All 31 Days of March

This post is the fourth in a string of posts that I will be writing to make up for my delinquent curation of this blog. That's why I'm talking about March in May.

The guys from Youth Fellowship on Youth Sunday
LtoR: Robert, Sam, Michael, James, me, and Jason

By the time March rolled around all the programs I am involved with were in full swing. It seemed like there was something planned for all 31 days of March. At least one day in March was a little bittersweet for me this year. This is the first time in 6 years that I wouldn't spend Mardi Gras with all of my Mobile friends and the first Ash Wednesday I would spend away from my Overlook Presbyterian Church family in 4 years. However, there was much else to keep me focused and there were many things here of which I was excited to take part. The second week in March my Dad came to visit and he was able to worship with us on Youth Sunday. In case the name hasn't given it away, Youth Sunday is the Sunday we set aside to focus on Youth ministries at Fortwilliam and Macrory and the youth of the church have a large hand in preparing and presenting the sermon, playing all the music for the service, and coordinating all the other tenants of a normal service like collecting the offering, handing out bulletins, and taking charge of all the prayers. They did a wonderful job and the service went off without a hitch. Truthfully, every Sunday at FMPCI sees a great deal of involvement from the youth in the church as many seem to be eager to play a role in the workings of the congregation. The focus of the message of Youth Sunday was the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The tallest man in Belfast

There were a lot of fun things going on in March. I attended my first proper Northern Irish Stag Do. I had never really heard the phrase "Stag Do" but apparently it's the same as a bachelor party. My good friend David was getting in married in April so in March we went out into the country for skeet shooting and archery. I was embarrassed by my lack of skill as I am from the great state of Alabama and everyone expected me to be an ace at the shooting. 

 The next week was St. Patrick's day which, much to my surprise, is actually a bigger deal in the United States than it is here in Northern Ireland. They do throw one heck of a parade for it though. We headed down to city center, which was packed with European tourists, and watched as the parade rolled out from city hall and meandered it's way through the central part of Belfast. It reminded me of Mardi Gras parades in Mobile as it was a very family friendly atmosphere. Many organizations had representatives marching in the parade in various costumes including our very own Miriam Foltz who was marching with the kids from East Belfast Mission. 

The WAVE Ladies Group on residential in Inishowen

March also saw the yearly residential of the ladies group of WAVE Trauma Centre. March is a fitting month for this retreat because it's also Women's History Month and the focus of the retreat was coming to terms with your own history and taking charge in writing your future. We took the ladies to the very lovely Inishowen Gateway Hotel, which is just across the border in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland. If you're ever in this part of the world then I highly suggest visiting Donegal and the Inishowen peninsula. It was a great setting for this wonderful time of sharing and healing. 

Refueling and Remembering in February

This post is the third in a string of posts that I will be writing to make up for my delinquent curation of this blog. That's why I'm talking about February in May.

The Glens of Antrim from Knocklayde

 One of the many cool aspects of serving as a YAV in Northern Ireland is the periodic group retreat. On a couple different occasions we(the 7 NI YAVS) head out for a retreat with our fearless leader, Doug Baker. Our first retreat was across the border in lovely Donegal back in November and in February we stayed a little closer to home with 3 days on the picturesque Antrim coast. While on retreat we spend time together in prayer reflection and focus on strengthening our community. These retreats do wonders for group morale and always seem to be planned right when we need them the most. One aspect of YAV life is learning to take care of yourself so that you can serve when needed. We were told that February is usually the hardest months for NI YAVs. I don't know precisely why this is but if I had to guess I would blame it on the mysterious disappearance of the sun and the ubiquitous greyness of the month. That being said, none of us were really feeling the February blues so we took this retreat as a chance to gear up for the busy months to come and to reflect on all the wonderful experiences we had shared within our workplaces and worshipping communities. We toured around the north of country Antrim and then spent the day in Derry learning more about the beautiful walled city that has been center stage for many of the most important events in the history of the conflict here in Northern Ireland. 

Free Derry Corner, the gateway to the Nationalist Bogside community.

Derry was home to some of the worst violence to have taken place during the Troubles and many of the sites serve as a reminder of the lasting effects of violence on a community. There was a very lighthearted tone to most of the retreat(as their normally is with our group) but Derry was a sobering place. When we gathered for worship that evening we took time to remember the pain of those who've encountered violence during the Troubles here and those who still bear the scars. There is certainly a lasting legacy of conflict though now, thanks to the tireless efforts of those interested in peace, it seems to take the form of political debate. The church in Northern Ireland has made great strides to speak on behalf of the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation. 

"A church that has nothing to say about reconciliation really has nothing to say at all.” - David Armstrong

I look forward to reading in years to come about the kids I've met here and the role they will play in the peace process. One reason I enjoy working with the kids here so much is because it feels like we're helping to write a peace future for this beautiful country and it's wonderful people. When you give to the work of the YAV program in Northern Ireland you help to write this future as well. Thank you to all who've helped so far.

 

Being Present in January

This post is the second in a string of posts that I will be writing to make up for my delinquent curation of this blog. That's why I'm talking about January and February in May.

Youth Club friends ~ with permission

After the deluge of awesome that was 2010, I was eager to get 2011 under way but it was a bit slow in starting. Most of the programs I'm involved with didn't start back until the second or third week of January. Not wanting to sit around the Skegoneill house whilst twiddling my thumbs, I set out to see Belfast in all it's wintry glory. Our house is just a 15 - 20 minute walk from the city center so I took daily walks down, drank more coffee than any one person should, and dandered around the city and surrounding neighborhoods. Belfast is a great city to walk. I was also able to spend a fair amount of time in Tiger's Bay with the kids from youth club just chatting or kicking a football around. I didn't realize then but I can see now that those afternoons of unplanned hanging out in the park or the cafe at the Grove Leisure Centre were as important as any of the scheduled youth club events. One thing I enjoy about the YAV program is the attention put on the importance of simply being present with people. That is to say, you don't always have to be doing something to be engaging in the work of building community. Simply by showing up you're making the statement that "You are worth my time." I've been blessed this year to be in a position to make that statement to the kids of Tiger's Bay.

Like everywhere else, some kids in the Bay come from great homes and supportive families and some don't. Some kids there will have loads of opportunities and will be given access to quality educations and careers but some will not. Some kids will break the cycle of despair and disadvantage and some will begin the cycle for coming generations. Regardless of what they will become, they are only just now being shaped. When you support the YAV program, you're supporting one more positive voice for kids in places like Tiger's Bay. You're sending one more person to tell them that God wants to use them in ways they can't yet imagine. You're supplying another pair of hands for them to hold. One more kind smile when it's needed the most. Thank you for the support you've given so far. I'm so grateful for all those who have contributed, but there is still a ways to go and any support you could give is greatly appreciated. 

Christmas in Belfast and New Year's on the continent

This post is the first in a string of posts that I will be writing to make up for my delinquent curation of this blog. That's why I'm talking about Christmas in April.

Belfast City Hall decorated for Christmas/photo stolen from Edward Lewis

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. The smells, the lights, the decorations, the giving/receiving of gifts, the hymns you only sing during Advent, special carol services, and all the other trappings of the holiday bring me great joy and reduce me to a giddy, giddy child when that time of year rolls around. I also love the message of the Advent season: the son of the God we worship as omnipotent coming as a helpless child and bringing with Him salvation, life, resurrection. The birth of Christ is the largest milestone in the human narrative. It is the epoch by which we categorize all time, an occasion certainly worth the largest celebration of the year. Of course the season surrounding Christmas is filled with loads of religious observances and celebrations which lend themselves to the festive atmosphere one experiences during the month of December. I like this because, well, I like to party and I can hardly think of a better reason to party than the coming of the Christ. You know who else likes to party? Belfast. The entire city of Belfast. I have never seen a city do Christmas so well and it was a pleasure to be here to experience the celebration and join in on the festivities. One of the favorite YAV activities during the holidays was to visit the Belfast Christmas Continental Market. The market is basically a village built on the lawn of City Hall filled with everything you could possibly imagine. I already know the questions you're asking:  Anything for kids? Oh, yes! A carousel AND Santa Claus himself. Anything for adults? In fact, there was a bar shaped like a giant teepee. Food? Anything from crepes to crocodile burgers(seriously)! Will we be able to purchase trinkets? Of course, including but not limited to a tie-dye howling wolf sweatshirt, a hat that looks like a fish is eating your head, enough incense to choke a hippie, and loads of other things that you could never possibly need but somehow desperately want. I am not exaggerating when I tell you I must have visited the market 15 times.

Our snow covered garden. Don't think that rug ever did get dry.

Along with the joys of frenzied consumerism that the Christmas season brings, we also enjoyed a tremendous amount of snow. In fact, it was my first white Christmas! I finally understand what Bing Crosby was singing about! There were many Advent activities accompany the snow and they complemented each other very well. FMPC hosted a cross-community carol service where the good folks from Holy Family Catholic Parish joined in with us Presbyterians to sing songs of praise and thanks for the gift of that baby that brought joy to the world.

I spent my first Christmas day away from home with The Stewarts. They're a really great family and it's been a blessing to get to know them while I've been here at FMPC. Michael Stewart, the youngest, is in the church band and his mom, Heather, is very active in the Monday Night Bible Study and various other church activities. It was a really nice day and I was very thankful to have been invited to spend time with them. They were the quintessence of hospitality.

John Killian: American Tourist. 

A couple of days after Christmas Edward Lewis, Jo Lanigan, and I headed to Dublin to catch a flight to Brussels. We were to spend the remainder of the Christmas holiday in the Belgian city of Brugge(or Bruges) and Amsterdam. It was a fantastic trip. Brugge is like a fairytale city, especially when it's covered in snow. Brugge, much like Amsterdam, is filled with bridges and canals and is very lovely. I think we walked every inch of the city in the few days we were there. It was a very relaxed sort of place and did absolutely nothing to prepare us for the tourist convention that would be Amsterdam. While in Brugge we Couchsurfed in the nearby town of Torhout with a lady named Fabienne. She treated us to dinner every night and we had  our own attic room which was very comfortable. She was a great host. 

LtoR: Jo, Me, Fabienne, and Edward

After a few days in Belgium we hopped on the train and headed to Amsterdam. It's hard for me to discuss Amsterdam without getting a little choked up because, after spending a few days in the city (including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day) I am almost certain that belong there. Bikes everywhere! Cars that respect pedestrians! It is the most walkable city I've ever been in and it probably helps that it's also the flattest. We had a great time in Amsterdam. We stayed two nights in a building that used to be the city hall of Blaricum(described to us as the Beverly Hills of Holland). The building had been converted into a very large community house and there were about 7 students living there. We decided to spend New Year's Eve with them and it was one of the best decisions that was made during the duration of the trip. We headed back to Belfast on New Year's Day. It was a great trip and a wonderful way to end what was an amazing year. 

To Resurrect Daily

Yesterday being the first Sunday of Advent, Fortwilliam & Macrory marked the occasion by coming to the Lord's Table for communion. I love communion Sundays and I think the practice itself is one of the most humbling and grace-filled traditions in the church. I remember taking communion as a child and trying to hurriedly confess all my sins so I would be worthy to receive the small cracker and shot glass of grape juice. Truthfully, I never felt worthy and rightfully so. For me then, communion did little more than make me feel guilty and, of course, prolong church and delay Sunday lunch. Only in the last several years have I been able to appreciate the experience and only in the last few years have I been opened to the beauty of the sacrament. I now understand it to be a beautiful act of faith for precisely the same reason I once dreaded the occasion. Communion is beautiful because it's a commemoration of a gift that I indeed do not deserve. The gift is the sacrificial death of Christ. It is a gift, free and blind to the perceived worth of the recipient. Here is the body and blood of Christ given for anyone who will receive it, without regard for position, class, education, race, sex, profession, background, or any other category that serves to divide, segregate, oppress, or denounce people. When we come to the table we come as equals. This is the body of Christ, broken for the rich man and the homeless man. This is the blood of Christ, shed for the prostitute and the pastor. This is the body and blood of Christ, given for YOU and everytime you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ.

It's been amazing to witness the many different ways the church in Belfast proclaims the death and resurrection of Christ. As I just mentioned, we do it in the sacrament of communion but there is another way the church can testify to resurrection that in some ways is unique to Northern Ireland. The church here testifies to the resurrection through the work of reconciliation. Having now been here only three months I've still been able to catch a glimpse at the work the church is doing to reunite divided communities and to mend broken relationships. In a sense, reconciliation is resurrection. To reconcile pride must be crucified and from that crucifixion comes the rebirth of a relationship or community. I believe the substitutionary atonement of the cross and the physical resurrection of Christ but the scene of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus also serves as an object lesson in reconciliation. We must sacrifice our pride and hate and bury them to be able to witness the glory resurrection of a once dead society. Believe me, it is glorious.

I have had the privilege to meet some very strong and wise women through my work with WAVE Trauma Centre and one of the ladies, Tillie, lost her husband in an indiscriminate attack by the IRA on a Protestant pub. A few masked gunmen came in and shot into the crowd of patrons simply because of the demographic of the patronage (protestant, loyalist). She shared with me that she had struggled with hate and it would be hard to blame her. She said that in the early days after the shooting she just wanted to die. She eventually began to forgive the men who had killed her innocent husband and now she prays for them. This woman comes before the God of the universe on behalf of men who murdered her husband out of pure hatred for his perceived religions and politics. Hate brought death but forgiveness has resurrected her. We can actively participate in the resurrection when we yield to forgiveness and reconciliation. We don't just proclaim it, though that is glorious in itself, we actually take part. Afterall, Jesus didn't just resurrect, he was and is resurrection himself(John 11:25). Through his triumph over death we now have the privilege to resurrect daily.

This is the body of Christ, broken for the murderer and the victim alike. This is the blood of Christ, shed for Tillie and terrorists alike. Whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ.

Belfast, So Far

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have now been in Belfast for almost 3 months. It's hard to believe because time has flown since I've arrived. Since I've been rather delinquent in updating this blog I'll begin by giving you an idea of what exactly it is I'm doing here in "Norn Iron."

To start with, I've been placed with the congregation of Fortwilliam and Macrory Presbyterian Church. FMPC is a vibrant worshipping community and the last Presbyterian church left on the Antrim Road between City Centre and Glengormley(a northern suburb). I've really enjoyed working with this congregation so far. Our pastor, Lesley Carroll, has a heart for reconciliation and I've already learned a lot from working with her. Through FMPC, I've been given some amazing opportunities to see God at work. I lead a bible study on Monday nights that has been enlightening. Though I'm in charge of the study I think I've probably learned more from the people attending than they have from me. The people who attend always add a unique perspective to the lesson. We've been wading through the Parables of Christ and, though I don't use this work lightly or often, it's been a blessing to get a different set of eyes through which to see the message of the Gospel displayed in these parables.

Also through FMPC, I assist our Youth Worker, Chris Pollock, in the Saturday night Youth Club in Tiger's Bay (a neighborhood in North Belfast near the church). Youth Club has been a challenge, to say the least. The kids don't often come from the best of situations and there is a tendency to act out but it's obvious that they're just thirsty for love and attention and Chris and the rest of the leadership team are eager to satiate. I'm reminded of Henri Nouwen's reflections after visiting various AIDs ministries in San Francisco. Nouwen writes: "They want love so bad it's literally killing them." The same can be said for many of the kids ministered to by the Youth Club. Much like the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well, they're thirsty for something that only God can give. That something is grace and love and it's been humbling to spend time with them and share in that thirst.

My Sundays at FMPC are spent with a Bible Class in the mornings, where I try to break the days scripture lessons down for a group of high schoolers, and The Point Youth Fellowship in the evenings. The Point has been a wonderful time of fellowship. The guys have been very welcoming and I feel like I've known them for longer than the almost 3 months I've been here. We spend our time reflecting on our weeks and the week to come and have even had some fun outings. We saw Neil Hannon back in September and took a trip to see the new Harry Potter film this last week. The Point is a core group at FMPC and all the guys who attend do a lot of other things in the church as well.

Mondays are set aside for our YAV meetings where we(all the other YAVs) meet with Doug Baker and get on the same page for the weeks to come as well as reflect on the week passed. It's been a really great and energizing time of worship and sharing with each other. The rest of my Mondays are put aside for planning.

Tuesday is my day off and that's when I get to wander around Belfast. Wednesday is back to work. I start my Wednesdays at Newington Day Centre which is just across the peace line from Tiger's Bay (home of the FMPC Youth Club) in the New Lodge. I mostly just pour tea for older folks but I've been fortunate to meet many amazing people there and I always get free lunch (who says there's no such thing). After Newington I head to WAVE Trauma Centre. I definitely suggest clicking that link and checking them out. I'm fortunate enough to spend Wednesday afternoons and all day Thursday with these amazing people. On Wednesdays I work with a Men's group and on Thursdays I facilitate a Women's group. I plan a meal and afternoon activity for them. In the past we've done things like drum circles, origami lessons, and genealogy lessons.

Thursday evenings are spent with the 41st Boys Brigade of the Belfast Battalion. If you're not familiar with the Boy's Brigade, think military meets boy scouts meets Christian youth club. The 41st is really doing great things with some of the kids in Tiger's Bay.

Fridays I spend preparing the slideshow for Sunday morning worship as well as various other things like printing the church magazine. We also have a staff meeting followed by a prayer group. Friday night it's time for the Football Club in Tiger's Bay. We play indoor soccer (though I'm not allowed to call it that, it's football here) with some of the kids from Youth Club. We're currently preparing for a forthcoming match against another Youth Club.

That's basically my weekly schedule. I do other things like Bowls Club on Tuesday evening and Badminton Club on Wednesday evening but just go to those clubs because I like them.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks also for being interested in what I'm doing here in Northern Ireland. I'm only able to be here because of the support of the PC(USA) and local congregations who support the YAV program. If you have the time, check out some of the blogs on the right hand side of this page. There are YAVs all over the US and the world and they all have amazing stories to tell.