Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
IRISH PLOUGHING CHAMPIONSHIPS FREE PRESBYTERIAN OUTREACH 2005
REPORT SENT TO THE BRITISH CHURCH NEWSPAPER
PHOTOGRAPHS HERE
The Free Presbyterian Church has had a
witness at the Irish Ploughing Championships for a number of years.
This year it was near Midleton in County Cork. This is billed as the
largest agricultural event of its kind in Europe and this year a record
80,000 people attended. There were 18 mile tailbacks on the first day.
The traffic arrangements were not great this year with one car park
consisting of a 100 acre field with one gate. There were 8 separate
rows of traffic all trying to get out of the one gate. It took one of
our cars 2.5 hours just to get out of the field! My own car, which was
parked about half a mile away, made it home in 40 minutes.
When we first started off away back in the 1990's, three of us took a
couple of boxes of tracts and slept in a tent. We then progressed to
running a small book table and then a bookstall and this year we
upgraded to a 20'x30' marquee and served tea and biscuits and got
talking to the folk who came in about Christ. Many were very receptive
to the gospel. There were 7 of us there (4 ordained ministers, 1
missionary, 1 full time Christian worker and an elder) for the 3 day
event. The marquee was good when the weather turned back and the mud
got deeper.
Besides chatting the folk, plenty of literature was given out. Some men
passed out thousands of tracts to the people passing by. There were
plenty of copies of John's Gospels/Letter to the Romans given out along
with 300 scriptural calendars (AV) Other literature passed on included
some Answers in Genesis booklets which were given to us by a Christian
in Cork for free distribution. One Irish man who had recently lost his
youngest daughter in a terrorist bomb while on holiday just wanted to
chat and we were able to give him some sound Christian counsel and a
copy of the Scriptures along with the Aig booklet, "Why is there death
and suffering?" Although the conversation itself was calm and non
emotional, yet I felt afterwards that I just wanted to go round the
back of the tent and weep. How good it is to have a hope in God when
asked to talk to those who are in despair.
The fellowship was good with the brethren who came along. They had the
long journey south (over 200 miles) while it was on my doorstep. Next
year (DV) it is in County Carlow and we hope to go there with the
marquee again. It will be a 4 day event as it is coupled with the World
Championships. We were reasonably pleased with our outreach this year,
but we saw how it could be radically improved. This has only served to
fuel our excitement for next year, if the Lord wills it to be so (James
4:15)