Day Two: County Limerick
Saturday 2 May
The annual VOX magazine Finding Faith Tour looks very different this year. Instead of a 7-day road trip around the island, this year VOX editor Ruth Garvey-Williams brings you highlights from all 32 counties (one per day plus one for each of the 31 days in May). Contact Ruth if you have a story to share.
DAY TWO: Reasons to be thankful in Limerick
From Belfast to Limerick is around 370km and would have taken me at least four hours to drive. On our virtual tour, I can “leap” from Ulster to Munster without any difficulty.
Here I connect in with Paul Ritchie. We share a mutual concern for mental health and Paul often writes and speaks on the subject.
“My mental health hasn’t always been great and I have OCD,” Paul tells me. “I’ve struggled with my Christian faith. But I’ve found that in the crisis although I am very busy, having a more structured day has enabled me to put more focus on my personal devotions.”
“Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done.”
“Yesterday, the reflection on Psalm 40 was on remembering all the things that God has done for us. So I spent the next 20 minutes thinking about how good God has been to me. I was struck with His kindness and although I’ve gone through minor suffering with anxiety, I’ve seen His faithfulness to me and the blessings He has given me in the church we are a part of.”
Quick Tip: If you are struggling today. Why not stop right now and write down three things you are thankful for? Perhaps put a post it note on the bathroom mirror or the fridge as a reminder!
Paul’s church is Limerick Baptist Church where he is the pastor and I ask what God has been doing in and through his congregation over the last year or so.
In 2019, the church was looking for ways to reach out more. They invited psychology lecturer Brenda O’Connell to give a talk on “How to be Happy”. Sixty people came along to the lecture in a beautiful boutique hotel. On another evening, 100 people came to the church for a concert of Beethoven favourites with pianist Sam Rothman. In between songs, he shared his testimony.
“I love working with students,” added Paul. “Probably the most exciting thing for us over the last year has been our internship programme. About 20 students were coming along every week for food, small group discussions, prayer and a time of teaching. This term we were doing an Old Testament overview - thinking about how to read the Old Testament as an unfolding narrative that all fits together so that they can understand the big story of scripture.”
When COVID-19 hit, the church launched online church - recording in advance and then uploading videos to Facebook. “The first Sunday we did it, we though we were brilliant but now I’m so embarrassed when I look back. We are getting lots of hits with four times the average Sunday attendance now “tuning in” to watch online.
“On of the most popular things we’ve done is to have a ‘Community Time’ when parents send in photographs of the kids all dress up or pictures they have drawn. We celebrate new babies and individual church members send in videos sharing what God is teaching them at this time. This has been so good that we want to do more of it when we go back to meeting in the church building (placing a greater emphasis on a community time together).
“We’ve been ringing everybody on a regular basis and it has also given us an opportunity to connect with those who have not been at church recently. We have really been pushed to think about online. I don’t think we’ll ever go back totally to the way we were before.”
