with missy, emily, and joel (he was here this past weekend...not sure if that was ever mentioned in the previous blogs) safely back home, we've returned our normal routine...almost. next week is halloween which is one of the biggest holidays in northern ireland. the kids are off school for a week, so we are planning a three day fall festival for them. two of the days are going to be similar to the backyard bible clubs that the ucf team did this summer. one of the days we've rented out the community center and are having a much bigger presentation complete with puppets, games, songs, memory verses, crafts and the gospel message presented by way of a drama. pray for us as we prepare for this festival. we're pretty short on time...we started to plan today and the festival starts next wednesday. and pray for the kids that are going to be there. jacqui estimates that there will be around 60 kids on the day that we have the community center. the backyard bible clubs are taking place in different areas of the estates, which means they will be much smaller and more intimate. pray that God allows opportunities for us to talk to the kids one on one during this time.
we're still going every monday to the scripture union at dunclug secondary school, which has become one of my favorite times of the week! last monday dwight, john, and elizabeth ate dinner with the teachers who lead the scripture union and went bowling with all of the kids. (i was sick, so elizabeth made me stay home and sleep...). some of the teachers that lead su are christians, but some are not. pray that we will not only have opportunities to talk to the kids, but also the teachers. and elizabeth wanted me to inform all of you...she bowled one strike and three spares on monday. yay!
thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts! we love you guys!
24 October, 2007
19 October, 2007
Pirates and Chinese
We said goodbye to Melissa and Emily yesterday. It was so great having them here and taking them around to introduce them to people we know. They were a huge encouragement to us all and we are so thankful for good friends. Joel arrived this morning and we are excited about spending some time with him over the weekend.
Our dear next door neighbor had a birthday this week, so we celebrated with beef in black bean sauce, prawn crackers, and coffee cupcakes. Hayley has become one of our favorite people. She is a star. Check out her blog:
http://coffeehelps.wordpress.com/
We love you Hayley! Happy Birthday!
We visited Ballykeel this week and got to introduce Emily to some of our friends there. She had the pleasure of meeting the one and only Nigel and seeing her first Northern Ireland rainbow. We have become a bit accustomed to seeing rainbows throughout the week, but this one was absolutely glorious. It was amazing. The colors were so bright and clear, they seemed to be glowing.
17 October, 2007
Dean(s)
Dean no. 1
As mentioned earlier, we usually go out late on Friday nights, praying and looking for opportunities to talk to people. Well this Friday the four of us (and Mark, a director), wandered out to around twenty guys out on the pitch, rowdy and drunk as usual. We said our "hello's" and went on our way before the police showed up, noticing that the guys had gathered some stones to throw at them. Well we went and prayed some, and then looked back from the other side of the pitch to see a police wagon thing driving up on the pitch spotlighting guys, and the guys in turn pelting the wagon with fist-sized rocks. This had an effect similar to that of hitting a wasp's nest with a baseball bat, so we decided not to walk back that way this time. We wandered for about 20 more minutes, by then having circled around back by our house. As we sat there trying to decide whether or not to go back inside, a guy walked by looking visibly upset, and mumbled something about the hopelessness of this estate. We asked a few questions and found out that this guy was named Dean, and that the mob had put in all the windows on his mom's house and tore down the fence. After talking to him some, praying with him, and giving him a New Testament, we walked inside, smiling at the providence of God for putting us in the right place at the right time. We have seen him a couple times since then, met his mom, siblings, and grandmother, and gave him another little book to read. It seems like God is working on him, so be praying for him. Also convenient is that fact that he works at Dominoes, so we got a good deal on pizza tonight.
Intermission
Melissa and Emily are still here, they leave Thursday morning, and they have been awesome! It's been so fun to have extra people around to talk to and cook for you, and they've been very encouraging to us. They will be missed.
Dean no. 2
The other Dean is a 15 yr. old guy who lives around here. He is much easier to find than Dean no. 1 because i've never seen him anywhere except hanging out in the cul-de-sac in front of his house. From what I can gather, this is because of two reasons. One, he is a slightly bitter protestant, which is not the best thing to be in Dunclug, and two, he tried to steal a Wii from another protestant around here, making him shunned from that group as well. Besides these things, he is on all accounts a very cool guy, so about once a week i wander over there and play soccer with him... he usually schools me. Due to his confined space, he has to be rather creative, using a tree and a lamp post as a soccer goal, even though the soccer cage is about 50 yards from his house. The funny thing is that Dean is a microcosm of what life is like for a lot of the people we hang out with. They can only walk so far into town, and wouldn't dare go near certain protestant estates, for fear of losing life or limb. Since this is how "protestants" treat them, you can imagine how they'd feel about going into a church. Pray that God might overcome culture and politics and the hatred done in the name of "religion", and spread the real Gospel around here. Also, pray for Dean and his brother Calum, and his mom, that they might meet Jesus. Thanks for praying!
As mentioned earlier, we usually go out late on Friday nights, praying and looking for opportunities to talk to people. Well this Friday the four of us (and Mark, a director), wandered out to around twenty guys out on the pitch, rowdy and drunk as usual. We said our "hello's" and went on our way before the police showed up, noticing that the guys had gathered some stones to throw at them. Well we went and prayed some, and then looked back from the other side of the pitch to see a police wagon thing driving up on the pitch spotlighting guys, and the guys in turn pelting the wagon with fist-sized rocks. This had an effect similar to that of hitting a wasp's nest with a baseball bat, so we decided not to walk back that way this time. We wandered for about 20 more minutes, by then having circled around back by our house. As we sat there trying to decide whether or not to go back inside, a guy walked by looking visibly upset, and mumbled something about the hopelessness of this estate. We asked a few questions and found out that this guy was named Dean, and that the mob had put in all the windows on his mom's house and tore down the fence. After talking to him some, praying with him, and giving him a New Testament, we walked inside, smiling at the providence of God for putting us in the right place at the right time. We have seen him a couple times since then, met his mom, siblings, and grandmother, and gave him another little book to read. It seems like God is working on him, so be praying for him. Also convenient is that fact that he works at Dominoes, so we got a good deal on pizza tonight.
Intermission
Melissa and Emily are still here, they leave Thursday morning, and they have been awesome! It's been so fun to have extra people around to talk to and cook for you, and they've been very encouraging to us. They will be missed.
Dean no. 2
The other Dean is a 15 yr. old guy who lives around here. He is much easier to find than Dean no. 1 because i've never seen him anywhere except hanging out in the cul-de-sac in front of his house. From what I can gather, this is because of two reasons. One, he is a slightly bitter protestant, which is not the best thing to be in Dunclug, and two, he tried to steal a Wii from another protestant around here, making him shunned from that group as well. Besides these things, he is on all accounts a very cool guy, so about once a week i wander over there and play soccer with him... he usually schools me. Due to his confined space, he has to be rather creative, using a tree and a lamp post as a soccer goal, even though the soccer cage is about 50 yards from his house. The funny thing is that Dean is a microcosm of what life is like for a lot of the people we hang out with. They can only walk so far into town, and wouldn't dare go near certain protestant estates, for fear of losing life or limb. Since this is how "protestants" treat them, you can imagine how they'd feel about going into a church. Pray that God might overcome culture and politics and the hatred done in the name of "religion", and spread the real Gospel around here. Also, pray for Dean and his brother Calum, and his mom, that they might meet Jesus. Thanks for praying!
12 October, 2007
David Gray album, part 2
My sheer excitement over the David Gray album came to a screeching halt when I discovered that it was a live album of covers that was only available on his website. But, that disappointment was soon replaced when I remembered Erin's sister, Melissa was coming! At the moment, Erin and I are waiting for our lift to the airport to meet her delayed flight.
Last Monday was our first time at the Scripture Union at Dunclug College, a secondary school on the edge of our estate. For the rest of the semester we will be attending the junior and senior SU to help out and to get a chance to meet another set of kids. This school draws kids from all over Ballymena, so there are students we know from both the Dunclug area and Ballykeel, as well as areas we have yet to visit. We are also hoping to encourage some of the students we already know to start attending these lunch time meetings. This week we heard about the math teacher's summer trip to Uganda and next week we will be working on getting Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes filled and sent out. Over the next few weeks, we will have the opportunity to go bowling with the students and have dinner with the teachers who lead SU. Beginning in January, after we return from Christmas, we are planning on leading the meetings ourselves using the Junior Alpha course.
http://uk.alpha.org/
Be sure to watch the video that is on the main page of the website. Dwight, Erin, and I saw this in the previews at the movie theater a few weeks ago.
This past week also included:
a great visit with some friends in Ballykeel
an encouraging prayer meeting with the Hope team
a school assembly
several packages from home
listening to Joel's sermon with Catherine and Paul
baking brownies with girls
introducing Neil to The Frames
a prank phone call
Dwight busting another bike tire on the way to the gym
a visit with Colin
Hebrew bible study
going to breakfast in town
the new Radiohead album
We can not believe that it is already October 12. The months are passing far to quickly.
love,
elizabeth
Last Monday was our first time at the Scripture Union at Dunclug College, a secondary school on the edge of our estate. For the rest of the semester we will be attending the junior and senior SU to help out and to get a chance to meet another set of kids. This school draws kids from all over Ballymena, so there are students we know from both the Dunclug area and Ballykeel, as well as areas we have yet to visit. We are also hoping to encourage some of the students we already know to start attending these lunch time meetings. This week we heard about the math teacher's summer trip to Uganda and next week we will be working on getting Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes filled and sent out. Over the next few weeks, we will have the opportunity to go bowling with the students and have dinner with the teachers who lead SU. Beginning in January, after we return from Christmas, we are planning on leading the meetings ourselves using the Junior Alpha course.
http://uk.alpha.org/
Be sure to watch the video that is on the main page of the website. Dwight, Erin, and I saw this in the previews at the movie theater a few weeks ago.
This past week also included:
a great visit with some friends in Ballykeel
an encouraging prayer meeting with the Hope team
a school assembly
several packages from home
listening to Joel's sermon with Catherine and Paul
baking brownies with girls
introducing Neil to The Frames
a prank phone call
Dwight busting another bike tire on the way to the gym
a visit with Colin
Hebrew bible study
going to breakfast in town
the new Radiohead album
We can not believe that it is already October 12. The months are passing far to quickly.
love,
elizabeth
07 October, 2007
David Gray's new album comes out on Tuesday!
As previous post explained, we have moved into a new "season" of our internship. Over the past month we have been learning to adjust to the community schedule as all the kids returned to school and this past week really kicked off some new activities and programs.
We started "homework clubs" on Tuesday. Jacqui, one of the directors of Hope in Ballymena, helped us arrange and schedule time with different kids she knows in Dunclug. We all came back really excited and encouraged after the first day. Tuesday, Erin and I went to a house with 4 girls and had a great afternoon. We helped the 9 and 11 year olds with their math and english homework. I learned a new way of taking percentages by multiplying fractions and drawing boxes which I found much easier than I remembered from middle school. The mom asked us about cooking and agreed to teach me to make Irish stew for this winter. After the girls finished their homework, one of them told me to ask their mom how to make pancakes and as she was explaining the ingredients, she got out a bowl and started making them for us. So Erin and I made brunch for the boys the next morning. Being in the kids homes allows us to spend time with their family as well as help them with math.
We also went to a local church's youth outreach on Thursday night the boys stumbled across a few weeks ago. Each Thursday evening, the church is opened up for the older kids to come play indoor football, ping pong, pool and hang out for a couple hours. The leaders are happy for us to come by anytime and we are planning to take advantage of this time as much as possible as there are a lot of kids we know all in one place.
Friday night we had the pleasure of Mark McGladdery accompanying us on a late night walk around the estate. We had a great night. We have come to the conclusion that Friday night is the best night to be out late. We have also come to the conclusion that anything late at night is completely random. We ran into a friend of ours and ended up at a bus shelter at the bottom of the estate so he could rest his back. A few minutes later, a group came down and hung out with us for a long time. We got to meet some of the girls we didn't have a chance to talk to the night before at church and invite another to the Scripture Union we will helping with on Mondays.
The weather has been amazing the past few days. Dwight and I went to People's Park one morning and ended up taking a couple friends, including a 2 year old who entertained us by feeding the ducks and pigeons. It is still pretty green, a few leaves turned but nothing like the trees in Georgia. Thursday night was really clear and the stars were amazing.
In other news, we were bummed that The Office was no longer available on itunes, but that was turned to pure joy when we found it on youtube.
love, elizabeth
We started "homework clubs" on Tuesday. Jacqui, one of the directors of Hope in Ballymena, helped us arrange and schedule time with different kids she knows in Dunclug. We all came back really excited and encouraged after the first day. Tuesday, Erin and I went to a house with 4 girls and had a great afternoon. We helped the 9 and 11 year olds with their math and english homework. I learned a new way of taking percentages by multiplying fractions and drawing boxes which I found much easier than I remembered from middle school. The mom asked us about cooking and agreed to teach me to make Irish stew for this winter. After the girls finished their homework, one of them told me to ask their mom how to make pancakes and as she was explaining the ingredients, she got out a bowl and started making them for us. So Erin and I made brunch for the boys the next morning. Being in the kids homes allows us to spend time with their family as well as help them with math.
We also went to a local church's youth outreach on Thursday night the boys stumbled across a few weeks ago. Each Thursday evening, the church is opened up for the older kids to come play indoor football, ping pong, pool and hang out for a couple hours. The leaders are happy for us to come by anytime and we are planning to take advantage of this time as much as possible as there are a lot of kids we know all in one place.
Friday night we had the pleasure of Mark McGladdery accompanying us on a late night walk around the estate. We had a great night. We have come to the conclusion that Friday night is the best night to be out late. We have also come to the conclusion that anything late at night is completely random. We ran into a friend of ours and ended up at a bus shelter at the bottom of the estate so he could rest his back. A few minutes later, a group came down and hung out with us for a long time. We got to meet some of the girls we didn't have a chance to talk to the night before at church and invite another to the Scripture Union we will helping with on Mondays.
The weather has been amazing the past few days. Dwight and I went to People's Park one morning and ended up taking a couple friends, including a 2 year old who entertained us by feeding the ducks and pigeons. It is still pretty green, a few leaves turned but nothing like the trees in Georgia. Thursday night was really clear and the stars were amazing.
In other news, we were bummed that The Office was no longer available on itunes, but that was turned to pure joy when we found it on youtube.
love, elizabeth
04 October, 2007
October kicks off the fireworks...
It should not have surprised me when I returned from England and found our blog without update...that is, since my last update on September 25th. But for some reason, I keep holding out hope that one of my other roommates here will feel some urgency and pressing need to beat me to the next blog update. However, I am coming to grips with the fact that this may never happen at all. In fact, I think that my dear roomies are quite content with allowing almost all updates to come by way of me. While I will surely face all kinds of denial and harassment over this conclusion, I will happily admit my error if they begin to prove me wrong...But I wouldn't hold your breath...
So, here is another update of the work and lives of the UCF Interns in Ballymena (as told by Dwight Castle):
Well, I returned from my friend's wedding on Monday, the longgg day that began at 5:30am for me, and after becoming very acquainted with the Manchester airport, finished after I arrived at our home around 5pm. The wedding went very well and it was quite refreshing and encouraging to spend time with my friend, Jon, and meet all of his friends there. There were quite a large number of missionaries there that were close friends, and so the Lord undoubtedly meant to encourage me through this, as I heard how the Lord was working through the lives of others around the world.
Though Monday is typically our day off to rest, the others did a school assembly Monday morning, before I got back. It seems that this went well, but we are continually trying to think of ways to improve our schools' programs. Tuesday, we started our first day of after-school tutoring in the homes, and every one of ours went really well! These are cool opportunities for us to not only help the kids with their homework and build our relationships with them, but also to be in the homes, building better relationships with their parents and the rest of their families. We were very encouraged by how well these went for all of us on Monday, and though we don't do any on Wednesdays, we all will go shortly to new homes for our Thursday students, and will do so on Fridays, also. Please continue to pray for these.
Yesterday, John and I joined a local gym, and are quite excited about regularly working out and trying to stay active and in shape. However, our first day proved quite interesting. We have to ride our bikes to this place, which conveniently, is on the other side of town. Not too big of a deal, except that we didn't really know how to get there...and it was raining. So, after about 40 minutes of wrong turns, weaving through cars on the way to work, kids on the way to school, and old men on the way to....well, to nowhere, I guess (but nonethless calling us cheeky for scaring them with our weaving), we made it to the gym, fairly wet, but not yet disheartened. We then had to sit and fill our paperwork and become official members for a while, before we finally began an abbreviated work out. During this time, we heard something that sounded like nothing short of a second great flooding of the earth. After reminding myself that God gave the rainbow (which we see so often) to ensure that this wasn't the case, I thought, maybe the massive air conditioning unit had kicked in...I then looked out the front door. When I saw our bikes float by in the newly formed river, I knew our ride back would not be fun (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it may as well have been). By the grace of God, when it was time to go, it had lightened from a deluge to a mild full-body massage, and we set out on the more accurately-guided ride back. We made much better time back for the first half of the trip, but then my back tire blew out and we had to walk the rest of the way back. However, the wonderful girls had decided to make homemade pancakes for us, so we felt much better after that.
Though we were supposed to go to Ballykeel, the incessant rain kept us from doing so. It was good for all of us to spend some time working on (catching up in my case) on our Hebrews Bible study that meets bi-weekly. Today, since the bike tire was still busted and erin wanted to come with us, we caught a much shorter taxi ride and had a great workout. It has been a gorgeous day and we have been able to hang out with a lot of people so far today. As I am typing this, we just watched our neighbors get busted for having MASS QUANTITIES of fireworks in their house, which they have been selling to the neighborhood kids for jacked up prices. (Starting on October 1st, you can hear fireworks going off all day long, as everyone gears up for Halloween, which seems to be a big excuse here for fireworks) You would have thought that it was a major drug bust or something since they brought out 11 police officers and 4 cars. But no, the drug dealers are still around.
Well, I guess that should catch you up on everything up to the past 30 minutes. We've gotta head out to tutoring now, so yep, that's all. Please keep praying for us to have wisdom to know who to spend our time with and doing what. Tonight, we are going out late again to see what the older kids do and where they hang out on Thursday nights, so pray for that too. We love you all!!! keep in touch.
Until later, my friends,
dwight
So, here is another update of the work and lives of the UCF Interns in Ballymena (as told by Dwight Castle):
Well, I returned from my friend's wedding on Monday, the longgg day that began at 5:30am for me, and after becoming very acquainted with the Manchester airport, finished after I arrived at our home around 5pm. The wedding went very well and it was quite refreshing and encouraging to spend time with my friend, Jon, and meet all of his friends there. There were quite a large number of missionaries there that were close friends, and so the Lord undoubtedly meant to encourage me through this, as I heard how the Lord was working through the lives of others around the world.
Though Monday is typically our day off to rest, the others did a school assembly Monday morning, before I got back. It seems that this went well, but we are continually trying to think of ways to improve our schools' programs. Tuesday, we started our first day of after-school tutoring in the homes, and every one of ours went really well! These are cool opportunities for us to not only help the kids with their homework and build our relationships with them, but also to be in the homes, building better relationships with their parents and the rest of their families. We were very encouraged by how well these went for all of us on Monday, and though we don't do any on Wednesdays, we all will go shortly to new homes for our Thursday students, and will do so on Fridays, also. Please continue to pray for these.
Yesterday, John and I joined a local gym, and are quite excited about regularly working out and trying to stay active and in shape. However, our first day proved quite interesting. We have to ride our bikes to this place, which conveniently, is on the other side of town. Not too big of a deal, except that we didn't really know how to get there...and it was raining. So, after about 40 minutes of wrong turns, weaving through cars on the way to work, kids on the way to school, and old men on the way to....well, to nowhere, I guess (but nonethless calling us cheeky for scaring them with our weaving), we made it to the gym, fairly wet, but not yet disheartened. We then had to sit and fill our paperwork and become official members for a while, before we finally began an abbreviated work out. During this time, we heard something that sounded like nothing short of a second great flooding of the earth. After reminding myself that God gave the rainbow (which we see so often) to ensure that this wasn't the case, I thought, maybe the massive air conditioning unit had kicked in...I then looked out the front door. When I saw our bikes float by in the newly formed river, I knew our ride back would not be fun (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it may as well have been). By the grace of God, when it was time to go, it had lightened from a deluge to a mild full-body massage, and we set out on the more accurately-guided ride back. We made much better time back for the first half of the trip, but then my back tire blew out and we had to walk the rest of the way back. However, the wonderful girls had decided to make homemade pancakes for us, so we felt much better after that.
Though we were supposed to go to Ballykeel, the incessant rain kept us from doing so. It was good for all of us to spend some time working on (catching up in my case) on our Hebrews Bible study that meets bi-weekly. Today, since the bike tire was still busted and erin wanted to come with us, we caught a much shorter taxi ride and had a great workout. It has been a gorgeous day and we have been able to hang out with a lot of people so far today. As I am typing this, we just watched our neighbors get busted for having MASS QUANTITIES of fireworks in their house, which they have been selling to the neighborhood kids for jacked up prices. (Starting on October 1st, you can hear fireworks going off all day long, as everyone gears up for Halloween, which seems to be a big excuse here for fireworks) You would have thought that it was a major drug bust or something since they brought out 11 police officers and 4 cars. But no, the drug dealers are still around.
Well, I guess that should catch you up on everything up to the past 30 minutes. We've gotta head out to tutoring now, so yep, that's all. Please keep praying for us to have wisdom to know who to spend our time with and doing what. Tonight, we are going out late again to see what the older kids do and where they hang out on Thursday nights, so pray for that too. We love you all!!! keep in touch.
Until later, my friends,
dwight
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