Apprentice

Dear friends,

It’s almost been one year since I started my work in Greystones. It looks like I’ll be sticking around here for another couple of years. There’s work to be done! I thought I’d write you a short email [this was originally sent as an email to my supporters - John] to let you know what’s happening and because Monty (Rev. David Montgomery, my boss at Greystones Presbyterian Church) suggested that he write an email for me to send out to help me raise some much needed funds for next year.

At the moment I am preparing for TeenStreet, the international youth conference in Germany. Sarah, myself and eight teenagers fly out to Germany on the 31st of July. We’ll be there along with teens and leaders from many other countries for one week of worship, teaching, fun and fellowship. I need a lot of prayer for this! The Living Stones youth ministry hasn’t even been going a year yet so this is kind of a big deal for us. Please pray that the trip will go well and there will be no complications with travel. Please pray that the leaders and the teens will both be enriched an grow in their faith through this experience.

The other big thing at the moment is fundraising for next year. I’ll be staying on at GPC in the role of Ministry Apprentice. Parts of this will be exactly the same as my current position but it will involve more pastoral and leadership roles. In order to stay on and continue to help GPC I need to raise funds for next year. Financially speaking I’ve had a pretty tight year this year and there were times when I had simply run out of money. God has provided for me all year, giving me kind friends to support financially, in prayer and in making sure I had something to eat. To scrape by next year I’ll need at least €3,000. Please do consider supporting me whether through prayer or financially. Monty will have more details in the letter which follows.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me this year, it has been tough at times but your encouragement and support and God’s provision has seen me through so far. So thanks to God and thank you my friends.

I’ll let Monty take over with his letter now.

Love,
John.

Monty’s Letter
Friends of John O’Donnell

I have suggested to John, that I write to a number of his friends to keep them in touch with what is happening, inform them about the impact John is having in our fellowship here and give them the opportunity, if they wish, to make a small donation towards his next couple of years in ministry.

John has been with us for almost a year and in that time has formed a small but very successful youth group Living Stones which is having a great impact on the lives of a number of our young people, especially the boys. In a few days he is taking a group to Germany to be part of Teen Street. In addition he has got our website up and running, co-ordinated our audio-visuals, designed our publicity for the year, which has been of a super quality, produced our magazine, started a library/bookstall, led Bible studies, contributed to a Christianity Explored group, and preached to a very high standard on a number of occasions. You can listen to some of his sermons on www.greystonespc.org.

We are delighted to have had him working with us at such an early and formative time in our ministry here in Greystones. As we all consider options for the future we wanted both to maintain the partnership in ministry which had begun this year and also to develop it slightly, giving John some experience in other areas of ministry and therefore prepare him for any further training he may wish to do in the future. With that in mind we are offering him an apprenticeship under the Ministry Training Scheme which will run for at least one, or possibly two years. He will continue to be part of an expanding team here at Greystones and hopefully develop his own gifts and be stretched in new ways.

At Greystones we will continue to provide him with accommodation and a level of ‘volunteer expenses’, but as we are a small church, and as John does not have a large ‘home church’ to which he can turn for support, he is having largely to raise the supplemental funding for this himself. Already he has run two races of 5k and 5 miles to raise sponsorship for this. Being a shy sort he doesn’t find it easy to ask folks for help- but as his boss who has benefitted greatly from his contribution over the past year, I have no such qualms!

If you would like to help him in any way you can send a cheque made payable to Greystones Presbyterian to the address below [Monty's address omitted from blog version of this letter - John] and we will be sure to let John know of your support. This can be tax-deductable if you supply us with the relevant information. Alternatively you can give John your support directly, although the former is certainly more tax-efficient.

Above all, and regardless of whether you can support him or not at this time, do pray for him and us as we seek to be faithful to God and work for him in this community at this time

Thank you for your ongoing prayers and interest

David Montgomery.