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! :)

Full Day of Events!

Yesterday we woke up and had our daily devotions, primarily focussing on praying for each group of people we've been serving here in Belfast from the children to the elders. We had a beautiful time of worship and then the men came over from the hostel for a big Ulster fry breakfast! :) (Sausages, deep fried soda bread, potato bread and pancakes!). We enjoyed visiting with them and then one of them whipped out a guitar and played some Johnny Cash and some of their own music and our own guys shared some of their music too! We went to the nearby park to get some fresh air and play on the playground equipment! (It's a pretty cool park with a zip-line and super-fast merry-go-round). Once they were gone and we cleaned the place, the young kids came to play after school. It was a loud and wild time but the kids just love being with us and it's hard to get them to go! After that we helped some of the older kids with their homework one-on-one and it was surprisingly quiet! We've appreciated many meals made by women of Harry's church in Downpatrick and yesterday we had some delicious cottage pie! Our last event was youth alpha in the evening when we showed a video on internet safety to bring awareness of sharing personal information on the web. After that Monica shared her testimony and we sang some songs.

Today we walked to the Blythefield elementary school of ninety kids and shared a skit and and song in front of the school. The majority of the kids we knew from coming to Friendship House and we were surprised at how quiet and good they were at listening! It was polar opposite to what they normally are like! They all looked so cute in their uniforms.
Then we had devotions and got things ready for the seniors to come for lunch. One of their specialties is grape and cream cheese sandwiches! It's actually really good! Tastes like cheesecake on bread!
The kids came to play after school again and it was a fun time but we were surprised that the older ladies don't like having them around (because they're too rowdy!)!
We just got back from skating in the West of Belfast! It was so refreshing to just go out and have fun and be active!
Also can you pray for our health as a few of us have been feeling sick and exhausted. Monica went to the clinic today and it turns out she has had mono the whole time but she's just at the end of it. We're praying that no-one else has mono especially since we're sleeping in such close quarters!

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!

Castle Adventures!

Today was our tourist day! So Harry Robinson (Jenny's husband) and one of the women from his church (Margaret), picked us up in a mini bus and drove us to Belfast Castle and the Carrickfergus Castle! They were both BREATHTAKING! Belfast castle is located in North Belfast in the Cave Hill area with a gorgeous view of the city. The grounds are neatly manicured with a fountain and cat-themed gardens (apparently this is a symbol of prosperity/luck). It looks like something out of a fairytale! The team enjoyed exploring and taking pictures and it was a perfect, sunny day! For lunch we had some traditional Irish food known as "pizza" from Pizza Hut ;) We then went to Carrickfergus castle which was built in 1177 and is surrounded mostly by the water of the Belfast Lough. It's the most well preserved medieval structure in all of Ireland and it's all made of stone! We spent alot of time at both castles and then came home to relax, have dinner, do devotions and sing some worship songs and we're now watching the movie 'Hook'. :) It's been nice to just hang out for the day!
We're all prepared to lead a church service for Great Victorian Presbyterian (which was where we went last week) tomorrow here at Friendship House! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!