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.

The Whirlwind

Soooo…it’s been ten days since I flew out to the East Coast, and I have yet to publish anything on here telling you anything about what’s been happening.  I’m quickly realizing that there is more to do than there is time to do it…especially when all I want to do on the weekend is go play tourist or vege.  As a result, I’m going to try to keep this post quick.  I hope to come back later and add a few pictures…but realize that may not happen and that a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing!  So hang on to your hats folks, it’s been quite the two weeks!

Wednesday June 6 – last day of nannying before setting off on my Washington adventure (for the latter see my previous post)…good happy day in some ways but still also a sad day.  Visited with a friend that evening!

Thursday June 7 – Packing….lots of packing and then almost completely repacking.  Included in this day was a breakdown under the feelings of overwhelmed-ness.  Emotions weren’t helping any.  But it all got done in the end….

Friday June 8 – Flew to Houston for a layover, then my flight to Baltimore got delayed.  Didn’t get in until after 11, if I remember right.  Family friends the Davises were kindly there to pick me up and take me to their home for the weekend.

Saturday June 9 – Mrs. Davis took me shopping for the stuff I didn’t bring, and it was also nice to just have some down time to relax on their beautiful back porch between the rush of packing and leaving and the task of acclimating to a completely different city.  Had fun with the Davis girls!

Sunday June 10 – Attended the Davis’ church…the sermon was certainly applicable to how I was feeling about then.  The pastor was talking about how even when we fail, that doesn’t mean God cannot or will not use us.  Here I was, facing a huge unknown, and God knew just what I needed to hear J
After lunch we loaded my stuff into the car and eventually meandered our way to my apartment! (Driving in DC is very confusing!).  Unloaded, then was dropped off at campus for orientation!  Met my apartment-mates later that evening and started getting settled in.

Monday June 11 – Amazingly managed to get everything unpacked and find a home for all of it by mid-afternoon!  Had our first class on Ethics that evening.  Long class sessions…..6:30-9:30 Monday/Thursday evenings and 9-12 Friday mornings :/  Professor is GREAT though – he’s a good teacher, there’s just a LOT of info.  Thankfully there’s a whole group of girls from the off-campus apartments I’m staying at in my same program, so we commute back and forth together, especially in the evenings.

Tuesday June 12 – Had a big welcome ceremony that morning, then an orientation session from the program with suggestions for how to make the most of our internships.  Five of the six of us who are working in the same building went together and tried out the route from campus to our internship location, then had lunch together.  It would have been totally great, except for the fact that it was raining…but it was still good J  Went on an adventure to Target to get a few extra things that afternoon.

Wednesday June 13 – First day of internships!!!!!!  Lots of orientation information, which was great to hear but a bit of an overload.  After learning some of the basics, we were able to head out early.  Interesting evening lecture from an investigative journalist that night!

Thursday June 14 – After some more orientation-type activities, we dove right in.  Summarized a press release into a story for broadcast, then worked on writing an article from a summary of a research study.  Couldn’t resist visiting the National Cathedral for a little while (only 15 minute walk from the office!)  Second ethics class.

Friday June 15 – Got up early to go run…class in the morning, then third day of internship. Had my story from the day before checked and posted, then wrote a second piece which was also posted that afternoon.  After arriving at the apartment, an apartment-mate and I went to the zoo just for a little while.  Headed to campus for a trivia game hosted by TFAS (the sponsors of the five programs, of which mine is one).  Joined a team with one girl from my internship and four other random people, and we won!!!!!!!  Had dinner with the other girl to celebrate.

Saturday June 16 – Attended a fascinating seminar about the Constitution by a Reagan administration official.  LOVED IT!  Then joined up with a couple other Woodley girls at the Smithsonians.  Wandered around the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, then called it a day when that closed.  Chilled with the apartment-mates all evening (including watching a movie) rather than doing anything productive…

Sunday June 17 – Father’s Day!  Met up with Josiah and Carolyn Davis to visit their church, had an IPJ friend along with me!  Absolutely loved it – very convicting and very good.  Invited out to the main Davis house for lunch, which was fun J  Came back just in time to change and leave the apartment again, headed for campus to join a bus tour of the monuments organized by the program.  Definitely a good experience!

Monday June 18 – Another internship day – completed two stories, both of which were posted to the web.  Also was able to learn more about how things are posted to the site, which is great exposure for me to get a little familiar with that!!!  Another night of class – followed by a feeble attempt at productiveness this evening.

Random notes:  ~~Otters say "maaaaa."  At least the National Zoo ones do!  ~~The Catbirds here don't know they're supposed to be shy.  I've seen more and closer than the rest of my whole life.  ~~The Pileated Woodpecker on the tree outside my internship window didn't know he's supposed to be out in the woods far from people either.  ~~Squirrels are all sorts of colors here!  Just yesterday saw a black one and a brownish-grey one almost right next to each other.  ~~And metro is crazy until you get used to it :P

Well that’s all folks, and now I must get to bed because tomorrow we hit the repeat button all over again J  Thanks for reading!  Comments always appreciated – it just might encourage me to post more often!

My Summer Plans....

Ah, poor bloggy.  I know I keep saying I'm going to post on here and then leave you all alone.....but I think that's just the way life is.  Anywho, here's an update on my life/summer plans!

As some of you probably know, I will be spending two months this summer in Washington, D.C. as a student at the Institute on Political Journalism.  I will be leaving soon (June 8th), and I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you more about what I will be doing.

The Institute is one of five led by The Fund for American Studies and hosted by Georgetown University.  There are about 400 students who will be in the Institutes during the time I will be.  These programs provide participating students with an internship and a couple of classes from Georgetown.  Housing is also provided.

I will be in an apartment near the Georgetown campus.  Several other students will be in the same set of apartments.  I will be sharing the three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with six other girls.  I have yet to meet any of them.  In fact, I don’t know anyone at all who I will be with during these two months.  It kind of feels like going to college for the first time all over again…except this time I know it’s only for two months.

My internship will be with WFED radio, a 24 hour news radio station in Washington, D.C.  My understanding is that I will be writing, editing, and conducting man-on-the-street interviews, primarily for stories that will be posted on the station’s website.  I am rather intimidated by this internship, since I know basically nothing about radio broadcasting.  I think it may be good to broaden my horizons though.  I will typically be working 8-5 at my internship, then going to class two or three days a week from 6-9.

While I will obviously be busy, I hope to also have some fun enjoying living in D.C. too.  I am sure I will be visiting most of the Smithsonian museums at some point.  I think some of the program participants are also scheduled to get a tour of the White House!  Perhaps best of all, I will be in D.C. for the 4th of July!  If you watch the concert at the National Mall on TV, look for me – because I am sure I will be there somewhere.

Random thoughts, little update

I know, I do a bad job of keeping this updated...........This is partly because I more frequently use Facebook as a place to keep track of what's going on with my life. When I do have time to just write what I want to, I more frequently write about spiritual (more important) matters, and those posts go on my spiritual blog. I recently (well, in late November) did a seven-part series on there about what God taught me throughout 2011 - best year of my life in many ways :)

But, here's a not-so-spiritually-focused reflection on how my life is going...so it's on this blog ;-) (I know, I'm way too organized for my own good sometimes..........)

Random Thoughts (in no particular order)

1. My boys are still funny~~~I worked over Christmas break nannying. It's interesting to see how the boys are changing some as they grow up more.

• Brian is super good at Legos! He's determined and patient (most of the time) to complete his sets. Legos are nearly the only thing that would keep his attention for longer than about 15 minutes...... The other thing that does a decent job of keeping his interest is playing football in the front yard. We had fun doing that every day of the last week. The first day he saw me with my new hair cut (my hair's now a little shorter than shoulder-length) he said, "Is it just me, or did you get a hair cut??" Such a funny way of asking it :D
• Christopher is still cute :) The first day I was doing the "this little piggy" on his toes as I had done other times, and he remarked "Esther, you do funny things to me." Another day we were playing outside, and he picked up a stick. "This stick's going to watch us," he announced, and proceeded to place it carefully where we wouldn't step on it. Some other time during lunch he proceeded to make up a little song (some background is that they got cookie cutters in the shape of Star Wars "Tie fighters" to cut sandwich shapes): "Tie fighter, Tie fighter.....I eat my samwich {he still mispronounces it...} in a tree house because it has a table"...No idea where the last part came from :D He's also decided that playing restaurant is great fun. We did it for a couple hours each day the last week :)
• Both of them were sad I had to come back to college. I was telling Brian when I'd have to go back to school, and he asked when I'd be back. I told him I'd probably come see him during Spring Break, which is in March. "But that's a long time from now!" he moaned. Yes, I know bud. I'll miss you too.

2. Family is special~~~Not only was I able to spend time with my immediate family (Dad, Mom, Nathan), but we also made a trip up to NE for cousin Brad's wedding and saw most of Mom's immediate family. But we came home one short, since Nathan flew back to USAFA from Oklahoma City. And he most likely won't be coming back to Dallas until Thanksgiving. Which is sad :(

3. I love my friends~~~even if Nathan says it's silly that I say that to my girl friends.

• Mrs. S is my everything lady - she was my co-op teacher in high school, she's let me work for her for a super long time, we can sit and talk , I get to make cards with her - Teacher, Boss, Friend. I'm super grateful for her :)
• Courtney - even though I only get to see her when I'm in Dallas on breaks, it's always a joy to spend a couple of hours just talking together (usually at Starbucks :D). I'm also glad that we chat online once in a while.
• Sarah - she's an absolutely amazing friend :D This semester she's studying abroad, so I miss her A LOT. But the other day I got a sweet letter from her that made my week :) So thankful for her :)
• Jessica - my sweet roommate who willing puts up with me day-in and day-out :) We can laugh with each other, making fun of ourselves and what happens to us - or we can talk about serious things. I'm going to miss her when she graduates!
• Lynnette - she's one of those people who I know I can talk to about anything (as are most of my friends on this list....). We've had several adventures together - like walking all the way around the Dogwood Trail in a foot and a half of snow or going on a horseback ride out at New Life Ranch.
• Hannah and Laura - who formed the most terrific Honors Orientation mentor group ever! I'm thankful for and love both of them individually, but when you get the three of us together, you had better watch out! It was so a God-thing that they were "my" girls - I soon recognized that we would be good friends beyond the class :)
• Sojourn girls! - I love my hall!!!!! I've been in the same dorm room for three years now, and even though the hall does change some from semester to semester, it's a great place to live :D

4. Time is a weird thing~~~This is something I've really noticed in college. It works something like this: the days go fast, the weeks go slow (it takes forever to get to the weekend), the months run away, and the years simply fly. I'm 21 now. And yes, that's a rather scary thought. To celebrate that milestone, I {ok, you can quit holding your breath! I didn't do anything crazy!} wrote my first Christmas letter :)

5. God's got me~~~Over break I really wrestled with the question of whether or not to enroll in the IPJ program after I was accepted (If you don't know what this program is, ask and I'll be happy to explain - I just don't feel like typing it out right now). Part of me feels as though it's almost selfish to go and do something like that when there are other people who will be using their summers to serve overseas. But I have come to peace that this is what God wants me to do at this time - and yes, I am excited :D As Lynnette said, often times when we come to a cross-roads a lot of the growth process is choosing which path to go down - and the choice prepares us for travelling down the path. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel as though I'm listening a lot better now than I have in my life before. And I have faith and believe that God will continue working in and through me :)

6. New Year, new me~~~right? So also in honor of my first year as a 21-year-old, I made my first New Year's resolutions:

• Workout six days/week, for at least 30 minutes. So far so good on this one. Having swimming class twice a week and being expected to swim two hours outside of that certainly helps! (And no, I can't swim. That's why I'm in the class!) After last semester of barely working out at all, I can't run nearly as far/fast as I would like. But it's amazing how much variety I've had so far - I could do core, PT, bike, run, play intramural basketball (yes, I'm horrible), swim, etc. etc.
• Read for 30 minutes five days/week (outside of homework). Last year I was completely addicted to a TV show. I've had at least eight books sitting on my shelf for that same year that I've been wanting to read. I go to my church library and there are so many books I'd love to read! So I've quit my TV show cold turkey (no, it wasn't a fun decision) and made a point of reading. Some of the great books I've read so far?
  --Crazy Love
  --Discerning the Voice of God
  --Kisses from Katie
  All great books I highly recommend! :D I can tell this one's going to be a little tough as the semester gets busier. But I hope to keep it up!
• Write for 30 minutes five days/week (outside of school papers etc.). Even though I've done pretty well on this one, there are still more times than I can keep up with when something will get me thinking and reflecting. I feel as though I learn more from what happens to me when I write about it. Blogging, journaling, they both count - and I like them both :D

7. Yes, I'm busy~~~I'm taking 18 hours of classes (two of which require major chunks of time outside of class), writing and working as a page editor for the campus newspaper, serving as the CEF GNC ministry leader, working 10 hours/week as a TA for workstudy, and trying to keep my New Year's resolutions AND my sanity. Yep, I think I over-committed myself. As I've done before. Yep, you'd think I'd learn....but noooooo :P It's hard for me to admit this as a perfectionistic over-achiever who likes {or maybe did like} to be a perfect student.....but I'm beginning to realize that maybe busywork assignments aren't the very most important thing in the equation of my life. No, don't worry. I have plenty of the busybee honors student in me still to not fail my classes (I think). And I am still struggling some with how to balance doing well at my occupation right now (I am primarily a student after all!) AND investing in people which has so much more eternal significance. It's not easy, especially since I often tend to over-think things....

So...that's all I can think of right now....and I need to head for bed soon. So thanks for reading, and if you think of me I'd appreciate your prayers that I would 1. Keep my perspective on God, 2. Focus on listening for His call, and 3. Learn how to properly balance how I spend my time.