Rachel has been serving as the deaconess in Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church since September 2017. Her primary responsibilities include pastoral visitation and women's ministry to a wide range of ages in the congregation.

Rachel leads Friendship Hour - a group for senior women in the congregation that meet each Thursday afternoon to enjoy fellowship and to listen to talks or biblical reflections from guest speakers, while also having lunch together at the start of each month. Rachel also co-leads Kids & Co, the mothers and toddlers group in Whiteabbey which meets every Friday morning in the church hall. During the rest of the week Rachel spends the majority of her time visiting the elderly, housebound, ill and bereaved members of the congregation, those who are in hospital or nursing homes, and those who need extra pastoral support due to the difficult situations they are going through. Rachel is also involved in serving on the leadership teams of Hope Street and EMERGE - the youth and 20s-30s ministry organisations in Whiteabbey. She often takes part in funerals in the congregation and occasionally in Sunday services.

Rachel comments, "As a deaconess, I feel very passionate about ministering to people of all different ages - getting to know them, being able to share in their times of joy and sadness, seeking to meet their practical needs, and having the ultimate privilege of pointing them to Jesus and his glorious gospel through reading the Bible and praying together. I strongly believe that God shows me that deaconess service is one of the ways I can most effectively follow his greatest commands to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’, and ‘to love your neighbour as yourself’. It's not always easy, but it is such a wonderful encouragement to know that the Lord has called me into this work, and he will continue to equip and guide me faithfully in all that he has for me to do." 

Rachel is originally from Ballymena, and loves to get home to visit her parents in her free time. She is also very thankful to live near her brother, sister in law, sister, brother in law and two nephews! Rachel grew up in her home church, Harryville Presbyterian Church, and was commissioned as a deaconess in Whiteabbey after completing her training in Union Theological College and serving in her probationary placement church, Newmills Presbyterian Church from November 2015 - September 2017.

Prayer Points

• Give thanks for the wonderful teams of women who assist in leading Friendship Hour and Kids & Co who are so faithful and willing in using their gifts to serve the Lord in these ways. Pray that God will continue to bless them with strength, enthusiasm and love for those they serve each week.
• Pray for the parents, grandparents and carers who come along to Kids and Co, and the teenagers and young adults who attend Hope Street and EMERGE. Many of them do not yet know the Lord as their Saviour. Pray for opportunities to share the hope and joy of the gospel with them, that they would be led to faith in Christ.
• Pray for wisdom for Rachel as she visits people, that she will rely on God fully as she listens and speaks into difficult situations. Pray also that Rachel would prioritise her relationship with God and spend time with him each day in the midst of a busy routine.
• Pray for Whiteabbey village, the area and the church as it seeks God's guidance in how to most effectively reach out and connect with people in the community, building relationships while pointing them to Jesus.

Latest Report – November 2023

Daily Strength

If you are anything like me, you may go about life with a bag bursting with all kinds of important things, such as a Bible, phone, keys, cards, notebook, pens and sweets. It's a miracle my everyday tote bag hasn't burst yet!

Whenever I go to any hospital, I add something else to take to the people I visit there - a little booklet called Daily Strength (a friend from church very kindly gave me a set of them). This booklet contains a month worth of Bible verses with encouraging verses for each day, several Psalms and the Lord's Prayer at the back. The idea is that it's easier for someone who is feeling particularly unwell to pick up and look at, rather than reading a longer passage from the Bible. They can be reminded of important truths from God's Word in the suffering they are going through. 

This year's PW theme is 'Being Transformed', and in preparing for my deputations I have been focusing on 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul talks about us having this "treasure in jars of clay" (v7) and how as Christians we are being "renewed day by day" (v16). When we feel like a delicate clay jar, fragile and easily cracked due to the suffering we go through - such as difficulties at work, ill health or bereavement - it's incredible to know that God is glad to put the treasure of the Holy Spirit in us, renewing us day by day to be like Jesus. What a comforting truth, especially on the days I get frustrated or overwhelmed and feel like I can't do anything right. The Holy Spirit continues to work in our weakness and later on in the same letter Paul reminds us again that the Lord's power is "made perfect" in our weakness (12:9). 

This treasure of the Holy Spirit is my daily strength in all the things I do around Whiteabbey, in pastoral visitation, leading at Girls' Association (company section, secondary school age), Friendship Hour (our senior ladies), Kids & Co (our mother and toddlers group), our home group, and our Village Youth Week in the summer. In taking part in prayer meetings, funerals and church services, prayer ministry, helping to run courses like 'Encountering Grief' (a four-week course to help bereaved members of the congregation), teaching the PoD (our first to third year Bible study) and organising seniors' events. Thank you, Lord, for your constant faithfulness in all of this!

Please pray:

• Give thanks for the work of the Holy Spirit in Whiteabbey, and pray that those who are going through hard times would remember the treasure they have in him.
• For our assistant minister, Matthew, who at the time of writing is waiting for a call to his first charge. Pray for Matthew and his family - that God would guide them and prepare them for this special new chapter in their lives.
• For wisdom as we apply for and wait to appoint a new youth worker - that God would clearly reveal the right person.

 To download a printable PDF version of this report visit the Mission Reports listing at the top.