Fresh new name for new City Centre Church

The recently formed Fresh Oil Church brings the number of Churches and places of worship in the Lisburn City Council area to 134.  Under the leadership of Pastor Sheila Smyth, the new fellowship commenced in January 2005 and meet for worship each Sunday morning at 11.00am in Lagan Room 2 - Lisburn Leisureplex.

The name Fresh Oil was chosen because it speaks of a Fresh new move of the Holy Spirit.  The Pastor, Sheila Smyth, is a very gifted musician and a lot of new music and worship songs have been birthed within Fresh Oil as they have a strong emphasis on worship, and the desire to see and hear new songs being written.  They regularly take the studio theatre in the civic centre and have worked with many good musicians at this venue.  On 30^th June they will be holding a concert in the Lagan Valley Island Hall and Pastor Philemon Bandi, from Zimbabwe will be the speaker at that night of music and evangelism.  Fresh Oil also runs a Christian single parent work, which offers support and help to single parents, and their children.

During morning worship on Easter Sunday, George Jackson and Caroline Wilson presented a gift to Sharon Brown.  Sharon is taking leave from her work as an audiologist in the Royal Hospitals Trust and will travel to Greece on Thursday 20^th April for a six-month missionary outreach in Astros, near Athens.  She will be working with evangelists Elias and Effie Armenis whom Sharon and Pastor Sheila Smyth met on a trip to Greece last summer.  The purpose of that initial trip was to support some people in Astros who wanted to plant an evangelical Church there.  Elias gave up his job as an engineer to work with homeless people, drug addicts, and prostitutes in inner city Athens.  He set up �The Hope Place� where people he witnesses to on the streets can come for food, clothing, a bed for the night, prayer support and counselling.  There are also times of fellowship, worship and teaching.  Sharon, who felt called to join them in their work, will spend the summer months on the Greek Islands working with the local team in outreach work using drama and music and will also be involved in the ongoing work in Astros.

In May, Elias and Effie Armenis, who are supported by �Passage to Life� will be visiting Lisburn and will be speaking at Fresh Oil Church.  In July, Pastor Sheila Smyth and a team of musicians from the new Lisburn Church will be joining Sharon in Greece to support her work there with a series of open-air music concerts during an Evangelical Mission in Astros, which will be led by Elias and a team from the USA.