"Committed to preaching and teaching the Word of God in order to point men, women, young people, and boys and girls to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord."
		Latest News Easter Sunday March 27^th 2005 – It’s hard to believe, but it is exactly 12 years since Cavan Baptist Church was formed. We started off with 14 foundation members who signed a Covenant at a meeting in the Farnham Arms Hotel in Cavan to officially constitute as Cavan Baptist Church. Ian Grant had been responsible for a Bible Study and a Sunday Fellowship meeting in the area for just 15 months before that. But today Easter Sunday 2005 he preached his last sermon for us. Ian, Judith and the family have moved to temporary accommodation for the next few months as Ian takes up his work with SIM in Ireland. They can be contacted at Flat 4, 83 Moy Road, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT71 7HG, or by e-mail at ian@simireland.co.uk . They hope to move into their new house at Carnreagh, Craigavon by June. Their farewell and commissioning service is on Friday 1^st April at 8:00pm in CBC. Ian would just like to thank everyone who has prayed for him in his pastoral and church-planting ministry over the last 15 years in Portadown, Mullaghmeen and Cavan. Please continue to pray for them in a new sphere of work with SIM. Pray for us as a Church too, that God will soon lead us to a new pastor of His choice. Thank-you! February 10^th 2005 – Today we had the joy of sending out one of our members on a one year Short Term Associate programme to Ethiopia with SIM. Edwina Dewart from Loch Gowna, Co. Cavan will be living and working in Addis Ababa for one year. She arrived safely on Thursday night and is settling in to a whole new set of experiences. You can find out about the type of work she will be involved in by looking up the SIM web-site and going to the Ethiopia pages. Edwina will be working with an HIV / AIDS programme. January 23^rd 2005 – Today we had another opportunity to record our Sunday morning service for broadcast on Shannon-Side / Northern Sound Local Radio (94.8FM). It will go on air next Sunday morning 30^th January following the 10:00am news. The singing was excellent, Tim Coyle prayed, Mark Brodie read the Scriptures from Colossians 1:13-23 and Ian preached a message based on that passage entitled ‘This is the Gospel’, making the point that we need to make sure we believe the true Gospel and that we are preaching the true Gospel in our churches in Ireland today. You can see the text for the message on the ‘Sermons’ page of this web-site. November 28^th 2004 – ‘Yes, it’s official!’ Today Ian Grant announced that he will be leaving Cavan Baptist Church on Easter Sunday 27^th March 2005. That Sunday will also be our Anniversary Sunday - 13 years since we began to meet together as a Fellowship and 12 years to the very day that we constituted as a Church. Ian has been with us from the very beginning. Ian has just been appointed as SIM-Ireland Director. He will be based in the SIM office in Belfast, and will have responsibility for all SIM career missionaries and short term workers who have gone out from Ireland. He will be responsible for overseeing the application process for new missionary candidates, keeping in touch with them for prayer support while on the field, and helping them to settle back to life at home on their return. He will also be responsible for encouraging giving to Mission in order to financially support those out on missionary service with SIM. It is also hoped that Ian will get opportunities to visit churches and Bible Colleges throughout Ireland not only to represent the Mission, but also to preach and teach on Mission encouraging churches and individuals to get involved in mission and to put it back at the top of their agenda today. You can find out more about SIM from their web-site www.sim.co.uk Ian & Judith, Peter (7), Jenny (5) and Michael (18 months) hope to move house to the Craigavon area during the Easter School holidays. Please pray for them and for the Church in Cavan as they go through this time of change. Pray that a new pastor will be found to take Cavan Baptist Church forward as soon as possible. October 2004 – We were overwhelmed with the response to our Harvest Weekend this year. We had 180 people present for a sit-down outreach meal on Saturday 2^nd October – the Harvest Supper. On the Sunday we had between 80 and 100 people present at both Harvest Services. Andrew Roycroft (pastor of Armagh Baptist Church) brought some very challenging and very practical messages and the singing of the Lamplighters (from Lisburn) was enjoyed by all. Thanks very much to all who helped. Continue to pray for all who were present. July 04 – We had another very encouraging Baptismal Service on Sunday 4^th July. Six people were baptized. This means that in the last 15 months since we entered our new building a total of 17 people have been baptized – we praise God for this! The building was well filled with around 120 people present, and the testimonies of those getting baptized were excellent. It was a really encouraging evening! We also added 3 new members to our church on Sunday 25^th July. This brings us to 38 members in total. On the same day our Worship Service was broadcast on Shannon-Side / Northern Sound Local Radio (94.8FM). It all came across loud and clear - Thanks for praying! June 04 – Our Young People (J2Y) have just formed a praise group. We are calling it “Jesus-2-You” for two reasons: We want our worship to go to Jesus, and we want to point our friends to Jesus. Their debut at the Youth Service on Sunday 6^th June went really well. They will be leading the worship from time to time. We enjoyed having Henry Montgomery to preach for us over our Youth weekend in the church in June. April 04 – We showed the ‘Jesus’ Film on Good Friday night in the church premises. About 80 people were present, and we are delighted that one teenage girl from England trusted in Christ as she watched the film! We are seeing quite a number of new people attending the church. Some of them contacted us through our web-site! March 04 – We celebrated the 11^th Anniversary of the formation of our church. It’s hard to believe it is 12 years since we started off in a farmhouse near Killeshandra! February 04 – At our Annual General Members’ Meeting we took the decision to go fully self-supporting as a church. This means that Ian will no longer be supported by Baptist Missions after 1^st September 2004. The church will take full responsibility for his support. This is an important milestone. Thanks to Baptist Missions and our churches for all their help in getting us started, but do continue to pray for us in the coming days. 2003 – ‘The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy!’ December - Our Christmas Outreach Events went really well. We had about 100 people present at our Outreach Meeting on the 7^th December when the Lamplighters were with us and at our Carol Service on 21^st December when our own young people took part. We distributed about 1000 Christian Calendars around Cavan, Virginia, Longford and Leitrim. Pray that God will use these to speak to people about Himself. October - We had a wonderful Harvest weekend in Cavan Baptist Church at the beginning of the month. There were about 120 people present at the Harvest Supper in the church on Saturday 4^th October, when George Morrow (Omagh) was the speaker. We had Terry Price (Cork) with us for both services on Sunday 5^th and again we had a great day. Two children even professed faith in Christ as a result – Praise God! Summer - We have had a bit of a baby boom in the church! So our Sunday School and crèche look like they will continue to grow! Ayodele and Florence Adesanya had a little girl called Ruth in May. Ian and Judith Grant had a little boy called Michael on 7^th August. And Floyd and Ruth McNeill had a baby girl called Emma on 14^th August. We have had three Believers’ Baptism Services since the opening of our new church building back in March. We had the joy of baptizing 5 people on Sunday night 4^th May – 2 adults and 3 teenagers. It was a great night. About 110 people were present. Then 3 Nigerian folk and one local boy were baptized and added to our church on Sunday 6^th July. This has brought our total membership to 33 now! Two more local people were baptized at a Sunday morning service on 21^st September making a total of 11 baptisms in six months! Praise God for this growth! Tim & Barbara Coyle are looking after the outreach in Leitrim and Longford. They had a team helping them for two weeks from Cornerstone Bible Church in Los Angeles California at the end of July. They did outreach in both Leitrim and Longford. Pray for Tim as he follows up quite a number of contacts that were made over the summer. The Leitrim Fellowship meets on the second Sunday night of each month. Pray for the development of the work in both of these areas. (See the Leitrim Bible Study page if you want to contact Tim direct.) May - We had the Amazing Journey Bible Exhibition (Part 3) “The Amazing Acts” around Cavan Schools from 26^th – 30^th. It went really well and Billy Young did a great job. About 270 children saw it this time. Pray that they will remember what they heard and be impacted by it in their own lives. A total of 270 children received a Children’s Bible as a result of the previous visits of the Amazing Journey! March - We had a wonderful day for the Opening of our New Building on Saturday 29^th March 2003. It was also the Tenth Anniversary since the formation of Cavan Baptist Church. Ian’s dad, Pastor J.R. Grant, was the speaker at the Opening Service when almost 300 people were present. Part of the service was recorded and was broadcast on Shannonside – Northern Sound local radio on Sunday 30^th March at 10:00am. We had over 80 present at the Anniversary Service on the Sunday morning and about 60 people were present to start off our Open House Bible Week on the Sunday night. These meetings continued through until Wednesday 2^nd April. Pastor Grant spoke on Genesis chs.1-12: “What’s Life all About?” Everyone who was present found these messages really helpful.