Another way overdue update!

The last two weeks have been crazy busy, including trips to Wales and Newcastle and our big fundraising event, Open Mic Night.
I went home for 3 days last weekend for my sister's 18th birthday. It was really nice to see my family and friends and have a break for a few days. It was a jam-packed weekend that included a family meal at Chimichanga, a City & Colour gig with Abigail (amazing!), a party at my mother's house and going out with the girls. I keep thinking Christmas, the next time I'll go home, is so far away but then being reminding that it's actually not and will probably come around really quick.
Our Open Mic Night fundraiser went really well! Despite a lot of nerves and stress before hand the whole night came together and went rather smoothly. We had a some great local talent performing various things for us and a really good turnout, as well as raising some money for Pais! I just want to thank everyone who helped out and took part, we couldn't have done it without you!
After Open Mic Night we went down to Annalong in Newcastle for a few days (who knew there was a Newcastle in NI?!). It was our fresh training retreat and it was really nice to get away for a few days, worship and pray together while learning some great stuff, and to be refreshed in the spirit ready for the new half term! Even better was that we had the pleasure of the company of the Cork team and the lovely Donna :) We hit some storms on the way that led to the Cork team loosing a car to flash floods and us having to take another route adding about 40 minutes to our journey. But eventually we all got there safely and had a great week together!
Then we had the privilege of having past Pais worker El Gruer with us for a few days. El is now a full-time performance poet, touring around the UK, ministering through her amazing poetry. She did some training sessions with us on creativity and set us the task to encourage one of our leaders in a creative way. I picked out El's name which totally panicked me, since I'm so not creative... Or so I thought! After some prayer I felt I had something to say to her from God and had even thought of a creative way to do it. Picking El turned out to be really good for me since I knew I couldn't be lazy about it and felt like I had to put in loads of effort, resulting in a handmade photo frame with some encouraging words and a Bible verse on it. Before El came I'd heard a lot about her and it was obvious that everybody loved her, and it didn't take me long to realise why and join them in loving her!
I also got the chance to go to a meeting in Belfast about prayer spaces in schools. I'd liked the idea when we first heard it, but the meeting really inspired me to go and put it all into action! They gave us some great ideas for having creative, fun, thought-provoking prayer spaces that the students want to come to and have the chance to get to know God. Hopefully we'll start to implement some of these ideas in our mission week which is coming up soon!
Please pray for our encounter mission week (Who Loves You?), the prayer spaces and the team down in Cork where things are a little slower starting off! Thank you for your continued support! :)

Things I'm thankful for this week...

I've been feeling particularly blessed and thankful over the last few weeks. This is especially due to the news that two good friends of mine lost a parent each a few weeks ago, leaving me thinking about just how precious life is and how we should be grateful for what we have.

Some things I just want to mention and give thanks to God for are...

- my family and friends, who have been a great support to me as I've moved away to live out God's plan for my life. Like I said, life is precious and I don't want to spend it doing something I don't feel completely fulfilled in while God has this amazing plan that I'm missing out on!

- the friendships I've made since I've been here in Northern Ireland, particularly through our partnerships with Exodus and the Vineyard interns who sometimes join us at schools. I'm here to 'do a job' so to speak; to build bridges between school and church, teach the young people about God and get them involved with youth groups etc. But having friends here is so important to me! I think I would crack up without people to just chill out with outside of work and I just want to mention Kirsty and Suzi - the lovely Exodus interns (because I promised I would!), Donna, Rob and Ben :)

- the church I have been placed with, Mountsandel Christian Fellowship. The people there have been so lovely and welcoming and I love how everyone actually knows everyone! I spoke at the front for the first time last week, just a short devotion before communion, and I was super nervous, but everyone was really encouraging afterwards! I'm also grateful for the large group of 20-somethings in the church who again mean a lot to me in terms of having friends here in NI. There's just so much I love about MCF and I can definitely see why God put me here with them, as I think I've mentioned on this blog before!

- the Cork team! It was so good to meet up with the Cork team for our retreat a couple of weeks ago! I love those guys, Annette, Kristin and Dan, and I really miss them when they're at the other end of this island! They all have such great hearts and spirit, and although things are getting off to a slow start in Cork, they keep pushing through and I'm excited to see what they'll achieve this year. Please pray for them!

- and last, but by no means least, is my team! We've been building up great friendships, and the retreat in particular helped us to refresh the bonds between us, outside of a work atmosphere. We aren't always the best of friends in the office but then I just think that if we were all exactly the same we'd be a rubbish team! It's the differences in us that make up a good team and I always think of Romans 12:4-8 where it talks about the different parts of the body making up one. This is exactly how I see us as a team, all contributing our different gifts, and I'm excited to see where this will take us this year!