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"We meet and discuss what The Word has to say about relevant topics such as Dating, Friends, Pop Culture, Sex, Lust etc..."
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Praise God that I had the blessing and privilege of growing up within Christian home. Both my parents, Alec and Pearl, were Christians and as their only child greatly desired and longed for my salvation. My mum through devotionals and her teaching @ Sunday school sought to open my eyes to the truth and kept me constantly in prayer.
As a child I attended Sunday school and S.U bible clubs and almost every other Christian event being held in the area, as my parents were attending. I didn’t use bad language, get into fights and always did what I was told at school. I was the quintessential elder’s child! I was a ‘good’ boy, not just in name but in nature! However the fact was I was a stubborn, outspoken and cheeky! In my childish mind I thought that God would love me because I was a ‘good’ boy not like those other kids at school that were so bold! Like Paul says in Galatians 1:14, I had worked up a good standing in Sunday school and church circles, my parents ran the church etc. but my heart was not right.
I believed in a works mentality, I don’t really know why, for me, it just came natural. When I look back now, I see the truth of James McCarthy’s comment that “there is a little Religionist in every one of us.” My mum had always taught otherwise at Sunday school but for whatever reason it just hadn’t hit home to me. However the seeds of truth had been sown and would be reaped in His time.
During the summer of 1988 my parents encouraged me to attend a C.E.F Summer Camp in Muckross, Killarney run by Dave Adamson. I was just 9 years of age, very green and terrified of being away from home! I didn’t enjoy the week much and at one point was considering going home…as an only child I wasn’t used to being around so many people, 24/7, I wasn’t used to how rough the other kids were, I felt I didn’t fit in, I felt lonely.
One of my favourite activities of Camp was the small groups. It gave me the opportunity to talk about God, have fun and show off all my Sunday school knowledge! Ours was led by Ross Ryan, a young teen from Moyross in Limerick [now a missionary to Achill Island]. One the second last day of camp Ross spoke from Matthew 7:15-23. Now verses 15-20 didn’t strike me much as I figured, well…I’m a good boy and am recognised as such by the good things I do! However I was very convicted by verses 21-23. I remember being horrified that despite all ‘my goodness’ and ‘good deeds.’ Jesus could call me an evildoer and want nothing to do with me! At that moment the Holy Spirit began to convict me of my sin. I could see that I was like the Pharisees Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23:27-28, clean on the outside but filthy with sin on the inside. Now it all began to click, I knew then that I needed Jesus, He died on the Cross to take away my sins and wanted to be my friend and help me be a better person on the inside and the outside. That night I accepted Jesus into my life and had an amazing experience, like a huge stone or weight had been lifted from my shoulders, I was filled with an inexpressible joy and happiness, in total contrast to the previous couple of days of sadness and loneliness. Two other boys from my church who had also been attending the camp having seen my conversion and heard my testimony also made commitments to Christ, the next day!
I returned back from camp and told my ecstatic parents the good news! I continued to grow and mature in my walk with Christ till I was 13.
The joy of my salvation and enthusiasm I had felt for God as a child was greatly tested when I made the jump from Primary to Secondary school. The summer prior to my entering Secondary, several families had left our Church to find work elsewhere, emigrating to such far out places as Spidal and Boston! My buddies were gone! Our Church made the decision to join with Ennis Church and to share our youth work.. So I would now be the only Christian in my School and you know what happens to the nail that sticks out!
I had attended a small Primary school of 14 rooms and 200 students and was now attending the colossus that was “Da Comp!” Some 80 rooms on three floors shared by over 1,000 students, 250 of which were in my year alone! I had a very hard time in Secondary School as I was persistently bullied and picked on. Unfortunately, I didn’t look to God to guide me but instead reverted to a mixture of Peter’s “Jesus who? “I don’t know him!” and Jonah’s sprint away from Nineveh. I couldn’t muster up the courage to witness to my friends at school and instead tried to be a closet Christian; you have to open the door and then I’ll talk to you about Christ. I was a Christian but was not full of love for others as I should have been but instead was full of anger and suspicion.
Throughout my time in Secondary School I was blessed to have had two very understanding parents who were very supportive. They encouraged me to attend VIA a Christian teen youth club run in Ennis by Mike Walsh. I also attended A.D.T [Advanced Discipleship Training] which helped to sustain me in my walk with Christ and challenge me to walk according to the calling we’ve received!
I was desperate to fit into society and find acceptance and sought refuge in sport. I joined the school basketball team at 14, as much to make friends as because I enjoyed it! I really enjoyed competing and the comradery of being one of the lads. Our team was quite successful and basketball steadily grew to become an idol in my life. As I had the ability to teach, I began coaching basketball as well as playing it. The teams I coached were very successful and I decided to start up my own basketball club, Senans’ B.C. Basketball as an idol, began to interfere with my Christian life. It consumed much of time and energy and I began to skip Church services so I could attend tournaments. As with my time in Secondary school I was afraid to evangelise and share my testimony with the players and their parents. To be honest I wasn’t much of a testimony.
My great ambition was to be a primary school teacher. I applied to attend the Church of Ireland teacher training College in Dublin only to be rejected on “religious basis.” I was very frustrated by this and in anger resolved I would attend the best teacher training college in the country, Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.
My parents encouraged me to attend Bible College but I was having none of it! I wanted to go to Mary I and pursue MY ambition. I had no desire to work in full-time ministry nor was I seeking the Lord to see what His Will was! I repeated the Leaving Cert so as to get enough points to attend the BE.D @ Mary I. Unfortunately I scored 460 not 465! I had missed the course by the bare minimum, 5 points! I resolved to do the BA course @ Mary I and then do a Post Graduate in Primary Teaching.
God used the BA course in several ways to guide me around to His Way of Thinking. First, it woke me up to the fact that I was far more suited to teaching secondary school than I was to primary. Second, I studied Theology and Religious Studies for four years allowing me a unique insight into the Catholic Church and it’s Theology, vital when you consider that this country is 98% Catholic. Also it allowed me study other religions which in turn pushed me to examine my own faith and theology. It was during this examination of my faith and this period of spiritual lukewarm-ness that I saw that I needed to return to God and begin to follow after Christ.
FROG
Having qualified out of College I placed myself on the teacher’s substitution list and resolved, for once, to fully depend on God for provision. For months I waited for job opportunities to arise but nothing was forthcoming. I was broken and greatly humbled. In the meantime I began to look upon my work with Jamzone as my full-time job. God worked mightily in my life at this time, teaching me many lessons and convicting me of habitual sins and hard-heartedness. I felt for the first time I truly submitted myself to Him in all areas of my life. The joy of my salvation returned and the love for God and for others that had been missing from my walk with Christ for so long was growing back steadily. I was baptised and began to attend and enjoy many Christian events and activities which previously I had found dull and boring. Having ignored the U.L.C.U for 4 years I began to attend with gusto and I was truly blessed and encouraged when I attended a youth conference called Elev8. I preached in my local church on Sunday morning…began to tithe and resolved to attend the Sunday service of another Church once a month. God was working in me and through me. I began to see His Vision for my life.
Where I stand today
Much of my past failings to witness, reach out and evangelise when I was at Secondary school, in College and in the Basketball club have made me all the more determined to be a true Ambassador of Christ; to be used by God in the salvation and growth in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, not alone to Church teens but also to teens in the wider community and to establish and build close and accountable relationships with them.
Along with Wise Mlalazi, we felt led of the Lord to start Jamzone [Jesus and Me Zone], a weekly Christian Teen outreach club. Our mission is to “Get teens saved!” and our vision verse is John 10:10 “I came that U may hav life n Life 2 d’Max!” We try to put a little fun in faith and create a place where Christian teens can invite their unsaved friends who can enjoy having fun and fellowship and most importantly hear the Word of God preached through the lifting up of His Name; in the lives of the club leaders and Christian teens and in their testimonies, in thanksgiving and Prayer, in the praise and worship of Him in song and dance and the preaching of His Word.
I’m the overall co-ordinator of the club and love to preach and teach @ JZ and I’m also in charge of running the Whaacky Games!
Through my involvement with basketball God opened a door with Athlete’s of Good News, an American Sports Ministry group to come and work in Shannon. Through the sports camps we develop friendships with the kids and teens and take opportunities to share our faith with them. After camp in the evenings, we run Jamzone, so we build on those friendships and share our faith. This summer we’ll hold our fourth consecutive camp, which this year, will be run in association with Jamzone. Lord willing like last year, teens will get saved!
Along with Wise and Wendy Greenlaw, we felt called to start New-Beginningz, a teen discipleship group to minister to those teens that were saved through Jamzone. Along with Ben Kajengo, I teach the boys discipleship group. We meet and discuss what The Word has to say about relevant topics such as Dating, Friends, Pop Culture, Sex, Lust etc., we pray and encourage each other and have a time of fellowship. Within the next month we hope to form a Teen counsel that’ll co-ordinate all teen activities.
This I feel is my calling in life and the reason why God led me through such a barren period in Secondary School and through a spiritual desert in College. This is why God has gifted me with the gift of preaching and equipped me with teaching skills, creativity, artistic ability, athletic ability, with a heart for teen’s and a teen’s heart!
This is my story; this is my song, praising me Saviour all the day long…
elton<><
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