Project Northern Ireland
February 2009
We will work with young adults and church planters in the areas of discipleship, leadership development, arts and outreach.
Latest From the Journal
Prayer Request: Team Health and Strength
Heather Zempel · February 25, 2009 · 4:37 AM
Can I make a quick prayer request? A few members of our team are beginning to feel the stresses and pressures of traveling. We’ve got some stuffy noses, some sore throats, and some coughing fits. I don’t even know where to start listing individual people because the health and strength levels of our individual team members seem to change hourly.
While I feel completely fine, I have no voice. :) I preached myself out on Sunday night and Monday night, and now I’m left with a whisper. I’ve never lost my voice before, so this is all a bit strange, though Ryan and other folks find it somewhat amusing. Please pray my voice returns by Thursday 1pm so I can teach at the Homegroup Forum. And pray for Dennis Bourne as he has stepped into the day-to-day leadership of the team.
Favour
Heather Zempel · February 25, 2009 · 4:26 AM
The word “favour” has been a theme for our team since we landed in Northern Ireland. On Sunday, they finished up their “Favour” series by talking about Unity in the morning and then I had the privilege of closing it out by talking about Release at the Seven service that night. We had a great time at church on Sunday morning. It began with early morning prayer with the Cornerstone prayer and healing team. Pastor Andrew asked our team to pray for that team, and it was such a privilege. I felt as though we were getting the opportunity to pray for some of God’s favorites. I’m not sure how to work that out theologically, but I just had this idea that there is a special place in God’s heart for the Cornerstone healing team. In the service, we sang with great excitement “God of This City,” standing in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Northern Ireland, asking God for the same thing we are praying for DC. The Seven service later that night was energetic and God-focused. I nearly preached my lungs out on Sunday night, and we prayed for the folks of Cornerstone to be released from the things that were holding them back and released to the calling that God had placed on their lives.
Here are just a few ways we have experienced the Favour of God on this trip:
AMAZING weather!! I’m not kidding. The sun has been shining, the temperature has been fair. Awesome.
Divine encounters- Mayor of Derry, former Mayor of Derry and MP Pat Ramsey, Nobel prize winner John Hume, etc
Getting through immigration despite holding rejected UK visas
Divine conversations with people on Street Pastors
Warm receptions in the schools
Unity and encouragement amongst the team
Relationships
Heather Zempel · February 25, 2009 · 4:16 AM
Our biggest prayer for this trip was that God would make us a conduit for his love. And that we would form relationships with people that would last a lifetime. I’m not sure how much love we’ve been able to pour out on others in the midst of all the incredible blessings we have been receiving from the amazing people of Northern Ireland. Here are a few of the friends we have made, and we ask that you pray God’s blessing and favour on their lives.
Norman McCorkell- Norman is our team leader and a pastor here at Cornerstone. He and his fiancee Emily (from the United States) have been our guides, encouragers, planners, and spiritual mentors during our time here. They get married in one month, so please pray for God’s blessing on their lives and marriage. I can’t even begin to tell you how much we love Norman and Emily. Their biggest concern seems to be that we have a great time and fall in love with their beautiful country. :) So we pray that God would open up heaven and dump out blessings on them.
Brian Somerville- the new lead pastor for Cornerstone. We feel such a kindred spirit with this church. Brian is taking over the lead pastor role in a time of transition. Pray for God’s wisdom, heart, and vision to beat inside of him. Pray for protection for his family.
Andrew McCourt- former lead pastor of Cornerstone, now transitioning to an influential church in Belfast. Pray for his family during this transition, that he would have great vision for Ireland, and that he would find favour with the believers and leadership in the church of Belfast.
Shaun Baird- Shaun is our amazing bus driver. This guy has been forced to deal with us during long days, has endured really loud chatter and obnoxious laughter, has been entertained by really terrible jokes, and has loved and encouraged our team. Shaun was delivered from a life bound by alchohol. Now, he is a leader at Cornerstone and is building his own web design business. God’s fingerprints are all over his life, and we feel so privileged to spend a week in his path.
We’ll introduce you to some other folks later.
Into the Schools
Heather Zempel · February 25, 2009 · 4:10 AM
Yesterday, our team divided into three groups to join Cornerstone’s Xtreme Team in local primary schools. Their theme was “love,” so we launched a grand production of the Good Samaritan story, pulling teachers and kids into the starring roles. The kids loved it when Ryan Zempel cast a teacher as a donkey and made them carry the “Good Samaritan” child to the inn. The kids in a different school loved it when a child rode the “donkey” Dennis Bourne to the inn. Magic Jeremy Sexton enthralled the kids with card tricks and Amanda Giobbi entertained them with her now infamous “knock-knock” jokes. They ended the program with the sharing of a memory verse and a song and dance.
The teams are back at different primary schools this morning to present the same program. This afternoon, we head to high schools where we will supplement their Biblical/Theological curriculum by teaching life principles from the lives of the heroes of Scripture. I’m sure Jeremy will pull out some the magic, as well.
A Quick Update
Heather Zempel · February 24, 2009 · 6:36 AM
Wow! I can’t believe our trip is almost over! Our internet access has been scarce here because we are so busy. Here’s a brief snapshot of the things we have experienced:
Shared with Cornerstone’s youth ministry, Engage
Ministered with Street Pastors
Met John Hume (who sang Danny Boy to our team)
Toured some really amazing churches and cathedrals
Worshiped at Cornerstone’s Sunday service at Millennium Forum
Jeremy did magic and I spoke at Cornerstone’s Seven Service
Toured the Giants Causeway
Toured the Tower Museum
Met the Mayor of Derry
The girls ministered at the Cornerstone women’s ministry event on Monday night
Today, the team is ministering in local primary schools. We hope to share more soon!
Wee bit o’ histr’y
Heather Zempel · February 23, 2009 · 5:19 PM
Did you tknow that the City of Derry…
...was originally named “Doire,” which means oak trees
...is also called Londonderry
...is one of only a handful of walled cities left in all of Europe
...hosted the surrender of the German U-Boats after VE Day
Street Pastors - Amanda Giobbi
Jeremy Sexton · February 22, 2009 · 5:50 PM
After a long and incredible first day in Derry, Ireland, we had the great privilege of joining up with Cornerstone’s “Street Pastors” ministry team.
The Street Pastors go out to the inner city streets of Derry every Friday evening from midnight to three a.m. and minister to the men and women who are frequenting the downtown pubs or bars. There are loads of young men and women who are walking up and down the streets, most of them intoxicated, after a night of partying with their friends.
The “Street Pastors” have one goal…love those people. How do they love them? They set up a tent and serve hot cocoa, coffee, tea and soup to these people as they walk past.
They have been servicing the public in this way for the past year at the specific location we visited, but Street Pastors has been in existence for five years. They used to meet at the “wall” of the city of Derry where teens would come to congregate: smoking, drinking and fighting with other teens who were of the opposite religion. After a few years of meeting at the wall, the Street Pastors worked themselves out of a job. The teens would no longer meet at the wall to participate in illegal activities. Rather, many of the teens they met joined up with their youth group activities. How wonderful! Now they meet in a city center where many youths are discharged at two a.m. when the pubs close down.
Our team loved sharing in this experience. We met many young men and women, had some great conversations, served them in a very practical way and experienced a bit of Ireland’s Catholic/Protestant divide. Serving others for three hours in the middle of a cold night doesn’t sound like a fun activity at the onset, but it was a team favorite thus far for our trip. Nate, one of our teammates, earned himself a “Street Pastors” coat and will be taking it back to potentially transfer this idea to Washington, D.C.
Derry gives the song “Taking it to the streets” a whole new meaning to us! And we love it!
John Hume - Kim Hill
Jeremy Sexton · February 22, 2009 · 5:50 PM
In the weeks leading up to Ireland, we began to pray that God would bring us divine appointments. Little did we know that God would answer our prayers before we even left Washington DC. While we were waiting on our flight from DC to Newark, Dennis decided to lead us through a devotion. A young man named Daniel came over to listen it. Turns out, Daniel had recently moved to New York City from Miami and is a Christian. His background is in electronic media so he and Nate hit it off right away. He’d had a long flight just to get to DC and seemed thankful for some friendly folks. By the time we landed in Newark, he had names of churches to attend in Brooklyn, and we had a new brother in Christ praying for us. And that was just the beginning.
After we arrived in the City of Derry, we were treated to a fantastic tour and history lesson. We toured St. Columb’s Cathedral, the oldest church in the City. While there, the Dean treated us to a spontaneous concert on the newly restored pipe organ. We found out later that this was the first time the organ had been played since the restoration, and we were there! From St. Columb’s, we trekked over to St. Columba’s, an old, beautiful Catholic church in the Bogside neighborhood. While there, our tour guide and Cornerstone leader Johnny Diamond, was telling us about two of the City’s most famous residents, both Nobel Prize Winners: poet Seamus Heaney and politician John Hume. As we turned to leave, we saw Mr. Hume heading to the courtyard ahead of us! When we reached the courtyard, we met the the former mayor now MP Patrick Ramsey, who then introduced us to John Hume. Mr. Hume, with very little coaxing, treated us to a solo of “Danny Boy.” Our brothers from Cornerstone were astounded! I was floored! The rest of the team thought it was cool but didn’t have much of a context to get what had happened. It became clear when we saw the giant mural in Bogside of Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr and, yes, John Hume. Talk about cool, divine appointments. Norman likened it to walking by the White House and meeting up with President Obama mowing the yard. What we experienced would be just about as likely to in the eyes of City citizens.
So tomorrow we’re off for a scheduled visit with current mayor. Who knows who we’ll meet along the way, but I’m pretty sure it will be divine!
Devotional: Acts 28:1-10
Heather Zempel · February 19, 2009 · 12:51 PM
In preparation for our trip, I asked team members to read the book of Acts. It’s all about loving people, seeing God do unexpected things, taking great risks, and sharing the Gospel. For the next few days leading up to our trip, our team will be meditating on different parts of the book of Acts. We invite you to join us.
Today’s Reading: Acts 28:1-10
Well, it’s the last devotional before we head off to the Emerald Isle! So what’s going on here? Well, if we remember from yesterday, Paul was floating in the ocean on a piece of driftwood along with the other shipwreck survivors when they landed on the islanded of Malta. And if a shipwreck was not enough bad luck for one day, he got bitten by a snake. I think I would be asking God a big emphatic, “Why” Though I love the reaction of the people—they went from thinking that Paul was getting his due to wanting to revere him as a god when he shook the snake off into the fire.
This amazing event gave him an audience with Publius, the political leader of the island, whose father was sick with a fever and dysentary. When Paul prayed for Publius’ father, he was immediately restored to health. And before he knew it, Paul was leading a healing crusade for the entire island as all the sick inhabitants came to him for healing.
Pastor Mark would frame this series of events in this way: sometimes your shipwreck is someone else’s miracle.
Wow. That’s powerful stuff.
As we embark on our trip to our own island (where we will safely touch down at the Belfast Landing Strip and not floating on a piece of driftwood), let’s pray that God would make us agents of love, hope, and change. We may have experienced a shipwreck this week. Maybe a grade came back poorly. Maybe something bad happened at work. Maybe you have a snakebite (I got one yesterday—metaphorically speaking—as I lay in bed sick for the majority of the morning) How might God channel those into miracles?
Consider the following:
1. What shipwrecks and snakebites have you experience recently?
2. How might God want to turn those around into a miracle for someone else?
3. What is your one big prayer as we leave on this adventure?
Devotional: Acts 27:27-44
Heather Zempel · February 18, 2009 · 4:32 PM
In preparation for our trip, I asked team members to read the book of Acts. It’s all about loving people, seeing God do unexpected things, taking great risks, and sharing the Gospel. For the next few days leading up to our trip, our team will be meditating on different parts of the book of Acts. We invite you to join us.
Today’s Reading: Acts 27:27-44
We’ve been talking a lot as a team about the need to “flow like water.” When a stream of water encounters a rock, it just diverts course and flows right around it. That’s how you’ve got to be a on a missions team. Ready for anything. In this passage, we see Paul and 276 men on board the ship literally flowing with the water they find themselves in.
In find it amusing that Paul was concerned about how much (or in this case how little) they had eaten.
Paul is a prisoner on board this ship when they crash into the Island of Malta, and we’ll read more tomorrow about what happened there.
Consider the following questions:
1. Have you ever felt “shipwrecked” in any place of your life? How did God use it?
2. Do you feel like you are simply treading water in any place of your life right now? If so, are you holding onto anything to stay afloat? What?
3. How can you best encourage others if they have encountered a shipwreck in their lives?
