Day Three: County Offaly
Sunday 3 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 Three: We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps
For day three, we stop off in rural Offaly to chat with Nigel and how a dramatic change of plans resulted has resulted in new opportunities.
Rev. Nigel Gill is an Offaly man, born and bred. Working as the manager in a Tyre Repair Centre for over 16 years, he never expected to find himself in full time Christian ministry as the new Methodist minister for Tullamore, Birr and Athlone.
Within weeks of arriving in his new role last year, Nigel unexpectedly found himself producing a weekly Christian radio programme for Midlands 103. This unlooked-for skill was to stand him in good stead when Covid-19 hit.
“Palm Sunday has become special to me.”
“In March, our church was making huge plans for a special Palm Sunday celebration. The first Palm Sunday was a raucous affair. People were singing and shouting, ripping branches off the trees and throwing their coats on the ground. Palm Sunday has become special to me and over the last four years we’ve made it a very special celebration in church involving local choirs and drama sketches interwoven with the Gospel story. It has been a mad crazy kind of thing because that’s a bit what I’m like.
“This year, choirs were booked to come and sing and our theme was set. We were planning to hold it in the Tullamore church because that can seat 120 people and we’d hoped to pack out the building with visitors from the local community. We often come to God and say, ‘Here is my plan please bless it.’ And then Leo made his announcement and all those plans were laid to waste in an instant!” Nigel said.
NIGEL CREATED THIS MONTAGE OF PHOTOS TO REFLECT THE CRAZY-NESS OF CREATING A PALM SUNDAY CELEBRATION FOR RADIO. (THAT’S NIGEL IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE PICTURE).
Nigel created this montage of photos to reflect the crazy-ness of creating a Palm Sunday celebration for radio. (That’s nigel in the bottom right hand corner of the picture).
As he surveyed the wreckage of his plans, Nigel realised that it might be possible to broadcast the Palm Sunday celebration on the Midlands 103 programme. Members of the youth group all recorded music on their phones and sent in the tracks for Nigel to mix together. Three people recorded different parts of a script and these were combined to create a radio sketch and other local clergy and pastors recorded short messages and reflections to contribute to a united expression of Christian worship.
“I remember when we were leaving college, they asked us how we felt about being the public face of the church. I said, I have no problem with that, in fact every Christian should be the public face of the church, but just don’t ask me to do radio or TV!”
“I’ve been like, ‘Lord you are having a laugh!’ Here we are Covid-19 recording radio programmes and making videos!”
Nigel’s father is cocooning and a simple trip to deliver groceries turned into something very different when he helped out with several other older folks in the same neighbourhood. Visiting many different people was an eye-opener, “Every one of those conversations started with, ‘So you are Rev Nigel. I listen to you every Sunday on the radio,’” Nigel said.
