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