This year harvest in Portstewart Presbyterian church will be Sunday 9th of October with services at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm with a lunch in aid of Tearfund immediately after the morning service.
Harvest is always a time of celebration and thanksgiving for God’s goodness throughout the year. Even in times of economic hardships, as we have today, it is still important for us to come together and thank God for all that he has given.
Harvest is also an opportunity for us to give back, to share our blessings with others. The harvest festival along with the presentation of gifts of fruit, veg. and other produce comes from the Old Testament festivals of weeks and ingathering. In these festivals the first fruits, sometimes produce taken before the harvest had actually been gathered in, were presented to God in the temple. This was a sign of thanks, but also a willingness for God to have the best of the crop.
It is in this spirit of offering to God the best of our crop that we are asking for gifts which can be distributed to the foodbank. These gifts will be used to decorate the church for the services, a symbolic offering to God, and then afterwards they will be taken to the local foodbank where those who need them most will get them.
Every year our organisations decorate a window, usually with a mixture of harvest offerings and other items that tell the story of what we have been doing throughout the year. The church will be open on Saturday the 8th of October to allow for decorating to take place and gifts to be left in.
Why not come along and help by contributing and also decorating the church for the service. You will be most welcome.
The Ulster Defence Regiment was raised in 1970 and played a vital role in the fight against terrorism. This came at a heavy cost; 197 soldiers were killed and a further 58 killed after leaving the regiment.
These deaths resulted in 120 wives widowed; 2 husbands lost wives; 158 children lost a father; 1 child lost her mother.
The local battalion was 5 UDR based in several locations in County Londonderry. 5 UDR lost 27 soldiers while serving, this included William Gordon who was killed alongside his 7-year-old daughter Lesley when a bomb exploded under their car.
13 soldiers were killed after leaving 5 UDR.
On 1st of October at Portstewart War Memorial a plaque honouring the memory of Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers killed will be unveiled and dedicated at 3:00 pm.
1n 1992 the Ulster Defence Regiment merged with The Royal Irish Rangers to form the Royal Irish Regiment. Thus, ending 22 years of active service.
A thought from Stuart
Scripture tells us very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die (Romans 5:7). I don’t know if we would dare to call ourselves good people, but certainly those who gave their lives so valiantly considered their cause to be a good cause. It is right that we show our gratitude, remembering such sacrifices.
The very next verse in Romans 5 goes on to tell us But God proved his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us… (Romans 5:8) Jesus Christ showed the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate expression of love when he died knowing we are not good, yet he deemed us worthy.
The sacrifice of brave soldiers throughout history, and through every conflict unfortunately had to be repeated over and over again in order for freedoms to be won and secured, and even today we cannot take those freedoms for granted as war again rages in Europe.
Yet Jesus sacrifice is a once and for all sacrifice, a sacrifice which achieves all its goals, a sacrifice that guarantees our freedom in God, if only we would accept it.
As we rightly remember the sacrifices of the brave at the war memorial, how will we remember the sacrifice of the only righteous one, Jesus Christ? Jesus told us how we are to remember. The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent. (John 6:29)
