Starting a New Year

Almost an entire month has passed since I last blogged!  Sorry folks.  I could say that I have been too busy, but the reality is that I just didn't think I had anything worth writing a post on.  That is until we had Tyler come visit us this past week.  I was talking with him about the importance of keeping this blog and how I like to try and balance my writing between basic updates about what I am doing on a day to day basis and deeper reflections on my experiences.  He helped me to realize that as important it is for my followers to read about my spiritual journey and my contemplations of this year of service, it is just as important for me to write about the ordinary things that I am involved in day in and day out.

With that said, here is an update on what has been going on during that past month:

Karl and I travelled to Dublin for 4 days around New Year's Eve.  It was so nice to be able to get away and spend some quality time in each others' presence.  Our schedules here are quite hectic, and we rarely get a chance to spend a whole day together without having to worry about where one of has to go in a couple of hours or what one of us has to get completed before the day's end.  We spent our time in Dublin walking the city and visiting various art galleries, museums, photography exhibits and libraries - if there was a free attraction, we were there!



Dublin Castle Grounds

St. Stephen's Green in Dublin

After our trip to Dublin, we had a few quiet days in Belfast to rest and get refreshed for going back to work at our placements.  On my first day back to Whitehouse after the new year, Liz and I met to talk about how things are going and what areas of my work, those that interest and challenge me the most, I might want to put more time and focus on.  With the start of the new year, I am going to be taking on more responsibility with the youth group, am acting as a leader in the Alpha Course, and am going to get to work in a primary school once a week in order to expand on the community aspect of my volunteer work.  The Alpha Course is a very popular course in the UK which is aimed at helping people, both believers and non-believers, to explore Christianity and learn the basics of the Christian faith through questioning.  You can read more about it here: http://uk-england.alpha.org/alpha/about-alpha.  As far as my involvement in the school, I have only had a preliminary meeting with a teacher at Whitehouse Primary School, but will start working in the classroom next week (stay tuned for more to come).

Some other undertakings of the past month worth mentioning are the start of leading a Boys' Brigade cooking badge, the visit of our friend Tyler, starting to train for my first marathon, and last, but not least, baking a new type of scones (you know how much I love to bake).  I'll start off by telling about the new type of scones I baked; I know you can't wait to read about that:  blueberry, white chocolate. Enough said. 

Each week in Boys' Brigade, the boys split into groups for badge work.  We started new badge classes in the new year, and I am working with another leader, Julian, doing a cooking badge class.  Last week we made French toast with the boys, and we are going to do pizza tonight.  We haven't set the menu for the rest of the weeks, but I am looking forward to teaching the boys some new recipes. 

Londonderry

Last Wednesday, Tyler arrived for a visit and stayed with us for just over a week. It was so nice to have a visitor and to share with him our new home, our work, and the new community that we are a part of. Over his visit, we had a blast showing him around Belfast, travelling to Londonderry for a day, introducing him to all things Northern Irish (food, slang, clothing...), and giving him a taste of our YAV community.



Peace Bridge in Londonderry

Lastly, with the start of this week, I have begun a training program for running my first marathon on May 7.  Karl is probably going to be running the marathon too, but as you are familiar with our personalities (me being more Type A and Karl being more Type B) he has not started training yet, while I have a 16 week program typed out in Excel.

So there you have it, that is what has been happening over the past month in Belfast.  Happy New Year, and as I can't say it enough, thank you so much for reading my blog and supporting Karl and I through this year.