A New Week!

So Sunday's service was hosted by our team for Great Victoria Presbyterian and it was held here at Friendship House! It's been fun to see the main room at Friendship House transformed from girl's sleeping area, to children's play place, to senior's lunch area, to men's breakfast cafe, youth alpha and then a church sanctuary! Each team member was involved in one way or another in the service: Paul led worship by guitar; Dylan shared his testimony and performed in the skit; Becca read the scripture passage, shared her testimony and performed in the skit; Jeff gave the message and performed in the skit; Hannah sang in the worship team and performed in the skit; Larissa sang in the worship team; Stacey sang in the worship team, made the bulletins and performed in the skit; Megan greeted at the door and performed in the skit; Monica greeted at the door, took pictures and was available for restless children in the service. It's so great to see everyone in action and using their gifts! Not only in the church service but in every area in which we're serving. After tea following the service, we split into three groups to have lunch at hosted by three of the staff at Friendship House (Kev, Jeff, Monica and Becca at Jenny and Harry's; Dylan, Paul and Megan with Ashley and Hannah, Larissa and Stacey at Natalie's). Each experience was great mostly because it was nice to be in a home after we'd been at Friendship House non-stop for ten days and the home-made food was wonderful! But it was also nice to see the scenery outside of Belfast! Rolling hills, sheep and the sea! I'll leave details for the team to share to their friend's and family since we all had a different experience but I'll just say it was very refreshing for everyone and we had lots to talk about when we got back! It's interesting how much you miss eachother after half a day when you're together 24/7!
Today we spent the morning meditating on Psalm 139 and spending some quiet time with God alone! A few of us felt God especially prompting us to go for a walk and pray for the city but specifically Sandy Row (where we are located). Once back we got some fresh food from a nearby bakery and cleaned them out of pasta and sausage rolls! After lunch the children came from school to play with us before their parents picked them up! We had alot going on at once from dress-up, to train building, colouring, running around, wacking people with plastic swords...etc. :) It was a fun time! It looked like we had been hit by a tornado when they left so we cleaned and had some free time (most of the team have taken on knitting so they've sat around like a group of ladies at the retirement home chatting and using their hands to make scarves and hats!)! Now we've just finished our evening of team building games and exercises (including writing notes of encouragement to eachother)!
I was colouring with an adorable little five year old named Gypsy today. She's the sweetest thing but it broke my heart to hear some of the dirty talk and profanity coming from her little mouth. It broke my heart to think of what she's exposed to at such a young age and I was just reminded of how much these children have to grow up sp fast in a very unhealthy way. We also heard knocking on our windows at 9pm by some little seven year olds and we were shocked at how their parents just let them wander the streets on their own in the dark and at such a late hour. Please pray for the safety of these kids!