North West Gospel Mission visitors

They are Garth Wilson from Omagh, David Brown from Ballymena and Stephen McCrea from Magherafelt, and they will be in Londonderry until Friday, having arrived in the area on Sunday as the guests of Londonderry Free Presbyterian Church.

During their week they will assist the Londonderry Free Presbyterian congregation with an extensive outreach initiative that includes a series of open-air meetings, door-to-door visits, as well as One Week Kid's Club and a Gospel Mission each night, held in the Church on Lisnagelvin Road. Every evening this week the Kid's Club has been running from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, while the Gospel Mission started on Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm, and includes meetings nightly from Monday to Friday at 8pm.

According to David, the week of ministry began as soon as their feet touched the ground on Sunday, with a Gospel meeting that attracted visitors as well as the regular congregation to Londonderry Free Presbyterian Church.

The trio were very much geared up for the busy schedule and were delighted to find visitors ready and eager to listen to their message

As part of the programme of activities and events each of the three students must get into the pulpit and preach, which Garth described as "a very scary prospect".

"It is especially scary if there are ordained ministers looking at you," he said.

For Stephen the prospect of standing up and speaking is somewhat more acute, given that this is his first year in college and he is volunteering to be in the City so that he can get some practice in early. And, yes, he is related to Rev William McCrea - he is the singing minister's son.

"This is my first real day of getting into work and I am looking forward to it," he said of the forthcoming week.

Although this is a special week for the three young students the Mission meetings will continue into the next week when the preachers will be the local minister, Rev Ian Brown and Mr Robert Campbell.

As principal host to the three students, Rev Brown said that although there were currently no vacancies in the Free Presbyterian Church, a number of retirements were imminent and the new entrants to the life of ministry would help reignite an interest in Christ and the Bible.

"It is important to have young blood," he said, adding: "Most churches are dying on their feet and closing their doors, so it is good to see three young men coming through. They are three of 14 in the College and there are seven more coming in this year.

"Frequently with church outreach you don't get out beyond the urban development. You tend to neglect the rural area so what we want to do this week is get a balance between the inner city and the outlying areas, as far out as Killaloo, Claudy and Eglinton.”

One idea they are hoping to make a reality is one day starting their ministry in Magheramason with an open air session, before moving on to Newbuildings, then into the City where another open air meeting will take place, before ending up in Eglinton.