Time Table

This week was my first full week of work. I work in a Garnerville Prysbtern Church and in the welfare housing estate called Knocknagoney. It is a unionist (protestant) neighbourhood. Its an area where the kids and youth just don’t have a lot to do and not very many resource. I work in the community centre and in the primary school which is like elementary school. I will be helping the school join with a neighbouring catholic school in January to put on a play together as part of trying to integrate the kid from unionist and loyalist family’s. Below is my time table and of big things that will go all year and how they went this week. I do a lot of other things for the church as well and am busy most of the time.

Sunday:

church at 11:30 (I teach the P2-P3 Sunday school class. They are 5 and 6 years old. I had 3 kids in the class we share the same room as the preschool class. I share with another teacher we each take two weeks the brake for two weeks. I was told that I was not starting till next week but it turned out that the other teacher is on holiday (vacation) so I taught on Sunday last min. It was fine I am quick on my feet. The kids are so little they didn’t notices.)

Lunch so far I have been invited to lunch at a different family’s house every week

SN@G; which does mean making out but also means Sunday night at Garnerville. It’s the youth group. Last Sunday we had an opening welcome back BBQ where I was tricked in to mooing in a game called the moo game. They have about 5 volunteers who lead youth.

Mondays:

10:30-3 usually have a meeting in the City with the rest of the YAVs and Doug.

8:30pm bowling with some of the church members this is not really part of my job. But I like the people the have been meeting for 25 years and the bowling ally no longer charges them.

Tuesday:

9 to 12am Help with Childsplay it’s a free play group the church puts on for people in the community. Care giver and toddlers come and just play and chat and eat pancakes.

12-1 meeting with Peter he is my supervisor and the minster of Garnerville.

6:30-8:30 girls brigade I don’t even know really how to explain this. It like girl scouts but not at all. There are almost 30 girls who attended. I will be teaching dance with them.

Thursday:

2:30-5pm I work in an after schools club at the Knocknagoney community centre. My first big project helping kids make butterfly masks for the butterfly parade in Oct. I will also be teaching dance there

8:30 fellowship group, It a group of church members most of them are closers to my age and I don’t lead any thing I just participate.

Friday

9am school assembly at Knocknagoney Primary school about once a moth I help with the schools assemble. I give a small talk.

2-3pm every Friday I teach a dance class at the Primary school they told me that I would only get 6 or 7 kids on a Friday. Close to 30 showed up. I think it going to be my favourite time of the week but I am going to have to find a way to work with such a big number.

Saturday= DAY off (today I meet up with other YAVs at the Market in the City)

with not for

Well all 9 Belfast young adult volunteers have made it here safely. We got her last Monday and moving right into our house. Sally my housemate and I, live in a small but cute little house. It is close to the Titanic quarter of Belfast. It’s also close to where C.S. Lewis grow up. Its one of the poorer areas of town it is in a loyalist part of town which means there are Meany union jack flags flying everywhere left over from the bonfires in July but it is very safe. There is a cinema near my house and some shops and a cafe.

My group of Young Adult Volunteers is probably the loudest group that was at orientation. Almost every one is in the performing arts in some way or has been in youth ministry. So we are all very out going. We also are very musical we sing where ever we go and there are four guitars here between all of us. There are five girls and four boys.

Sense we got here on Tuesday the YAVs and Doug Backer (my site coordinator) have been riding around together in a minibus. We have gone to visit all of the places we are going to work for the next year. We all work in a Church but many people are also working in community outreach centers. We have spent a lot of time talking about the idea of doing serves with people instead of for people. When you do something for someone often the person who feels the best afterwards is the person who is doing not the person receiving. So the goal of the YAV and the places we are working in, are trying to work with the people that it serves. I think this is a hard thing to learn, its essay to give money or old clothing but giving time listening to someone. When are schedule are filled with meetings, rehearsals, classes, fencing, church meeting, dinners to cook and what ever else fill up are time.

A lot of churches we visited here have become aware that most of the people attending there services drive in to church and are not the people who live right out side of there doors. Many of them have started to reach out to these communities. This does not mean evangels they are not trying to find new members to fill seats or hit people over the head with the Bible. The churches reach out with out ever bring up faith with the idea that God values all people and so they want people to know they value them to. Many places have opened after school drop in or help people figure out how to get welfare benefits they have play group for young mother or grandparents raising kids. Looking back I don’t really know the people out side the doors of where I have lived either. So I am struggling with these questions and I challenge you to do the same.

Who lives in your community? Who is out side the door? On the other side of the foodlions check out? What school do there kids go to? Where are they from? Listen to them.

How can you work with them to show them you value them like God does?

In Christ

P.S. these are pic of me at a place called Scrabo tower and sally infront of our houes