Thanking God.....

.....for sleeplessness since 2 a.m.? (it's 5:30 in the morning here as I write this) Yes, I actually am!

Why in the world??? It's simple: Although this is the third or fourth time I've faced a similarly sleepless night here, this time was different. {My ongoing digestive issues here are partly to blame for the sleeplessness...as is ongoing stress/uncertainty...and all of the above are, I think, magnified at least some by the medicine I've been taking for malaria prevention.....}

This time, I didn't spend the time (trying to go back to sleep) on worrying and fretting about my problems, and then tacking on a little begging prayer for God to make things go my way. That's pretty much what I've done before, and it hasn't solved anything. While I know God cares about what I'm going through, and He certainly tells us to come to Him with our requests, I can now recognize that my heart and attitude have been very selfish and ego-centric the past weeks and months. Even when I came here wanting to help others and serve God...

And He's been convicting me and calling me out on some things this past week. And yes, I'm facing uncertainty yet again....but maybe I'm finally learning to take more baby steps towards deeper faith. Thanks be to God, my response this time has been better than it often has in the past--and I've taken the confusion to God more quickly.

Because of His continued work in my heart (which I am so incredibly thankful for), this morning--when I woke up at 2 and had to scurry right over to the pit latrine a couple yards from my hut--I didn't put on a pity party like I did the other night this happened. Instead I thanked God for His goodness and asked Him to be glorified, even in this--even when it's not fun or easy. And I don't share this because I'm some great person to have done this. No, that was all God and not very much of me.

And as I lay tossing in bed the next two hours, failing to fall back asleep, I invested that time. I invested it in prayer. First in worshiping God and reorienting myself to find satisfaction in Him alone; and then in praying for the people in my "Institute family" (there's 20+ people going through the Institute here at New Hope right now), other people/situations here at Kasana, and my friends/family all around the world.

It was a sweet, sweet time. Yes, sleep would have been nice.... (I may still go try to catch a nap before breakfast...) But I was able to put into practice what God's been teaching & calling me to. And I'm thankful that He led me heart to Him during that time.

Catching Up - Finally!

Well, I have had another long hiatus on here. Sorry for the lack of posting – the fall/winter months did not go as I had expected, and I sometimes felt like I didn’t have anything worth talking about on my blog. Especially after the crazy/exciting three-to-four months after graduation!

This fall was really important for me though. I was reminded again and again that “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Is. 55:8). I had plans, plenty of them….But God’s plan was different than anything I had expected. While the changes and unmet expectations this fall were certainly challenging at times, I am thankful for the assurance I have that God has brought me where I am for His purposes and glory alone. Because of that, I can say that there is nowhere else I would truly rather be during this time.

The beginning of October dropped a new door in my path after the three doors I had wanted to work out closed instead. There was an opportunity to assist a new missionary family by helping homeschool their five kids. I didn’t feel qualified…it felt out of my league…but I sensed God’s direction and so I (a bit hesitantly) offered my availability. A month later, I was officially accepted and knew for sure: I would be spending January through May in Uganda! God provided in a really big way for me to come here—even when my faith was weak. He certainly deserves all the praise for that.

So the past five weeks I have been adjusting to living in the African bush. A friend last night asked me if I’d had culture shock, or how I liked it so far. There are, of course, differences in lifestyle. While some things are more challenging here (no running water at my hut, intermittent electricity and Internet), I can honestly say that I like it here just as much as in the U.S. Different can sometimes mean better :D

One of the many things college taught me is that I’ve always been a small-town girl at heart—and so spending four months mostly in the mega-tropolis of DFW was not always easy….especially having spent the three months previous in places where I could easily walk a short distance and be by myself surrounded by trees or open country. Going to a city park (which I did sometimes) is just not the same as walking out one’s back door and straight up a deserted mountain…or leaving one’s dorm and shortly later arriving at a hidden little hollow in the woods. Here in Uganda, I’ve already find a couple spots at our mission’s compound that I’ve visited for the same purpose. And it’s nice to have that chance again.

I’m also loving the opportunity to spend a lot of time with kids here. In addition to the five I came to work with (who are mostly teens/pre-teens), there are five kids all under the age of 9 who live right around my hut. Their parents are attending the same Institute training that the parents I came with are in. Just this morning, two of the little girls – ages 3 and 5, I think – were just hanging around my hut. They’re pretty fun and mostly sweet – though sometimes rambunctious and crazy of course :) The other three “Institute kids” are siblings, ages 9, 6, and 2. I love indulging my inner childhood spirit playing with them all :D

The adults have also made the experience an enjoyable one. Ugandan culture places a high priority on relationships, and it certainly shows. There are about a dozen adults (plus the five younger kids) who eat all of our meals together, and as we gather we greet one another with handshakes or hugs. It’s just been a great blessing to be in a small community like this, as part of the larger New Hope Uganda community at Kasana.

Do I miss JBU and my college friends, and my family, and the places/people where I left parts of my heart this summer? Of course I do. It’s hard for me to believe how long it’s been already since those places were my current home. I’ll always be thankful for them and jump at any chance to visit. And I’ve been grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to use Skype, Facebook, email, the phone, etc. to keep in touch with folks over the past nine months (WOW) since graduation. But life goes on, and this is where God has me for now—and I am blessed :)

Pictures!

I just rediscovered how to get a link to my Facebook photo albums! So you should be able to see my pictures in these two albums, even if you don't have a Facebook account. At least that's what they tell me :)

Framing N.Ireland - Less than half of the photos I took while in Northern Ireland with the mission team.

New Digs in NC - Pictures from my time in Boone, NC for my Samaritan's Purse internship.

Also....I'm supposed to put something on here stating that any views expressed in this blog are my own personal opinions and are in no way to be seen as official Samaritan's Purse statements. Just in case there was any confusion about that.

Ireland Update 7

This was all nearly a month ago now….but I’m finally sitting down to write about our last week in N. Ireland. I had written about the first two days in the plane coming back, but I lost my tablet that had that on it. So that’s part of what’s been holding me back – I hate writing things a second time. :P

If you want to see pictures from our time in Ireland, almost 500 of my 1,300 pictures are posted on Facebook! Mostly with detailed captions J

Day 21 - Tuesday, June 18

Tuesday was our big sightseeing day. We started off by visiting Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that used to be used by fishermen to get from the mainland to an island. The bridge has planking that is less than two feet wide, with a rope mesh extending maybe another foot or so to either side. The sides of the bridge are intersecting ropes that come up about four feet to the rope handrails. The bridge is over a chasm which is almost 100 feet deep and 65 feet wide. So crossing it was a bit of a stretch for height-sensitive me. But it was totally worth it!

We hung out for quite a while on the island reached by crossing the bridge. Tons of gulls and guillemots were flying around the cliffs of the island, probably trying to get situated for nesting season. Their calls were so loud that I was looking around for a big group of seals! I actually lay down on the grassy top of the island and just watched the birds for a while, so that was fun. Most of us ate our sack lunches as a picnic on the island as well.

Next, we stopped at a coastal town (don’t remember which one…) to do some shopping. Several of us went to a used book store and found some neat old hymnals. I also got an old copy of C.S.Lewis’ book “That Hideous Strength” and a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that looked interesting. Just started reading the latter this morning and am SO glad I got it! I also liked walking around looking at the architecture of the town. At a bakery, I tried a “fifteen tray bake” and liked it! They’re evidently a traditional Irish treat, kind of similar to what many people call magic cookie bars in the States, but with marshmallows and cherries instead of chocolate and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to Giant’s Causeway. It’s this amazing geographical formation on the coast, probably formed by volcanic activity as Ireland separated from Scotland. Basically, it is a VAST structure of thousands of usually hexagonal columns of varying height that fit together like a giant puzzle. You’ll have to look at my pictures or Google it to see what I mean because it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the structure runs from the base of a mountain out into the ocean as a peninsula – and it’s great fun to scramble around on and explore!

After we looked around there for a while, we hiked up the shepherd’s trail to the top of the mountain overlooking the causeway. Part of the trail used switchbacks, but the last part was a steep 162 stairs! We were glad to reach the top. Once we had enjoyed the view, we followed the trail along the ridge back to the visitor center. Everything was so green and pretty, and out on the Giant’s Causeway I loved watching the waves crash onto the pillars of stone J

That evening we were on our own for dinner in one of the coastal towns, so a couple of the other girls and I ended up at a hamburger place actually. The inside was decorated in a ‘50s American style, with a poster cut out of Elvis and such. We were fairly amused J We had the best sweet potato fries I had ever tasted though!

After dinner, we reunited with a couple of the other team members and waited at the meeting place for the rest of the team, including the drivers. They were late and it was chilly…so we ended up crowding seven of us onto one park bench. Folks driving by us were staring and waving…and we ended up watching and laughing at some pigeons that looked like they were wrestling up on a balcony ledge. Once we got back to our youth hostel, one of the gals and I took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. It was a good chance to talk J

Day 22 - Wednesday, June 19

That morning I hustled down the beach for about 30 minutes so I could get back to the place where we had been Monday evening. I climbed up onto one of the island-ish rocks and just enjoyed sitting there with the wind blowing around me and the birds circling and calling. And the sound of the waves crashing. It was wonderful – good time for reflection too.

After breakfast, we got all of our stuff packed and loaded up. We still did some sightseeing around the area before heading out though. First stop was Dunluce Castle, now an old ruins that may date back to the 1300s and was occupied until one day in 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea! According to Ireland’s National Trust website, these ruins may have served as C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for Cair Paravel!  We had fun going a little ways into a cave/tunnel right under the cliffs the castle ruins are on. We didn’t go into the castle itself, because we would have had to pay. But we had fun climbing on the rocks around it!

Our next stop was at the small town of Ballintoy. Looked into a pretty church there, then went down, down the hillside to the coast where we scrambled around on more rocky outcroppings. Then back to the van for sack lunches and time to bid farewell to the beautiful Irish North Coast. After driving a couple hours, we stopped at Glenariff Forest Park to go hiking, but sadly the main attraction—a hike to a beautiful waterfall—was closed because of winter storm damage. We still hiked around though.

We had planned to go to a lighthouse near Belfast, but traffic delayed us too much. So we ended up eating at a tiny restaurant in Belfast that had an interesting mixed menu of pizza/Italian and Chinese/Asian food. It was delicious though! And then it was back to the home sweet home of our cottages…at least for a couple more days.

Day 23 - Thursday, June 20

The next day we literally had nothing planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the only day that happened on the whole trip! It was wonderful. We just hung out, played games, relaxed, etc.

That evening after dinner I went out to the observation deck on my own. I had a lot to think about. The trip was fast coming to an end, and with it my time at JBU was truly concluding. I’d known for a long time that I would cry about graduating and having to say goodbye to that place and everything it had meant to me for four years at some point. I expected it to happen in May, but it didn’t. It happened that night in Ireland instead. God was really gracious through that, reminding me of some important things. Later, one of the gals and I took a walk up Joe’s mountain and just talked about stuff – so that was good and helped me process things some more.

Day 24 - Friday, June 21

Spent a good part of the day in Belfast. A couple of us went to the Titanic museum together. The ship was built in Belfast, and the museum is located near the area where the gigantic ship was created and first put off into the ocean. It has an interestingly broad range of topics, clear from the early industrial history of Belfast all the way through the science of deep sea exploration. So it has relatively little on the crash of the Titanic, and more on the ship’s complete story from beginning to end. Quite interesting!

Once we got back into the Belfast city center, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the lawn of the city hall. Then we went together to go shopping at Primark, Ireland’s version of a department store similar to Macy’s. I wasn’t in a shopping mood though, and felt very out of place in the crowded store. So I meandered my way back to a coffee shop. Watched some street performers on the way, and just spent some time writing the previous Ireland Update and a few post cards.

When it came time to meet up with the rest of the team to ride the city bus back to Lakeside Manor, where we had parked our van, I was in full-fledged shut down mode. I’m still not sure completely why. In a way I guess it was culture shock. I just felt very very out of my element. After being in small towns for three weeks and almost exclusively with our small team, to suddenly be in the big city surrounded by hundreds of people really put me on edge for some reason. It’s not like I don’t know how to function in cities….spent my whole life until college in Dallas, and lived in D.C. for two months last summer without ever having that feeling. But that’s what happened. I just had to crawl in my shell for a while. Once we had ridden the bus out of the city center into the more residential area, I started doing fine again. It was pretty odd.

Day 25 - Saturday, June 22

Another very chill day – lots of playing table games and such. That evening, the owners of the cottages where we stayed hosted a BBQ for a ton of their friends. They invited our team too, so we went over for a while. Got to talk to an Irish gal and hear about what God is doing in her life – it was really good! It rained some during the evening, and we saw a *gorgeous* double rainbow that went all the way across. It was so very pretty!

Later, all of the main people we had worked with in Killyleagh – Wally, Heather, Samantha, Sam and Craig – came over for one last time. We just had a great time hanging out, including a dance party for most people. But then we had to say goodbye to our Killyleagh teammates L

Day 26 - Sunday, June 23

Went back into Belfast for a day of seeing C.S. Lewis related sites. We started by attending a service at St. Mark’s Church, which has a number of Lewis connections:

• ·         Jack’s grandfather was the pastor of the church during Jack’s childhood
• ·         Jack’s parents were married in the church
• ·         The baptismal font where Warren and Jack were both baptized as babies is in the back
• ·         The pulpit is the same one which Jack would have watched his grandfather preach in
• ·         On the door of the parsonage is a doorknob with a lion’s head
• ·         One of the stained glass windows was given to the church by Warren and Jack later in life in memory of their parents

It was SUCH a beautiful church – just loved it! After the service, a guy who goes there gave us the C.S. Lewis tour of the church, during which he explained all of the above. He also pointed out various things about the symbolism of the church. I enjoyed it all J

We also stopped by the house where Jack and Warren lived as children – Little Lea. We couldn’t go in, because it is now privately owned…but it was still neat to see. Our last Lewis stop was at the statue of The Searcher, commissioned in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Lewis’ birth. It shows a man looking into a wardrobe, and on the back of the wardrobe there is a copy of a letter Lewis wrote to a young lady asking about the Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia.

After that, we went to St. George’s Market in Belfast, which is basically a large building with a whole collection of vendor booths – everything from food to vintage stuff to handmade items. It was fun wandering around it J

That evening was our last one together as a whole team. So the leaders took the time to get each of us a coke bottle with a Gaelic name on it and make up a definition for the names that had something to do with what each one of us had contributed to the team. It was a time of lots of laughter, but also of encouragement. Sam came back for one last time, and a few of us ended up staying up until 4 a.m. because going to bed meant saying goodbye to Sam. We watched the sky turn light, since the sun comes up super early there.

Day 27 - Monday, June 24

The next day we spent the morning cleaning the cottages and packing up all of the JBU equipment that gets stored at Lakeside Manor during the year. It went by super fast, so that was nice. I also got my own stuff packed up. Before lunch we took one last hike up Joe’s Mountain to bid it farewell.

After lunch we went to Castleward, the former manor home of a rich family. They turned it over to the National Trust fund when they were too in debt to pay their taxes, or something like that. Now it’s basically a museum. It has lots of interesting architecture and artifacts. After getting a really great tour of the house, we walked around on the property for a while, and found some really fat pigs in the farm near the lough.

That evening we went back to Strangford for a final team dinner at a nice restaurant, the Cuan. After we finished, we went to Asda to buy any foodstuff we wanted to take home. Then it was time for our team to say goodbye to three of our members, who had to go to Belfast because they were on different flights out of Ireland.

Day 28 - Tuesday, June 25

We got up early that morning to finish up last minute things at the cottages and depart for Belfast. It was a long day of traveling. We flew from Belfast to Newark to Houston to XNA, the regional airport in northwest Arkansas. In Newark things got really stressful and crazy. Long story short, our layover was too short for everything we had to do, and half of our team didn’t make it onto the flight to Houston. I did, but in the process I accidentally left my backpack behind, and it’s still lost. We were worried that the other half of the team wasn’t going to make it to Houston in time to catch the flight to XNA – but amazingly they made it just in time. We were all so relieved when we saw them get on our little three-seat-across plane to go up to XNA. Then once we landed in XNA it was really time to say goodbye.

The End.

My parents had come up to Siloam Springs to pick me up. We stayed in our tent that night at the Arkansas welcome center, though I didn’t sleep very well. Lots on my mind, plus jetlag. The next day the three of us spent the day at Natural Falls State Park. That was fun. I got to show them a few of the places where I enjoyed spending time during my day-long excursions out there on my own. Then we drove back down to Dallas, back home. But as much as that will always be home, I have a lot of places now that feel like home. And I miss the places and the people that make each so special. But that’s what life is….moving on, saying goodbye, but holding tight to the memories and the lessons.

Speaking of lessons….if you want to read about what I learned over in Ireland, in a spiritual/reflective sense, check it out here. Thank you to each and every person who partnered with me in this trip through prayer and through financial giving! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Ireland Update 6

Day 16 - Thursday, June 13
Going to the kids' sports day was fun. I got to watch a couple of the girls in my Kids Club group win races, and we enjoyed just hanging out with the kids. Afterward, our team had a chance to wander around in Killyleagh for a while, and we could choose between going back to the cottages for a bit or just staying in town.

Another gal and I decided to walk to a park outside of the city to eat the lunches we had packed that morning, even though it was lightly raining off and on. It was a mile and a half out to the park, but the long walk gave us a good chance to talk. As we ate lunch at a picnic table, darker clouds loomed on the horizon - and then it started raining more heavily. Thankfully we both had our rain jackets, so we could stay pretty dry. We made it back into town fine :)

That afternoon, Kids Club had to be in a different location because there was a funeral at the building we normally held it in. Our theme for the day was thankfulness. It was my last time to teach the lesson, since Jonathan and I took turns switching off. The change in location created some challenges, because a bunch of the kids took advantage of it to take off running around the bigger room where two groups were both trying to hold classes. What's more, Jonathan and I had nearly 20 kids, instead of the dozen or so we had been averaging. Wally happened to come by, so he helped by giving the kids a bit of a talking to. But I kind of had to decide to just teach to the kids who were paying attention and kind of ignore the ones who were distracting themselves.

After a quick trip home for dinner, we returned to Killyleagh for Sports Camp. The rainy weather was still more on than off, so the guys ended up playing football outside, while the gals (mostly) played Frisbee in a small gym room. Part of the time though, a couple younger fellas and a couple of our team members were playing football in there, so we girls just sat around because we were tired of playing. We tried to talk some, just to get to know them better, but the room was kind of loud and they weren't super communicative. But it was still good.

Day 17 - Friday, June 14
Our last day of Kids Club focused on encouragement. In the morning, before we went to Killyleagh for the day, Jonathan and I wrote little notes to each of the kids in our team thanking them for coming to Kids Club. The lesson for the day came from a story that Tracy had adapted to fit. Jonathan read the story to the kids, and they listened amazingly well during that...although a few were still creating distractions. But then during Bible verse time they pretty much paid zero attention. It was pretty frustrating for me, because that was the last time our little team was together...and I really wish it could have felt more successful. But it was what it was.

Once all the three teams of kids gathered back in the main hall, the kids started going around asking all of the JBU team members to sign their shirts or name tags, or whatever they had. That's evidently a big deal to the kids, and it's been traditional here over the past couple of years JBU has been coming.

On Thursday and Friday, our team was also signing several New Testaments to give to kids who had shown a specific interest in receiving one. Four of those were for girls in my group, who had been asking me how they could buy a Bible. So I really hope that they will use the Scriptures to continue learning more about God and having a relationship with Him!

It certainly felt awfully bittersweet once we had an empty church after our last Kids Club. Our team walked (through some gently falling rain) to the same house where we had dinner the first Friday of Kids Club. Then we headed to the pitches for our last Sports Camp. By then it was raining pretty constantly - but we couldn't use the inside of the gym that time. A couple of our dedicated Frisbee players still showed up and asked to play - so we did, even though it was sometimes pouring rain and very windy. So it wasn't a very good game - but we made fools of ourselves together anyway...and got pretty soaked in the process.

Some of the Killyleagh Youth for Christ volunteers came back to the cottages with us for the evening, so it was fun to hang out with them! Wally and Josh also surprise attacked us with Nerf guns, which they had been planning for a while. It was a loud finale to our two weeks of work!

Day 18 - Saturday, June 15
I woke up early Saturday morning, so I went out to a little secret place I found for some much needed prayer/re-orienting time. I'm so glad God is willing to be so patient with me despite how easily I can get distracted and fall back into old habits....

We had originally planned to go to Belfast for shopping and touristy stuff on Saturday. But for a variety of reasons, including G8 demonstrations and rainy weather, we decided not to. Instead, we went to Downpatrick Cathedral, which is one of the four places which claims to be the burial site of St. Patrick. We had gone to see the grave earlier, but the church had been closed. The inside of the church was very beautiful :)

Something we had done the Saturday before that I forgot to mention was visiting Saul Church, the site of the first Christian church in Ireland, founded by St. Patrick.

Anyway, after we looked around the Downpatrick Cathedral for a while, we went and watched "Man of Steel" in the local theater with a couple of the Killyleagh YFC guys. It seemed a fitting way to continue celebrating finishing our superhero-themed Kids Club ;-) A big downside (that had nothing to do with the movie) was that I came down with a cold and started dealing with some pain at the same time.

That evening we went back to the cottages and enjoyed more relaxation time. We've been playing games a lot in the evenings too, which is fun.

Day 19 - Sunday, June 16
Sunday morning, we joined Wally for our last prayer meeting as a team. Then we split up into two groups again. Cary preached at the Presbyterian church, and the group who went to the Church of Ireland, including me, helped Wally teach the Bible class and spoke a bit during the church service. A couple of the girls from my Kids Club group were there, and it was fun to see them :)

After lunch we planned for the celebration service that would be that evening at the Presbyterian church as a final wrap up of our ministry time. Then we had the afternoon to rest and relax, which was really nice.

That evening the service went really well. Tracy said she thought it was the most kids she's seen come to the final service in the past three years they have been here. We had the kids sing some of our Kids Club songs and recite some of their verses. A couple of our team members also shared a bit about our experience the past couple of weeks, and some of the team re-presented the skit they had done during the school assembly on Wednesday. We also showed a slide show with some pictures of our work.

Afterward, the church provided a barbeque dinner, which gave a great opportunity to just hang out and play with the kids one last time. There was a lot more shirt signing, and quite a bit of picture taking. We were all really glad that a few of the football guys came - they evidently haven't come in the past. Loading up our team and driving away afterward was really sad. Several of us were close to tears or actually crying. Several of the kids gave us cards, wishing us "safe home" and asking us to come back again. It was really sweet!

Day 20 - Monday, June 17
In the morning, our team packed up our stuff for a short trip to the North Coast of N. Ireland. We stayed at a youth hostel at Whitepark Bay, which is on the Causeway Coast - a route well known in the country for its beauty. On our way there we stopped at Carrickfergus--a coastal town with a castle--for tea, and also at another coastal town where we had really fresh fish and chips.

We had dinner at a nice and yummy restaurant, but I was feeling rather sick-ish from the cold that has been going around our team. After we got back, we finally had a chance to walk down to "our" beach. One of the guys "went swimming" (really just running in and back out), and I went wading some - but the water was pretty cold! Several of us walked down the coast for a ways to an area that had a lot of rocky islands. We watched the sunset from there, and it was so very peaceful and beautiful!

Ireland Update 5

Day 13 - Monday, June 10
Before Kids Club that day, I took some really great time to just reflect and pray through some things, including praying for all of the kids who have been a part of my team so far. We've had something like 20 kids who have come in the P3-4 grade range at least once, but usually only 10-12 on any given day. They were just heavy on my heart that day.

Kids Club went fairly well. For craft time, the kids made wordless bracelets to go along with our super power of the day (forgiveness) and our salvation theme. I explained the meanings of the colors before they made them, and then our Bible story during lesson time was about the crucifixion of Jesus - which Jonathan did a great job on. He had a couple of the kids kind of act it out, which held everyone's attention pretty well!

Later that night, one of the other team members said that one of the girls from my group (who has been in the habit of causing disruptions) was actually wearing her bracelet to Sports Camp, and the girl was able to go through and explain almost all of the colors to the leader! So that was really encouraging for me to hear :)

Monday was our day without Wally, because he was at a friend's wedding. We were all a little worried about how Sports Camp would go without him there, but it seemed to go pretty well! I didn't play any sports really because of my ankle, just tossed a Frisbee around with a circle of kids part of the time. So it didn't feel as fun for me, but it did mean I got to chat with a couple of girls a bit more, which was good.

Day 14 - Tuesday, June 11
In the morning we went to a mall in a larger town that's a bit further away - primarily so that some of our team could get hoodies for printing a team hoodie. It was interesting to walk around an Irish mall. In many ways it was pretty similar to an American mall, but at the same time it definitely felt different. They had the Irish equivalents of a Dollar Tree and a WalMart as part of the mall, which was rather odd. There was also a grocery store in the mall. So in some ways it was more like what we would think of as shopping center - but the building design was like a mall.

Kids Club yesterday focused on love, from the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I had the kids in my team act out the story, which in some ways helped them concentrate on it better and in other ways was more of a distraction - but I think they got the point. They were definitely on the rowdy side in general though - probably because Tuesday was our first truly Irish day: RAINY and definitely chillier. The amazing thing was that our whole group was almost completely silent for about 30 seconds when I reviewed a bit about yesterday's lesson, and talked about how Jesus' death for us is the best love story ever. That was definitely a God thing, because that group of kids is *never* without someone talking or distracting the others. So I was thankful for that :)

Yesterday evening we had the game night for the elementary-aged kids. Because of the colder and wetter weather, we decided to do it inside the church....which was certainly a challenge. I was playing with the younger kids, and it was hard to keep them all involved in the games for a whole hour and a half.....but we made it through!

Day 15 - Wednesday, June 12
Today was mostly warmer than yesterday, though in the evening it was on the misty/rainy side again. And right now, at midnight my time, sitting at the picnic table on our host's porch (nicknamed our "Internet cafe") I am definitely chilly and can see my breath!

We had another assembly this morning with the school that we met with last Wednesday. Since we only had three more days of Kids Club left, we didn't want to do a big invite to Kids Club push. So we didn't use our super hero alter egos at the assembly. Instead, we led songs and then the team members who hadn't participated much in the assembly last week did a skit about not listening to temptations in life. If you've seen the phenomenal skit by Hillsong of the temptations distracting the girl from following Jesus, our team's skit was a much simplified version of that.

It went well, and was fun as always to see some of our Kids Club kids at the school. Afterward the older kids invited us to a little reception with biscuits (cookies) and juice. We also got to watch them have a bit of their Spanish class, which I think our two native Spanish speakers enjoyed.

Kids Club today was on the crazy side. We were talking about peace today.....and Jonathan's and my class did not provide a good example of peace............on the contrary, it was pretty off the wall :/  The upside was that during craft time Jonathan and I took a picture with each of our kiddos, that we're planning to print off and give them. They turned out pretty cute, so I'm excited to have those :) The kids did not do a great job of paying attention during either lesson or Bible verse...but somehow one of our gals managed to fall sound asleep really suddenly and she stayed sound asleep despite all the other kids messing with her trying to wake her up! It was rather weird....

In some ways I am super ready to be done with Kids Club in two days. As Jonathan said this evening, the kids are just getting crazier in some ways because they know us now and are just being themselves. But at the same time I will miss all the kids in my group (though some more than others....) The fun thing will be that on Sunday all the kids are invited to a celebration evening/dinner thing that one of the churches is putting on. So I hope a bunch of the kids and their families will come to that. But we'll see!

After Kids Club, we rushed back to our cottages, rushed through dinner, and went straight back to Killyleagh to get our team fellas to the guys' night on time. Our girls' night went pretty well - and it was much more meaningful for me than the one last week. We played "Just Dance" a couple of times while we waited for gals to trickle in, then we sat down and played a question game. Everyone had a chance to write down questions anonymously on a sheet of paper. They could either make it a general question for anyone, a question specifically for the JBU gals, one for just the Killyleagh girls, or one addressed to an individual person.

Some of the questions were silly, and some (several) were intended to be embarrassing, and others were more intentional to create an environment for good sharing. I got one of the embarrassing questions addressed straight to me, but I had kind of been expecting it and the way it worked out I was able to think about my answer ahead of time. So I hope I was able to turn my answer into something which will make the girls reflect on things...even though I'm not sure they were really listening to the important part of my answer.

The best news is that a couple of the other leaders were able to be very intentional about how they answered questions to point these gals (ages 11-13) toward having a relationship with Christ. Five of the dozen or so girls there showed interest in learning more about Christianity, and asked for Bibles - so we gave them some that we had. Please be praying that these precious young ladies would really keep thinking about what we discussed, and that they would be able to plug into good influences and not just the "easy" influences around town, which would tend to be negative.

Up Next
Tomorrow we're going to a field day that the elementary-aged kids will have. We don't have to do anything for it (that I know of), we're just going to watch and cheer! We have two last days of Kids Club, and two last youth Sports Camps. Then we'll be going to Belfast on Saturday, and Sunday will wrap up our ministry time in Killyleagh with Dr. Balzer preaching at church and the celebration dinner. The rest of our time in Ireland (about a week), we'll be getting some much-needed R&R/touring. So please keep praying for our final interactions with the kids and youth of Killyleagh, and that Wally and those who work with him will be able to continue watering the seeds we have hopefully planted!

Ireland Update 4

Day 8 - Wednesday, June 5
That morning, we presented at one of the public schools outside of Killyleagh. There are three main schools in the area. In N. Ireland, there is not separation of church and state, so we could sing Christian songs, talk about God, and pray. A couple of us went in our superhero costumes and shared the back story of why our characters were at the "School of Incredible Misfits," which is our setting for our skits.

It was a lot of fun to see some of the kids who are in my group at their school. They were super well behaved there, sitting quietly and such - which helps explain why they are so hyper at Kids Club! ;) There was one especially sweet part. One of our team guys is "Rubbish Man," what we would call a garbage collector. So he talked about how people don't appreciate his super power anymore because of big machines and such. Anyway, after we talked one of the other gals on the team stood up to talk about God's super powers of characteristics such as compassion and patience (our theme verses are Colossians 3:12-17) which are the focus of our curriculum. But first she asked the kids what kind of super power the kids would want to have, and one of the little boys piped up that he would want to have rubbish powers. So cute :D

Kids Club seemed to have much smaller attendance that day...and I actually ran out of lesson material before I ran out of time. Which was nice in some ways because it meant I covered everything - and we could just review the previous days in the extra time. The superpower of the day was humility...which will come back up in a bit.

That evening after dinner we went back to Killyleagh to do separate girls and guys events. The girls gathered at the church where we had a dancing game for them to play on the Wii. We had also taken materials for the girls to make friendship bracelets, or had a conversation ball with questions. The guys just gathered back at the pitches to play football (soccer) again. A couple of our team members also went to a kids' soccer event. Anyway, one of them had been planning to help facilitate the bracelet making, but she wasn't there. So I was kinda on my own getting 10 girls set up and taught how to do a super simple bracelet pattern. I had been really looking forward to talking to the girls and getting to know them better, but because of working on the bracelets almost the whole hour and a half flew by in the blink of an eye. I was pretty disappointed about that...so I'm hoping that next week I'll get more of a chance to visit with them.

Because of that, I was kind of in a stinky mood. Things hadn't gone the way that I expected, and I wasn't being very humble about that inside of myself. After our team sharing time around tea, I just had to go for a walk and talk through some things with God. I went up to a hill on the property we're staying at, where there's a little platform that raises one up above the Gorse bushes which have been blooming beautifully ever since we arrived. Even though it was 11 pm, there was still some light and the western sky was still beautiful with the sunset colors. (Because of our high latitude here, I've heard that the sun rises by 4ish a.m. and it doesn't set until after 10:30!) It was a really good time for me to work through a bit of stuff from the day. God really reminded that I need to learn the characteristics that we're teaching the kids!

Day 9 - Thursday, June 6
On Thursday morning, Tracy gave us time and encouraged us to spread out to pray/journal/reflect. Wednesday before lunch I had found the location of a bird blind on the property that I had seen on a map - and on the way to that I had seen a spot by a creek that I knew I wanted to return to with my journal. So on Thursday as soon as she gave us that time I made a bee line for that place. Sitting out there for a while was just a really great time for me to continue talking through some things with God, and it was an important opportunity.

Our super power of the day at Kids Club was gentleness. I don't remember anything particular about that day....I've just been getting to know the kids in my group better, and learning which ones are an especial challenge and which ones are more cooperative.

Thursday evening we had Sports Camp with the teens again. I played Ultimate Frisbee with mostly girls and a couple guys for the whole time. I also shared my testimony during half time that evening with the Frisbee group. I talked a little bit about a hard time I went through when I was 13, and just how deeply it had impacted me. I had only realized this past semester just how deeply it had all wounded me - and that for most of middle/high school I hadn't really trusted anyone (including God) very much because I just stuffed my feelings inside a lot. So I tried to encourage the kids that when bad/hurtful stuff happens to try to talk it through with people and to stay in communion with God during that time - and that He can and will redeem all of the things which He allows to happen in our lives.

Day 10 - Friday, June 7
Friday morning we did another school assembly (with the same content) at a different school. The kids loved telling me that afternoon at Kids Club that we had come to their school :D

Friday's super power was patience....and it certainly was convicting to talk to the kids about patience when I don't always feel like I do a good job of being patient with them. It's just hard to know how much to try to corral behavior issues, because we have such a short time to teach the lesson and try to get across the concept we're trying to share. I wish we could just have a couple hours to just hear from the kids about where they're at.... I did have extra lesson time again, so we were able to do some more of that on Friday - just trying to encourage the kids to think about how they could practically use the super powers we're talking about.

One of the local moms actually came into our class for a while, because the kids were definitely even more on the wild side than normal. And it definitely helped some - especially with one of the girls who is typically a primary distraction. It's always hard to know when to just ignore distractions and keep teaching or when to try to address the "trouble makers"......especially when I would love to just know them individually.

Friday afternoon put me on edge - almost to the level of Monday. And then as we were leaving the church to go to dinner at the house of one of the local teachers, the teen guys were crowded around our van. We team members were waiting in the van for the leaders, and the local teens were trying to get our attention I guess. One guy climbed over the top of our van and they were hanging off the back even when we tried to drive away. The whole situation just put me over the edge I guess. My introvert side needed to recharge, and I just felt like curling up in a ball and crying.

Thankfully the dinner was pretty informal and I was able to sit outside by myself for a bit to calm down. I debated going to Sports Camp that evening or going back to our cottages with Becci - and I'm glad that after dinner I felt up to going back into it. Sports Camp went well - we played Ultimate again with the same group of mostly girls while most of the guys played football. A big huge praise is that throughout the week the teen guys have gradually become more willing to be attentive to the guys on our team sharing their testimonies during half time. Please be praying that God will continue moving in these guys' hearts. They have tons of potential, they just don't know how to use it I guess.

Day 11 - Saturday, June 8
I was so very thankful for a day off on the weekend!!!!! We all needed that time away from Killyleagh to recharge a bit. In the morning I woke up a bit on the early side, so I climbed up Joe's Mountain to have some Quiet Time up there, which was just really beautiful :) But, it came at a price. On the way back I stumbled twice, wrenching my ankle that I had sprained pretty badly over a year ago. The first time I was mostly ok, but the second time it hurt super bad. And it was on practically flat ground...I felt so stupid :/ So my ankle has been swollen and sore for a couple days. I probably won't be playing Frisbee at Sports Camp on Monday because of it.... :(

That afternoon we went out to Tollymore Forest, which is similar to what we would consider a national park in the States. It's *beautiful*, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains (which includes the highest peak in Ireland!). Most of the JBU people who go there think of it as a Middle Earth/Narnia place :) It's got beautiful forests and a trail running along a large creek. In some ways for me it reminded me a lot of the sort of places my family goes to often....so I missed having Dad or Mom or Nathan there to experience it with me. So in a way it wasn't that unusual for me - but it was a bit prettier and greener than the places I've been in the States.

We hiked around there for a couple of hours. Thankfully my ankle hadn't been completely re-sprained, so I could still walk on it all right. But I did have to be more cautious than normal, and so was more apprehensive about just scrambling around rocks over the stream than I would have been otherwise. And certain angles/motions would give me sharp twinges of pain. Speaking of physical issues, one of our guys took a tumble at the park and could use prayers for healing. Also, one of our gals has a cold, and another guy pulled a muscle playing football. So we could all use prayer for stamina and safety!!!

After we finished at the park, we went into Newcastle, which is also at the foot of the mountains. What's more, it's right on the sea coast! So I went wading in the ocean a bit :) SO MUCH FUN!!!!! The weather was completely sunny and definitely on the warm side - especially for N. Ireland - so there were a lot of people on the beach. I just loved standing there, feeling the waves of the ocean drag the sand out from under my feet :)

Day 12 - Sunday, June 9
Today has been a great day. We started off by praying before church for about an hour with Wally (that's the nickname of the YFC guy, if I haven't mentioned that before). He has such a beautiful heart for Killyleagh, it is always a pleasure to worship God and pray with him. Then we split up into two groups to attend church again, as we had the week before - but we flipped which church we went to.

The group I was with attended the Presbyterian Church. We were in charge of the youth Sunday School class, so we were only in the service for the first part. It was fun because most of the students in the class were the gals that we've been playing Frisbee with. They are all super sweet :) I shared another short testimony, this time about God's faithfulness in guiding me to JBU and how He provided for my time there! Mrs. Balzer did a great job sharing from the story of Jesus raising the widow's son, about how Jesus was both compassionate and powerful!

After church, our team again split up for lunch at various family homes. A couple of the team and I went to a farm house outside of Killyleagh. Before lunch, the husband took us up to the top of his hill, which has a *beautiful* view of the Strangford Lough (pronounced lock - it's basically a big bay from the ocean that Killyleagh sits at the end of). We also got to feed a little lamb which had been born prematurely and needed special care. It was SO cute and SO soft!!!! Lunch was delicious - and it was so much fun to learn more about Ireland from the host family, and to talk about some of the differences between Ireland and the U.S. :)

Once we got back to our cottages, I lay down for a 30 minute nap, and woke up an hour later...just in time to grab dinner before we headed back to Killyleagh to lead an evening church service. Dr. Balzer led a devotional based on basically the same material that we're covering in Kids Club. And he did a great job :) Then this evening I played a game with several of the other teammates, and have finally gotten caught up on my blog!!!!

Up Next:
Tomorrow is a very important day at Kids Club. It's basically our day focused on salvation - so please be praying that the kids would have open hearts and minds, and that the Holy Spirit would give us teachers and leaders the right words to say.

The first week of ministry went really well in many ways, and so as we look at our last five or six days of focused ministry, please be praying that we would continue to have lots of patience and love for the people (primarily kids) who we are working with!!!

Oh, and this is a little thing.....but the lens on my camera is having issues. I have no idea what happened to it...but it's not auto focusing correctly - which *really* stinks. :( There's not anything I can do about it from here.....and even when I get back to the States I'm not sure what I should do.....so yeah :P (Update: the problem has ceased to be a problem, and after a couple of days my camera was back to normal! Yay!)

Ireland Update 3

I'm writing this on Thursday/Friday....and the days are starting to run together some. As we have gotten into our focused ministry time, we have naturally faced more ups and downs. But God is still very very good and He is working in my life and I'm sure in the lives of the others as well as God working through us in the lives of others.

Our mornings primarily focus on preparation time for the events of the day. Tracy Balzer, our third JBU professor/team leader, helps us get things set up and make sure that we have everything we need. After lunch we do our household chores, then head out to Killyleagh to set stuff up for Kids Club!

Each day of Kids Club focuses on a different "super power" of God that He wants us to practice too. We have a short skit during our big group time to get started which tries to set the stage for the lesson of the day, which provides a Bible story exemplifying whatever characteristic we are teaching that day. We also have a memory verse which the kids learn, and we alternate between crafts and games for our third rotation.

Once the kids have all gone home, we have dinner and then get geared up for whatever our evening activity is. That varies a bit more from day to day. Then, when we get back to our cottages for the night, we have tea time/dessert and a chance to debrief some and pray for one another. So far our schedule has certainly kept us busy!

Oh, and the weather has remained ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. It has only rained a tiny bit on one of the days that we have been here, and the temperature has been in the 60s a lot! Everyone here keeps telling us we brought the nice weather from the States - and it's been great for our sports camps and such! It's also made it much easier to enjoy our time here. The rain is forecasted to come back next week - but I am fully enjoying the sunny days while they're here!

Day 6 - Monday, June 3
The first day of Kids Club was rough for me. My expectations, based in a large part on my church's VBS back home, were higher than the reality. We only had the kids for an hour and a half, and it was right after school.....so the time flew by and the kids were definitely on the rambunctious side. Jonathan (one of the JBU students) and I are the team teachers for the P3-4 group. The British grade system is different than America's.....but if I have it straight I think our team is the equivalent of 2-3 grade. The first day we had 8 or 9, with just two boys. Jonathan and I are switching off who does the lesson and who does the Bible verse. So Monday I started off with the lesson. By the time I had tried to let the kids introduce themselves and lay a few basic ground rules (that didn't help behavior as much as I would have liked), I barely had enough time for the basic lesson before our 20 minutes were up. So I kind of felt like a failure, and just rather overwhelmed by the kid interruptions.

Our superpower of the day was compassion, and our story was off the two blind men who were calling out to Jesus for mercy. The point was that the crowds did not show compassion because they were simply trying to shush the men, whereas Jesus showed compassion by providing the help that the men needed. As I taught the story and asked questions afterward, I definitely felt more like the crowds than like Jesus. I certainly ended up shushing a lot more than showing compassion.....

There were some encouraging things that happened during the afternoon though. The kids got really attached to several of our team members, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the people (and especially the fellas) on our team take the time to play with the kids. Also, when I asked questions about the skit for the day, the kids did a surprisingly good job at making the connections between what the "actors" had done and what they should have done instead to be compassionate.

The end of club was pretty chaotic....and I think my introvert side came out and that put me over the edge into the dumps. I just had to get alone for a while and realize that my expectations were not very fair to the kids, and to work on getting my focus back on God for a while. I guess I had forgotten about how challenging working with kids could be, and only really remembered the good times.... Our team was great at just encouraging me through that though, and reminding me that it was the first day and that day two would probably be better!

The church ladies provided us with dinner, and then we headed out to a field of pitches for sports camp with the teenagers. After my Kids Club experience and after everything I had heard ahead of time about the rudeness and disrespect of the Killyleagh youth, I was pretty apprehensive about how things would go. David Wallace (also known as Wally) circled our team up to pray before we started, and I was just praying that God would really give me/us a love for the kids.

The boys who came all wanted to play their football (our soccer), but there were also some girls hanging out. So several of we team girls kicked a soccer ball around with them for a bit, then we and the Killyleagh girls joined with a few of our team guys in playing Ultimate Frisbee. We had lots of fun at that, and I was abnormally successful (for me) at executing basic throws and catches! We had a "half time" when two of our team members shared a testimony, one to each of the two different groups. Then we played more games.

From everything I heard from my other team members, the boys lived up to their reputation. But I really wasn't around them at all, and so I had a great time with the girls we played with. So for me, Sports Camp was the highlight of the day....and I consider that a blessing from God :) The leaders have basically decided that none of our gals will share their testimony around the teen boys, because it's just not a good setting for that. So I don't know yet how much interaction I'll really have with the teen boys. A praise, though, is that the guy who shared his testimony with them on Monday said he really felt filled with love for them while he was talking to them, even though they were evidently being obvious in their flippancy about the whole thing.

Day 7 - Tuesday, June 4
The second day of Kids Club ran much much better! The kids weren't perfectly behaved, of course, but they understood better how things were going. What's more, about half of the kids had obviously worked hard at Monday's memory verse at home, and they were able to say it with minimal help! Both Jonathan and I were in that day's skit, about kindness. One of our resident trouble maker skit characters took Jonathan's laser glasses during a class, and so the teacher dismissed class so people would help him find them. But I and the other characters except one just ran off instead of helping - as an example of a lack of kindness. Our kids liked having us in the skit, and they were clearly paying attention to it based on what they were able to tell us afterward :)

When I asked them about the skit during our lesson time, I made sure that they recognized that my character's behavior was not good. I made the comment that I hoped that in real life I acted more kindly than that. And one of our little gals jumped in and assured me I was kind. It made my heart happy that she was considerate enough to say that :) Also, our team members were really great about checking with me after Kids Club to see how the second day had gone, after the first rough day.

Tuesday evening we had a game night for the elementary-aged kids. The older elementary kids played football, but the younger kids played other games more like Duck Duck Goose. There was some concern among the parents about their little kids just wandering off from the pitches where we were playing, so I and some of the other team members ended up just kind of standing around the perimeter to keep an eye out for anything unusual. So I didn't get to play with the kids much, which was rather disappointing. But at one point a girl came up to me and started tossing a Frisbee to me, and our little circle just kept growing! So that was fun :)

Whenever we play Frisbee with the kids (which a lot of them are super good at, even though they say they haven't played before) we make a point of calling the person's name before we throw the Frisbee to them, since it helps to learn who's who that way. And my name quickly turned into Easter once again, instead of Esther. That's a nickname that has plagued me off and on over the years....but it was sweet that they wanted to give me a nickname I guess. Here for the first time it became Easter Bunny though, haha :)


So, I know I'm still a couple of days behind....but I had this much written up so decided to get it posted. This weekend will be a good break, before we dive into our second week of ministry. I greatly appreciate all your continued prayers!!!

Ireland Update 2

Day 4 - Saturday, June 1
My experience of the mission trip went from good to amazing yesterday, and God most certainly deserves the credit for that. He is totally awesome and beautifully gracious :) But first, a bit of background. On Friday night, Becci (one of the three JBU professors leading the trip) asked us to think about what we were most excited about and what we were most terrified about looking forward toward our time here. I thought the plan was to share that Saturday evening, though that didn't happen.

As I thought about it, I immediately knew what I'm excited about: doing my best to serve God by loving the people I come in contact here, primarily the young people of Killyleagh. It took me a little longer to think of what I was most frightened of, but I wasn't surprised by the answer. I worried that this trip would go by with me feeling more of an outsider than a member of the team. Naturally, there are introverts and extroverts in the group, and I certainly consider myself to be more on the introvert side of the spectrum, often feeling as though I am not truly part of a conversation simply because I don't know what to contribute. It wasn't at all that the team members were trying to cut anyone out. In fact, the whole team has been fantastic and we have gone on hikes together and folks have been making a point of mixing and mingling. I just have high expectations of what I want to feel truly part of a group I guess.

Saturday morning we packed lunches and drove to a nearby town where a Viking Festival was taking place. We had fun looking at their displays and practicing shooting arrows :) Then we got back in the van to drive back up to Belfast where we needed to take some Child Protection Training in order to work with kids through Youth for Christ. On the way there, I spent time thinking and praying for the team, and it was really great.

As we started the drive back to our cottages, a group of us started talking. It began with the simple question of where our dream place would be to live, and one thing led to another and we ended up talking the whole hour drive back, finding out about parts of one another's spiritual journeys. It was a fantastic experience, and several times during that I was just thanking God so much inside of me because He brought that to pass, and because I so greatly appreciated the chance to get to know my teammates.

After dinner, the whole team worked on preparing craft materials and planning games to play with the kids at Kids Club. We spent quite a while on other things as well. Then, as things wound down, several of us sat around talking again. We ended up sharing with one another until after two in the morning. God gave us the courage to be very vulnerable with one another, and to encourage one another through that. We ended by praying for one another. Even though we didn't get a lot of sleep because of that, it was so totally worth it - and I am so thankful to God and to my friends for being willing to do that together.

Day 5 - Sunday, June 2
Sunday was yet another great blessing. For the first time, our team actually went into Killyleagh, where we will be ministering the next two weeks. We started the morning by joining David Wallace, the YFC worker in Killyleagh, for a weekly time of prayer. He has a great heart for the people of the town.

We split our team of 17 into two groups to go to church at the two churches which partner with us for our ministry here. The group I was in went to the Church of Ireland, which is part of the Anglican tradition. We led a Bible Class (like a Sunday school) for the kids who showed up. We had seven kids, mostly around age 8 or 9. Dr. Balzer, another of the JBU professors, was in charge of our team's time there, and I had volunteered to share a short testimony with the group.

I shared about how for many years--especially in high school--I was a perfectionist focused on trying to earn people's approval, and how I transferred that over to thinking that I had to earn God's love as well. I shared about how God taught me that His Grace meant that I did not need to earn God's approval, and I encouraged the kids to remember that God's love for them is unconditional and that the salvation of Christ is a free gift that we do not need to try to earn.

There wasn't much of a response, but I hadn't really asked them to respond either. Dr. Balzer then talked them through the Bible story about Jesus healing the paralytic lowered through the roof, and most of them responded pretty actively to questions about the story afterward. It's just one of those things where I need to be faithful in sharing what I believe God asks me to, and to pray that He would use that to plant or water the seeds of His truth. After all, the results are up to Him, not to me :)

I loved the Anglican service! Maybe it's just because of where God has me right now, but I really appreciated all of the songs we sang and the Scripture passages which were read. We were also able to share communion with the people there. They use the Book of Common Prayer, and in the communion service for that I really liked how it includes a prayer of contrition and repentance, followed by a prayer of thanksgiving for God's redemption.

Going up to take the elements was an interesting experience. The people kneel in front of the altar, and the leaders presented each person with a small piece of bread, and then with the communal cup to drink from. I don't really know how to explain it - it was just special :) Oh, and I have now tasted alcohol for the first time, since they use wine for communion. Thankfully I found that out ahead, because otherwise I would definitely have been startled by how much it burned going down my throat!

After church, our team split into smaller groups to have lunch with various families who had offered to host us. A couple other students and I went with Father Jerome, the pastor (or whatever the Anglican church calls him) of the church there. He and his wife are actually missionaries from Rwanda to N. Ireland! Their daughter, who just finished the British version of high school, was born and raised in the UK so it was interesting to hear their story :)

After lunch we came back to the cottages and thankfully just had some down time. I really appreciated that time, I certainly needed it! After dinner, we worked more on preparation for Kid's Club and on our cleaning chores at the cottages. Then at tea time (around 9:30, when we have desert) we took the time to share about what Becci had asked us from Friday. Several people were willing to talk about what they looked forward to or feared the most, and it was a great chance to again get to know more people better!

God has given us a special unity as a team. While I am sure the enemy is just stomping his foot in annoyance at that, and while I know he will try his best to destroy that, I have even more confidence in God, and I look forward to watching Him continue His work in and through us :)

Up Next
This afternoon (Monday) will be our first day of Kids Club! It will go from 3:30-5 Ireland time, followed by Sports Camp for the teens from 7-8:30 p.m. So if you think of our team during the next two weeks between 9:30 and 11 in the mornings central time, please pray for our interaction with the younger aged elementary students. And if you think of us between 1 and 2:30 in the afternoon, we'll usually be playing sports with the older kids. Please pray that we would be able to have a lot of fun with the kids, but that we would also be able to share God's love and hope with them!

Also, please continue praying for unity within our team. I firmly believe that the blessings of the last two days have been a direct answer to prayers which have already been given on our behalf, and we certainly need that continued support! God also definitely deserves lots of Thanksgiving and Praise :)

Ireland Update 1

Sorry for no pictures - we don't have much internet here, and I think it's more important for me to spend time with the team and sleep :)

Day 1 - Wednesday, May 29
In some ways today has been an overly simple day. We flew into Belfast, spent the afternoon there, then drove out to the cottages where we'll be staying the rest of the month. On the other hand, it's been a fantastic day - even though our team of 14 students and the two leaders who travelled with us has been rather sleep deprived. Our flight left Newark, NJ at 9:15 p.m., and we arrived in Belfast at 9 a.m. local time - and the leaders tried to keep us busy so we wouldn't sleep until tonight!

In Belfast, we enjoyed lunch at John Brown University's house there, Lakeside Manor. We then rode a bus to do a bit of touring. Went around the Queen's University campus a little, then through a museum and botanical garden. Visited a local coffee shop, and then came the BEST PART of the Belfast day: we went to the C.S. Lewis reading room, which we entered by going through the actual wardrobe door from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie!!! I was very thrilled and would have shrieked a bit if we hadn't been in the middle of a library where students were studying for finals - but it was still an immensely exciting experience :)

Once we got to the cottages where we are staying, between Downpatrick and Killyleagh, we unloaded our stuff and started settling in. A rainbow over the distant mountains of Scotland which we could see greeted us. We ate a delicious lasagna dinner, and then we students hiked up a little hill to a viewing platform. The hills here are immensely green, but right now the yellow Gorse bushes are also abundantly blooming all over!

In the evening, I started tracking birds. Loving the selection here - quite different species from the U.S.! It didn't take me long to identify European Goldfinches or to find a Tit nest in a water pump with a broken-off handle. At 9 or 9:30, the leaders finally "allowed" us to go to bed (trying to help us make the six-hour time transition). I hadn't slept a wink since we got off the plane, so I was glad to crash, and I basically slept straight through the night. Here in Ireland, the sun doesn't set until nearly 11, and it rises at about 4 (I've heard) - so the days are very long! All day on our first day we had beautiful sunshine weather - though there must have been some clouds when we came to the cottages because there was a rainbow.

Day 2 - Thursday, May 30
After breakfast, we started in on some training/preparation work for our main ministry, which will occur June 2-16. We tied cording onto name tags, learned the songs we will be teaching the kids, and heard from David Wallace about what to expect from the kids here. David Wallace is the Youth for Christ representative who has been stationed in Killyleagh for the last three years, and he is our team's main contact/coordinator.

Most of our student team also went to the top of a taller hill, called Joe's Mountain, where we climbed onto a pillar from which we could see a 360-degree view of the landscape. It is beautiful :) In the evening after dinner we drove to the ruins of Inch Abbey, founded in about 800 A.D. It was really neat with holes where the stained glass windows used to be, no ceiling, and luscious grass for the carpet. The Jackdaws (similar to our crows) were nesting in the holes in the wall. We also played Ultimate Frisbee in a grassy patch beside the ruins. Again, I thankfully didn't have an issue sleeping through the night. The weather maintained its inordinary sunny quality, which made me happy.

Day 3 - Friday, May 31
Today we focused on more specific preparation for the Kids Club (aka VBS program) which we shall be leading for elementary-aged kids during the ten weekdays. The people who will be teaching the lessons (including me) went through the curriculum which Mrs. Balzer wrote a few years ago for a different town.

Our theme for the VBS is Incredible Kids, talking about character attributes from Col. 3:12-17 as "super powers." As a result, part of what we did today was to plan costumes and "super hero personas" for each of our team members. We'll be doing brief skits each day to set up the lesson topic for the day.

Another program we'll be doing is a sports camp for the teenagers, which will be held three times a week in the evenings. Each night of that, we will have a "half time" when a couple of our team will share their testimonies. I will be sharing mine on Thursday at about 7:45 p.m., which would be 1:45 in the afternoon central time. I would appreciate our prayers for that, as well as for all of our outreach opportunities. Our Kids Club will be from 3:30-5 Ireland time, and the sports camp will be from 7-8:30. We will also be doing presentations in schools, though I don't yet know any more details about that.

This evening we went to Downpatrick, the nearest larger city, which has an Asda (Ireland's version of WalMart). It is also home to the grave which is most commonly attributed to hold St. Patrick's remains. This area of Northern Ireland is the heart of his area of ministry, so we will be visiting several sites related to that.