50 Years of CEF in Lagan Valley

The following are a few of the headlines that were making the news in 1969:

Apollo Astronauts Walk on the Moon; First Concorde Test Flight Conducted; Beatles Perform for the Last Time; Manchester City Win the FA Cup; 50 Pence Coin Introduced.

An event that didn’t make the headlines however was, First full-time CEF workers arrive in the Lagan Valley area! The following excerpt is taken from the 1969 National Prayer Letter regarding the developments in the area and with the local committee:

“…we have progressed under the guidance of the Lord. Today we have an office at 40 Chapel Hill Lisburn, 2 full-time workers, Tom & Edith Boyle (who commence their ministry in October) and seven regular weekly Good News Clubs. We have just completed a strenuous summer open-air programme working in seven different areas. Missions have been arranged for the early part of the year and at least two teacher training programmes will be conducted in the Autumn. This is our aim: that we might reach the unreached child with the message of the grace of God, as is found in the Lord Jesus.”

Praise God that fifty years have passed since Tom and Edith arrived as full-time workers but the goals of reaching children have not changed. Our goals are to evangelise the unreached, edify the young Christians and see them established in a local church. This year we are so thankful for the 27 Good News Clubs which are taking place each week. A ministry that hadn’t yet started fifty years ago was Junior Youth Challenge. We are so grateful for each leader who works amongst the 12-15 year olds. Forty-one Lagan Valley young people plus twenty from North Down filled Seaview camp centre in Kilkeel for the JYC Weekend in February. Praise God that the young people mixed well with each other and listened attentively during the Bible studies. Something really valuable that the work has depended on these past fifty years is prayer. Great things for God can be accomplished when His people pray. Someone once said: “We are in the best place we can imagine when we go to God in prayer.”