IRELAND Writing from N Ireland

Looking back, the year 2022 commenced with a gradual return to normality and invitations to travel once again. This was most welcome, though the early part of the year was fully occupied with the completion of the ‘Essential Questions for End Times’ Book - targeted at street outreach and studentsand the publication process.

Visits up and down to the south and west of Ireland were mixed in with the publishing, and an extended caravan trip with Jonathan Goodwin from Collooney Assembly once again in the Spring. The small caravan which we were given has been a real asset. The conversations on the streets can be most profitable, and many of the questions asked in the past found their way into the new book. Street preaching in the South of Ireland has changed greatly over recent years and has now an ‘ear’ and an acceptability not seen in the past, and often not seen in other parts of the UK.

Helen was able to join me - with the caravan - for an extended visit to the Orkneys and Hebrides (in August and September). Some of the outreach meetings convened by the small assemblies were most encouraging. At ‘St. Margaret’s Hope’, one of the most isolated assembly locations, the saints rented a community hall and quite a few unbelievers attended, including two ladies who said ’they had not heard this message before’.

In October we were invited to Kamloops (B.C. Canada) once again for a third series of gospel meetings, this time with Dave Richards (an elderly local full-time brother). Though the winter weather came in early there was much to encourage and a number of young folks openly confessed their faith who had been unsure or unwilling to tell. One young man - as soon as he confessed that he had been saved a few months back - asked for baptism and the meetings closed with a large crowd on the final night, including a baptism, a supper, and many unsaved relatives and friends attending. I had shipped out a good quantity of the ‘Essential Questions’ booklet before the meetings commenced, and again everyone attending got a free copy. In at least one case a lady reading a ‘borrowed’ copy from a family member, came back to hear the gospel after 20 years absence.

The year concluded with a return trip to Sligo and Collooney assembly for the annual door-to-door 2023 Gospel Calendar distribution. This year (being the 10th Anniversary of their own calendar) they printed 8,000 and a team of young helpers came on a Saturday to help in the inner Sligo housing estates. It was a time of real fellowship, and hard work too!

We ask for prayer on the distribution of the printed word. 100s of New Testaments, tracts and ‘Essential Questions’ booklets are being given out in the cities and towns of Ireland, and other parts of the U.K. too, as well as 1000s of Calendars at each year end. It is all “good seed” in various forms, and capable of being used of the Spirit of God to reach where we will not or cannot go.