Ordination of Andrew Irwin
Please pray for Andrew as he is ordained as a deacon and comes to work with our church family this year.
He writes: For the past two years, I have enjoyed the close community while studying at CITI, (Church of Ireland Theological Institute), and the friendships that have been formed as a result. It has been an immense privilege to come together with different people from across the church, hear about their walk with Christ that had lead them to CITI.
I am a Portadown boy; having grown up just outside the town and progressing through the local schools (attending Moyallon Primary School, Killicomaine Junior High School and finally Portadown College. I love technology, so a natural fit for study was Computer Science at QUB. After graduating I then worked across various roles for a few years while getting more involved in church, and other organisations as well as completing the foundation course
I am thankful that I was born with parents who followed Jesus and where involved in church. I grew up through the different organisation within my church such as BB and YF. However, it was two Christian organisations outside of my local church that the largest impact on my faith and walk with Christ: Edenderry CE and Xpression Portadown.
It was at CE where my faith started to grow as God challenged me through the teaching, worship and community and provided an environment that was so unlike my experience of church. Furthermore, it provided opportunities for me to serve as I headed away on two mission trips to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. Xpression Portadown is a week of outreach that takes place every August in Portadown where hundreds of people from different churches come together to be taught, Worship and serve; it was this week throughout the years where I was able to see the Body of Christ live and witness as Christ would. Both remain important and close to my heart this day.
One of the most significant periods of the last few years was the three months I spent in with a team from Tearfund in Musoma Tanzania. It was a privilege to see what God is doing through the local church there and then to see people on my team grown in faith and become more like Jesus.
As I enter the final year of three there is a real sense of beginning and excitement. Starting in a Donaghcloney Parish with the privilege to serve God and his people and study over the next few months.
My desire is the same now as it was when I started this journey, to see the church live out the mission God has granted it: Faithful proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ to all, and building a gospel community where people are discipled and committed to living faithful to God's Word.
Outside of CITI, I enjoy coffee (preferable with people) spending time in the outdoors and trying to keep up to date with the latest in technology. I love football and probably should be playing it a bit more especially after two years of living in Dublin. If am a watching it then there is only one team I want to see – Man Utd!
Finally, I would ask that you pray for all of us who will by the Grace of God be ordained deacon in the next few weeks. Pray that throughout the next ten months that God would always been our number one and the source of all that we do, that we would remain faithful to him and his word in all that we do and how we do it.
Pray that we would be people who are able to balance the stresses of being involved with church with dissertation writing and the normality of life. Finally, that all we say and do we would mirror Christ and his Gospel.