An afternoon in the Sun

Yesterday afternoon, I took my half hour break outside. It was good. I wouldn't have expected it to make to as happy as it did.

I had just bought green tea and a plum to go with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and couldn't imagine sitting inside the breakroom, so I left. I walked out of my store, across the parking lot (or car park as they call them in N. Ireland) and I sat down on an oasis of nature also known as a bark covered pile of dirt with a tree planted in it. The wind was gently blowing and the sunshine made it a wonderful combination. I didn't even smell the exaust.

When my break was over, I felt like I was so happy I could burst! I am so thankful that things so simple as eating in the sunshine under a tree in the middle of a really busy parking lot can make me so happy. I never would have expected it!

If you are reading this, I think you would greatly enjoy it yourself! Go try it!

Portstewart: God's Waiting Room

Perhaps it is the beauty of the Irish Sea or the friendliness of the small town, but for whatever reason, Portstewart is known as God's Waiting Room. Pastor Terry Laverty, of the Presbyterian church there told us that in his six years there he has done around 180 funerals!! With older people as such a part of the identity of the town, it only makes sense to share of our performance in the rest home there.

I think it was called the Montague House. There was a view of the sea from the upper floor and many windows. Strangely enought, very few of the residents were looking outside. In very little time I discovered a woman that was crying as she sat on the edge of the room. In the time before and after our performances I sat with her and held her hand. I was told that her sadness was a part of her illness. Still, her sadness was hard to explain away. I asked her if she knew Jesus. No response. I asked if I could pray for her. No response...just more crying. After some hesitation, I found myself praying just the same. I don't remember what I prayed for now, but I do remember one thing very specifically. She said "Thank You," the only distinguishable words she spoke.

As we went back to the church hall, about three blocks away, I spent some time thinking. A friend of mine felt uncomfortable around the older people and didn't like the idea of death or being out of control of himself. I don't blame him, however, I wonder if the "modern" way of dealing with death is a poor method. We send our family away for others to deal with. We also send away a reminder of why we should prioritize and live life to the fullest. I also was left thinking about the fact that simply being with these people meant more than being able to communicate with them. The sad woman and other woman I spent time with there probably really appreciated the fact that I simply spoke to them, touched them, sat with them.

Cleaning Houses

On the second Thursday or so of our time in Portstewart, we ate breakfast, grabbed sandwiches for lunch and headed out in discipleship groups. In talking with my girls, my incredible love for cleaning bathrooms was shot down by four the four of them that were less than passionate about such things. We ended up at the pound store buying paper towels and gloves then the "Drugist" or the town's drug store to buy multipurpose cleaner,window cleaner and antibacterial toilet cleaning wipes. This was to be our servant evangelism day! The goal, should we choose to accept it...to show God's love in tangible ways to the people of Portstewart.

As we started asking people if we could clean their homes for free, we found many less than trusting or simply not home. By the end of a block we found two families to clean for so clean we did. One vacationing family simply had us clean the outside of their windows along the front of the place they were staying and spent the entire time laughing from disbelief. They didn't know what to do with the idea of us cleaning for them...and for free. It was fun. The second house we got to clean along that way had three girls showering at the moment, but asked if we would be able to return in an hour or so. We found ourself in a bathroom, and shortly after we started we had it spic and span. We left, inviting the girls that were now clean and fresh to our movie night at the church hall in a night or two.

With so few people around and willing to let us into their vacation homes, I asked the British Telephone employee where we might find more people and he pointed us to the pensioners housing about a block away. It was there we found Marion and her son. It was Marion's birthday. I think she had just turned 78 and she was so blessed by our presence. We had just cleaned for her neighbor, Eddie and asked if there was anyone he knew that might appreciate our help. He told us Marion, his neighbor liked girls and that we might head on over.

We knocked on the open door. No one came to us, but the man in the front room replied. With undisdinguishable and loud mumblings he kept saying what sounded like "Momma." As it turned out, she did not come and he couldn't come so I slowly and timidly walked in the door and found a severely paralized man sitting in a wheel chair with a huge smile. After somewhat unsuccessful communication, I headed down the hall and found his wonderful mother, Marion. I explained our offer to her and she asked us to vacuume for her because she wasn't able to do so very well. At the same time that Laura vacuumed for her, Keljo took care of the Kitchen and weeding the back yard, I wiped down the walls and Elise attacked the bathroom (I think). Bethany, who really wasn't feeling well, was the official paper towel dispenser. She did her job well, as did the others. All the while, Marion's son could be heard in the background calling out our names, "Laura, Eeleeeese, Keljjjo, Be-thany, Amy" He did the best saying Laura's name. In no time we had cleaned the little this woman needed done and we started visiting with her. She told us it was her birthday and how she had been drinking last night and feeling lonely, thinking about death, but when she woke up this morning she knew God's mercies were new with the dawning of the new day and we came and it was her birthday!! She told us about some of the mischief she caused when she was our age, told us of being a vegetarian (her son was in the background saying "Meat! Yuck!"), talked with us about her fears about death and told us that we would all be very good housewives someday! Marion was a feisty, sweet and refreshing woman to get to love for God! She even asked us to pray for her before we left. We did and we headed out the door onto the rest of our servant evangelism day and to loving more people, for God in tangible ways.

Meeting Jessica Smythe

One of our first afternoons in Portstewart, we headed down to the Crescent as we often did. The Crescent is where any public performances or celebrations would occur in the tiny seaside town. After we drew a crowd with our performances (we had clowns, a dance team, puppets and dramas), we set off in twos to talk with people. I don't remember who I was with that day, but I do remember one person in particular.

Jessica Smythe, a sixteen year old girl sitting on a park bench was one of the first Northern Irish people I met. She had three jobs, lived just up the road, did drugs on occasion, smoked constantly and had very little that was good in her life. I told Jessica how to become a Christian that day and she wasn't ready. She didn't know what she thought and still doesn't from what I know, but I can tell you she tasted the love of Jesus this summer.

One of the following days, I woke up three hours before Scott, our team leader woke us up. Taking advantage of the time, I started praying for those I had shared with so far, including Jessica and for the girls to come out of the woodwork. As I've mentioned before, there were many boys following us around, but next to no girls. In fact, we had one that hung out with us. That day, no matter how many people I spoke with I couldn't find any non-Christians, much less any teenage girls that weren't Christians!! I had an older gentleman starting to witness to me, three or so couples of strong committed Christians and I didn't even find anyone that tried to brush me off. I was getting really frustrated! I was feeling a little of God's desire for the hopeless girls in Portstewart, but I felt completely blocked off from them! After our performance that night and the different couples I spoke with, I got to speak with Jessica again. It turned out that she had passed on the little book I gave her on how to become a Christian, to her friend Anya and took me around and started introducing me to friends of hers.

Through Jessica, I got to start casual friendships with Fiona, Melissa and Anya, share my testimony with Anya and see the start to my prayer being answered. It was no longer just boys that hung out with us. Throughout the coming weeks, Jessica and I hung out a lot. I would visit her down at one of her jobs on the Crescent and she would come visit me at the church hall where the Royal Servants were staying. Infact, she even came to say goodbye and though she didn't become a Christian, I know that she understood how and why. It was hard leaving her in her current life, but the rest of the work is God's to do. All I can do is pray and write her occasionally. As you finish reading this, please pray for that Jessica would come to know God personally and live in the hope she so much enjoyed in my life, but wasn't ready to accept. Also pray for Anya, Melissa and Fiona as they live in the same hard life in Northern Ireland.

There's No Place Like Home

About 9:30 pm on Saturday night I experienced something new. I was on the last leg of my trip home from a week in London, flying into SeaTac Airport when I was overtaken by the beauty of home. For years I've politely agreed with people as they comment on how lovely the night lights are of cities, thinking it all amusing, but not amazing. However, as I flew in after six weeks away, the beauty of the lights scattered across hillsides and valleys, coming together with such landmarks as the Space Needle, Safeco Field and Elliot Bay together with a realization that Washington truly is home changed things. It was like I was seeing it all with new eyes. It was gorgeous!

Going to Northern Ireland with Royal Servants and serving God this summer was an honor and an adventure. I loved hanging out with people like Jessica, a 16 year old girl that had three summer jobs, smokes, does drugs on occasion, has a horrible relationship with her parents and cuts herself. I loved telling Samuel, this biker with an uncommon sweetness about how much I love Jesus. I loved cleaning for Marion, an elderly woman we met, on her birthday and holding the hand of her severely disabled middle aged son as he called out the names of each of the girls in my D-Group. I loved getting to invite 11 year old Lewis to spend time with God with me and see the hunger he had for God's word. However, coming home is just as important as every single one of those things that happened in Northern Ireland. Coming home doesn't mean that I stop telling people about how strange and wonderful it is to be in love with God or that I stop encouraging people to grow in maturity or in depth of relationship with God. No, coming home means being as much on a mission for God as I was at training camp, in Northern Ireland and in London.

Thank you for joining with me in ministry, be that through encouragement, prayer or finances! God did amazing things this summer in Northern Ireland and you are a part of it because of how you've been a support to me! I have so much more that happened and would love to share more with you if you like. I would love to share with you what God did! Also, if you would like me to explain what I mean as far as living life on purpose here, ask me about that too!