Peace is in everything...

The rose garden within the Botanical Gardens of Belfast.

Jess, Sarah, Mo and me at the Botanical Gardens in Belfast.

This is the view outside the back of our house!

Hello everyone!

The weather is changing here in Belfast. We find ourselves freezing most of the time, even indoors. I came home the other day from a long day at work to find my roommates all on the couch in the living room with every piece of clothing that they had brought, bundled under about 10 blankets! Needless to say, it's cold here. To those of us that live in the South, it is about as cold as we have ever seen. This last Tuesday was just about the coldest I have ever been. You see, the cold here is different. It's a wet cold, one that chills you to be bone.

Having said all of that. All of your warm and encouraging comments you have left me has helped me to fight this cold weather, my heart truly is warmed by you and your prayers.

This week has been busy. I find myself getting into a real routine now. I feel like this is my home now. The old adage "home is where the heart is" is very true. Although I miss my friends and family dearly, my heart, my mind, and my life is here. Sometimes that is a troubling and a very hard thing to grasp.

I have learned though that if you are going to be any good to this world, you have to give it your all...including your heart.

This place is all about heart. I am learning what getting to the heart of the matter really means. Sunday was my first meeting with my youth group. Although it was a joyous event, it was masked by the fact that earlier that morning in church I found out that a young man, 15 years old, had taken his life. This boy used to be a part of this group that I was just starting to get to know. Although the kids did not say much when we prayed for him and his family, I could see it in their eyes. So many of these kids have lost so much.

It seems to me that the more I build relationships the more I realize that everyone here has been influenced by the troubles in some way. Here I am, only a month into my stay and I have been influenced as well. Although I never knew this young man, I will be hearing about him and counseling our youth through this hard and dreadful time.

On a lighter note, I get to go to my first rugby match here tonight. We are all so excited as we have been watching the rugby world cup on t.v. for the last few weeks just trying to understand this violent, strange game. We are excited for the outing and excited to see what all the fuss is about. The Irish DO love their rugby. That and futbol.

I hope that this finds all of you doing well. May you find peace in your own life. May you take time to listen. Listen for God, listen for yourself, just listen.

God's Blessings-

Melissa

Finding my way...

This is a park that is just up the road from our house. We go there for picnics sometimes!



Some green Irish hills. Beautiful right?


Hello everyone. It has been a while since I last blogged and I feel like I have so much to say. Since I last wrote I have been very busy trying to find my feet in this new place. I have been meeting new people, starting to build new relationships, and learning my way around Belfast.

My co-workers and congregation members are all very wonderful and have indeed made me feel very welcome. I attended my first Sunday at my church and spoke twice in the service. It was a good way to get to know people and let them get to know me. I felt very much at home with their kind smiles and greetings. I also got to meet some of my youth group members, one of which has just come home from going to the U.S. I look forward to hearing more about her impression.

This week I have been trying to get used to the bus system here in Belfast. I got to work this morning with no trouble at all, that in itself is a blessing. I had a little time before my first meeting so I took the time to sit in a nearby park to reflect and write a little in my journal. It was a beautiful day today in Belfast, the sun was out (a rare occurrence). People here that I meet are convinced that I brought that sunshine with me from Texas, they are very grateful for that! They say I can stay!

I find myself getting more into a routine. I had my first interactive chat with my University for my Internship on Friday. It went very well and made me smile to think that everyone cares enough about me in Canyon Texas to get online and chat with me. I miss the people in Canyon. I miss my professors and my fellow classmates. I however am in awe of the power of their prayers and well wishes for me. I can feel it you know, I can feel that power of prayer!

I realize more than ever now that I am here for a reason. Today I went to Bangor with my pastor, the trip was beautiful, through the hills above Belfast. Bangor is on the sea, it is truly beautiful. As we were driving through the green and lush hills of Ireland today I realized how very lucky I am. I am truly blessed.

My relationships that I make here are going to shape me for the rest of my life.

I keep thinking about this question. What is peace? That is something that I ask myself every day. Much like grace, I look for peace here. This week peace has been shown to me in many forms. Peace was the lunch that was prepared for me by some new friends and fellow co-workers from my church on Sunday. Peace was in the faces of the little kids that I sit and listen to as they read in an after school program. Peace is all around. God is all around.

Belfast a City Divided...

Here you will see one of the groups marching. Look on the right side of the picture where you will see a "peace line" which is to separate the Protestant and Catholic streets in the community. There is 15 miles of "peace lines" or walls that are up all over the city. These are constructed to keep things from being thrown from one side to the other.




Pictured above is the Loyalist group marching the streets of Belfast. Behind you will see some of the murals that are painted on the buildings that depict the troubles. These murals are all over the city.



Hello everyone and greetings from Ireland. Upon flying into Belfast Tuesday night I was awe struck by the beauty of this part of the world. We flew in right as the sun was setting over the Island and it was just a wonderful way for us to be welcomed into our new home for the year. We all were tired and ready for a shower and a bed. We did not do much after we arrived except get ready for bed and hit the sack. The next day was just a day of rest and preliminary tours around the city. We took a car ride all over the city to kind of get our barrings (which has proven to be difficult and very confusing).


My first impression on Belfast was not the one that I thought I would have. I had all of these visions of a peaceful place with virtually no visual signs of the troubles (a term generally used to describe the war that happened here between the 1960's-2001). Those of you that have been to Belfast or are coming to see me will learn very quickly that this is still very much a city divided and the people continue (while much more peacefully) to be very passionate towards that which they believe in, and very passionately against that which they are not. The political situation here is so complex that even after our 4 hour briefing that we had today, I am not sure that I get even one bit of it. All of it adds up to the fact that the people here are divided, and even though the peace process is in progress, it is going to be very long and very hard.


On a lighter note, my house and housemates are wonderful. We are all just very comfortable around each other. I am very blessed for that and am continually glad that we get to be each others strength and refuge in these days to come, as I know they will be full of joys and sorrows.


My house is in a predominantly catholic part of Belfast which makes the fact that we are protestant very interesting. Our neighbors are nice though and really we are just seen as the "Americans".

We have just spent that last two days going around to all of the volunteers jobs that we will be doing. It was exhausting, but really interesting. I find that the Irish accent is not as hard to understand except in very old men and very young children. The only time I just scratch my head is when they use old Gaelic words which just sound a bit odd to me! The people are so very nice and inviting here. You do have to watch though how much tea you drink a day because everyone will offer it to you and it really does add a lot of caffeine to your day along with the bathroom problem! We have learned how to kindly pass after the 4th or 5th cup!

Just a few minutes ago we heard something that sounded like music from our house and went out to find out what the fuss was about. We found out that there was a march going on right out our doors. During the summer months there are many protests and marches. This particular one was the Loyalists/Protestants/Unionist. If you don't understand anything other than Protestant, don't feel bad. It is very confusing and I cannot even begin to describe all the facets of the political parties and where your allegiance lies. Above I will have some pictures of the march we just saw. It was an eye opening experience. We all went as a group and still felt scared, so we promptly left. Police helicopters were overhead looking at the progress of the march.

You might read this and think, man...Melissa is not safe. It is not that at all. I will assure that my program does all that it can to keep us safe and train us to deal with situations as they come. I am as safe as I can be in a big city. Plus, in our world everyone I think would agree that being safe is no longer a thing that can be achieved in the way it once was.


The purpose of this blog I feel is to tell you how I am doing, but I also want to use is as a space to tell about the situations both bad and good that I experience. Too many times I feel like we just leave out the parts that are less than perfect. I want to be honest! I am very open to your comments about this.

It is truly an exciting time to be in Belfast. I feel needed, something which is always good to feel. I know I cannot change the world, but I can change myself. That sometimes is all we need to do to achieve change in the end anyways!

I hope that this finds you all doing very well. Know that I am thinking about you and missing all of you too.

Peace and Blessings-

Melissa