Home Safe and Sound! :)

I just wanted to thank all of you who have been following our blog for the past month! Our debrief was a great time of over-view and sharing how we personally experienced God on this trip. We are called to serve with love and I've been so encouraged by the people we worked with (Jenny at Friendship House, Johnny at Trojan Horse, Tony at Lifeline) and their passion for their ministry. It is so evident that God is working in and through them!
As a leader I was encouraged by the way the team members stepped out of their comfort zone and would spread out in a group of young people, children, seniors and men from the hostel and talk and simply "be" with these people. Although we did alot of planning and practising of skits, testimonies and sharing, the most valuable time was just connecting with them and showing love. Our team is full of fun and laughter and I know that as outsiders watched our group, the joy of the Lord was so evident. Each individual was hand-picked by God for this experience in Northern Ireland and I pray that they will be blessed even as they are home processing what they have been through and learned. What an exciting way to begin this next chapter of their lives after high school!
Romans 8:28 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.'

To all families of team members...

Hello all! We're on debrief at Murlough house, which is an old mansion built in the 1850's! It's a beautiful house right on the water surrounded by sand dunes! Yesterday we spent the day exploring Dublin but I'm not going to go into the details of all the adventures we had there given the limited amount of time we have before we go into the little town of Dundrum! I guess you'll have to wait for us to come home for more stories! :)
So anyways...here are the details of our flight back home for all team members (except for Hannah and Larissa who will be in Scotland for a few more days):
We will be leaving on Thursday the 10th of March @ 11:05am (our time here in Northern Ireland), stopping over in Newark at 4:19pm and finally arriving in Buffalo on Continental Airlines (flight#3034) in Buffalo at 5:41pm.
See you on Thursday and please continue to pray for rest and God's leading in our reflections on the past month and adjusting to back home!

The Latest News...

I wrote a blog last night catching up on the whole week and then it got deleted! :( So I'm going to try that again this morning...

~Thursday we went into Downpatrick for the afternoon to participate in 'Trojan Horse' (a ministry for non-church going teens). It's fun by 'Johnny' who gets together with these teens a couple nights a week to not only keep them from getting bored and getting into trouble, but most importantly sharing God's love in a gentle and non-forceful way.

~on Friday we walked to the city bus and took it to the bottom of Cave Hills which is a 1204 feet above sea level. It was a gorgeous day with the sun poking through the clouds! Halfway we reached the cave which doesn't go too deep but is a cool sight to see and we meandered up the grassy slopes to the cliff edge at the top where we got an amazing view of Belfast! Definitely a highlight of our trip! It was very windy but we found a little crevice in the grass where we ate our lunch!

~on Saturday we moved to Downpatrick and got a tour of Downpatrick Presbyterian Church by Harry (the minister and Jenny's husband)! Then we spread out into various homes where we'd be staying for the week (members of the church offered to host)!

~Sunday we had breakfast with the youth of Downpatrick church, learned about them and shared a bit about ourselves (their group is called 'Wakey Wakey'). After the service we went to our host homes for lunch and the afternoon with our host families! In the evening we participated in the youth group's 'Murder Mystery' by dressing up in costumes and hiding around the main street of Downpatrick for them to find us! In our costumes we got alot of funny looks by the passersby!

~Monday we spent the day planning for the upcoming week, starting the day with a longer time in prayer which was very refreshing and encouraging! John and Alicia arrived in the afternoon and we all went for a walk along the water! It was another beautiful, sunny day! (Most of our days have been!)

~Tuesday we headed to Friendship House for the last day and it was packed full with breakfast in the morning with the men's hostel, playing with the younger children followed by the older children after school and then youth alpha in the evening which the team worked hard to plan. We made it like 'Survivor' with teams (we each painted our faces) and competition! They got really into it! The hardest part that day was saying 'Goodbye' to all of them. We had a good time of debrief and sharing with the staff of Friendship House and tears were flowing!

~Wednesday we split the team in half (half with Kev and half with me) to participate in two primary school assemblies. We shared two camp-style songs with actions and a skit which the kids loved! Then we spent the afternoon touring Down Cathedral (which overlooks Downpatrick and is said to be where St. Patrick is buried and there is a rock there dedicated to him), the jail where people were tried and hung and a huge estate known as Castleward built in the 1700's and decorated just as it would have been! The husband and wife disagreed on design so the house is literally split in half where one side is Gothic style and the other side is Victorian (all the way to the windows on the outside!)! The most impressive part was the secret door in the library hidden in the bookshelf! We had time to eat some pizza before heading back to Belfast for 'Lifeline'where non-church teens hang out and often have games planned and once a week bible sharing. We did 'Survivor' again with them and hung out. The leader Tony shared with us about fourteen young people who have committed suicide in the past year and asked for prayer for these young people that he ministers to. We ask that you pray for them too as there seems to be a huge issue with suicide in Belfast amongst young people.

~Today we're hosting an assembly and Trojan Horse again! 

Short message..

We're all good here! It's been very busy moving locations from Belfast to Downpatrick! I will give a more detailed update this week! :)