Back to School

I woke up early this morning, showered and got dressed, ate some breakfast and set off down the street to catch the bus to school.  Today was my first day to work in the P4 classroom at Whitehouse Primary School.  I have anxiously been waiting for an opportunity to volunteer in a school in Belfast in order to experience another aspect of the culture and to help further community outreach of Whitehouse Presbyterian church.

Schools in Northern Ireland are quite different than public schools in the United States.  The majority of schools in Belfast fall into one of three categories:  controlled (mostly Protestant), maintained (Catholic) or integrated.  Controlled schools were originally church schools and are now managed by the school's board of governors.  They are meant to be open to all faiths, including those of no faith, but are mostly attended by Protestants.  Today, Protestant churches maintain a link with schools through church representation on the school's board of governors.  Maintained schools are managed by the Catholic church and, according to my faithful friend Wikipedia, educate approximately half of the children in Northern Ireland.  Integrated schools are open to those of all faiths, but are not significantly attended because of the low proportion of integrated schools to segregated in the Northern Ireland school system.  It is rather disappointing that there are not more integrated schools in Northern Ireland.   A large majority of families live in segregated neighborhoods, send their children to segregated schools, and therefore kids grow up interacting with only Catholics or only Protestants until they finish Secondary school.  It's not that kids are learning to discriminate against Catholics or Protestants at their respective schools, they are not given the opportunity to interact with one another.  Out of this lack of interaction, there becomes a fear of the unknown.  Therefore, I think that integrated schools can play a pertinent role in reconciliation efforts.

Another bit of useful information about the schooling system in Northern Ireland is the school years.  Children start attending Primary school at age 4-5 and are in Primary 1 (P1).   Primary school goes from P1 to P7 (age 10-11) from which kids move on to Secondary school.  During their P7 year, students take transfer exams, and the results determine which Secondary or grammar school they will attend.  For the first three years in Secondary school (Year 8-10), students study a wide range of subjects which include geography, English, mathematics, science, physical education, music and modern languages.  During Year 11 and 12 students select which subjects to continue to study for General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations.  Based on their GCSE scores, students may choose to be finished with required school or to continue with two years of Advanced Level subjects (called Lower and Upper Sixth). 

Whitehouse Primary School after the fire

Whitehouse Primary School is a controlled school represented by the Church of Ireland.  Like Whitehouse Presbyterian, it was the victim of a fire but has been able to bounce back tremendously and stronger as a result.  The school was burned down in July 2009, and was rebuilt and reopened in September 2011 with a new slogan, "Whitehouse Primary School - Learning to Live."  The new facility is spectacular, designed very efficently for use of space and energy (using natural lighting and automated thermostats and lights).  The walls are creatively covered with displays of student work, and there is such a fun buzz in the building - you would never guess that it has only been in use for five months.

The new Whitehouse Primary School

I was welcomed into Mrs. McClurgh and Ms. Burn's P4 classroom at 9:00 this morning with a class full of smiling faces.   Immediately, two girls in the class volunteered to give me a tour of the school.  Next, I assisted kids on the computer in making covers for 'Target Books.'  I didn't get a full explanation of what the Target Books were, but to my understanding the books are to help the kids keep track of their reading targets.  Each student was asked to put two or three pictures of things they were interested in on their cover.   I enjoyed getting to help them with this because it gave me a chance to start learning the students' names and interests.  At half ten (10:30) the kids went out to the playground for a break (not called recess here).  During the kids' playground break, the teachers go to the staff lounge for tea, coffee, scones and pancakes.  I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and a fruit scone.  After break, we returned to the classroom, and I assisted some of the kids in making a poster for their reading.  The class is reading "The Twits" by Roald Dahl and are making character posters.  I worked with three of the students to draw bubble letters reading "Mr. Twit" to put on the top of his poster.  We then thought of words to write around Mr. Twit describing his personality and looks.  They used words like hairy, disgusting, horrid, stinky, etc.  This activity brought me to the end of my time at the school this morning.  I left the school at noon, very happy to have had the opportunity to interact with the kids and teachers.  I can't wait to go back and expand on the relationships and classroom interactions I started today.

Come, work with us and weave us into one

In Belfast, this is The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Most churches acknowledg this by holding ecumenical worship services and/or giving a message related to Christian unity. 

On Tuesday, Zoe and I attended an ecumenical service at St. Anne's Cathedral.  The service was very traditional:  Bishops, Reverends and Fathers dressed in their finest robes, the St. Stephen's boys choir opening the service with a processional hymn, and numerous litanies between the message and hymns. 

However, one item in the service really touched me that night.  We sang a hymn, which I was unfamiliar with and did not know the tune of.  Most hymnals here do not have the music printed, so I was struggling to sing along.  Instead of trying to pick up on the tune and sing quietly so no one around me would hear my mistakes, I took the time to just listen and focus on the words of the song:

Spirit of love, you move within creation
Drawing the threads to colour and design:
Life into life, you knit our true salvation,
Come, work with us,
And weave us into one.

Though we have frayed the fabric of your making,
Tearing away from all that you intend,
Yet, to be whole, humanity is aching,
Come, work with us,
And weave us into one.

Great loom of God, where history is woven,
You are the frame that holds us to the truth,
Christ is the theme, the pattern you have given,
Come, work with us,
And weave us into one.

The words resonated within me as we finished the hymn.  The focus of this year is building relationships and breaking down barriers that divide people.  This hymn helped me to remember that it is the spirit of God that will help us to be one, and that He will work with us and weave us into one.

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.

Christmas in Belfast

It is December 27, and Christmas has officially passed.  As I reflect on the past few days, I can't help but smile.  We had such a great Christmas here in Northern Ireland due to the many ways that God has blessed us and the magnificent people who have helped us to feel like part of a family away from home. 

We started out our Christmas celebration on the 23rd as we went to the YAV house in East Belfast. Because all of the volunteers had different invitations for Christmas dinners, we decided to have YAV Christmas Eve and Christmas a day early.  It is tradition for many of the volunteers to have chili on Christmas Eve, so we started our celebration with a wonderful dinner of chili and oyster stew (made by Karl since it is one of his family traditions).  The chili and stew were accompanied by a wonderful spread of other delicious treats.  After dinner, we hung out and talked, played games, and listened to music until Ellison surprised us with a touching Christmas devotion.  He put so much effort into it - it was perfect! Earlier that week, he went around gathering greenery and finding candles to make his own advent wreath. He then set up his room with candles, greenery and the wreath for our devotional space. Karl played some music, and we did some readings and a reflection....it was all very touching and set the scene for the days to come. We then spent the night in East Belfast and woke up on Christmas Eve to exchange our secret Santa gifts with one another.  Santa even came and visited in the night (I don't know how he knew we were celebrating one day early....I have a feeling Ellison had something to do with it)!

Christina and I enjoying some deliciousness!

Patrick in his Christmas jumper

We were quite exhausted after our YAV Christmas party, so Karl and I went home for a little mid-afternoon nap to rest up for the Whitehouse midnight Christmas Eve service.  The Christmas Eve service at Whitehouse is traditionally put on by the youth, so I was very excited for the service we had been working on for so long.  We wrote a drama for the message of the service which was a twist on the nativity story.  If you have ever seen Shark Tank, or Dragons' Den in the UK, you would have loved it!  The drama was about the angel Gabriel presenting the idea of baby Jesus coming to Earth to the panel of judges.  It turned out really good, and the kids did a great job performing it.  Since Karl's church didn't have a Christmas Eve service, he was able to help out by playing the music for the service.  He and Rev. Liz's daughter ended the service by playing Silent Night in candlelight...it was absolutely perfect!



SWAT drama rehearsal

On Christmas morning, Karl and I got up and went to both of our churches' services. It was really nice to get to worship with both congregations and to see all of the people we have grown so close to on Christmas morning.  After the service at Whitehouse, Rev. Liz invited us over to their house to have Christmas dinner with her family.  When we arrived at their house, her husband told us that Santa had accidentally delivered things for us there.  He then handed us two beautiful stockings filled with items they traditionally put in their family's stockings!  We were so touched that they thought to include us in that way.  We had a wonderful time with the Hughes, and the food was delicious!

Yesterday was Boxing Day, which is pretty much a continuation of Christmas here. Most families spend it together, enjoying one another's company and the presents they received the day before.  We were invited into the homes of two families for Boxing Day, which we were very grateful for.  It gave us a chance to see a little more of what Christmas is like here, and most importantly helped us to feel like we have a home here.  I can't express enough how great the people are in our church communities and how much love they have shown us - it is unbelievable!  The first family we went to see is a family of four, however their extended family was there too, so the company was great.  We had such a fun time playing with the young boys and their Christmas gifts.  Both of the boys received electric guitars and one of them received a drum set.  Karl had a great time giving lessons on the instruments.  After that we went over to another church member's house for a delicious steak dinner and great craic (aka fun).  We watched stand up comedy, played guitar hero and met the family pets - a cat, a dog, 6 snakes, 2 bearded dragons, a chameleon, and a gecko!  All in all, we had a wonderful Boxing Day.

Christmas away from home was very different and difficult to be away from our family, but we would not trade the experience for anything.  It was so neat to experience Christmas as part of a new community (YAV & Belfast) here.  This Christmas, I experienced the love and message of Christ in a completely different way.  Christ came into this Earth to teach us about the unconditional and everlasting love of our creator and how we are to live amongst one another in peace.  I definitely experienced that love and peace in all of the moments of this Christmas holiday this year.

A Feeling of "Home"

With Christmas quickly approaching, I have been anticipating feelings of homesickness.  Some homesickness has been setting in, but I have been blessed in so many different ways to help those feelings stay at bay.  In just this past week, I have really felt a sense of home and belonging here in Belfast.

On Monday Doug, Elaine and most of the other volunteers came over for a wonderful morning.  We spent a few hours in the kitchen cooking stew, boil cakes and peppermint mints.  We then set up the Christmas tree in our living room and enjoyed lunch around it with Christmas tunes playing in the background.  It feels so good to have the tree up; it adds a warm feeling to our home and gives us a great place to put some of the gracious gifts sent to us from family at home!  On Monday night, I went to Girls' Brigade where we made Christmas centerpieces....another great decoration for our living room.

Christmas Tree

Centerpiece I made at GB

I started my day off on Tuesday by walking and delivering some potted plants and Christmas cards to members of the church.  It was great getting to meet with elderly members of the church in their homes and get to know them a little better.  After delivering plants, I met with our church's deaconess and had a nice lunch.  We spent about an hour and a half in conversation, just unwinding a bit amongst the busyness of the Christmas season in the church.  In the evening, I went to dinner at the home of a family of Karl's church and then went to the cinema with them.  This family is absolutely wonderful.  There are four girls, all around my age, and they are so much fun!  Spending time with them feels a bit like being with my family (as I am one of four girls in the family). 

Thursday was a very busy, but incredibly fun day.  The luncheon club that I help out with each week went out for a Christmas lunch.  Immediately following the Christmas lunch, I went to the church to help cater tea, tray bakes and sandwiches for a wedding.  The wedding was at four in the afternoon, so by the time I helped finishing with the catering and clean up, it was time for Boys' Brigade.  We had our Christmas outing with the boys and went to Ballymena to go karting.  Karting is quite a serious matter here...we changed into full driving jumpsuits complete with driving gloves and a helmet.  I had such a great time with the boys though.  When getting ready to go out on the last race, the boy in the kart in front of me turned back and gave me a big thumbs-up.  It was in that moment that I was overcome with a feeling of belonging. 

I guess what I am trying to get across in this post is how thankful I am for the blessings of a family and a feeling of home away from home.  The network of people that Karl and I have entered into is amazing!  Between the other YAV's and our friends at our churches and the 174 trust, we are amongst family.  It just goes to show that God is watching out for us, and He is sharing his love with us through the relationships and friendships that we have made.

Individuals United through Christ

Last Thursday, I had some free time in the afternoon, and I decided to go for a walk.  The sun was shining, I was bundled up with a hat and scarf, and I had my iPod rocking some great Christmas music...what a perfect way to spend the afternoon.  As I often do when taking a walk or going for a run, I found myself deep in thought, processing the past week's events and my interactions with people here.  I was thinking a lot about a conversation I had with Karl earlier that week about how we are all connected in this world.  My actions, words and even my thoughts have a direct effect on the people around me and in my life...and this is true for everyone in this world.  We as human beings have the power to affect the mood and personality of those we interact with, therefore giving us a lot of responsibility to try our best to always be making positive influences.

Just the night before I was taking this walk, Karl and I attended a performance at the Lyric Theatre called Action Potential in which some of the kids Karl works with at Disability Club at the 174 Trust were part of.  One of the sketches in the production focused on what it means to be an individual.  The kids portrayed adolescents conforming to different types of groups of people....nerds, athletes, preps, cheerleaders, etc.  They then went on to a succession of individual interpretations through dance.  It was a very interesting sketch, and made me think about being an individual and being comfortable with who God has made me to be.

So as I was taking this walk, I was thinking about the interconnectivity of the people of this world but also the individualism sought by so many.  How does this all play out in a Christian life?

It's funny how God speaks to us, because I am reading 'Love Wins' by Rob Bell, and I came across this:  "That's an extraordinarily complex, interconnected, and diverse reality, a reality in which individual identities aren't lost or repressed, but embraced and celebrated.  An expansive unity that goes beyond and yet fully embraces staggering levels of diversity." 

We are all individually created by our Lord.  We are of different skin color, language, dialect and accents, music and food, customs, habits, patterns, clothing, tradition and ways of celebrating.  But, we are to embrace and celebrate one anothers' differences.  That is what Christ came to this world to do - unite us in his love.  We are all individuals in this world united through Christ.

Tis the Season

It is the first day of December, which means that I have now been in Belfast for 3 months!  It seems like we were arriving in Belfast just weeks ago.  But then again, as I compare my first few weeks here (not knowing many people, not knowing my way around the city, not understanding what the slang the youth were using meant, or even not understanding the speech because of different accents) with my daily life now, I realize just how much I have learned and experienced.  Every day that I go into work and interact with the people of Whitehouse and the community surrounding it, I am reminded of how blessed I am to be here and how blessed I am to serve alongside the people of Belfast.

Being the first day of December also means that we are in the season of Advent.  I did a children's address in church last weekend for the first day of Advent.  During the address, I spoke about the meaning of the word advent - coming.  During the season of Advent, we are to be preparing our mind, body and soul for the coming of Jesus.  I showed the kids various types of Advent calendars and countdowns to remind us of the coming of Christmas and of the gift of Christ.  As many teaching moments go, I found myself learning more about the message I was speaking than the kids to whom I was addressing. 

I am one who normally gets wrapped up (no pun intended) in the craziness of the Christmas season.  I love, and I mean LOVE, listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies.  As soon as Thanksgiving passes, the Christmas tunes are turned on, and if it weren't for Karl asking for a moment's rest from them, they would stay on continuously until Christmas day.  I have been known to spend hours baking sweets and wrapping them in fun boxes to give away to friends.  And, I have to say, I enjoy going out in the rush of Christmas sales, moving from shop to shop, indulging in the consumerism of Christmas.

Lately though, the true meaning of Advent and Christmas has been on my mind.  I keep coming across video clips, articles and blogs about how far we have come from celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ to this Earth on Christmas day (The War Against Christmas, Jesus has Lost:  http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/ & Advent Conspiracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IN0W3gjnNE&feature=share).  This year, I do not want to spend the days leading up to December 25 frantically shopping and crossing items off of to-do lists.  I want to spend my time in the presence of loved ones and in the presence of Christ.  This does not mean that I will be changing my name to Scrooge and saying Ba-Humbug to all things Christmas.  I will still listen to my favorite Christmas carols, watch Christmas movies with friends, bake yummy treats and even buy some small tokens of appreciation and love for family members back home.  But, I will be doing all of these things with the Holy Spirit moving through me and with the loving memory of Christ's birth in mind. 

On a side note, all of the YAV's celebrated Thanksgiving last Saturday.  We had a wonderful day - went to the park to play (American) football and then went to Doug and Elaine's for a delicious meal!  Here are some photos from playing football:

Pyramid Time!

Team Skegs (We live on Skegoneill Ave./Dr.)

Team Bathgate (They live on Bathgate Dr.)