So the gauntlet was thrown down...

Given that we had begun a theme of music videos for the weekend we decided to challenge the young people in their teams to make their own on the weekend. So they were each given a popular song and about 45minutes to film! Some of the leaders and young people then edited the videos for the next day! Three of the videos are shown below. Can i just state that my team won with an excellent rendition of 'Spice up your life' by the Spice Girls! Enjoy!

Winter Retreat 2009...

I've just recovered from our annual Winter Retreat at the weekend - spent the whole of yesterday in bed with a thumping headache - could this be a symptom that i can no longer stick the pace of staying up to 4am (a rhetorical question so please don't feel the need to answer it below!)?!?! We had a fantastic weekend at Castlewellan Castle. My hope for the weekend was that everyone would leave with the knowledge that God had spoken to them personally. As such, 2 of the 3 sessions were centred on reflection & experiential learning to allow the young people space to listen to God. This seemed to be received very well by the them and the addition of small groups allowed the young people to discuss their experiences of what God was saying to them.

On top of all that we had the best banter ever with music videos forming the theme for the year. The leaders produced 3 music videos in advance of the weekend which you can enjoy below!

Kenya Info Evening...so how did it go...

So last Thursday night we had our long-awaited Kenya Info Evening. The prep for this was hard work as i wasn't sure how much the guys were going to do live on the night and we weren't certain if people would actually turn up! Both fears were unqualified as 4 of the guys agreed to be interviewed live on the night and we had an overwhelming attendance of almost 150 people! My hope for the evening was that people would get a flavour of what the experience involved through hearing stories told by the team. We worked hard to make the evening as relaxed as possible by creating a chat show type feel with interviews taking place on the couch and video footage interwoven throughout. The informality of the evening was topped off with a supper of 'pizza & puddings' which seemed to be well received. All in all, feedback from the night has been very positive so it looks like all the hard work paid off!

I found it quite an emotional evening at times as happy memories were recalled and the thought of this being the final chapter of the Kenya Team experience. I take comfort in the knowledge that the shared experience of the trip can never be taken away from any of us and will continue to form part of our regular conversations with each other. And of course there will be many reunions!

If you couldn't make it along on the night then here are the videos to give you a flavour of the experience!

First Impressions of Kenya...



The Building Project...



The Highlights...

Kenya Info Evening...

Here is a wee video i made with a few highlights of the Kenya Team in July. I am using it as an opportunity to promote an evening where people can come and hear more stories and experiences on Thursday 23rd October @ 8pm in Waringstown Presbyterian Craig Hall.

gLo Waringstown...

gLo Waringstown happened last week with great success. It is hard to explain how fantastic the week was in words on a blog and so i hope the attached video gives you a taste of the highlights. Some of the figures might help you to understand the scale of the programme that could not have went unnoticed in our small village:

45 gLo'ers involved in the programme;
20 'mini' gLo'ers helped during the week;
30 young people involved in the Football tournament;
30 girls involved in dance workshops;
30+ children came to 'play time' in Murraywood;
30+ children came to 'play time' in Churchill Place;
32 individuals had odd jobs completed at their homes, and;
200+ people attended our Family Fun Night at the church!

Many prayers were answered during the week and we have many things to be thankful for:

Dry weather!
People were helped and they greatly appreciated it;
People with no church background have benefited;
The profile of the local churches has been raised positively;
The local churches have been brouht together at youth level' and;
The young people involved have been challenged about mission in their own community.

Without a doubt we have birthed a movement in Waringstown that cannot be expressed in 5 days each summer. The challenge for us as leaders is what is the next step for this group of young people who have caught something about what it means to serve people in their own community.



So i have survived to the end of probably the busiest summer of my life! At times i really wasn't sure if i was going to make it or not! Summer Madness, Kenya, Romania and now gLo have all been amazing experiences where i have seen God work in my life and the lives of others in an amazing way! It makes me happy to say that i am taking the next week off work to rest, although at this moment in time, a week really doesn't seem long enough to re-charge the batteries!

Romania...

I got back from Romania on Friday night. No access to the internet for the fortnight so unfortunately i couldn't blog but let me fill you in on the highlights! During the first week we were working with a rural church in a small village called Selag Seg. We were being hosted by the Pastor of the church (Andras) and his wife Ella. Our team of 19 people was split into two groups and one group ran and kids club for Hungarian children in the morning and the other group did the same for Romanian children in the afternoon. We had approximately 50 children across the 2 groups and they had a fantastic time each day. The programme included an illustrated Bible story, games, singing and craft and the children loved it all. When we weren't involved in the children's work we were helping practically at a alcohol rehabilitation centre they were building. This involved painting or cement carrying. Alcoholism is a huge problem in Romania and has destroyed many families. Andras and Ella have a dream that this centre will offer hope to those seeking to beat their addiction. Sadly the government will provide no support for the centre and so they build when they receive donations which explains why the building has been under construction for 10 years now. God has shown me something about patience, perseverance and faith through this encounter. He has reminded me that He works on an entirely different time scale than I do and that slow isn't always a bad thing because it allows more people to come on board and be a part of a project and catch the vision.

We were completely blessed in Selag Seg with the hospitality of Andras & Ella who embraced us as family as we invaded their home for a week. The area was very rural and at times it felt like we had stepped back in time by 50 years as all the agricultural work in the fields was done by hand with horses and carts being common place.

For the second week we moved to a youth camp near to the Ukraine border. The camp was set in a beautiful location in forested hills and was hosting 250 young Christians aged 12-18 for a week of spiritual growth. Our role within the camp was to help washing dishes after mealtimes and to input into their evening church programme with singing and testimonies. During the week half of our team was also involved in running a kids programme in a small village in the morning and a gypsy community in the afternoon. This week started with difficulties as there were miscommunications around our role in the camp which left us feeling under utilised at times. Thankfully the situation improved and our time there finished very positively with our team making many new friends amongst the campers! It was an amazing privilege to listen to the young Christians of Romania worship Jesus with such passion and volume from the depths of their hearts. It truely was another 'thin place' where the gap between heaven and earth seemed very small.

Probably the biggest highlight of this experience was the impact it had on us as a team. When you share life with another 18 people for 2 weeks you undoubtedly get to know each other better - more than you ever could in a whole year of normal ministry. I have no doubts that each team member, including myself, has been changed through this experience for the better. We have grown in our faith as our view of God has been expanded and people's confidence has grown through leading devotions and children's work. People have also realised that they have an important story of their own to tell of God's grace and redemptive power in their lives. Thanks for all of your prayers and support for this team!

Post Tuum blues...pre Romania excitement!

This week has been hard because i have felt pretty tired. I usually wake up feeling ok but by lunchtime I'm wrecked again! To make matters worse i had booked my minibus driving test for yesterday! I spent the whole morning from 8am having lessons with an instructor (which were vital!) and then completed the test at 12.30pm. I passed which was a huge relief but felt totally drained afterwards! Today is the first day that i have felt energetic all day! Just as well as i am off to Romania for in the morning on a team of 19 young people from the church. We will be away for 2 weeks doing a mixture of children's and youth camps and some practical work. Please pray for us all and especially Richard & Kate as they lead the team. They have done an excellent job in leading and organising things so far so pray that they will have wisdom to make the right decisions whilst away and strength to keep going when they are feeling weary. The team is made up of a fantastic group of young people who have a range of unique gifts and abilities. They are a group who would not all naturally gel with each other and yet it has been great to see new friendships develop as the group has spent time together. I'm excited to see how they all get on in Romania!

My heart still yearns for Tuum. Each morning when i wake there is a part of me that wishes i was there! Don't get me wrong, i love home and don't think i would want to live anywhere else right now but i could easily have spent some more time in Tuum. I like that i didn't need to wear a watch there. I like that the people there were so accepting and welcoming and they smile a lot more than people in N.Ireland! I miss spending time with Stephen and Angelina and hearing their wealth of stories and wisdom gleaned from 20+ years of serving God in Tuum. I missed church 'Tuum-style' on Sunday as the worshipers there sang like they really knew Jesus. I miss being there and seeing our team of young guys start to come alive as they joined in Kingdom building work.

Stephen has a fantastic strap-line he used several times to describe the ministry in Tuum:

'less church, more Jesus.'

I saw reality of that in practice in Tuum. It was messy at times but it was working and it was beautiful.

I will try to update this whilst in Romania. Thanks for your prayers.

Some photos...

More photos can be viewed at the following link:
Tuum Builders 2008 photos

Tuum Builders Part 5...the finale!

Just arrived home, a day later than planned - it's a long story but if you read on you will find out! Let me pick up where i left off. Day 12 started a little later than expected due to essential maintenance required on one of the Land Rovers which did not arrive back until midnight the previous evening. As such, Stephen was up from 4.30am working on it and his team of garage workers all weighed in at 6am to get it ready for our departure. When we finally left at 9.15am, many of our new friends from the town had come to bid us farewell which was very nice for us all. The planned 10 hour journey started well and we made very good time until the universal joint broke in one of the vehicles. By the grace of God we had a spare and so started the 2 hour process of fixing the vehicle at the side of the road under torchlight. Nothing ever seems to phase Stephen - he just gets on with it! We got on the road again and when we were only a few miles away from the safari lodge the clutch of the same vehicle gave up after giving trouble all day. We ended up having to tow it to the lodge and arrived at 12.30am - 15 hours of travelling! The staff were expecting our late arrival and couldn't have been more helpful with our bags. We didn't expect a meal at that time but they had woken up the chef to prepare a meal for us that was gratefully received. The rooms were fantastic and i don't think it took anyone too long to fall asleep with exhaustion.

Our morning safari on day 13 was postponed as we needed to get the vehicle fixed first. Stephen, Mundia (the other driver), Colin and Watsy set about stripping the clutch and gearbox down to its component parts in the car park of the lodge! The problem amounted to a broken washer and Mundia was sent off to source a replacement from a nearby town. Let's not forget this is Africa and so it was a 2 hour drive each way! In the meantime the rest of us chilled out around the swimming pool enjoying some well earned rest. The spare part did not arrive until 6pm which meant we did not get any safari on day 13. The plan was to get the vehicle fixed that evening and go on an early morning safari drive before departing for Nairobi. Stephen, Mundia and Colin worked tirelessly putting the gearbox back together and did not finish until 1am!

On day 14 everyone was up for safari at 6am! The early morning cool of the day is the best time to see animals and we were not disappointed! We seen many giraffes and elephants and at one point a lion walked directly towards us on the road. We were on the roof of the vehicle at the time and it was only about 40 feet away so we had a great (if a little unsafe) view! Another highlight was seeing five cheetahs walk right past our vehicle. They were only 15-20ft away and were amazing! We also saw 2 gazelles locking antlers and having a bit of a battle at the side of the road! Seeing animals in their natural habitat, roaming wild, is an experience that i will never forget. I think it was definitely a highlight for everyone! Following breakfast at the lodge, we hit the road for our final 8 hour journey to Nairobi. Both jeeps suffered no further problems and we made good time. We made a short stop at the equator for lunch and got the opportunity to pick up a few souvenirs and gifts for friends and families - the bartering was good craic! We arrived in Nairobi and had a quick change before heading to the Carnivore restaurant for our final meal together. This place is a major tourist attraction in the city as you get to sample all sorts of exotic meats cooked on a spit! You pay a set price and the waiters will keep bringing all types of meat to your table until you give up eating! As well as chicken, beef pork and lamb we sampled ostrich meatballs and crocodile! A funny highlight was when we set Colin up by informing one of the waiters it was his birthday (which it wasn't). About 8 of the staff appeared with a cake decorated with a sparkler and sang and danced around the table - it was hilarious!

Day 15 was an early start as the bus departed for the airport at 5.30am with everyone looking forward to getting home to see family and friends. A delay in our flight by 90mins meant that we would probably miss our connection in Amsterdam and so we were unsure what would be the outcome. 30mins before touchdown in Amsterdam we were informed that passengers with an onward connection to Dublin should make their way as quickly as possible to gate E2 where their flight would be waiting. This was great news for us all and we ran through the airport as quickly as we could. When we arrived at the gate, the plane was still there but the gate had closed and we were informed that we were too late to get onboard. Devastated and exhausted we made our way to the desk to find that the best we could be offered was a flight the following lunchtime. So, at the expense of the airline we faced the reality of a night in a hotel in Amsterdam with 7 teenage lads! I'm sure you can imagine the obvious concerns and stresses we were feeling at this prospect but the good news was that the hotel was not in the city centre but close to the airport. The reality was that there was very little dissapointment in the group when we informed them we wouldn't be leaving the hotel! Tiredness played a major factor and everyone was tucked up in their rooms by 10.30pm!

Today started slowly with a later breakfast than we have been used to. We made our way back to the airport around 11am and the flight home to Dublin was only delayed a little. With spirits high as we arrived in familiar territory we once again faced the reality of lost luggage - not one of our bags appeared! They never made it onto the flight in Amsterdam and so we can only assume they are still there somewhere! Hopefully they will turn up in Dublin tomorrow and get delivered. It isn't as big a concern as it was on the outward journey but many of us have gifts in our bags that we wouldn't want to lose so please pray for their safe return.

So there you have it. The Kenya team that has monopolised my working life now for the past 6 months is over. I'm sitting in the comfort of my own home as i write this and i know that in the days and weeks ahead i have much to reflect upon and ponder of this life changing experience. It has been amazing for every single person on the team as well as relationships within the team - socially, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It has been the biggest leadership challenge of my life with highs and lows, celebrations and mistakes. Would i do it again? Absolutely!

Tuum Builders part 4...

Day 10 got off to a leisurely start with a late breakfast at 9am. It is difficult to sleep in here though because the roosters start cock-a-doodle-dooing from 6am. This chorus is added to by the local dogs and donkeys to diffuse the need for any alarm clock! The far guesthouse awoke to a crisis with the whole kitchen flooded as they had left their water tap to their tank turned on the previous evening when there had been no water. Sometime in the early morning the water began to flow again and when it filled the tank it started to fill the kitchen floor! Ah well, at least it got them out of their beds in good time for church! We made it to the church around 10.20am. There were already over 100 people there as the singers were practicing songs. I could sense the Spirit of God in the room as people sang words of praise to Jesus - i knew we were in for a treat! The service began at 10.30 with a time of worship and then we were formally welcomed to the service. I had to get up and introduce the team and took the opportunity to say a few words of thanks to the community for making us feel so welcome. More worship followed and then Stephen preached from Psalm 91 about the safety of God in the shadow of his wings - very relevant for a community feeling much insecurity in recent times. Yet more singing and dancing followed, some of which was led by the choir of the local girls secondary school where we had been building. The only instrument present was a drum and voices and yet the volume was amazing! The songs were very simple and repetitive songs that were sung by even the youngest worshippers there. I didn't understand one word of the songs and yet i came away 2 1/2 hours later, sure that i had worshipped the King of Kings. What a privilege it was to be there.

In the afternoon we had been challenged to a football match by the local team! We had 7 willing players that was made up to 11 by 4 locals. We made our way down to the local stadium (!) that was nothing more than a clearing of dirt with football posts at either end. It was far from level with pot holes and bumps abounding! Thankfully the sun was not shining and with a 60 minute match ahead we did not have a great deal of confidence! We got off to a great start with Stoddart making a break and scoring the first goal for the Tuum Builders after 3 minutes! There must have been at least a couple of hundred locals from the village down to watch the Big Match Live which i think gave us the motivation to go on and win 2-1! We were all in need of a lung transplant by the end of the game but delighted none the less! We had lined up a traditional Kenyan 'goat roast' for the evening which meant that 3 goats were on borrowed time. Some of our team were very keen to be involved in the killing process - needless to say i was not up for it! Indeed i wasn't too sure if, when it came to the crunch, any of the boys could go through with it - but i was wrong! Watsy, Gareth and Jamie did not chicken out on what was a very nauseous act to witness. It made me very grateful for Tescos just around the corner at home! The fire for the roast was started in the traditional way with too sticks and before long the meat was cooking on a metal grill placed over an open fire. My conclusion on roast goat is that it is very tasty when cooked well. The first taste i had was a little on the rare side for me! A fantastic experience for everyone though and a community occasion that was attended by over one hundred of the locals!

Some great conversations with the guys have developed following the evening spent hearing the stories of Stephen and Angelina. The guys have been challenged about eternity and faith but seem to struggle with accepting that God's grace is sufficient to cover all the mistakes we make - past, present and future. Please keep on praying.

Today was day 11 and Stephen and Angelina had arranged a guide to take us up the nearby Mt Nero. Tuum lies 4500ft above sea level and the summit of Nero is 9000ft. Not all of the team felt able for the challenge but there were 6 of us who made it to the top! It was a bleary eyed 7am start in the cool of the day on a climb that we were told would take us 2 hours to the top! 4 hours later (!) we finally reached the top on what was the most challenging climb of any of our lives! We were all exhausted but the views over the valley were spectacular! We eat a pack lunch and then took a walk along the ridge of the mountain for another hour before starting the hairy descent via another path. This was extremely steep with loose footing and so it took us another 3 hours to reach Tuum again - an 8 hour expedition in all. Surely that must be at least a Silver Duke of Edinburgh! I am currently in a lot of pain but it was definitely worth it and despite much moaning along the way i believe the guys all felt they had achieved something today!

Tonight is our last night in Tuum. We will depart at 5am to make an 10 hour journey to a National Park where we will take a safari trip on Wednesday. My hope is that i will see elephants and lions - that would make me happy! Pray for us as we travel as the roads can be treacherous!

By the way, i am posting by e-mail at present and so will be unable to publish any comments until i get home on Friday evening!

Tuum Builders part 3...

Day 8 started with a team meeting to try to resolve yesterdays crisis for good.  I wanted the guys to know that our forgiveness was not dependent on someone owning up and taking responsibility.  I shared the parable of the unmerciful servant from Matthew 18 and made the point that because i have been forgiven much by God i will forgive others.  Conflict, whilst never pleasant at the time, is always a great learning experience and was inevitable at some stage on this trip.  Through several discussions to resolve this one issue we have had the opportunity to talk about team-work, loving each other, the value of honesty and trust in relationships and the consequences of actions.  It is unlikely now that anyone will come forward and own up for damaging the chair and so we have fined everyone 500 Kenyan Shillings (£4).  As leaders, we have agreed to also pay the fine to reinforce the value of 'team' - if one hurts then we all hurt.  This penalty has been accepted by everyone and the money will go directly to Stephen and Angelina as a gift!  We have told all the guys that we want that to be the end of the issue and we do not want this to fester and effect the unity of the team.  The rest of the day was spent working hard down at the school.  The building work is progressing very well and we are on schedule to complete our target by tomorrow.  I got to spend most of the afternoon building a gable wall by myself which was very rewarding.  I think because manual work is so different from my norm i am enjoying it all the more!  The temperature has been very warm the last couple of days, at one stage reaching 35oC.  There is a Kenyan builder called Zach who overheard Mapper singing 'I wanna dance with somebody' by Whitney Houston the other day and has now been singing that song regularly ever since!  After dinner we invited Stephen and Angelina to share their story with us of how they have ended up in Tuum and managed to live here now for 23 years.  This was a fascinating time together with many of the guys interested in asking questions and probing them further.  The conversation explored issues of God's will, love, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, death, heaven, spiritual warfare and church.  I have had much time to sit and talk and listen to Stephen and Angelina and have found them to be among the most godly, wise and humble people i have ever met.  I have been abundantly blessed in my own faith through these conversations.

 

Day 9 got off to a slow start as we arose to heavy rainfall - first time it has rained here in over 3 months!  Within an hour it had eased off and so we headed down to the building site to finish off the work.  I finished my wall with the help of some other team members and within 2 hours we had completed our goal of ring-beam level.  This was a great encouragement for all the team and morale was very high!  The local builders were delighted with the rapid progress we made with the brickwork only taking 4 days!  I can't wait to get a few pictures stuck up here when i get home.  Not one of us left the site with our t-shirts as we gave them away to our new friends!  In the afternoon we got to have a short camel ride!  This was hilarious but very uncomfortable!  Evenings are great here as we sit around outside and drink Milo (hot chocolate) and chat - no Coach or Banville or TV or music and the boys are all happy!  I'm looking forward to church Kenyan style tomorrow!  I'm not sure if the boys really know what they are in for but they are intrigued enough to want to be there for at least an hour - sometime it can last up to 3 hours!  Please keep up with the prayers!

Kenya part 2...

Day 5 began with our first trip down to the girls secondary school that we will be building at.  We are working on the building of a new dormitory for students.  Our task whilst here will be to try and get the building up to ring beam level - that means little or nothing to my non-manual labour CV but I'm sure some of you more educated folk with rougher hands will know what i mean!  I'm learning fast though from many of the other guys in the team who work in construction trades.  The brick we are using are produced in a machine so that they inter-lock which removes the need for cement.  This means that even guys like me can build a wall - its just like giant lego!  We are working alongside a team of apprximately 15 Kenyan labourers and 2 Kenyan builders.  Our work rate would appear to be a lot higher than the Kenyan and at times it was frustrating as everything was happening at a very slow pace but as the day progressed things improved.  Again the evening was spent chatting and playing this game called Mafia that has become an instant hit!  Team morale has been great!

 

Day 6 involved more building at the school - a hard days work but excellent progress made.  The team all worked very hard and the Kenyan builders have been very impressed with our work.  More excellent meals courtesy of Angelina who is starting to wonder if she can ever produce too much food for 10 hungry men!  After work, Nathan and i headed up the street to get a Coke from the local shop which was closed.  The owners live just behind the shop and it turned out to be one of the guys on Stephen's leadership team called Maldia.  He invited us into his small plot of land that housed 10 people.  We shared a Coke and were introduced to his 4 children who sang 'Mr Noah built an arc' for us!  Nothing can quite replace the experience of being invited into someones home and saring food or drink with their family.  A cultural experience that you just can't buy in a travel agents!  They welcomed us so warmly and answered many of my questions about their lives here in Tuum.  Yet more Mafia in the evening.

 

Day 7 started with crisis!  The guys had stayed up after we had went to bed.  No major disruptions took place but a seat did get damaged in the process.  Not a major crisis i guess but the fact that no-one would own up and take responsibility for it was incredibly dissapointing and frustrating for us as leaders.  We tried several tactics and created te opportunity for the person to confess confidentially - but this proved fruitless.  This has caused a tension in the team and frustrations have bubbled to the surface all day long,  We are reluctant to just let it slide as we see great opportunity for learning to take place and yet we don't want to sacrifice team realtions either.  Please pray for wisdom for us as leaders and pray for each of the guys - that they will understand why we are taking action.  This has been a difficult day for us all - thank-you for your prayers.

 

More updates will follow again soon... 

This is Africa...

This is my frst oportunty to write a blog update since we departed from Waringstown on Friday morning.  We arrived at Aldergrove in good time and got checked in.  A combination of breakfast, smoke breaks, shopping, and baggage control delays meant that we ended up running to the gate with the words 'could passengers, watson, harrison, simmons and thompson please make their way to gate 27 - this is your final call'!  By the time i got on the plane i think i was about ready for a smoke myself!  The rest of the flights all went very smoothly and we touched down in Nairobi about 7.30pm local time (+2 GMT).  When i say everything went smoothly for us - our bags did not make it through the short transfer in Amsterdam and we had no guarantees of getting them before we were due to depart for Tuum!  This was a bit of a shock for all of us and probably not the best introduuction to Africa but we tried to keep the spirits up of the younger lads and prayed much!  People would keep telling us 'This is Africa'!  We met Stephen Cowan, our host at the airport and he transported us to our guesthouse for the night.  There we arrived to a nice meal and comfortable rooms.  End of Day 1!

 

The next morning i had to make my way back to the airport at 6.30am to see if our bags had arrived on the next flight.  Hopes were raised as i hunted through a pile of bags just sitting in the middle of the arrivals terminal (this is Africa after all!) - i found one, then two and so on until all 1 bags were located - praise God!  The team were delighted and after a bit of lunch and some shopping in Nairobi we departed on our first leg of the journey to Tuum which was due to take 4-5 hours.  Due to wet weather and difficult roads it ended up taking 6 hours.  We arrived at approx 8pm at another guesthouse for the evening.  End of Day 2.

 

Day 3 started early at 5am to complete the last 14 hours of driving to Tuum in 2 Landrovers.  It had been many miles since we last enjoyed the grace of tar-mac and had learned to cope with the dirt-track 'main' roads that head north from Nairobi.  Unfortunately this connection will not allow me to post any pictures so you will have to wait until i get home for those!  For this day of travelling we were accompanied by another 10 young African leadership students from Stephen's team.  Indeed for the final 8 hours of the journey we had 14 people in one Landrover and 11 in the other.  Both were loaded inside and on the roof with luggage and supplies and both were towing trailers filled with diesel and a water tank.  These are items that are unavailable in Tuum or more economically purchased in Nairobi.  It was a very tight squeeze and incredibly uncomfortable at times - a huge challenge for our team as you can imagine.  There were moments were tensions were high and tempers frayed but as they say 'this is Africa!'  On the journey we made a couple of stops to help other vehicles that were stuck in the muddy roads.  At other times we all had to get out and push our own vehicles over slippy terrain - these were all challenges that helped us all to realise just how different this country is.  The views at times were spectacular of valleys and plains and mountains that stretched for as far as you could see.  We seen Zebra, Girraffe, Babboons, a hyena, gazelles and many others at the side of the road - every hill or corner presented another WOW factor of God's creative glory.  All of the team were incredibly stretched and yet blown away on the journey.  It was 11pm and 4 punctures later that we finally drew into Tuum under the greatest display of stars any of us has ever seen!  We were greated incredibly warmly by Angelina who at the mention of food being ready, was instantly loved by us all!  If any of the team had any worries regarding catering on the trip they were quickly put to bed with a beautiful home made curry - and plenty of it!  We were shown to our rooms which were also more than adequate and could be likened to small thatched cottages.  Everyone was exhausted with the days travel and relieved to find rest in a comfortable bed.  It wasn't long before anyone dropped off to sleep to the noise of dogs howling in the distance.  Day 3 completed.

 

Day 4 had a lazy start with everyone sleeping in to around 9am and a leisurely breakfast that was more than adequate - yet more points for Angelina.  It was at this point that we finally got to meet Carragh (aged 10), Jason (8) and Annissa (4) - Stephen and Angelina's children who were delighted to have a few new people to meet and play with.  They took us on a tour of the village accompanied by a local African called Joseph.  We quickly were brought to a small nursery school with about 40 little black faces laughing and waving at us.  They came out and played with us for a little while and were very excited and playful - just hanging off our arms and shoulders and constantly smiling!  The village has a few little shops that are basically tin huts no bigger than 100sq ft.  The people were very warm and welcoming and all shook our hands and greeted us.  The village backdropped by a large mountain which dramatises the already beautiful scenery all around us.  The temerature in the middle of the day would be around 25oC - pleasant enough to get a bit of a sun tan!  We got to work in the afternoon with the task of raising the height of a water tower.  The local African workers were amazed at the speed and efficiency with which we were able to move and throw bricks around.  We were told later that what we completed in 30 minutes would have taken them a week!  It was great for all the team to get stuck in and feel like they were doing something - working together is great for team-work.  After another beautiful meal in the evening we spent some time on the veranda playing a few games of Mafia which was new to most of the guys but they loved it!

 

A large part of our hopes for this experience is the impact this could have on the 7 young men who are part of the team.  Already i have seen a great openess in conversation with them and we have had some great discussions about God and faith.  On the first night in Tuum one of the young guys asked me to pray for those in our room before we went to sleep - this was very encouraging for us and has now become a night-time tradition!  Please keep praying for us all!  I will try to update the blog again in a few days time - don't forget - 'this is Africa'!

Let the adventure begin...

On Friday morning at 4.15am i will be embarking on a journey unlike anything i have ever experienced before. I will be involved (along with 2 other leaders) in leading a team of 7 young men aged 17-19 to Tuum in Kenya. We will fly to Nairobi (via Amsterdam) arriving at 7pm Friday evening. We will spend the following morning in Nairobi before departing for Tuum in 2 Landrovers. Tuum is 1000km north of Nairobi. The roads are very poor and so it will be an 18 hour drive. We will stop over at a guesthouse during this and arrive in Tuum on Sunday morning. Whilst there we will be involved in building the walls of a staff house at a local secondary school.

Please pray for us on this trip:

• Traveling safety both there and back.
• Leaders - wisdom for decision making, patience with the lads & strength when others feeling discouraged.
• Lads - that they would make the most of the trip and learn more about themselves and others through it.
• That everyone on the team would see God differently as we learn to rely on Him more than ever.

I will try to keep updating the blog during the trip but communications are not as reliable in Tuum so i will not know until i get there!

Below is a photo of the team:

Back row from left: Adam, Mark, Gareth, Kyle, Reuben

Front row from left: Jamie, Neil, Colin, Nathan, Matthew

Charity Dinner & Auction...

It's the morning after the auction and despite being exhausted i'm wide awake at 7am! Last night we had our charity dinner and auction for the team of young men from the community heading to Tuum in Kenya this summer. It was a fantastic evening at Edenmore Golf and Country Club attended by 140 people many of whom were family and friends of the team members. During the evening we introduced the team using the video shown below and outlined something of the work we will be doing whilst in Tuum. Following this we had our main auction for which we had many fantastic gifts donated including paintings, designer sunglasses, designer clothing, holiday homes for a short break, Ulster & Ireland Rugby gear, car valet and David Humphreys rugby boots. People were incredibly generous and by the end of the evening we managed to raise almost £6000! I must express a HUGE thank-you to all who contributed to the evening including our auctioneer, those who donated the auction items, and those who decorated the room etc.

We have now reached and exceeded our fundraising target for this team which initially had seemed insurmountable! All of the surplus will go directly to the work of Stephen & Angelina Cowan in Tuum. Thank-you for all of your support! Please keep praying for this team as we prepare for what will be a unique and life-changing experience for all of us!

Updates...

I was away with our Kenya Team for an overnight stay in Portballintrae on Saturday. The purpose was really team bonding and we had such a laugh, helped along by fantastic weather! On Saturday we had a BBQ and then headed to Barry's in Portrush. I went on the ride by the door called 'The Experience' and it reminded me why i don't like rides like that!

We spent the rest of the evening on Whiterocks beach and saw the most beautiful sunset and sat around and chatted. Sunday was a beautiful day and we went back to the beach to find it busy with surfers! A few ice-creams later and we headed home! The guys were very well behaved and we all got along fantastically. I came home even more excited that in 10 weeks time we will all be in Kenya together. I have every confidence now that each member of the team is completely committed to going and will have an amazing experience that will impact their lives forever!














We have our Charity Dinner and Auction approaching in 2 weeks time. Lots to do in a short space of time but it promises to be a fantastic night. We still have to raise in the region of £3,000 so please pray that this evening will go a long way to do that!

Our Exodus Romania team were bag-packing in Tesco in Portadown on Saturday and managed to raise an amazing £817! All of that will go directly to the projects in Romania we will visit in July. It was hard work for the team but very encouraging that people were so kind and generous!

Winter Retreat 2008...

Edited post: Link to all the weekends videos has been added to the end of this post!

I slept until 11.55am on Monday morning - 13.5 hours in total which can only mean one thing - I'm just back from our 20:20 Winter Retreat. I generally find there is a correlation between tiredness and how good the weekend was so my big sleep is an indication of a fantastic weekend!

We had 50 people attending this year's retreat at Castlewellan Castle aged from 15-21 and a few leaders in the 25-30+ bracket! I remember writing a blog last year about the winter retreat and calling it the best ever so the standards where definitely high approaching this year! However, i can easily say that the retreat this year was of an equally high standard - if not even better!

The theme for the sessions this year (voted by the young people) was 'God's Will - Hear the Call'. Session 1 explored 'How does God Speak?' and for this we engaged the young people in a couple of experiential spiritual exercises that they loved. I'm pretty sure that some young people understood how God can speak for the first time. Session 2 looked at 'What are my gifts?'. In advance of this the young people had completed a heart's desire survey and gifts survey from the Prepared to Serve Course. You may be familiar with similar courses such as Network or SHAPE. This session was very practical and discussion based for the young people and very enjoyable. In Session 3 i attempted to tie the 2 together by encouraging young people to consider where they thought they could best use their gifts to serve God. I also reminded them that gifts used without love are useless (1 Cor 13).

The worship throughout the weekend was fantastically led by the young people themselves and really helped everyone to focus and reflect on who God is, what He was saying, and what response He was calling for.

The entire weekend was made so much more enjoyable by the fantastic range of games and activities organised by the rest of the leaders. We had 'The Price is Right' on Friday night, 'The Crystal Maze' on Saturday afternoon and 'Play Your Card's Right' on Saturday night! I had no organisation responsibilities for any of this which was a great help for me. On top of that the video production and drama team put together some of the finest quality amateur videos i have ever seen - hilariously funny! I will put a link up to the videos once they get put online! The video below is just some footage of the Crystal Maze activities that was quickly put together! So that's it over for another year as they say! I just hope that this time next year i can testify to another weekend of God's rich blessing!

Click here to link to all the videos of the weekend!

Car wash & Coffee morning!

As you are already aware, we are taking a team of 10 to Kenya this summer to build a school in the rural village of Tuum. As a team we must raise £7,000 to finance the trip.

One of our fundraisers is happening this Saturday 1st March - a car wash and coffee morning at Waringstown Presbyterian Church.

Myself and the rest of the team would appreciate your support so i hope you can make it along!

5-a day, Padraic & Jake...

This post is a bit of a double story - 2 completely unrelated musings.

Lent starts today, Ash Wednesday, the period of 40 days (not inc Sundays), that leads to resurrection Sunday. Christians are meant to use Lent as time of reflection and preparation for Easter. As Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days, often Christians will give something up for Lent that they will struggle without. Equally some may challenge themselves to do something each day that will be a struggle. I've been trying to achieve 5-a-day (portions of fruit or veg) for about the last 3 weeks and so i plan to sustain this throughout Lent. I know its supposed to be healthy but i have to say it has been playing havoc with my stomach! On top of that i've decided to be coffee free for lent. The greatest difficulty with this one will not be the loss of cafeine but the social aspect - i meet a lot of people for coffee and so it will be odd to drink water or tea! So what are you giving up for Lent if anything???

So I'm doing this training course called PYP (Preparing Youth to be Peacemakers) with PCI. I'm training so that i can facilitate the course with young people in Waringstown. The course explores conflict, specifically within the Northern Ireland context, how this effects us today looking wider than Prod-Catholic, and how we are called to be peacemakers from the life and teachings of Jesus and Scripture.

Yesterday, as part of the course, we got a 2 hour tour up the Falls Road by an Republican ex-prisoner called Padraic, then we met Jake, a loyalist ex-prisoner, who took us on a 90 minute tour of the Shankill Road. What an interesting afternoon! The tour was organised by an organisation called Coiste.

We met Padraic at the Divis flats. Padraic was imprisoned for 15 years in the Maze on 4 separate occasions. The first 3 occasions he informed us that he was accused of murder/attempted murder but there was insufficient evidence for a conviction! He was finally imprisoned and sentenced to 22 years for possession of weapons which came to a head in a shoot out with the RUC in his own home. So having never met a Republican ex-prisoner before i felt a strange tension of discomfort and yet a sense that as we walked up the Falls we were in safe hands! Padraic gave us an unashamedly Republican perspective on Irish history. This was incredibly detailed by someone who obviously had a great passion for the history of our land. He informed me that his interest in history really started in prison as the importance of education was strongly promoted amongst the Republican prisoners. I found the murals interesting along Divis Street very interesting as they highlighted worldwide political issues and oppression such as the Iraq war and the oppression of Palestine.

We met up with Jake at one of the peace barriers that lead onto the Shankill (still closed every evening). This was a friendly handover as the two guides were obviously used to working together. Jake also spent 15 years in prison for attempted murder of 4 Republicans. He said he is thankful now that none of them died but he was caught up in a lot of emotion and hatred at the time. Unfortunately our Loyalist guide came across as much less articulate and educated on the issues at hand and historical facts. Using words like 'them-uns' didn't really help! However, it was evident we were being guided by a typical working-class bloke born and reared in the area through the height of the Troubles. His opening story was his first experience of the conflict and his decision to do his bit as a young boy aged 10, so he went round the area gathering up glass bottles in a pram to aid the petrol bomb industry!

Interestingly, at one point he said that he was happy with the democratic place the country is now in and that he and many of his colleagues would support democratic and fair decisions that come from Stormont. He stated that he and many others in the area are committed to the process and would not lift arms again should a democracy vote for a united Ireland. He acknowledged that he felt this would need to be a slow process of small steps.

All in all it was a really interesting experience to hear two sides of the same story told by men who lived through the conflict and yet view it through very different lenses.

MAD 9...

Just Back from MAD 9! For those of you out of the PCI loop (like me until i started this job!), the MAD weekend is a youth weekend for 11-17's run by the PCI Youth and Children's Dept and this was the 9th year of it. The weekend is held at University of Ulster, Coleraine and the 800 young people that go each year sleep in local church halls. This was my first MAD experience and we decided to take our Fusion age (11-14) to it. 19 of us went including leaders and it was an excellent weekend all round - the young people had a ball! It was great fun for them and on top of that i believe they all experienced God and got to know Him a bit better.

I was so encouraged over the weekend to see our young people really engage with the God stuff. Andy Flannagan was leading the worship and did a fantastic job in getting the young people excited about worshiping God. It was loud and high energy and our guys loved it! Mark Oestricher from Youth Specialties was the speaker and he was excellent. With our guys being very young i wasn't expecting them to enjoy the talks too much but they loved Marko because he was dynamic, funny, had good stories, had a simple message and he never spoke for longer than 20 mins. The theme for the weekend was 'One Life' and all of our young people were challenged in some way about their relationship with God and making the most of their lives.

Our young people really amazed me over the weekend! I think because i had no interest in God until i was 17, i have little expectations of their interest in God or faith until they get a little older. God really challenged me about this over MAD 9 and not just because the young people loved the worship and teaching. On the Friday night as i was getting ready for bed (at 2.30am might i add!), one of our youngest guys was using his mobile phone as a torch to read his Bible! Speaking to him the next day i found out he tries to do this most days, usually in the mornings! Also, at the very end myself and the other male leaders got all our boys together to have a time of prayer. Again, i wouldn't have been surprised if none of them had prayed but every single one of them prayed, and they prayed really personal prayers to their personal God - it was awesome!

One of my favourite verses is 1 Tim 4:12 as it informs us to 'set an example in speech, life, love, faith and purity'. I've been reminded this weekend by my own young people that there is a first half to this verse too:

12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.