Camps & Conferences

The Promise-Driven Family: how our covenant theology shapes our daily lives

“Fear for the next generation is not profound or enlightened, it’s disbelieving and a lack of faith”

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Last month, two families from Stranraer attended the RPCI’s Family Day Conference, held in Cullybackey RPC. The talk, by Rev. Mark Loughridge, addressed the question of how our covenant theology should affect our parenting. It was a really helpful talk and you can listen to it below:

2020 Family Day Conference
Mark Loughridge

You can view the accompanying powerpoint here.

Camp Reunions 2020

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Hannah and Daniel recently attended Girls’ Adventure Camp & Boys’ Discovery Camp reunions. They answered some questions about the highlights of their weekends for the RPCS website. You can read their answers below:

Hannah:

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What were the talks on at GAC reunion? What was something you learned from the talks? 

The talks at reunion were on Luke chapter 10 about Mary and Martha. I learnt about how Mary took the good portion and spent time with Jesus when Martha didn’t.

What was your favourite activity? 

My favourite activity was the ice skating which was very good.

What was your favourite thing overall about GAC reunion this year? 

My favourite thing from GAC reunion was seeing everybody from camp again and the talks throughout the weekend.

Daniel:

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What were the talks on? What was something you learned from the talks?

The talks at reunion were on the creation in Genesis. I learnt that God made everything, and we can’t make or do anything without him.

What was your favourite activity?

My favourite activity was swimming because it was fun.

What was the best thing overall about Camp Reunion?

The best thing was getting to see all my friends.

Ministers' Conference 2019

Last week, Stephen attended the annual Irish/Scottish RP Ministers’ Conference with around 40 other men.

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As part of the conference, Stephen gave a talk entitled ‘William Symington on the Christian ministry’ - August had marked 200 years since Symington’s ordination in Stranraer. Much of the talk was drawn from charges Symington delivered to James M’Gill, a farmer’s son from Portpatrick, when he was ordained as minister in Hightae, near Dumfries, in 1829.

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You can read more about the conference on the RP Global Alliance website.

Boys' and Girls' Camps 2019

A number of Scottish young people attended RP camps during July and August, including Hannah and Daniel from Stranraer. They both answered a number of questions about their time for the RPCS website:

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What was something you learned or that stood out for you from the talks?
Hannah (Stranraer) & Katherine (North Edinburgh) – That Jesus can save anybody no matter what you’ve done.
Daniel – When God comes back to the world, He’ll judge us and then make the world perfect and put us in it.

What was your favourite activity?
Katherine & Hannah – The Edge (water sports park)
Daniel – Let’s Go Hydro (water park)

What was your favourite thing about Camp overall?
Daniel – Learning about Jesus.

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You can read the others’ answers here and here. You can also read about Senior Camp, which Stephen helped organise up until last year. Six young people from Scotland attended, all of whom were either on our go team last week, or had been on last year’s team. The speaker this year was Robert McCollum, who will be coming over to baptise Poppy on 21st September.

From South Korea to Stranraer!

Stephen has a new ‘Pause for Thought’ page in the Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press. Here’s his first article for the new format, published in this week’s paper (30th May)

I was at a ministers’ conference in England last month, and was told that a South Korean man was very keen to meet me. It turned out he was bringing a group of people to a World Missionary Conference that was being held in Stranraer, and wanted to know of some local Covenanter sites that he could take them to.

Two weeks ago, over 100 of these Korean visitors arrived for their conference, impossible to miss with their bright yellow jackets bringing colour to the town. Many witnessed them singing in the town centre, with one video of it quickly gathering 15,000 views on facebook.

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In fact, one of my favourite things about being a minister is the opportunity to meet fellow believers from around the world. In my three years in Stranraer, our small church has had visitors from South Korea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia, the United States and Canada – as well as from many parts of the UK and Ireland. Some of these have been fellow Reformed Presbyterians; others have just been looking for somewhere to worship when passing through, and searched online for a Bible-believing church.

There are others in countries such as India, South Africa and France who’ve never visited, but have signed up to receive news and prayer updates from our church in Stranraer.

As a family, we’ve also had the opportunity to travel to International RP Conferences, in North America, Scotland and Ireland, with fellow-attendees from too many countries to count. This time last year we spent some time with the RP Church in Los Angeles, whose assistant pastor is South Korean. He has his own version of the ‘Blue Banner’, flown by the Covenanters in Scotland in the late-1600s, emblazoned with a Korean translation of the slogan ‘For Christ’s Crown and Covenant’. Another friend, a Japanese pastor, has one adorning his motorcycle.

Indeed, despite the differences in language, culture, food etc, the overwhelming impression when talking to these brothers and sisters is not what divides us, but what we have in common.

One of my theology Professors recently returned from teaching in South Korea. He commented that having been privileged over many years to visit some far-flung parts of the world and experience church life in different forms, what has generally struck him is not how different things are, but how similar. It reminded me of a conversation with a couple of medical missionaries in Uganda – two of the biggest issues they face among young men are alcohol abuse and suicide. People are people, wherever you go.

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Returning to Stranraer’s recent visitors, the fact that our town has a church sent out from South Korea is a local example of a trend academics describe as ‘reverse missionaries’. It is becoming more and more common for countries which we traditionally think of as missionary ‘targets’ to instead be sending missionaries here. So people from Africa come to start churches in England, and South Korean Presbyterians are sent to the mission field of South-West Scotland. Reverse missionaries come either because they think there aren’t enough churches in an area – or they perceive that existing churches are no longer proclaiming the message that once enthused traditional missionaries to travel the globe.

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In 1950 an estimated 80% of the world’s Christians were in Western countries. By 2025 it’s estimated that at least half of them will be in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia.

While some may feel threatened by this trend, I actually find it refreshing. As the UK moves further and further away from being a Christian country, those who follow Jesus find themselves in a similar position to that of the Apostles in the first century. The Apostles were regarded as ‘atheists’ (as they didn’t believe in the pantheon of Roman gods). They were outsiders whose views were misrepresented (the Lord’s Supper sounded a bit too much like cannibalism). They faced persecution, increasingly by the state itself (once it became clear that Christianity wasn’t just a Jewish sect). But all this combined to mean it was fairly clear where people stood. When people rejected the Apostles’ teaching, it wasn’t because they had been brought up in the church, and thought they knew it all already. And as people heard their message about Jesus with fresh ears, many found in strangely compelling. 

Perhaps some will hear South Koreans singing on the streets of Stranraer as an invitation to listen to an old message with new understanding.