Finale

Well, I've been back about three weeks now, and it still bugs me that this blog doesn't have any closure. So here it is.

First of all, thank you to everyone who prayed for us this last year in N.I. We really appreciate it and couldn't have made it without your support! Thanks for all the letters, postcards, packages, and comments, and for being so encouraging!

Our last few days in Ballymena were really good. We had a lot of fun with people from church, including an awesome Kidzone end-of-the-year party at Monkey Business (think Chucky Cheese) with about 25 kids from church, or 26 if you include me... I got a little carried away. Turns out that over 100 different kids came to Kidzone last year from the estate, with about 20-30 on average. It is such a big ministry for such a small church, which is why it is so good that Elizabeth is going back and can help with it.

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday saying goodbye to everyone, which was sad, but good. Everyone had really nice things to say to us, telling us how big of an impact we had had on them or on the kids we've been around for the last year, which was so encouraging. Sometimes it takes someone else telling you something before you can see it yourself. We even ran into one young woman who knew all about us from her 7-year-old niece named Kennedy. Kennedy became a Christian last year and used to be one of our neighboors. This lady said that she might come to church because she could see how much of a difference it was making in her niece's life!

We also spent a lot of time saying goodbye to some of the people from the estate we've been around the most: Calvin and Marty, Luke and his brother Paul, Michael, Katie, and of course Colin. We actually said goobye to Colin twice because he said the first one wasn't good enough. He told us how appreciative he was of us being there during one of the hardest years of his life, and that he didn't know what he was going to do without us. It was hard to say goodbye to someone like him, but we know God will take care of him, we are hoping that one of the guys from church can start spending time with him, and Elizabeth will be around too.

So after all of our teary goodbyes and late night packing, we slept for about 10 minutes and then went to the airport. We are all currently somewhere in the southeast; Dwight is in North Carolina, Elizabeth is in Georgia or sometimes Birmingham, Erin is at the beach or Bham or Moultrie depending on what day it is, and i'm in the computer lab at Samford looking for jobs. The Fellowship is broken.

Fortunately, there is a sequel. Elizabeth is going back to the City of the Seven Towers in July and staying for another year (have i mentioned that?), which is awesome. And we'll all be back next summer for the wedding. Just kidding:) The blogging continues at elizabethannhill.blogspot.com ,starting in August.

So overall, it was a really good year. The biggest thing for me was seeing how God moves in His timing, bringing us over there for a season to help a hurting church and be around hurting people. And He isn't finished yet.

Until the King Returns,
John

2nd post this year...that's pretty good for me, i'd say :)

it's amazing how the days fly by when something is coming to an end. i fly home tomorrow (eek!), and truthfully i'm quite sad about it. not to say that i'm not excited to see everyone at home...it is just hard to leave a place and people that have grown so dear to my heart, especially not knowing when i'll be be back. OH! and here's some exciting news...ELIZABETH IS COMING BACK FOR ANOTHER YEAR!!!! she talked to sam and alan, who are happy to have her stay and work for hillside again. she is coming back in july with the UCF team and will be staying here when they all leave. we are all super excited for her, and i have to say it is good to my heart to know that someone will still be here to continue the specific relationships that we have developed and grown. YAY!

anyway, since our time here is quickly growing short (john, elizabeth, and dwight leave next monday!), we have been trying to see and spend time with as many people as we can. last friday we hosted a bar b que in our back garden for our friends from both churches as well as from the estate. it turned out to be a beautiful day, and i'm proud to say that we successfully went through...dum, dum, dum...130something burgers and 50 sausages!!! needless to say, we all had a lot of fun. (and just to let everyone know...the guys from the church take very good care of us. we definitely could not have done it without all of their help!)

saturday we went up to coleraine with our friend danny to play on his boat. despite the combination of cold water, one hurt ankle, and one horrible wake-border, we had a great time hanging out. yesterday was our day to spend with our friend paul. we went to see indiana jones (i have to say, i was a wee bit disappointed), had family dinner, wore funny hats (see picture below), and spent the evening playing music and talking. elizabeth and i took a hiatus from paul for an hour or two to hang out with amy, reegan, anna, kay, and lauren.



since this is our last week, it is full of many "last moments." today is my and elizabeth's last art club with the girls. we are having a party and our friend amy is going to come, too! the guys are heading over to calvin and marty's, and i'm pretty sure that they will be two very sad boys when dwight and john leave (of course, dwight and john will be two sad boys, too). later this evening bobby and norman are stopping by for a while. even though we've only spent one day with them since we've been here, they are one of the most encouraging couples we know. we are excited about seeing them again! oh, and tonight is also our very last family dinner...sad.

please pray for us as we are saying goodbye to all of our friends here. pray for opportunities to spend quality time with them and last chances to share the gospel. specifically, the girls on my heart right now that you can be praying for are amy, anna, and danielle. also, please pray for our readjustment when we head back home. it is going to be a different life for us than the one we've grown accustomed to this past year. i mean, we all have to find jobs and everything...yuck. thank you all for keeping up with us and being faithful to pray.

I wish I had witty subject lines....

Oh boy. It is so hard to believe how short our time here is: two weeks from today for the three of us and one week from Wednesday for Erin! These past few weeks have flown by as we are bringing some of our regular programs/clubs/bible studies to a close for the summer and trying to spend plenty of time with all of our friends here. Here's the quick rundown:

-While the girls are continuing the Tuesday after school art club with their faithful 5-6 girls for the next two weeks, John and I have had less faithful attendance from our 5-6 guys in the last few weeks, and so are going to spend the time with the two brothers that we have invested most in, Marty and Calvin

-Ballyloughan, as we have mentioned before, has started a Wednesday night outreach into the estates, and we are helping for the next two weeks with that, leading sports activities for kids

-We are continuing our Thursday door to door prayer ministry until we leave, as we are nearly finished with individually visiting ever home in the estates. While this sometimes proves routine, or without many people to pray and talk with, the past few weeks have been so encouraging! During the last two weeks, we met and talked and prayed with two grandmothers of one of the largest families in the area. When I say large, I mean they each told us that they have a range of 60-90 grandchildren and 20-30 great grandchildren. This family is a traveling family that is very very closely knit and is matriarchal by nature, and so it is a huge thing for us to not only meet these lovely ladies, but to receive such warmth and acceptance from them. We were also able to pray with them and will be giving them Bibles. This is also the same family that supplies about 50% of regular attenders for Kidzone at church at Hillside each week, so please keep this ministry and this family in particular in your prayers.

-Our Thursday night youth club is finished, which frees us up to hang out with everyone. Since the weather has been phenomenal for the past three weeks, and it is light until 10:30, there are many older kids out. John and I have been playing much more football on the courts recently, and it is prime time for strolling around and visiting. It is also clear that the summer is nearing, as the older ones around here start getting into their crazy mindsets again, complete with excessive drinking, late night parties, fighting, police riots, and the like which are already becoming regular.

-Fridays and Saturdays are pretty free for us to meet with any people we are close with, and to just hang around with the kids.

-Besides our weekly events, we are scheduled to have dinner with someone different nearly every single night until we leave, so this is great to get some final quality time in so many different friendships. We have already had tons of great times recently, including going to a huge motorbike race at the coast this weekend (similar to Nascar in popularity and style, but a roadrace), and a huge barbecue with friends yesterday after church. We are soo thankful for the hospitality and level of love that our friends here have shown us this year.

-Finally, this Friday evening, we are having a big goodbye barbecue for pretty much everyone we know here, including people from both churches and especially people from the estate. Some friends from church are helping us with the food and supplies, and we are beginning to tell everyone. Please pray for this time, as we expect and hope to see lots of people we know, get a chance to say a final goodbye, and still share our love of Christ through this final act of kindness.

Well, true to form for my updates, this has become longer than I intended, but hopefully you have found this encouraging and will be faithful in prayer for us through this last bit of our time here. We love you all!

may day and hayley

Last Monday we celebrated May Day.  We really have no idea what exactly May Day is other than it is a bank holiday which means everyone is off school and work.  We think it is similar to Labor Day.  We loved it.  I think it might be my new favorite holiday.  The weather was amazing!  It actually was incredible for most of last week.  Even the 'not so great' days were great.  The days do warm up over here believe it or not, though we usually still wear jackets on the 'warm' days.  But this week we were all wearing t-shirts and flip flops!  

We celebrated May Day with Hayley and Paul at People's Park, one of our favorite places in Ballymena.  We had a picnic, played frisbee and made daisy chains.  Dwight made his first ever daisy chain after learning several different methods.  Erin and John rescued the frisbee from beyond the fence a couple times.

We also said good-bye to our dearest friend Hayley this week.  Hayley was the first person we met when we moved to Ballymena last summer.  She was our next door neighbor for a while and we quickly became friends after I walked into her house without knocking a few times.  She took us to Belfast to explore caves, to Downpatrick and Newcastle.  She taught us to play scrabble and then we quickly learned a new meaning to the term 'competitive.'  She opened her home to us and became part of our family.  She even let me have a party in her house one night while she was upstairs on the phone.  And no matter how mean the boys were to Kat the cat, she always let us back in.*

She is beginning an adventure...she left Dublin at 12:30 am last night to visit a friend in Estonia for a few weeks.  There is talk of a European road trip as she makes her way to France to find a job teaching English or writing.  I am a little jealous.  I'd never heard of Estonia and kind of want to go there now.  We love her and can not wait to hear about her travels.  I personally think she is going to be the female Bill Bryson. 

Check out her blog:  http://coffeehelps.wordpress.com

* If anyone reading this would like a cat, Kat still needs a home.  

burgers, indiana jones, and clean clothes

During our time in Ballymena, we have found some great places to eat, one of which is the Spinning Mill. Our friends took us there last summer for breakfast and we have made use of the inexpensive meals over the past months.  A couple months ago, I was invited to have lunch with Dwight and Paul.  I went to the counter to order my sandwich and went back to the table to wait for the guys.  They returned excited and informed me that they had discovered that you can order an extra slice of meat on a double burger for only a pound (approx $2) extra, making it a triple.

So, after months of planning, we took a family outing...

...they ate every last bite.

The new Indiana Jones movie comes out May 22 in Ballymena.  To celebrate, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark with our friend Danny Sunday night.  We met Danny through working with Ballyloughan Presbyterian Church over the past few months.  He is a physics teacher for an all boys school in Belfast where he teaches ages 12 to 18.  He drives up to Ballymena (approx 30-45 minute drive, depending on the traffic) every other week to help with the community youth club.  He is great.

To continue with news of laundry...the weather has been amazing and I dried my clean clothes outside on the line yesterday.  They smell so good.

All of my clothes are pink...

It's sunday afternoon right now and we are all enjoying a couple of hours of rest and reading in between the morning services and the night services. After church this morning, we were invited to lunch at a couple's house from Ballyloughan. It was a great time and we really enjoyed getting to know them more, and experiencing the love of Christ through their hospitality and the fellowship of the body here. Elizabeth is about to go have a meeting with the elders from Hillside about trying to figure out a way for her to stay on living here after this year. Actually, they are here right now to pick her up, so please be praying that they will have wisdom and discernment in this matter, for Elizabeth really feels that the Lord is leading her to stay.

We had an unexpected, pleasant surprise visit from Colin the other night! He called my phone and said he wanted to see us, which was very exciting, because we have been trying to get ahold of him recently, to no avail. Anyways, he came by sometime after 11 and ended up staying till near 1am. It was so good, and we were able to make him his favorite food ever-bacon! He didn't like our American biscuits as much, but breakfast, football, photo shoots, coffee and tea, and a group walk through the estate was never as much fun. Please keep praying for Colin, that the Lord would continue to seek him, even in the midst of his running from him, and that Colin would give in to the Spirit and yield to his ways.





Yesterday, Elizabeth went to the coast for the day with a friend and had a great time, John and I went rock climbing at an indoor wall again, and Erin guarded the fort. We took Steen, on of the boys from the estate, with us climbing and we really enjoyed hanging out with him, since we haven't seen him around much recently. We also went to Mark and Jacqui's house the other night and made them chicken quesadillas and saw their baby Jonathan.

Well, the only other important thing that I can think of is that I had a tragic blow to my limited wardrobe. I had delayed in washing my clothes for so long that I was finally forced to do it so I would have something to wear. Rather than split it up into two loads, i literally shoved it all into the tightest single load ever...much to my dismay, I realized far too late that I had also included in that load my red boxing wraps. That's right, my ENTIRE load is pink, not an even, slightly distinguishable pink, but bright, random splotches of red and pink everywhere. oh well, I guess I am reminded that life does not consist of these things, but things of far greater importance. I better get used to pink.
Until next time, we love you all!!!!

It's nearly May!

we are alive! haha, and two of us are back after being in the states for a week! its been a busy last wee bit, so sorry we havent written in a while, ill try to catch you up on the main stuff

lets see, first, erin and i went back to bham last week for two separate weddings and it was such an awesome time of refreshment and encouraging time with friends and family! the weddings were beautiful and it has rejuvinated us for our last 5 weeks here (4 for erin)! how crazy is that-a full year nearly gone. anyways, we are all glad to be back here together again

all of our normal clubs and bible studies and meetings have been going well. our tuesday afterschool club has been slightly crazy for the past few weeks and we are having a difficult time getting the kids to behave and pay attention, especially for the boys. John and I were really frustrated after this past week and are trying to figure out how to get them to act better and listen to the bible story, so pray for us about that.

since the nights are getting longer and brighter, everyone is out late at night more as well. this is good for hanging out, but also hard to get kids indoors for our youth clubs, etc. so this will probably be our last thursday of having youth club until after the summer. instead we will just have the time to be around the estate and hanging outdoors with everyone. Ballyloughan church is also starting a summer project where people from the church come into the estate every wednesday night and do cleanup for needy people, football clubs, door to door ministry, and just being around the estate to form relationships and help in any way. we are going to help with this as well, and are praying that it has a positive impact and that the estate accepts and is thankful for this effort.

just before going to america, i was able to go to dinner with eamonn (aymon), a friend i have made from the gym. it was a very good and encouraging time and though he is very anti-religion by his own profession, we spent a large portion of the night discussing spiritual questions he had and he learned what i believed. though it was quite intense at times, i think he was pleased with it and he said that after returning from my week home, he wanted to have me over to his house for dinner. i have been communicating with him since being back and we are trying to find a time to hang out again, so pray that the Lord provides this opportunity and that he will begin to respond to the Holy Spirit's promptings in his heart. pray also that i may have the words to say to him, because it is very intimidating to openly contradict his beliefs with my own, and to know the balance in when to speak and when to not push him.

john and i have been rock climbing with mark in the past week and are starting to go more often. we are trying to get several guys from the estate to go with us this saturday, and make it a regular thing. we even are beginning to plan an overnight climbing trip with them before we leave, so pray that all of these opportunities come together and guys will want to go.

well, im sure there is much more, but this is getting long. we will do better at updates in the next few weeks. as we sense our time beginning to draw nearer to an end, pray that we will be very intentional with our time and make the most of all of our opportunities. The Lord is teaching us so much and I am constantly reminded of his faithfulness and sovereignty! Praise Him for his love to us and you and the people here.
until next time, we love you and miss you all. dont be afraid to send us encouragement!

Dinner guests

John and I had a wee dinner party tonight.  Amy Lynn and her two and a half year old daughter Reegan came over.  We had tacos.  John gave Reegan black beans.  She did not like them.  She ate a plate of shredded cheese for dinner.  Then Reegan had her first music lesson.  It was a great night.

Downpatrick and Newcastle

Erin and Dwight are away to America for the week to be in friend's weddings.  John and I decided to take a day trip with Hayley and Paul on Monday.  We headed towards Downpatrick, the burial place of Saint Patrick and decided in Belfast to take a different route through Portaferry so we could take the ferry.  We ended up going to an aquarium and stayed for the 'hands-on' program, during which we got to pet sharks and sting rays and hold starfish, sea urchins, and clams.  We were by far the oldest ones in the group, unless you count the parents of all the wee children.

We took a very short ferry ride over to Downpatrick.  We saw the possible grave of St. Patrick and the Cathedral, which had a beautiful stained glass window.  We think the window portrayed images of 10 the the disciples.  We think they left out both Judas and Judas Iscariot and added Peter and Paul to make 12.  We went in search of a mountain with a statue of St. Patrick.  The mountain turned out to be a hill, but the view was amazing. 

Feeling spontaneous, Hayley decided she wanted to go to Newcastle and since she was driving, we all happily agreed to the adventure.  We walked along the beach and the boys taught Hayley to skip rocks.

We ended our day by going for coffee and ice cream at Maude's.  We sat outside and talked about what kind of bird we would like to be and watched the water.  It was a great day out.
This week, John and I are holding down the fort.  We had our afternoon clubs at Hillside, with the help of Paul, Louise, Brid, and Amy.  We taught the parable of the Good Samaritan.  I had the girls make cards of encouragement for someone as an example of how to show love to others.  We ended 10 minutes early because they girls were making 'kick me' signs and gluing them to each other's backs.  Obviously they listened really well today.

pictures and sister

My baby sister, Laura arrived from Spain Wednesday afternoon for a long weekend.  She is a senior at Auburn and is finishing university outside of Madrid.  I haven't seen her since Christmas and am enjoying getting to introduce her to our friends here.  Erin and I met her in Belfast on Wednesday and brought her back up to Ballymena.  We went to dinner at the Blackstone Restaurant with our friend Paul.  Erin and I have been waiting to go for ages since we heard it was the best restaurant in town and thought Laura's visit was as good excuse as any.  The food was amazing and the music was interesting.

Yesterday, we took her along on our 'prayer walk' around Millfield.  Every Thursday afternoon, we help Ballyloughan with a door to door prayer ministry.  We met a really cute little girl named Caitlin who had a bag full of bread to go feed the ducks at The People's Park.  She was very excited.  

It was a beautiful day, so we met up with Katie and went on a walk around the estate to take pictures.  The kids have all been off school for two weeks for Holy Week and Easter Week.  They are in the process of going back to school at the moment, so some were out playing while we walked.  We got to see Lizzy Carson and her girls, a family in Millfield we met on a walk last summer.  They were out in their front garden one day last July and happened to have a trampoline, so of course I introduced myself and asked if I could jump on it.  We have been friends every since.  Erin used to help Chelsea, the oldest daughter, with her homework last autumn.  We enjoyed chatting with them and some of the other kids we met along the way.

Some pictures from our walk:

One often comes across interesting things when walking around Dunclug.  I have seen a dead cat, a decapitated doll, a burnt motorbike, a dog hanging from a rope of the football goal, and now an abandoned trolley.  You can't hep but to take a picture.

On Tuesday while locking up after the afternoon art club at Hillside, I noticed a bit of graffiti on the church gate.  I have quite a fondness for this particular art form around here.  I'm not sure if the artist here was trying to communicate here.

On Monday, the boys left for France to snowboard for a few days.  The weather was perfect, so Erin and I recruited Paul for a trip to The People's Park.  The bit of water in the picture has ducks and swans.  Since we have been here, we have learned that the swan is protected by the Queen and you will serve eight years in prison for killing one.

On Easter Sunday, I went to a sunrise service at Mount Slemish.  I took this picture through the car window, so you can't see how clear this rainbow was.  I have never seen one where the green was so clear and bright.  Since I was in the car with a physics professor, I learned the scientific explanation of how rainbows work.  They are from God.

We are off to the coast for the day.  The boys get back tonight, hopefully in one piece.