Finally, another update!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I finally have time to fill you in on the past month of my life, however how i'm going to condense four weeks of life into one blog post remains to be seen. It's crazy and scary to think I have been here for almost two months! Time is flying...

 Friday, Nov 26th, 2010. It was suppose to be "Girl's Night In" and "Guy's Night Out". Well the guy's night out turned out to be a good night, it was a rather unusual bunch of boys. However they had a blast at the giants game, which I was incredible glad to hear. The girl's however, well to put it simply none of them showed up. Myself, along with Nadine, and one of the other volunteers, ended up just eating the pizza which we had ordered and decided to just stick around until the boys got back. It was a good bonding time none the less with these girls. Praise God for that. It's amusing watching Leap Year with two Northern Irish girls, I’ll just put it that way. To be honest I knew it was going to be a small group if the girls did show, but I was rather disappointed when none of them showed at all. You just have to keep trying though; I know it's going to take time with them, a lot of time. Pray that God will give both Nadz and I patience, and just a genuineness about us, that we can build these relationships with the girls. 

Midnight Soccer came to an end on Nov 27th, 2010. We had fairly good weather seven out of  the eight nights the boys played. However the last night the boys were playing on a snow covered pitch and it was FREEZING. They did well though, even with the snow. One of our teams made it to the finals in Dundalk, and the most exciting and thrilling thing especially for Jonny was seeing the boys take home "The 2010 Fairplay Trophy."  Which proudly sit's on our tuck shop shelf in the centre. I must admit I miss the midnight street soccer nights, it gave me a really good opportunity to start building relationships with these boys, and to see the acceptance come a bit quicker was really encouraging. Not to mention the KFC and McDonald's meals afterwards. Mmm popcorn chicken...

Nadz started at work on Nov 29th, 2010. She is the new full time staff member. The two have become three. Poor Jonny, outnumbered by the females. I'm really glad Nadz is on board, it will be good for the girls to know there is a permanent girl there. Really pray that in the time that Nadz and I have to work together that we would start to get a good girl's group going. Were making plans for the new year and hoping to start up one on Monday nights. Pray that God will give us wisdom, fresh ideas,  and discernment on what would be the best way to go about starting one up.

On Sunday December 5th, both Nadz and I were invited to speak at one of our supporting churches. We tried to give the congregation a bit of an idea of what we do, along with  a short speal about ourselves and our hopes for the coming year. I must admit public speaking is not my favourite thing, but I’m sure by the end of this year, that will definitely be an area I’ll have grown in.

During the first week that Nadz started the three of us took a day to divide up and organize the different areas we would all be working on, and the different areas we would all be taking leads on, and what stuff we would do as a team. I'll give you a bit of an idea of what I’ll be doing and in charge of starting mostly in January.

- At the centre; drop-in nights and organizing Tuesday night drop in programs. We’re also looking to switch our Monday night drop in to a Friday night, and have juniors on one of the nights and the other night do seniors.  Than our girls group will hopefully be starting in January on a Monday night.

-Schools; I will be partnering with Nadz, doing assemblies with the primary schools. Generally about a 10 minute program once a month with about 7 different schools. Then I'm to be taking the lead on Scripture Union program in the same schools, but this is usually every other week and about a 45 minute program. Generally about a 10 minute bible lesson, songs, a quiz, and a memory verse. We’re going to be a doing a trial run in one of the schools putting together a four week program on” ‘Jesus' Miracles" and than telling the kids to invite friends for the last week. This will Lord willing be taking place in February so if you could be praying about that, as it's a fair bit of work, and like I mentioned before teaching and public speaking are not my best talents :S. Along with SU, and Assemblies, Nadz will taking the lead on Religious education lessons with in the schools, and then all three of us will be working with the P7 transition program from the primary schools into the secondary schools.  Almost everything that Nadz and I are doing in the primary schools, Jonny will be doing in the Secondary schools. Prayer all around for the three of us is most welcome :)

-Community-were hoping to start up an arts and crafts program within one of the lower class group of estates with girls, on one afternoon a week. During the same time that this will be happening, Jonny will be doing a football group with the boys from the same estates. Any suggestions on cheap, cost efficient craft ideas for ages 4-11? We will be providing all the materials so the more cost efficient the better. All three of us will also be involved with doing fundraising within the community. Than Nadz and I are hoping to start up a "Mom's and Tot's" group for teenage moms as well.

-Local and supporting churches. I'm working on developing a program for YF to take to a few of the different churches, getting Jonny, Nadz and myself to come in maybe once a month and take their YF program to help the surrounding churches. Along with that were also hoping to develop a young leaders program, in which the young adults that are doing YF's in the local churches can do a small internship with us for a year to grow their experience in working in and among their peers. Pray that God will give us ideas, and wisdom with this, as the local churches are really struggling in their YF's. Really pray for the local churches and the leaders that they have in place as it's not an easy thing to develop a program that can change over time and benefit the seniors as well as the juniors.  

-summer time. Nadz will be taking the lead on getting stuff organized and prepped for summer camp, and I will be organizing and prepping stuff for Project 32 this year. (Side note, although there are different areas in which all of us are taking leads on, the majority of it will be very much all three of us doing, it's more so just to have someone to go to if looking for information on something) I also get to organize different trips for the drop in kids, so pretty much anywhere I want to go in Ireland, I can be like "Hey, we should do a trip there." Works for me :)

This is just a small idea of what we will be doing starting in January, there is so many different areas that each one of us is involved in, I didn't even get around to mentioning all the different office work  jobs :)

This past Tuesday was our last drop-in for about 3 weeks, as come next Tuesday it's two weeks of holidays for Jonny, Nadine, and me.  We decided to have a Christmas party, and it was a really fun night, it's amazing the different kids that you get over announcing that were having a Christmas party. We did Chalenja for most of the night. Pretty much we had five teams and they had to complete different challenges like ( how many times can you lick your teammates sock, how many marshmallows can you stick to your face with jam, can you drink a whole cup of water without closing your mouth? ) I'm sure you get the picture. One of the boys managed to smear my whole arm in jam, and Nadz face. Hey, at least you know were accepted :)

The Tuesday before last was "Drop-in Christmas Movie Night." It was actually one of the best nights. I had some really good conversations with some of the kids about Christmas and life. It was just really amazing to see questions that got sparked over watching Elf. It been encouraging to see the youth feel more comfortable in approaching and being able to ask questions or just coming up to one of us and talking and seeing how relaxed they feel in doing that. I can see that progress is being made, I might not see it all the time, and there are challenges to be sure, but it's very much taking one day at a time, and continuing to pray and thank God for the opportunities we do get.

This past week was the YFCNI staff Christmas party. It was a murder mystery night, and loads of fun. I was an undercover CIA agent working as a news reporter for the New York Times. However as the night wore one and most of my goals were completed I was shot once, than healed. Then shot a second time, and died all because I was getting to close to the truth. It was blast none the less! A good chance to better get to know the rest of the YFCNI team.

Pray for this coming Monday, as we will be taking the Christmas Celebration Service at the Secondary School, it's about an hour long program, that we have been working on for the past couple weeks. We will be speaking in front of about 300 to 400 students, teachers, and parents. Pray that God would use his Holy Spirit to prepare hearts. Were really blessed with this oppertunity, GBYFC has done it 4 out of the past 5 years, so we know that they enjoy having us in to do it. It's a tremendous oppertunity which we are incredible excited and thankful for!

Well I hope that this isn't too long of a read, and I apologize once again for the delay in the update. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement. I'm excited to see what God has in store for the coming year, and all the different programs and groups were hoping to get started. I'm really blessed with this opportunity, and pray that God would continue to keep me humble and ever willing to do His work, no matter the cost!

1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

New blog soon to come!

Hey everyone, sorry that I havn't updated this in a few weeks. It's been a bit hectic, to say the least. I'm hoping that I will have time to sit down and write in the next few days. Stay tuned for more news from snowy Northern Ireland coming soon!

Highs and Lows.

If i’m honest I’m struggling to sort through the mixed emotions that I have experienced throughout this past week. It’s been a great week in some aspects and a really eye opening and heartbreaking week in others.  There were moments where I had to just take a step back because the culture and the apathy hit me and I was struggling to comprehend it. Other moments where I was so encouraged and excited because, I could see God at work in this town. That being said let me take you through my week.

Midnight street soccer last Saturday night was great. There were 8 boys this time. Even though it’s freezing cold standing out on the soccer field for three hours at night, it’s fast become one of the things I look forward to all week.  Sad to say that tonight will be our second last night for this year.  It’s given me an opportunity to build relationships with these boys that would have taken a lot longer if I had just hung out with them at the centre two nights a week.  The fact that they are now teasing me and I have the freedom to be sarcastic back is great.  When I ask them simple questions and get a honest reply as opposed to a shrug of the shoulders.  It’s small steps, and I know it will still take time, but it encourages me to see that progress is being made

Sunday, was a good, how be it a very busy day. I had church in the morning, than I went home to my host family in the afternoon. They are a lovely couple with two teenage boys.  Everybody has been really welcoming at the church, which i’m really thankful for. I spent the afternoon there and than i came back home for a couple hours than headed back to the church for youth fellowship.  It was a little bit awkward at first and I felt really out of place, but towards the end of the night I began to feel more comfortable. I’m still unsure as all of what happens at YF as last week was not the norm. So we will see how tomorrow night goes.

Monday morning arrived along with it, came breakfast club. I’ll be perfectly honest breakfast club is not my favourite thing. It’s 45 minutes that can feel like hours.  The girls can be incredible challenging and difficult. It’s there that the culture and apathy of these kids has really hit me. Where girls that are younger than my little sister, are talking about going and getting drunk, and talking about sex as if they were talking about what they were going to wear tomorrow.  It’s been a hard week in that aspect. After breakfast club we had to rush off as we were doing an assembly in Ballynure primary school.  Than right after that we headed off again as Jonny and I were attending a mini kind of conference on “Courageous leadership.” It was really good and really challenging. A lot of the stuff you already new, but it was good to be reminded and to think of it in a different way.  Than we headed back to the centre and tried to get some prep done for drop in that night and the following night.  Drop in that night was good, we had a bit bigger crowd than the past couple week even some of the girls came. It was great a night. My pool skills are improving although rather slowly.

Tuesday the day started around noon, which was nice. A bit of a frantic day in the office as we had an SU at 3 in Doagh primary school than several things that we still had to get done for drop in that night.  SU  was actually really fun only about 10 boys and girls, a bit hyper, but than what do you expect when school has just been let out for the day? After that, Jonny and I headed back to the office. I spent the next couple hours working on a power point project, for Hot Seat at drop in that night. Meanwhile,  Jonny headed out to coach football for a couple hours. We finished getting ready for drop in and not a moment too soon as volunteers and than the kids started showing up. The bracelets that we made over the summer was started up again on Monday night, so a couple of the kids wanted to make some more in the first bit of that night. I’m still amazed at how such a simple thing is still so popular amongst the boys and the girls. Plus it gives me an opportunity to sit and chat with them for a good 30 minutes while they are busying making the bracelet :)  Hot seat was good,  I think we will change it up a bit the next time, because by the time we go to the more serious question we had already lost most of the kids. You take what you can get, and hopefully learn and try to do it differently the next time. Thank you all for your prayers though!

Wednesday morning was met with breakfast club once again. By this point in the week I was already drained and tired, so it was easy for me to get discouraged that morning.  However, it’s amazing how a day can start so discouraging and by the afternoon it’s turned in to the most encouraging.  In between after school drop in and breakfast club , Jonny and I made a quick trip to Belfast to pick up supplies for next weeks Tuesday night drop in which is Art’s and Crafts night.  I spent the remaining hours before drop in that afternoon making crafts. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Drop in was amazing. In so many ways. It was a fairly decent crowd again. A few boys that I hadn’t seen since the summer came back in and it was good to see them! One of the boys who is about 13 came behind the tuck shop and we were just chatting away about football and computer games when out of the blue he asks “Mandy, when did you become a Christian?”  I began to tell and give a brief explanation on to how it happened, than he proceeds to say “ I became one three weeks ago!” His face was just so full of joy and excitement and I began to ask him a few questions wanting to make sure he really understood. It was so encouraging. His older brother had become a believer earlier on that summer, and both of them attend drop in quite regularly. It quite simply made my day.  It’s been neat to see that the seeds that had been planted four and five years although it’s taken time these kids are so much more open to the Gospel and really searching.  Pray that Holy Spirit will continue to work in their lives.

Thursday, Jonny and I from what I can remember were busy in the office for the majority of the day. We had our Youth Justice guy in for a bit cleaning the centre. He’s going to be a new volunteer taking care of the tuck shop on Monday and Tuesday nights to help get rid of some of his hours. Pray that after his hours are done he will still want to continue to come, and see the difference in Jonny, myself and the other volunteers.

Friday was a fairly relaxed day, Nadine (the new staff member) came down in the morning to help Jonny and I, do a thorough clean of the centre as she was having a coffee morning there today as a fundraiser. That evening Jonny and Laura, had Elaine, Neil and I over for “tea”. Us Canadians would call it supper. We spent the evening just chatting about life and God and played a couple hands of monopoly deal. It was a fun night.

So there you have it. Please feel free to ask questions. I will try to get back to you when I have a few spare moments. Thanks again for all your prayers! Until next week...

Ding ding ding...rrrrroooound two!

Another week over...

I find it a little weird to think that I have now been living in Ballyclare for two weeks.  I knew before coming that this was going to be a very challenging year  for me, I now know  without out a shadow of doubt that indeed it will be. Not to say that it won’t be good, but it will be very stretching, and as we all know while stretching isn’t always enjoyable if our hearts are in the right place, it does produce growth.

Saturday night, was midnight street soccer, and it was such fun. Five of our boys showed up at the centre, amidst the bantering back and forth we all managed to finally pile into the mini bus and off to Belfast we went.  In total there were 4 teams that showed up including ours at the mini pitch.  Granted our boys didn’t play all that well, thus Jonny told them that on the second last game of rotating teams that if they didn’t get a goal there would be no McDonalds run afterwards. There’s an incentive for a bunch of hungry guys. I wish you could have heard a couple of them trying to bribe the other team to let them have a goal. Jonny, Michael (a volunteer) and I just all looked at each other and shook our heads chuckling. Than Jonny said to the other team if they kept up their winning streak we would take them to McDonalds. The look of outrage from our boys was great. After words we went WALKING through the drive through of McDonalds for happy meals all around as they did indeed score a goal. The stories of D (one of our boys) on the way back, followed by lots of laughter, topped off a great night despite the standing in the cold while it rained off and on for three hours.

Sunday morning found me picked up by Jonny and Laura as we headed to the Church of Ireland which is to be my hosting church while i’m in Ballyclare.  The pastor is great, but pray that I will settle in quickly, as attending new churches isn’t my favourite thing. I will also be helping out at the church on Sundays nights with the youth fellowship program they have, I do believe tomorrow night might be my first night doing that. Pray that will also go well.

Monday morning Jonny picked me up and off to breakfast club we went. 7:40 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning J Basically there’s a group of volunteers alongside Jonny and I that serve toast ( a lot of toast) to the kids, while in turn giving Jonny and I a chance to talk to kids, that wouldn’t normally come to drop in. One of the things that I struggle with the most and after working with these kids for only two weeks becomes more and more apparent. They are burned by other Christians. It makes me sad, and if i’m honest a wee bit angry. Christ didn’t look down on the unsaved He loved them right where they were at. He was blunt in what He said, He acknowledged sin as sin, but He didn’t say to them, well once you leave the man your sleeping with I will help you, or once you stop swearing and smoking I will love you. Too often I believe we as followers of Christ look down on the unsaved and think they are so below us. We suggest that what they’re doing is so much worse that the white lie we told last week, or the dirty movie we watched when no one was looking. Without the Holy Spirit working and convicting them how do we expect them do anything different?  As a result most of the kids I’m working with now have a deep bitterness towards Christians which could take years for them to realize that what they have experienced is not Christ.  This is one of the things that saddens me the most.

 Tuesday, Jonny, Laura and I headed off to Belfast again for the YFCNI staff meeting which happens once a month. They had a guy speak on discipleship which was challenging and really good to think about how we do it, and what we can do to improve it. It was a good reminder for me, as to why I moved half way across the world to work with these youth. The desire for me as well as the other staff members is that more than anything we want to see these kids come to believe in Christ.  After that Jonny and I headed to play resource to pick up supplies for Tuesday night drop in. Which by far was the best night yet.

 It was Team Challenge Night. Jonny and I had been working on the preparations for it for a while and we were glad that the night was such a success. Well worth all the effort we put in to make it happen. There were four zones, physical, mystery, mental, and skill. At half 8 we had everybody assemble together and form four teams. We than explained what each different zone was. Physical- as many press-ups as your team could accomplish in five minutes, how many members of your team could bounce three tennis balls into a bucket in five minutes, and what’s the longest rally your team could get in table tennis in 5 minutes as well. Mystery, one member of each team had to be blind folded and identify three objects in each of the two bins that were covered with Styrofoam using only your hands. Next name the celebrates baby picture and finally who’s in the bag. Where one member had to describe as many people as he can while his team tries to guess who he is describing. Next comes the mental zone, how many words can you find in ‘Youth for Christ’, memorize 25 pictures that are flicked on a screen in 3 minutes and then say what they were. Finally using the alphabet, name an animal for each letter. Last but certainly not least was the Skill Zone which I was in charge of. Across the room was a web of yarn with clothes pegs attached, in relay fashion each team had to move us many clothes pegs from where the web of string was, to the other side of the room where a single line of string was set up in 7 minutes. The trick being they were only allowed to use their mouth, and if they touched the string they lost points.  The last challenge was for them to build the highest tower using only spaghetti and blue tack. All in all it was a great night. One of the volunteers even said if we would have tried this 3 years ago this would never have gone over. However, Tuesday night they all got into it and it was great fun, and a chance for everybody to interact with each other and build those relationships.  At the end of it we while we tallied up points, in preparation for the coming Tuesday night we passed out paper and asked them to write down questions for Chris ( a volunteer and a member of the board) who would be in the hot seat. A lot of amusing questions were put down, none of which Chris knows about. This caused the kids to question why we do the hot seat, and its basically so they get the chance to knows us better. At the end of the questions directed toward Chris on next Tuesday we will throw in a question  like “why do you volunteer?” giving Chris an opportunity to share about Jesus. Thus if you could please be praying for this next Tuesday night that would be great J

Wednesday morning was breakfast club once again, and then back to the office for a bunch of paperwork. We also started up after school drop-in again on Wednesday afternoon. The first one was rather quite for for the first ¾ of an hour, than slowly they started to trickle in. Generally we get a lot of younger ones that don’t normally come to evening drop-in.

Thursday, we were in the office all day. We were suppose to have a guy from youth justice in to clean, but it didn’t end up happening. Next week hopefully! It however was a busy day none the less. But as Friday was just around the corner it went by fast. We decided to take Friday off as we had already put in overtime in just 4 days. I was rather okay with this plan!

Tonight I’m just gearing up for Midnight street soccer and hoping that it will be a dry night. Sorry that this one is a rather long update, I can only imagine what it would be if I had to pick the highlights from just one month! Let alone one week!

Prayer Requests

Hot seat Tuesday night with Chris M.

Opportunities for me to speak to the girls not only at drop-in but especially the ones that come to breakfast clubs.

Girl’s Night In on November 26^th. We girls get the centre for an entire evening as the boys are headed to a Giants game. I’m in charge of organizing and getting all the prep ready for this one. Pray that for the girls that do come, it will provide the opportunity for some good one on one chats.

For the older boys and girls that have been coming to the centre for a few years, they are really searching, and a lot more open to the Gospel than they have ever been.  Pray that God will give us the words to speak into their lives and steer them towards Christ.

First Week

My first week in Northern Ireland to be perfectly honest has flown by. It’s been busy, but good. I arrived at the Dublin airport at 10:05am, Sunday October 31^st. Stephen (who is one of the board members) and his wife came to pick me up. We than drove the two hours back to their house, right outside of Ballyclare.  All the fall colours were and still are out and mixed with the green of the grass it definitely made for a lovely drive back. We arrived at their house, and just spent the afternoon and evening relaxing, catch up here and there. Elaine who is my new roommate than came over for a bit, and we had dessert, than by this point I was dead exhausted and we headed back to her place which is to be my new home for the next year. I literally just unpacked and crawled into bed. Spending 29 hours awake and the majority of it traveling for some odd reason tends to make a person tired.

The next day Jonny picked me up at around 10 and we headed back to the centre. I must admit, it’s good to be back in Ballyclare. We spent part of the day in the office going over paperwork and what the year would look like for me. We went down to the bank and tired to get an account set up for me. We have an appointment this next Monday, The 8^th of November. Hopefully it won’t take more than a week to get set up. After that we went for a wee drive, and he pointed out some of the landmarks, and a lot of schools that we will be working in during the course of the next year.  We headed back to the centre, and were soon interrupted by a couple of the boys who were wanting to hangout for a bit in the afternoon. (What other job, can you take a break from office work, and play fifi world cup on the x-box and pool while still calling it work.) It was good craic. Later on Jonny dropped me back off at home for a couple hours than came to pick me up for Monday night drop in. A bunch of the regular boys came, but it was a rather small group as the kids were just getting of half term break. It was a fun evening none the less. That would be one 14 hour day done.

Tuesday Jonny picked me up again around noon and we spent the afternoon planning and organizing different activities for drop in all the way up until Christmas break. It’s going to be a fun next couple of weeks. I spent a good 2 hours designing posters on the computer, so the kids would know what was going to be happening. A quick tea break (supper) and Tuesday night drop in begins. A couple of the girls came and I was so happy to see them. It was a good crowd that night with lots of banter. Didn’t get a huge chance to talk one on one with any of them. However, it will take a while for that relationship to be built up.

Wednesday morning Jonny picked me up after Breakfast club, and we headed back to his place to pick up Laura his wife. We than made a quick stop in Belfast to pick up Miriam a co-worker of Laura’s at the drop in centre in Ballysillian and than off to the YFCNI staff retreat we went. The retreat was in Newcastle right by the Irish sea and the Mourne mountains. It was gorgeous, just sayin. We spent from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon there. It was good to get to know some of the other staff members in the other drop in centres around Northern Ireland. We had several sessions a day where we looked at and discussed the Prayer of Jabez, 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. It was good, challenging and had some good stuff to wrestle over. There was lots of good banter. Not to mention LOTS of good food. Following staff retreat we had to hurry back to Ballyclare as Jonny and I had a Scripture Union session to teach in a primary school back in Ballyclare. For a lot of the schools where we will be doing SU’s your treated much like a celebrate almost by the kids. The fact that they love having us there doesn’t even begin to describe their enthusiasm. The rest of the evening for me was just spent at home vegging after a long but good week. Tonight (Saturday) Jonny and I will be taking a group of our boys to Belfast where they participate in midnight street football. This happens every Saturday night up until Christmas break. Thus the rest of today will just be spent getting stuff done around the house.

Here’s roughly what a normal week will look like for me.  Breakfast club on Monday and Wednesday morning from around 8am to 9am.  Drop in at the centre from around half 7 to 10pm on Monday and Tuesday nights. Afterschool drop in on Wednesday afternoons for about 2 hours. We have Scripture Unions at several different primary schools every few weeks.  After Christmas we will be getting hopefully more involved in some of the high schools helping the p7’s transition into high school. Honestly my week will vary from week to week, this is just a rough idea of what it looks like for the next wee while. It’s hard to describe just everything that I will be doing, I can tell you one thing though, I’m sure to be very busy.

Prayer Requests

That God would give me wisdom in building relationships with the youth, especially with the girls.

That when our new staff member joins Jonny and I at the end of November, we will all get along and gel together as a team.

 That God would open up more opportunities for us to get involved in some of the high schools.

That we would most importantly always remember why were doing what we’re doing and that we would seize opportunities to speak God’s love into these young people’s lives.

Praises

God’s provide in the way of volunteers for drop in and breakfast clubs! We’re not short this year which is amazing!