So Anxious for Belfast!

It has been quite some time since my last post, and a lot has happened since!  Last week, Doug Baker sent us all of the information for our visa applications.  Karl and I are in the process of filling out the application and getting all of the supplementary documents compiled to send with the application.  Hopefully we will have them in the mail within the next week and our passports will be returned to us with a visa stamp in due time to leave for Belfast.

As many of you know, Karl and I are having an adventurous summer...living out of our car as we travel from town to town visiting friends and family before we depart for the next year.  This lifestyle leaves a lot of flexibility in our schedule, so we have been fortunate enough to have been picked to represent the 2011-2012 YAVs at a wonderful PC(USA) conference called Big Tent.  We are currently in Indianapolis at the J.W. Marriott, joining with approximately 1,700 fellow Presbyterians from all around the world!  This has been such a wonderful experience for us:  we have had the opportunity to attend many workshops, network with fellow missionaries from all over the place, talk with other young adults who are attending seminary, meet up with our site supervisor Doug Baker, and one of the greatest surprises of the conference - I have been able to meet the pastor for the church I will be working with in Belfast!  

The first activity that Karl and I attended when we arrived at Big Tent was the opening worship service. We walked into the humongous ballroom housing the service, a little late, and were looking around for a place we might be able to squeeze into for a seat.  Much to our surprise, Doug Baker caught my attention and made room for the two of us in his row.  He quickly introduced us to a colleague of his from Belfast, Liz, and we went on with the worship service.  Straight from worship, we went to the opening dinner for the conference and got to chatting with some individuals from the Young Adult Volunteer office in Louisville, KY.  One of the individuals informed me that the pastor from my church in Belfast, Whitehouse Presbyterian, was at the conference.  She told me that her name was Liz...I quickly put it together that it was the lady I met during worship...what a coincidence!  Since then, I have had the opportunity to meet with Liz and talk for a short while.  She is a wonderful woman:  warm spirited, welcoming, genuine, friendly, and excited to be serving God's people in her ministry.  I am so anxious to be able to work with her on a daily basis and join in the efforts she has started to reconcile the violence and turmoil in Belfast.