Praise evening to be held ahead of Polish mission
A group led to Poland by Colin and Joanna Tinsley in August.
AN evening of Praise and Worship will be held tomorrow (Saturday) to raise funds and awareness ahead of a mission trip to Poland later this month, which will see 24 local people work with orphaned children and young people.
The Praise evening will be held in Laurelhill Community College from 7.30pm, featuring Gospel singers Carla Cregg, Geoff Sloss and others. A collection will be held ahead of the mission, whilst guests are invited to stay for supper.
Led by local man Colin Tinsley and his wife Joanna, who is originally from Poland, through Hope for Youth Ministries, the local group will spend a week in Poland, where they will hold Bible Clubs and workshops for children in the country.
Speaking about the work of Hope for Youth Ministries, which is based in Kinallen, Colin Tinsley said: "Hope for Youth Ministries has been formed since 2007, and this will be the 22nd team we will have sent out to Poland in four years.
"We hold five camps in Poland per year for underprivileged children, many of whom are orphans.
"The kids come from all over Poland and we work with 50 children,
holding Bible clubs, camps, there
will be seven or eight workshops where we will teach them English,
crafts, baking, there will be sports and games and singing."
Whilst there the group, most of whom come from Lisburn, will also take part in food drops to families in need.
Colin said: "There are 10 tonnes of food being delivered from the EU and we will help with the food drop while we are there."
As well as delivering God's message and bringing joy and hope to the children, the local group also like to help in the local community whilst they are there, leaving something behind.
Colin explained: "Every time we go, it's not just to get the kids involved, but we like to leave something. This time we want to pay off a bus which. is £6,000.
"So far we have raised around £4,200 and we will be holding a collection during the Praise evening, which we hope will help us to raise funds.
"The Praise night will include Carla Cregg and Geoff Sloss, who are two of Northern Ireland's most popular Gospel singers.
"Geoff is going to Poland and Carla is just back, so they are very involved with us.
"We will also have an excellent quality video highlighting our work in Poland and a photographic display."
The group will be in Poland from September 29, where they will work with the children aged from 7-14.
"The children come from poor families or live in orphanages," Colin continued.
"There are over 200 orphanages in Poland and things are difficult there. If we didn't go out to help them, who does help them? Poland is somewhere that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is such a gulf between them,
"I keep hens and the hen houses are better than what some people are living in. We hope to bring life and joy into the lives of these children, and they appreciate it so much. I myself was blessed with a good home and a good upbringing, so this is about giving something back."
Colin added: "Primarily through all our work in Poland we want to take the Christian message to all the Polish children. Through our heart of love they will see the love of Christ and how much God loves them."
stacey.heaney@ulsterstar.co.uk
Ulster Star
16/09/2011
