reflection

First off, I have posted the pictures I was able to snap in Ireland. It is the music perspective, and I wish I'd been able to catch more of us "in action", but obviously being "in action" doesn't lend itself to taking as many pictures. This will at least give you an overview and allow you to see some of the kids we impacted...and some of the amazing sights in Ireland. Just paste the link below in your browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lori.mccurry/IrelandFebruary07

We've been back in the states a little less than a week now, and I think jet lag is starting to wear off for most of the team. Our pastor really stressed before we left how he wanted the team to truly be in community so we could live it out while we were serving in Ireland. God must have really moved on that prayer b/c the team has been going through withdrawal of each other and serving and Ballymena this week in a big way. So much so, we're having a little marathon weekend of hang time. It has just been further confirmation of the special bond that comes from serving God together and how we'll all be able to share in that closeness with one another and Jesus when we get to heaven and are doing such things full time.

I have had a chance to start reflecting on the week and wanted to start sharing with yall. This trip has been my favorite to date. Having been before, some the acclamation time was taken away which allowed me to jump in full force faster. I didn't think much about it while I was there, but I'm thankful for it.
After leaving Nashville around 10:30 on Saturday morning, we started the week getting into Ballymena around 8am on Sunday morning and our accomodations at the Faith Mission center not being ready yet. In true Ireland fashion, flexible came into play and we were divided up into church members' homes to shower and get breakfast. The folks at Hillside are hospitality experts and opened their homes up readily.
We made it to church for the noon service at church where we fought off the sleep that was lurking from such a lack of it. Because we'd gotten in so close to church time, the Nashville praise band didn't come on until Sunday night when one of the girls from the church had her baptism service. It was an honor to be a part of that as Becky made her faith public and hopefully impacted her peers and other listeners with how God is working in her life and impacting her with His Word. And it was cool to see how God brought together our praise team even without having all the prep time we would have liked.
After the evening service was over, needless to say a Nashville team that had been up for around 36 hours or more was more than willing to hit the sack.
Our week consisted of visiting schools 3 of the mornings during the week (most kids around middle and high school age), the creative arts academy in the afternoon for primary kids and then working 1 on 1 with the newly formed youth band that plays at weekly outreach times for kids called "Kids zone".
Our time in the schools was generally a few classes that were around 45 minutes or so. We'd sing a couple praise songs and try and teach and get the students to join in (sometimes easier said than done). After that, a couple of us gave our testimony, and then as there was time we broke off into smaller discussion groups. I gave my testimony a couple times during the week, which focused heavily on the excerpt I included in an earlier post about the older brother and the prodigal son. I don't think it was coincidence that I spoke of how my good works were doing nothing to make me right in God's eyes but have been in the past more of a means of controlling Him. A big focus of our discussion time focused on grace vs. merit since many of the kids are in a culture that focuses on doing good as a means of getting into heaven. It impacted me so much as I admitted my older brother tendencies the first time I gave my testimony, that I broke down in front of a class full of kids. Not exactly what I would have planned, but if nothing else, I had their attention and hope God said what He needed to through me.
As we left our first school, Steve (our pastor) likened our experience to trying to take a teaspoon to moving a sandy beach. It's hard to establish any kind of connection in that short amount of time, so all you can do is hope God will use something you said to plant some seeds...which seemed to be an ongoing theme for the week...
The last school we visited was the flagship Catholic school of the area (most schools are either affliated with Protestant or Catholic). Generally, it's not as accepted for a more protestant group to come into a Catholic school, but because of Hillside's consistent work in schools throughout the year, we were accepted and quite welcomed. The teacher who was our liason with the school had such an amazing heart for ending the Catholic/Protestant fighting and just had a tender, Christ-like spirit about him. It was a pleasure to be around him...and he even played for us a song he had written in the 80's when tensions were high...so moving. I snappe his picture which you'll see in my photo album about 1/2 way through the pictures...salt and pepper hair and a beard.
Anyway...more to come in the next installment!