him from sin and death. He was the blade in the head he should perish. Loaded our fates with his sorrow and pain. Came he to seek the lost, conquer the ordered. Heed the heart broken by sorrow. ♪ Perishing, perishing, harvest is passing ♪ ♪ Reapers are filled and the blind drawn and healed ♪ ♪ Jesus is calling thee, haste to the reaping ♪ ♪ Pudge of the soul's precious fruit ♪ ♪ Or measure one little more, Jesus ♪ ♪ Time for the world with its troubles and joys ♪ ♪ No time for Jesus' work, we the hungry ♪ ♪ Living our souls to eternity's joy ♪ We are so weary, so heavily laden, And with the grieving our eyes have grown dim. May we soon perish, rise forward, and that I live. Go through at ease, let the soul go in wonder. Close to the light of the help I might be. ♪ Perishing, perishing, God was not ready ♪ ♪ As to forgive and inspire us anew ♪ ♪ Punish our worthiness, help us to better ♪ ♪ Live the eternity of using you ♪ Amen. It's always good to get in for the last line at least. Good to see everyone who has come and welcome in the Savior's name and welcome to those that are joining us on the internet tonight and welcome to Glenn and Emma Hamilton. It's a joy to have you congregation here. Praise for the missionary work and they've been remembering you before the Lord and we look forward to what you've got to say tonight. A few announcements to run through and we'll sing another hymn and then we'll have the preacher. Tomorrow night is the Youth Fellowship at eight o'clock. On Saturday, remember Kirsty because there is the recognition ceremony at Crown College for her on the Lord's Day. The prayer meeting is at eight o'clock, the Sunday school at 10.30 and the Bible class quarter to 11. Worship service at 12 noon. We will look at the third question in Mark chapter 12. We've been going through Mark's gospel, and we come to the religious question. In the afternoon, there's an annual service. The Bellarmine District will come here in the afternoon at 3.30. If you're able to come and support that, we'll be delighted to see you. And then our gospel meeting is at 7. The speaking voice of God is the subject I want to speak on, and we meet for prayer half an hour before at 6.30. Next Wednesday night, our sister, Mrs. Arlene Gray, will be here at the ladies' meeting. She will be speaking, and Rebecca McCauley will be singing. And we're asking you, if you have the means to do so, share this with your friends, invite them to come. Next family night is the 5th of May, Sunday week, and Colin McKee will be coming to give his testimony, as we announced on the Lord's Day. And again, this is something that you can share with others and invite them to come. The following Lord's Day is a special Lord's Day. It's a wee bit earlier than normal, but it is the Hebron Youth Sunday, and at both of the services, the young people will take part. They will sing, and the preaching of the word will be from some of our young people as well. That's all the announcements. We'll sing another hymn in the harvest field, now ripened. There's a work for all to do. Hark, the voice of God is calling to the harvest, calling you. And just remember, as we sing, little is much when God is in it. Whatever we do for the Lord, whether it's great or small, if God is in it, then he will own it and he will bless it, and he will use it for his glory. ♪ With our right hand, there's a work for all to do. ♪ ♪ Hark the voice of God is calling, to the harvest calling new. ♪ ♪ In this lunch, when all is given, favor not for wealth or fame. ♪ ♪ There's a crown that you can win. ♪ If you go, in Jesus' name. In the mad rush of the broad day, In the hurry and the strife, Tell of Jesus' love and mercy, Give to them the word of life. Build this mosque where God is in it. Flame her not for wealth or fame. There's a prize that you can win if you go in Jesus' name. ♪ Must a waster call to labors ♪ ♪ Seem too small and little known ♪ ♪ It is free if God is in it ♪ ♪ And in love for 10 years old ♪ ♪ Will this waster God is in it ♪ ♪ Labor not for wealth or fame ♪ ♪ It will go in Jesus' name ♪ ♪ I will make a sign from serpents ♪ ♪ Body worn from toil and pain ♪ ♪ You can still be in the bottom ♪ ♪ In the sacred place of prayer ♪ ♪ The hill is much when God is in it ♪ ♪ Labor not for wealth or fame ♪ ♪ There's a crown that you can win it ♪ ♪ If you go in Jesus' name ♪ When the prophet here is in heaven, and our race on earth is done, he will say, if we are faithful, welcome home, my child, well done. If there is much when God is in heaven, labor not for wealth or fame. It's a joy to have Mr. and Mrs. Glen Hamilton with us this evening. And just before the Lord's servant comes to speak to us, there are these prayer cards and we want everyone to take a prayer card with you tonight. Put it in your Bible, your notice board at home, wherever you keep these prayer cards and remember Most essentially to pray for this family as they go in the will of God to the land of Kenya There's a little section there. You can covenant before God to pray if you want to contribute in a monthly or bases, and we encourage people to do that, you can fill it in and send it off to the mission board. But make sure you get this prayer card and take it with you. There's also a leaflet from the Missionary Council, and it brings you up to date with matters for prayer. And it deals not only with some of the other countries, like Uganda, Liberia, Nepal, and India, but Kenya features on it, and the Hamilton family also. So these are things. to take with you, to pray over and to support and encourage our missionaries all you can. Good to have you brother. I'm going to hand it over to you now. Lord bless you. Good evening everybody. It's great to see you all here tonight and great to see how many of you have come tonight. I suppose that in a way is a way that you have encouraged us already and supported us in this journey that we're on to go to the mission field by being here and showing your interest in us and your support for us by your attendance here tonight. Thank you Reverend Park for the welcome and for the opportunity to be here tonight and to present to you the needs of the missionary effort in Kenya from two perspectives. One is to give you a general view of what the work is like in Kenya, what it is that we're focusing on, and where we're hoping to take the work in the future. And then there are those specific needs that relate to Emma and I and our children and our family needs, really, between now and September. when we hope to go to Kenya, and that is the plan that we're working towards to leave in that month at some point during September. So I'm gonna cover, as you would imagine, a lot of specific information tonight, and it's my tendency to go a bit overboard, and so I'm just gonna give you fair warning from the beginning tonight. But before we dive right into that, I want you to turn with me, please, in God's word, to Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, because tonight, as is obviously the case, we're going to be focusing on missionary work. And that really, as you well know, is such a broad area and such a broad term. When I say missionary work, Some of you might have, in your minds, immediately envisaged a particular set of activities and things, and yet the person right next to you might have imagined another list, but of entirely different activities and things, all filed under this title, missionary work. So tonight, I want to hopefully try and help us to understand What scripturally we ought to put under that title missionary work, because it can be very hard to know where to start because of how varied that work is. Whenever missionaries go to do this work, what do we focus on? What is it we're actually aiming for here? And even for those of you who pray for us at home, you might still ask, well, what am I specifically to be praying for? What is it that I want to see the Lord use the Hamilton family, or the Macaulay family, or the Kerskaden family, any of our missionaries, what is it that I want the Lord to use these missionaries to do? Well, I hope to help you with answering that question tonight as we look at this particular chapter of the book of Acts, beginning just to look at one verse, number 26. If you look at that verse with me, please. And as you can see from the context of the verse, we're reading about Paul and Barnabas's return after their first missionary journey. Verse 26. and then sealed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." So they're going back to the place they came from, the church at Antioch, the church which had sent them out to do a particular work. And it tells us at the end of verse 26 that they are coming back having fulfilled that work. And that's a very important detail. Essentially, it's telling us that as the Holy Spirit sees it and describes it, what Paul and Barnabas accomplished by the grace of God was a success. in terms of missionary work. This is what true fulfillment of the missionary task looks like. And so it's pretty helpful for us as we go about trying to understand what success in and fulfillment of the missionary task looks like, especially as we continue in that work even now, 2,000 years after these men came back from their missionary journey. So let's ask and hopefully answer the question, what is missionary work? What is missionary work? Firstly, missionary work is evangelism, and you already know that because of the hymn we sang together at the start of the meeting tonight. All power is given unto me, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. and lo, I am with you always. You see, it's very similar language in verse 21. Just a little back up the chapter, and we see some of the activities that these men were engaged in. Verse 21, and when they had preached the gospel to that city. So the missionaries have gone, in this verse, to the city of Derby for the first time, and upon their arrival, the Bible tells us right up front, this is what they did, almost their first a port of call, they preached the gospel. Why? Because evangelism was the natural starting point for missionary effort, as far as the apostles saw it. And remember that on the basis of what we read earlier in verse 26, this is what the Holy Spirit has in mind when he describes the fact that they fulfilled the work. This was part of that picture of success in missionary work. Evangelism is what the Lord has in mind. And therefore, evangelism must be front and center of what we do in missions. The time and the effort of missionaries, the support and the prayers of their senders must aim towards this effective evangelism. And I stress not only the evangelism, but the effective part too. Because included in evangelism are things like language learning. That enables clarity in evangelism. It includes understanding a local culture. Well, that ensures acceptance in evangelism. And then it also includes the obvious things, preaching, literature spreading, personal witnessing, all of those things which are evangelism themselves. But some of it is this, missionary work is evangelism, preaching the gospel. Not to be disconnected from that, we find that after evangelism had taken place in the city of Derby, there was then, secondly, discipleship. Missionary work is discipleship. If you read the rest of verse 21, we see that clearly. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith. So not only in Derby, but in all the other cities where they had preached the gospel, new converts were then taught, we see in verse 21, or discipled would be a legitimate way of translating that word taught. Verse 22 tells us specifically what this teaching and discipleship looks like. Really two things, confirming the souls of the disciples, or strengthening is another way of putting it, and then secondly, exhorting or instructing the believers in the faith. So if evangelism was the starting point for the apostles when they went into this city for the first time, it was not the end point. It was a starting point, but not the end point, because the work was to continue. Those who had received the gospel through the evangelism, they then needed to be matured, taught, and discipled. And although it might sound quite blunt, I think the point can be made on the basis of what we're reading here that missionary work which ignores discipleship can't really be seen as a true success any more than missionary work which ignores evangelism. And we wouldn't ever fathom the thought of missionary work without evangelism. We should have such a difficulty fathoming the idea of missionary work without discipleship. It has to progress. in the longer term with this strengthening, this teaching activity. Missionary work is discipleship, confirming and exhorting. There's a certain flow to all of this. There's a logical progression, which I hope you can see. There's evangelism leading to discipleship, and then discipleship leading to what exactly? You find in verse 23 the next in that logical progression, because missionary work, thirdly, is church planting. Missionary work is church planting. Verse 23 continues. So after they'd evangelized in each city, after they'd discipled the new believers in each city, they didn't leave them there without then performing this crucial task, ordaining men to be elders in every local church. Do you see that emphasis there, that word every? In every place they preached, in every place they taught, they also planted a church and ordained elders to oversee that church. Therefore, this too is a crucial component in success with true missionary work. It really all builds on what we've already seen because you can't start here. You can't go into a place and start with the ordaining of elders to a church. It's impossible to have a functioning, healthy church without the oversight of ordained elders, but it's impossible to ordain elders if those believers haven't been discipled to maturity. An immature believer can't be an elder, and it's impossible to disciple new believers to maturity if they haven't been converted, first of all, through evangelism. Evangelism begets discipleship, and discipleship begets church planting. Missionary work is church planting, ordaining elders, in every church. This really is, I suppose in a way, the litmus test of missionary work. And not because I say so, because the Bible tells us that Paul and Barnabas successfully fulfilled their missionary task. They spent energy and effort on preaching the gospel, confirming and exhorting believers, and ordaining elders in every church. Therefore, missionary work is evangelism, it is discipleship, It is church planting. So tonight, I hope that you can see in the deputation video, in the comments that I'm going to make afterwards relating to Kenya and Emma as well, that this apostolic pattern is one that has already been set out to be followed in Kenya, and we aim to continue doing that as the missionaries before us have already started out. And so the video that I'm gonna show you just now will hopefully bring all of this biblical material to life for you to see, well, what does evangelism, discipleship, and church planting look like 2,000 years on in a totally different part of the world in Kenya, and yet the Lord's work continues. It also will give you a bit of a background on who I am, who Emma is, where we came from, and how the Lord has taken us on a journey that we never anticipated. to be standing in this position tonight, really on the cusp of going to Kenya as missionaries. So find a comfortable position, and after the video's over, Emma and I will come back and add some comments to what you've said. With the prospect of going to Kenya, there's a whole lot of mixed emotions now whirling around in our heads of being excited at the fact that all that we've spent so much time thinking about and planning for, it's now reality or starting to become reality. And so we're so excited about realising all of those things, going to Kenya, but at the same time, there's also a degree of terror about what it's going to look like, all the different risks. I think the kids really are in the forefront of our minds. The impact that it's going to have on them emotionally. We're going to a place where there's maybe not a lot of company for them. That's a challenge. You're taking them away from family, extended family, grandparents, their schools. So there's a lot to wrestle with there in such young minds. So it's about managing that and making Kenya a home for them. It's going to be new, it's going to be different, but teaching them, do you know what's exciting too? It's different, but it's exciting. There are risks, there are challenges, there are all these things that we've talked about, but It's a privilege. It's a privilege to be chosen to be able to work in God's great plan to further the church. And so we don't leave with a heavy burden on our back but with excitement and happiness and a sense of wonderful amazement at what God has chosen to do with us. Doing that job of preparing his bride in a totally different part of the world and we don't feel worthy to do that work and in reality we aren't worthy and yet this is the wonder of how God works that he uses his people and he makes them worthy and he makes them able to do the work that he has for them to do. What an amazing privilege. I was born and I've spent the entirety of my life in Ballymena in a busy Christian home, which is a great way to grow up with a sister and two brothers and two parents, both of whom were saved from before I was born. And so we had so many good gospel influences in our home. I, like so many other in that situation and with those privileges, I made a profession of faith when I was very young, so young in fact that most of the details of that I don't remember and they've come to me second hand and that probably caused me some difficulty growing up because I couldn't remember exactly what happened and also the fact that I don't think there was a great deal of change in me and I don't think I really understood what had happened or what true conversion really is and what changes I ought to expect as a believer and I was convicted about all of that then when I became into my teenage years. I was at a youth council camp and I along with numerous other young people felt the same challenge that we all were converted or believed we were as children and yet that's all we had to hang on to. We had no real living experience of being a Christian and so I asked the Lord to deal with me at that time and I believe that that's when truly he changed me and changed my heart. So I went on from that point, still walking well with the Lord, still living, for all intents and purposes, a healthy Christian life. And yet at the same time, it was clear to me as I got older that there were priorities that needed realigned in my life. Because when I finished my school and was then moving on to university, I was very singularly focused on success. And it was between my second and third year that, out of the blue, my mum suggested to me that I spend my summer on a missionary trip, rather than working, rather than trying to get onto one of these schemes which will allow you to unlock career opportunities, which is what I really wanted to do. But I took her suggestion on board and went on a missionary trip with New Tribes Mission. I didn't do it by half measures. I went to the other side of the world, to Papua New Guinea, for four weeks. My entire perspective was open to something I had never really thought about properly before. Of course, in the Free Presbyterian Church, we talk lots about missionary work, but I had never placed myself in that conversation until I went and had that experience of training with new tribes and seeing how the Lord has a church in all the far corners of this world. And that struck me so, so profoundly that it actually totally changed my perspective on life and in the direction that I thought the Lord wanted to take me in. But I also had to think about other people, the people who would be impacted by that and probably the one person who would be impacted more than anyone else other than me was Emma. Glen did come home and he totally, you know, changed his ideas about a lot of things. I suppose that was a shock to my system and, you know, that was then a reorientation of my ideas and I suppose then we talked about that and then we actually went on a trip together. We finished our degrees and then we went to Papua New Guinea and I knew in my head there were people who needed to hear the gospel in far off lands but I got to see it for myself and that's what really affected my heart. When it had an impact on me then it meant that we were both aligned now in our desire both together to go and reach people with the gospel. That changed the trajectory of our family, which is what we effectively came home to do, to get married, to start a family, and we did all of that. I started working life, but all of that was done now with a totally changed direction, which is we're now pursuing what we believe the Lord has called both of us to do, which was to be missionaries. Like Glenn, I grew up in a Christian home. Both my parents were saved. It was a smaller family. I have one sister. But we had good influences growing up. We went to meetings, children's meetings, Sunday school, all the usual. And then I was saved, I suppose, at about the age of seven. I don't know a date. I don't remember the exact date. I remember mum was sitting with me. And from that point onwards, there was a change in my life. After that I continued primary school and then secondary school and at that point actually is when I met Glenn. We weren't in the same class at school but I was aware of his existence and we then met around fifth year was it? We were put in the same maths class so we bonded over our love of algebra together and it was at the infamous Randallstown youth rallies where it all began. We really hit it off. Yeah. For Emma and I to realise that vision that we'd been given for missionary work and taking the next formal step, we anticipated that it would be a lot faster than it actually was in reality. It was six years of home and family life, having our first child, Holly, and me working six years in a regular job up in Belfast. It was difficult because we had to be very patient. We needed to wait until it was clear that the Lord wanted us to move on to the next step. And we were at a Bible conference in our own church, which runs every year, and Dr. Douglas opened up to Joshua chapter 1 and verse 2 and focused his attention on that day on just a few words in that verse, which is, arise, go over this Jordan. That struck me massively, not just because those were relevant words, but because just two days before that, I had been reading those verses in my own scripture reading and I had been thinking about it and suppressing in my own mind the thought that, oh, the Lord is speaking to me, it's time to arise and go. I was thinking, Glenn, don't get carried away with yourself here, but the Lord accommodated himself to my cynicism by using Dr. Douglas that Sunday morning to challenge young people, and he did this. If the Lord is speaking to you, listen to his call, listen to the commission that he's given to you, and arise and go. So the question for us was, what does arise and go look like? And so for us, it meant, pursuing training in some shape or form and we felt that the right place to look for that training and equipping for missionary service was with our own church. So we sought out training with Whitfield College of the Bible and I started that program in 2019 and I'm now finished four years of training ready for the next stage. During the course of the time that I spent at college I was really fortunate to have an opportunity to visit the mission field, in fact more than one. I was able to visit Uganda on my own in 2022 and then in the same year we went as a family together to visit Kenya, took Holly and George with us as well and those experiences really helped me even to think through what does my role and my responsibility look like in missionary work? Because bearing in mind all my previous experience have been tribal missions, reaching the hardest to reach, learn unwritten languages, all of that kind of stuff. And that was what I thought, that's what a missionary has to do. And I think seeing different contexts, seeing different kinds of missionary work helped me to see that in some parts of the world, your work is less, I'm on the front line, and more, how can I help the Kenyans, the Ugandans, how can I help the people of East Africa to reach their own people? And I think the Lord even just started to shift my ideas about what the right and wrong ways of doing mission are. Kenya felt like a really special place. We obviously had mishaps that happened along the way, but it felt like a really special environment. The people, we really felt accepted by them. We really got on with them very well. The kids slotted in nicely and that was something that we really noticed about going to Kenya. We formed a bond with the people in Kenya that made it hard for us to ignore. And forming relationships with people is something which God is sovereign over and we believe that. And so we look back now and see this was a part of how God was showing us where he wanted us to serve. The bond we felt was so special that he was confirming a place of service. Add to that that there's a wide open door of opportunity for us to serve in Kenya. There are no barriers, at least not yet, in that journey, and that is, I believe, part of God's seal, that this is where he wants us to go, as well as how he's clearly brought certain passages and portions of scripture again and again and again to my attention, all coming together at a particular time to show this is the way, and now you need to go. Yeah. As I come into the work in Glory Bible Church, I'm not coming into something that I need to start from the very beginning. A foundation has already been laid in terms of the maturity of the churches, and that work has been done so much by the Rev. Malcolm Patterson and his wife, Alison, and I am so indebted to them for all that they have done already in establishing such a strong foundation for those churches now to build towards maturity. But not just the Pattersons, those missionaries who came before them as well. All of that has been part of God's sovereign plan to bring us to this point. And so my work is going to be trying to assist those churches and the pastors of those churches who are Kenyan men in this journey to becoming mature and self-sustaining congregations. And different congregations are in different stages of that journey. And it's going to involve, in the future, the election of office bearers. Some of the churches have those. Some of the churches don't. Some of them are still just kind of like outreach congregations. They need to be constituted formally. And then more young men will need to be trained as pastors. And so I see myself as being a part of all of those responsibilities as I go out to Kenya. I see the missionary effort in Kenya as a church planting effort. There's no escaping that. It's just at a different stage in the journey than where I thought I fit in, being the frontline pioneer, but rather being the facilitator in the background. The Lord has a plan for Kenya, and I believe Glory Bible Church is part of that plan. So if our goal is this work of church planting under the banner of Glory Bible Church, we need to understand Kenyans. We need to understand the way Kenyans think. We need to understand the way Kenyans speak in terms of language. And so our focus is going to be laying that foundation when we first get to Kenya. Language learning will be important for me too to integrate myself into the churches there and to work hopefully time permitting with the ladies and with the kids but there's also my children and my family to consider and it'll be about integrating us into Kenya, making Kenya a home and also then the prospect of homeschooling the kids is quite scary but that's something that we're going to try to do. We have three children, Holly who is five, George who is four and then Isabella is a recent addition, she is just five months. Life is going to be so different for our kids than it otherwise would be if we stayed at home, so that brings with it a whole load of differences that are scary for us, new risks, new this, new that, but also it brings with it privileges. They see in a way that I don't think our children are so readily exposed to because of the comfort in which we live here in the West, what it's like to live by faith and what it's like to have a faith that actually impacts day-to-day living. and missionaries often find themselves in that situation far more regularly than we would at home. I think back to that seemingly insignificant conversation that I had with my mum about, Glen, why don't you try going on a missionary trip? And it's seeming to be something that was just so minor, yet that was what the Lord was going to use as a trigger to send me in a totally different direction. It's just a whole journey of seeing how God knows better than I do on so many levels as we've travelled this journey. Because if I wanted to become a missionary, and I did, this isn't how I would have done it, and this isn't the path that I would have taken, but it's the path that God has had us on. And as you look back, you have to always acknowledge His way is best, and He has brought us to the point where He wants us to be. And there's so much comfort in that. I think when we started all of this and when you're young you don't realise at that time how hard it's going to be to actually leave your family behind and leave your home behind. You're young and reckless and we're not young and reckless anymore. We're older, we have kids, we have such a close connection with both of our families. And the closer you get to that jumping off point, the harder and harder it becomes. And so we have to constantly remind ourselves of the privilege of sacrificing for God's cause. And there's a really well-known C.T. Studd quote to that effect. which we tell ourselves all the time, which is if Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me to make for him. So I'll try just now to take a few moments as quickly as I can, because you'd probably rather hear from Emma at this point than me. But just give a little bit of background in terms of the landscape of Kenya, particularly from a religious perspective. And while around 10% of the Kenyan population is Muslim, the remaining 85 to 90% is Christian, or at least that's the box that they tick on their census form. And while you might initially find that to be greatly encouraging, the real picture in terms of the religious state of the nation is really quite a lot more discouraging than that, and poses quite a big challenge, because in that 85 to 90%, you've got a whole mixture of different things going on. One is that you've got a lot of people, I suppose quite similarly to what we have here in the whole island of Ireland, people with very nominal connections to churches, either through their parents, through the fact that they might have been baptised into a Roman Catholic or Lutheran or Episcopalian church. That kind of thinking is very prevalent in Kenya as well. And although many will have no interest in church life or in terms of understanding scripture or any personal faith, they will describe themselves as Christian and say that they're one of God's people and he's watching over them, et cetera, et cetera, because of this ritual experience they went through as a baby or their parents attend the particular church and that's it. There's also another group which are much more zealous about the church and about that kind of living act of faith, but they're caught up in the huge charismatic movement, not only in Kenya, but in the whole of East Africa, and it's massively influential. in that part of the world, and with good reason, because many of these men who are self-proclaimed apostles and prophets come and they claim to be able to offer people health and wealth. If they attend the church, tie through the church, go through certain rituals, purchase certain holy waters and all these kinds of ridiculous things. And when you come along with an offer like that to a community of people who don't have good health, generally speaking, and really don't have much wealth, they will obviously flock to hear a preacher like that and to be a part of a movement like that and to do whatever they can to get this promised health and wealth that the Prosperity Gospel preachers are offering. And so that's why it's really swept like wildfire through really East Africa and probably even the other regions of the continent. I was actually reading a few weeks ago some data that had been collected, and they found that over half of African Christians believe in the basic tenets of the prosperity gospel, that by faith they will have health and wealth. and material prosperity. So that's pretty stark when you consider that 85 to 90% of Kenyans describe themselves as Christian. So around half of them have some kind of belief in the prosperity gospel. And obviously in an environment like that, the gospel is very much sidelined, the true gospel. Biblical teaching is really not such a factor, and rather the focus is all on this sort of sensationalist charismatic practice. And aside from those things I've just described, you have another battle in Kenya with the fact that many who call themselves Christians are really only Christians on the basis of the fact that they have this thin veneer of Christian practice that they hold to in terms of outward things. So they love the ritual and they'll take and grab all the little rituals and trappings. But underneath the surface, what they actually believe is African traditional religion. That superstitious mode of religion that has existed in Africa for centuries. And when push comes to shove, that's when you see what someone really believes. So when the crops aren't growing, or when one of the children are sick, What are these Christian people doing? Are they praying? Are they resting in the sovereignty of God? No, they're running to the witch doctor, by and large, or going to perform X, Y, and Z to try and turn their fortunes around. And so that's when you see that under the surface, many Kenyan Christians actually still believe the same superstitious set of beliefs that their ancestors have believed for centuries. And they're just wearing a little bit of Christianity over the top. So that's the environment in which Glory Bible Church is operating. Glory Bible Church is, to simplify and perhaps, I hope not, but perhaps oversimplify, Glory Bible Church is the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church in Kenya, just under a different name. I don't want to get into the reasons for that difference in name because it's terribly boring, but that's the bottom line, is that they are the Free Presbyterian Church in Kenya, and have to use a different name because of the laws around the registration of charities in Kenya. So, under Glory Bible Church, we have nine works ongoing, and there's a great variance from one to the other. Some of those are reasonably strong church congregations. They have a membership role. they have elected deacons, they have a pastor who preaches and pastors in that area, and they maybe have somewhere close to 100 people attending their services on the Lord's Day. Those are probably those who are furthest in terms of maturity, and then you have some which only started in maybe the last five to six weeks, a little fellowship of people who are just gathering on the Lord's Day to worship, and that's all there is so far, but we want to see those opportunities develop and grow. And you've got everything in between in amongst those nine works that are ongoing, all bar one of them in the western part of Kenya, close to the Ugandan border. And so my work is not to pastor any one of those congregations, but as the Reverend Patterson did before me, work across the entire breadth of Glory Bible Church and assisting in every existing church, helping the pastors and the office bearers and the congregants with this discipling work that we talked about earlier tonight, strengthening, maturing, and developing the believers in the church and also the structures of the church so that eventually each congregation can be a mature, self-supporting, indigenous Kenyan congregation with local men in the pulpits, in the session, in the committee. Sunday school teachers, everybody able to understand and perform their responsibilities within the church without outside influence. I'm trying to push them further along that journey, not from the front, but from the back. And so the Kenyan pastors are the ones who will do the teaching and the pastoral ministry by and large with their congregations, but I'm there to assist and equip the existing congregations, but also seek out opportunities to plant more churches in different parts of Kenya and train and equip new young men who feel called to the pastorate to be able to go and do that and to start up new works as local missionaries and then as pastors as churches are planted. And so eventually we hope to be able to have a Kenyan presbytery made up of local pastors and elders who are overseeing every aspect of the work of Glory Bible Church in the long, long term without influence from anybody like me, except perhaps in an arm's length sort of advisory responsibility. There's a long road to travel to get to that point. We're not there yet or even close to it. And it could be many years, multiple terms, maybe more terms than the Lord gives me in Kenya, however long that might be. But that is the long-term vision, and that's what we want to see develop. and at least progress somewhere on that journey through the work that we do in Kenya. That's the long-term stuff. I'm gonna let Emma deal with the short-term stuff and also take you through some prayer requests as well to finish. And so before I sit down, can I thank you for listening to me and trying to take some of that information in and for your support as well. Thank you so much and I'll hand over to Emma now. Hello. It's lovely to see some familiar faces in Ballymoney looking up at me, so thank you for coming. And yes, as Glenn said, I am going to talk about the short-term stuff, as he called it. He's given you the vision, which is obviously very, very important. But as many wives and mothers, we kind of deal in a lot of the day-to-day issues. So like dinner and laundry and grocery trips and snacks. and appointments and bedtimes and more snacks. Really a lot of snacks cover most of my day. So in those day-to-day things, they don't stop as we prepare to go to Kenya. There's just a lot of stuff going on as well as those things. And then they also don't stop when we get to Kenya. A lot of those day-to-day things still continue. So I'm going to give you a few of our, what I like to call, short-term stresses. But prayer requests that you can be praying for us in the short term. So, firstly, we've talked about it a bit already. There's the obvious challenge of the Swahili language. So we've committed to learn Swahili. And as I say that, and I've said that a few times now, you know, we're going to learn a new language. That's massive. It's just, we've started already and it's just a lot. It's very different to any language, you know, European language that we might have learnt at school. And it's also been a long time since school that we've actually learnt a language. So pray for us as we've started already now, in the books, learning vocab, getting the grips of the grammar. Margaret Russell's helped a lot with that. She's obviously proficient in Swahili. So she's helping us a bit, keeping the pressure on, making sure we're learning our vocab. Some of us are better at learning our vocab than others. I'm not pointing any fingers, but I'm, it's Glenn. He's, but no, we are trying. There's just a lot to do as well as learning Swahili as well. So pray that we'd find time to do that amongst all the busyness. And then also then when we get there, learning language will probably look a bit different than just looking at books. We'll want to spend a lot of time with the people because we want to learn not only their language but also their culture. So how they view the world. They think about things probably differently than we do. And the big stuff as well, so life and birth and death and God and sin, how they view those things. Obviously, we'll teach them biblically how to view those things, but when we think about those things, they probably think about those things slightly differently than we do. So we want to learn language and culture together. They're very important to learn them together. So pray for us now as we're looking at the books and then as we're spending time with the people, getting to grips with language and culture. So language first, and then logistics. So this one is a lot. So it is all our practical considerations. So Glenn's just submitted a work permit, so pray that all that would go smoothly, that all the checks would go okay. Then moving all our stuff from here to there, and deciding what to get rid of, what to put in storage, and what to send out. um we had we've had multiple discussions about that. Glenn decided one day that there was no Christmas decorations coming and I said maybe we could bring a few so just conversations like that you know that we would agree and that we would we make the sensible and right choice um so all of that and there are probably other things that will crop up as we do this that I haven't considered although I'm pretty sure I've worried about most of the things But if there's anything that comes up, even things we don't know about yet, pray for those as well as you hear of them. The medical needs too, that's another one. Isabella, our youngest, has never been to Kenya, so she has a whole... raft of injections to get and all the medical things that we need to think about, maybe bringing medication with us or just finding out when we get to the country where we inevitably take the children if they fall out of a tree and break a limb or I don't know, there's going to be things that happen. So just things like that, all the medical stuff too. So then when we arrive in Kenya, I talked about the day-to-day issues before we get there, but there's going to be a lot for us to adjust to when we get there. Just different rhythms. It's going to just be a whole new life and a whole new different place. So pray for our kids. Their little minds are going to take a bit of adjusting to all this newness, especially as I'm going to be homeschooling them. So pray for me and pray for them, because I feel my inadequacy in this area. And yes, they have to deal with me as a teacher, so I feel their struggle too. So pray for me and them as we work together to work all that out and get to grips with homeschooling. And then also, obviously Holly is our eldest, she's now six, George is four, and Isabella is nearly a year. So Isabella and George kind of, they will adjust, I would imagine, pretty quickly. They're pretty young. George knows a wee bit more of what's going on, obviously. And then Holly, she's probably the one that's gonna struggle the most. She's very aware of what's happening. She knows she's going to be not seeing her friends anymore. She knows she's not going to be able to pop down the road and see Granny and Granda or my mom. So just, some days she's really excited and then other days she is not. So just pray for her. Her we might as she adjusts to all this newness because, you know, we're going to try and make it as smooth forward as possible but it's really God who will, you know, be able to help her in those issues. So pray for her. Pray for us all. as we try and make that transition for them as smooth as possible. And then on that, pray for our extended family. There's a family obviously left behind, and that bit's not gonna be easy. I don't think I need to say that. It's not gonna be easy to part from them. But the same God that takes us to Kenya is the same God that will be with them and be with us as we part with them. And then pray for a change in team in Kenya. So the Pattersons who were out are now home for good. And pray for them as they adjust to that, because that's new for them. And then, obviously, the sadness of that parting as well for the Kenyans. So pray for that. And then we have a new team member, Elizabeth Edwards, from our Lisbon congregation, which has been a real encouragement. And we're really excited about that. And pray for Elizabeth. She's already started deputations. So she'll be with you, I assume, at some point. And then just pray for us as we work as a team and form strong bonds. Glenn's obviously been with Elizabeth at college, so he knows her through that way. But then when you're thrown into Africa together in a stressful environment, obviously, you know, forming relationships there will be different. We've already started now. But pray for us as we work together as a team in Africa. And then, this is a new prayer request, that's why I was kind of scribbling in the meeting, because there's a team going out to Kenya tomorrow, actually, a work team. They're going just to do some electrical work in the house, the two houses out there on the compound in Kitali. So pray for them that all their travel will go smoothly, the work will go smoothly, and they'll be able to get what they need done. And then lastly, I'm aware this is a long prayer request situation, but lastly, I just want you to pray for the Glory Bible Church, as we've talked about. It's not just all about the missionaries. Pray for them as they just get on with day-to-day living, living for the Lord out there in Kenya. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, just working as a church, the members out in their local community, the pastors as they pastor the church, Pray for them as the church is mature and as there's not missionaries on the ground right now that they'll know God's help as they work out there. So I'm aware that's a lot, but thank you very much for listening to them all. And there are lots of challenges as I've outlined there, but we've said it over and over again, and I really want to emphasize it's a real, real privilege to be involved in a small part of what God has planned for the nations in Kenya. It's been a privilege just to be out there once before, and we're really excited about going back again. So I just want to thank you. I know you're a congregation who does pray for missionaries and remember missionaries, and thank you so much for praying for us up until this point, and just ask that you'd pray for us in the future. So thank you very much, and we'll hand back now to Raven Park. I'd like to thank you both, Glen and Emma. It's been interesting. It's been informative. It's been challenging. I liked a little bit about the snacks. That's the kind of thing we like in our house as well. And of course, when the grandchildren come, they like that. Brought back a lot of memories, for we've had a good, long association with Kenya in many, many ways, not least Noring, of course, spending 17 years there in the past. And so we will pray for you. and we trust that you'll get to know Swahili very, very quickly. There was some little suggestion jokingly before that they would sing in Swahili, and they could sing in Swahili. Jesus loves me, this I know, but we're not going to ask them to do that tonight. Thank you, we've really enjoyed that. I hardly recognize, you know, You've changed so much. Emma's just the same, but maybe it is. Maybe the hair grew down. You know, that way, but just lovely to see it. And those are the things to pray for. I've jotted down quite a few of them, and we can share this even on the Lord's Day again for you to remember them before the Lord. There is a deputation offering. Missionaries cannot go to the mission field unless they are supported. And two vital parts of that is prayer and the practical support that we give. And you have the opportunity to send this missionary couple and their family to Kenya by your giving. And they need to raise the money to support them in the land of Kenya for the next three years, for the first term. So remember that. There'll be a lot of expense. So take them upon your heart. Not sure if you know the hymn 530, but I thought this would be appropriate for us to sing before we come to the place of prayer. A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, a never dying soul to save and fit it for the sky. This is very much part of the work that they'll be involved in. I've got to keep my head, I've got to hold my head. ♪ Ever guiding soldiers straight ♪ ♪ And feeding for the sky ♪ ♪ To send the present age ♪ ♪ My calling to fulfill ♪ My heart engaged to my master's name. Are we with zealous care, As in thy sight to live? And, O thy servant Lord, Prepare us with the path to live. I shall pray, and all my self rely, and let me bear my trust, betray the threats to ends on high. Please remember the following. This is a night in the month that we pray for missionary work and revival. And we like to have our deputations on this night. And so particularly, remember those who have come to visit with us and what you've heard this evening. Remember the sick before the Lord in prayer. And it's lovely to see Lydia with us tonight down there at the back. And she's been for scans today, and tomorrow for chemotherapy again. Tomorrow's a big day, a very big day. So remember her, please, as she travels back to Belfast tomorrow. Continue to pray for the school's ministry, the many schools that we're getting into. And we've been very excited about this and the opportunities that the Lord has given to us. And as we think of the mission that's coming up in September in the high school, remember the opportunity that Greg and Christine have had going into the high school and speaking to these young people. And we want to really concentrate on the high school this year, even going in to challenge them, but coming to the mission. So we're praying with that. Now the Lord will give us the opportunity to talk to them about attendance. We continue to remember Ukraine before the throne of grace and prayer. Nice to see some of our Ukrainians that are with us this evening. And we continue to pray for the land of Israel with all their need. We say goodnight to those that are joining us on the internet. At this point, you will leave us, but we will continue just now in a time of prayer together. So we'll seek the Lord.