Ladies' Night - the Gospel at work in the community

News Release: 23 March 2010

Matt Rowley is a Church Army Mission-based Trainee, in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. Here he talks of a powerful effort to encourage friendship, hope and fun amongst the women of his community.

"Taking Jesus to the community is a major theme of our work, here at St Saviour's Craigavon. As a Church Army Centre of Mission, we are blessed with the freedom to try new things and have the time and support to build Christian community. Last year we hosted our first Ladies' Night with the aim of building good relationships and sharing the good news of Jesus. We had over 70 women including church members from both the Catholic and Protestant communities, and ladies who have no church connections.

Our belief that the impact of the Gospel message can bring peace across the divide was made real by the success of the inaugural 2009 event. When we suggested repeating this event, the word spread and meant that we welcomed over 80 guests to Ladies' Night 2010 - nearly half of them not professed Christians.

The aim, as before, was to bring the community together, encourage friendships, and proclaim the Gospel message.

Starting with a four-course meal (where the ladies are served by some of the men from the church) the evening really got going when the entertainment kicked in. This included Family Fortunes, The Price is Right and a Karaoke, with a variety of prizes on offer. The prizes were sponsored by local shops such as Boots, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Thornton’s and many more. This year Starbucks joined in on the action and provided free fair-trade coffee!

The evening was then wrapped up with a challenging and encouraging Gospel message, from our guest speaker Clair Holmes (who has been serving as a missionary in Paraguay for 14 years.) Overall it was a tremendous night of fun food and fellowship and many people in the community are eagerly awaiting next year’s event.

A great encouragement has come in the shape of a well-known and influential lady from one of the local estates, who has been coming to church every Sunday since the Ladies' Night. She also has been confessing to many that she is following Jesus!"

To see a short film about Church Army's Mission-based Training programme go to the Meet Our People page.