Each Week

Today is our last day in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It's really an interesting neighborhood we're staying in, and a really, really involved church that is hosting us.  We're in one of the poorest parts of Belfast. It seems safe to us - but there is a long history of tension and violence between the Irish/Catholics and the British/Protestants in this city. Broken families are characteristic of the neighborhood, and we have seen many young children unattended on the streets at night. Quite a few children try to sneak into the church building whenever possible for a warm and safe place to stay. It's heartbreaking for us, but it seems like the norm, here.

I've never seen so much activity going on through one church in one neighborhood as in the church that is hosting us. Willowfield Church has a sister community association which helps them gain the funding they use for their social ministries. As we have been out in the community this past week as representatives of Willowfield, everyone seems to be familiar with the church and most have a positive view of it. The church's goal is that most ministries are done outside the walls of the church to reach the people who don't come in. Here's a taste of the ministries we've seen that are helping to build connections in the community:

• Bus stop ministry. Mike and I handed out coffee and hot cocoa and chatted with people at a bus stop one morning. This ministry is done twice a week.
• Flier distribution. Our team distributed fliers to every home in the parish (there's about 7,000 homes) that announces an upcoming Christmas Fair at the church. The church does flier distributions several times a year, at least, to keep the community informed of what's going on at the church and to invite people in.
• Home visits. In addition to distributing fliers, members of the church try to visit every home in the community at least once a year to check to see how people are doing, if they need anything, etc.
• Food store. The church has a food store or food bank to respond to people's practical needs.
• Prayer ministry. Volunteers go out to the streets and offer to pray for people.
• Senior lunch. Seniors are invited into the church for a luncheon and short message.
• Men's lunch. Men's lunch!
• Homework club. Children can come to the church for help with their homework, a craft, and a snack two days a week. This provides the children with some much needed one-on-one attention from adults that they may not get at home.
• Kid's club. A worship, teaching, and fun night for elementary aged children at Willowfield Hall. One of the young girls I met at homework club, maybe 8 years old, brought her little sister, who was probably 3 or 4 to this club on her own :/
• Active youth. A fun night for middle and high school aged students hosted at Willowfield Hall.
• Toddler ministry. A playgroup for toddlers and social opportunity for their moms. Parenting classes are also offered.

In just under one week, our team was able to help out with all of these ministries except the Food Store. I believe this is just a small glimpse of the ways in which this church is reaching out into its community.

We could really use additional prayer at this point in our outreach. We are exhausted from traveling, and we still have three weeks of intense traveling to go before we return to the U.S.

Each week we are packing up and moving out to a new location. Since our DTS began we have been moving, moving, moving, and we're not done yet!

View Where We've Been in a larger map

1. Chilibre, Panama - 2 weeks
2. San Jose, Costa Rica - 1 week
3. Talamanca, Costa Rica - 1 week
4. Bastimentos, Panama - 6 weeks
5. Chilibre, Panama - 2 weeks
6. West Sussex, England - 1 week
7. Bergen, Norway - 1 week
8. Bochum, Germany - 1 week
9. Glasgow, Scotland - 1 night
10. Belfast, Northern Ireland - 1 week
11. Barcelona, Spain - 1 week
12. France - ~1 week
13. West Sussex, England - 1 night
14. Chilibre, Panama - 1 week
15. Back to the U.S. !!!