Well I've now been in Northern Ireland for almost 3 weeks! We've been really busy and it's gone quickly so this might be a long post! I'm pleased to report that I'm getting on well with the accent, although if someone speaks quickly and catches me off-guard they do have to repeat it! The N.Irish have some quirky little words and phrases for things, but I think that'll be a topic for another post :)
The first two weeks were Foundational Training, but I only had one week of this since I arrived a week late (after being stuck in New York!). FT was a really exciting, challenging, overwhelming week! It was so tiring and I know I struggled sometimes through the day but I was also learning some great stuff. It involved a lot of theoretical stuff, including the vision of Pais, the Kingdom Principles, mentoring and youth work.
For that week the team stayed in a church hall in Portstewart, together with the Pais:Eire team, which gave us a really good chance to get to know each other, especially during free time in the evenings. On my team there is a Northern Irish girl called Heather and three(!) Germans; Tamara, Raffi and Jan. Being with the Germans has made for several amusing conversations, including Raffi's pronunciation of a 'v' as 'w' (think wegetables, wideo). I love it! Although I think, despite my protests, I might learn some German this year. My iPad already has an alternative German keyboard and language setting and a translation app!
On the evening of the last day of FT we had a commissioning service where we were introduced to various people from our churches and were commissioned to go out and serve. The day after the Eire team left to go down to Cork. Although I'm really excited to hear what they're getting up to down there, I do really miss them!
So after the commissioning service I moved in with my host family, the Robinsons, in Coleraine. They're a lovely couple with four 'grown-up' children, two of which still live at home. They have a really nice house and are looking after me well and making me feel really at home :)
My placement church is Mountsandel Christian Fellowship and I really like it there!
Everybody has been so welcoming and so many people came to say hi. I went to youth drop-in on Sunday evening so that was cool to meet some of the young people from the area. The usual youth club starts back tomorrow night after a break for summer so I'm excited to go and get stuck in and get to know more people!
Last week we had 'vision week' of training at our office in Exodus in Coleraine. This involved more practical stuff, such as preparing assemblies and preaches. We also went to a volunteer training evening at Exodus as we'll be partnering with them this year and volunteering at some of their events. Exodus is a night base in Coleraine for teenagers aged 14+ to go hang out. They have an event every Saturday that are usually themed and a great place for teenagers to come and hang out, as well as being open at various times through the week.
We went into a school for the first time on Wednesday to do a lunch club! It was scary being the first time but it was a fairly small group so we were eased in to it and it went really well. On the other hand, tomorrow morning we are doing our first assembly at a primary school! That's a bit more daunting since it's the whole school and it's younger children we have to entertain while teaching! We've spent the rest of our time this week preparing lunch clubs and assemblies and phoning schools to book appointments to go in.
Our timetable seems to be filling up fast and I'm really excited to see what God has in store for us over the next few months! Please pray for doors into schools to open, the pupils to be open-minded when listening to us, and for energy and good health for the team :)
P.S. I've yet to take any photos of NI :( Hopefully I'm going to get snappy-happy soon and have lots to show you :)
The first two weeks were Foundational Training, but I only had one week of this since I arrived a week late (after being stuck in New York!). FT was a really exciting, challenging, overwhelming week! It was so tiring and I know I struggled sometimes through the day but I was also learning some great stuff. It involved a lot of theoretical stuff, including the vision of Pais, the Kingdom Principles, mentoring and youth work.
For that week the team stayed in a church hall in Portstewart, together with the Pais:Eire team, which gave us a really good chance to get to know each other, especially during free time in the evenings. On my team there is a Northern Irish girl called Heather and three(!) Germans; Tamara, Raffi and Jan. Being with the Germans has made for several amusing conversations, including Raffi's pronunciation of a 'v' as 'w' (think wegetables, wideo). I love it! Although I think, despite my protests, I might learn some German this year. My iPad already has an alternative German keyboard and language setting and a translation app!
On the evening of the last day of FT we had a commissioning service where we were introduced to various people from our churches and were commissioned to go out and serve. The day after the Eire team left to go down to Cork. Although I'm really excited to hear what they're getting up to down there, I do really miss them!
So after the commissioning service I moved in with my host family, the Robinsons, in Coleraine. They're a lovely couple with four 'grown-up' children, two of which still live at home. They have a really nice house and are looking after me well and making me feel really at home :)
My placement church is Mountsandel Christian Fellowship and I really like it there!
Everybody has been so welcoming and so many people came to say hi. I went to youth drop-in on Sunday evening so that was cool to meet some of the young people from the area. The usual youth club starts back tomorrow night after a break for summer so I'm excited to go and get stuck in and get to know more people!
Last week we had 'vision week' of training at our office in Exodus in Coleraine. This involved more practical stuff, such as preparing assemblies and preaches. We also went to a volunteer training evening at Exodus as we'll be partnering with them this year and volunteering at some of their events. Exodus is a night base in Coleraine for teenagers aged 14+ to go hang out. They have an event every Saturday that are usually themed and a great place for teenagers to come and hang out, as well as being open at various times through the week.
We went into a school for the first time on Wednesday to do a lunch club! It was scary being the first time but it was a fairly small group so we were eased in to it and it went really well. On the other hand, tomorrow morning we are doing our first assembly at a primary school! That's a bit more daunting since it's the whole school and it's younger children we have to entertain while teaching! We've spent the rest of our time this week preparing lunch clubs and assemblies and phoning schools to book appointments to go in.
Our timetable seems to be filling up fast and I'm really excited to see what God has in store for us over the next few months! Please pray for doors into schools to open, the pupils to be open-minded when listening to us, and for energy and good health for the team :)
P.S. I've yet to take any photos of NI :( Hopefully I'm going to get snappy-happy soon and have lots to show you :)
