Articles - Miscellaneous

Notes from an (even smaller) island

Liz and I are Church Army Officers. I was commissioned in 1989 and Liz was commissioned in 1990, just before our marriage in St Edmunds. We began our married lives in Portadown before moving to Shropshire, where Ruth and Sarah were born, in 1995 and 1996. We then moved to Cumbria before arriving in our present job in Drumcree (Northern Ireland).

Drumcree is a rural parish just outside Portadown. It was the original Christian worship centre for the whole area, with a church on the present site as early as the sixth century.

My job here involves getting the Youth and Children involved in the life of the church. The Church has three Sunday schools and a thriving Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade. We also have a youth badminton club. There was no youth fellowship when we arrived, but we now have up to 10 young people on a Sunday night, meeting fortnightly.

Apart from this I teach a religious education class in the local primary school and in the Junior High. Liz also teaches a class in the primary school. In addition to this class she is now also a school dinner supervisor.

Ruth and Sarah have settled in over the past two years and enjoy attending Richmount school. Ruth is in the school choir, she must take after her mother who for many years was a member of the choir at St Edmunds. Sarah has started taking ballet lessons and both girls swim once a week. They both also enjoy Girls Brigade.

We often visit St Edmunds during the summer, when the girls enjoy the company of their grandparents, Michael and Astrid Fielden. Look out for us next year and stop us for a chat. Until then please pray for our work in an area which has its own particular problems.
Yours Captain Alan Barr C.A.

27 November, 2003