What a weekend!
We were delighted to have our very first Arura Weekender in March 2023! 29 young people from 6 different churches (along with a few leaders) came together in Ballintoy, County Antrim.
The cars and minibuses arrived under the cover of darkness on Friday night and everyone got their rooms sorted out. On Saturday we had an opportunity to look around, go for a walk at Baillintoy Harbour, see Elephant Rock (the subject of much debate), shop in Coleraine, visit a trampoline park and enjoy a late night Table Quiz! Our energy levels were kept topped up by the fantastic food served every mealtime at Sheep Island View, and through regular purchases at Reuben “Sugar” Johnston’s TuckShop. We even squeezed in a few games of table tennis!
“The greatest and costliest adventure we can ever have is following Jesus.”
The speaker for the weekend was Pip Kerr who took us through 4 teaching sessions, each one challenging us to be All In with our faith. We were pleased to have Alice & Timmy Ewart (Woodford) who led us in worship, and leaders like Beth and Reuben shared their stories of how they came to know God.
In our first session we heard how we need to make a choice: are we all in with God or not? Do we want to commit ourselves to Him; to dedicate our lives to Him; to live passionately for Him? Is being a Christian really worth it? The answer was a resounding YES! It will cost us and it won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth it.
In our next session we thought more about worship. We considered how worship is every action that we do for God to honour him; it’s a gift that we give to Him; and it’s a heartfelt response.
On Saturday night we took time to consider the Cross because it demonstrates both our sinfulness and also God’s love. The Cross magnifies the love of God for us and the seriousness of sin so we can see it clearly - because why would Jesus go to the Cross if we could get into Heaven by being good, moral or clever?
“It’s not how we start our walk with God that matters, it’s how we finish that counts.”
On Sunday morning Pip challenged us that it’s more to do with how we finish the race than how we start it, and used the example of Asa in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 14-16) who started well with God, but became complacent and relied on his own strength. We don’t want to be like that: plan to finish strong!
The weekend was a great opportunity for young people to meet others from different churches, have fun, and spend time in God’s Word. If you missed out this time, check out some of our photos, and make sure you plan to get to Arura 2024 - a week long residential; bigger and better than our weekend!
We’ll be posting a few more photos on our Instagram - follow us to see more!