Since my last post there has not been much new to report. We had a praise service at the church, Christianity Explored course started, and just been keeping busy as usual getting ready to go on retreat.
Since I have been here there have been two praise services at Regent Street. This just means it is primarily music and readings. I have been lucky enough to sing in both of these services as part of the praise group. This service was centred around journeys and taking risks. These are both things that are part of the YAV experience. The reason the service was about this was the music director Karen is leaving for a four month journey to Australia on a placement. She has been doing another degree which now will send her there for the next four months. She talked about how this was a big journey and how she will have to take many risks. During this service every was excited to hear a six year old girl sing a solo. She was absolutely amazing and had the voice of an angel. To my surprise she was not even scared at all. I still get scared singing in-front of people. This was the highlight of the service and is still what people are talking about.
So the last post was talking about Christianity Explored course that was starting. Well last Sunday was the first session. I was at a table with all older adults who had many questions but very interesting ones. Most of the questions had to do with Heaven, pain and suffering, and many more that were not answerable. This was the hardest part as a facilitator, having to tell people that you don't have all the answers and they most likely will not get answers to the questions they are asking. After they watched the video segment, most people went even deeper into questioning. The first day is the hardest for this course due to the fact they have not read any of Mark and it is not as structured. So hopefully tomorrow and the following sessions will be better and some of the questions can be answered.
On Monday we leave for our retreat to Donegal and Derry. This is a time for spiritual healing and to get some time away to spend with our fellow yavs. We all look forward to this and I have baked heart shaped cookies for valentines day for everyone! So Happy Valentines Day to you all! Miss and love you! Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!
<3 Liz
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Christianity Explored...
"Faith lives with a certain amount of uncertainty"
Recently, this has rang true. Over the last few weeks I have become quite busy. I feel sometimes in in the position as a YAV and working with the church, I loose site of my faith. I think this is typical of many Christians. The last few weeks in the church has been all about about the course we are starting next week. This course takes you on a journey through the gospel of Mark. It has been the conversations in the preparation of this course that have led me to a deep thinking and contemplation of my faith and what faith means. Over the next 7 weeks we will venture into Mark looking ultimately at three questions... who was Jesus? Why did he come? and What is involved in following him? As the leaders went through some of the questions to bring up it really struck me and made me think about all sorts of different questions and how the majority of them have no answers. I am quite excited to work with the youth that come to this course and to help them realize that we don't have all the answers and that is ok. This course will be very eye opening and will be great to help me along in my faith journey and to grow in my faith. So look for posts to come in the next 7 weeks about the course and how it is impacting me.
Further updates to come!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
All the things I have missed since my last post...
So I recently posted about Christmas.... well now I am going to go back in time and talk about how Thanksgiving, different events with my youth, Bowling Christmas parties, the first snow, the Belfast Christmas Market, and seeing John Bell went. I am sure there are plenty other things I could talk about but these will do for now.
Wow so It really is hard to remember all the way back to Thanksgiving, but one thing I could not forget if you paid me was the amazing Thanksgiving meal I had at our coordinators house. All the YAV's got together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (since we don't get off for Thanksgiving) and we started our day by playing some American Football.
This was a great way to start the day. The next thing that took place was cooking... So me and a few other YAV'S cooked before heading to Doug and Elaine's where the huge meal awaited us. One of the main things I love for Thanksgiving are the grands biscuits... so I made from scratch crescent rolls to bring to our Thanksgiving meal. I had also decided to make a desert, so I made cheese cake as well. The day before I was lucky enough to be invited to an American family's house who attended Princeton Seminary and have been living here for 5 years. So they had a big Thanksgiving buffet and invited all their Northern Irish friends to come celebrate. Well as I left I was given a pumpkin pie that also came with us to the dinner at Doug's house.
Wow so It really is hard to remember all the way back to Thanksgiving, but one thing I could not forget if you paid me was the amazing Thanksgiving meal I had at our coordinators house. All the YAV's got together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (since we don't get off for Thanksgiving) and we started our day by playing some American Football.
So at this stage we were ready to head to Doug and Elaine's where we were going to watch American football and eat a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. When we got there they had a huge spread of food, we got turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, green beans, stuffing, and much much more. Then for desert there were four different pies so we were very well fed and it was truly amazing to share in the wonderful fellowship. I truly felt blessed to be able to share a meal around their table with such wonderful food and fellowship.
So most of the other things I am going to talk about lead up to Christmas or are happened right before. First one of the roles I play while here is working with Youth Fellowship. This is a very fun endeavour and one that has me doing many fun activities. Right before Christmas we all went ice skating, and mini golfing. These were fun activities to get the youth involved and to get to know each other better. Needless to say my team won mini golf, and I managed not to fall once on the ice.
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| Youth mini golfing |
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| Concentrating hard on getting a hole in one |
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| Jonny the assistant minister got pushed over |
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| Me and the youth on the Ice |
Moving on from youth group not to the Belfast Christmas Market. This is a international market that comes to Belfast every year. It happens for a month leading up to Christmas out front of city hall. It was absolutely amazing. There was food from all over the world, there were people selling things from around the world, there was mulled wine, and so much more. It was a very nice treat leading up to Christmas being able to go into city center and meet up with people to walk around the market. I wish they did something like this back home.
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| Inside the Christmas market |
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| Belfast International Christmas Market |
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| The Market From the Outside |
One of the many activities that I am involved in is bowling with one of the other YAV'S that lives in my house and his church on Monday nights. This has been a great treat and they have taken me in as their own. One of the traditions that most groups and workplaces due is have Christmas dinners. So I was luck enough to attend four different Christmas dinners.The first one that i went to was with the bowling club from Monday nights. We went to a famous golf club called Hollywood Golf Club which is where the pro golfer Rory Mcilroy learned to play as a child. Another fun fact was Rory was on the plane with me and the other YAV'S on the way to Northern Ireland when we arrived.This was a very fun and entertaining dinner, one of the traditions at any Christmas dinner is you get a Christmas cracker on your plate which has a gift, a hat, and a joke in it and after you open it you wear your hat all night and tell your joke. Well another tradition for this bowling club is to give out gifts for those who had great achievements. I was lucky enough to get a little plaque for being a member of the over 100 club. So that was very exciting. Also the head from the group gets up and dresses up and tells jokes and it is all great craic!
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| My gift from my Christmas Cracker |
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| The Lovely group of Bowlers |
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| Bob in his outfit to give out prizes |
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| Me receiving my prize |
After this Christmas party I went to one for The LINK, the Thursday club at the church, and the Church Staff Christmas Lunch. Now we all know why I need to go on a diet after all this Holiday eating.
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| My street after the first snow |
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| The First snow fall |
So I know most of you are getting snow at the moment but our First snow fall was Dec. 4th. We all got very excited and went out and played in the little bit that we had. We have not had snow since. I guess rain is more typical... oh well.
So to finally bring you up to date... Last night I went to see John Bell in what is called a Big Sing. So there were about 100 people in a room and we went through hymns from the Iona community and he taught them to the big group on the spot and taught us in parts. He is extremely well spoken and told some great stories about where the hymns came from and why they were created. It was an absolutely delightful evening and we were all able to make a joyful sound.
So I think that is me pretty much caught back up... currently I am working away at graduate school applications in my free time and just staying busy with work and the church. Thank you all for your continued love and support. It is great to know that I have people that care even when I am in a completely different country! Miss and love you all. Keep in touch. Lizzydot711@gmail.com
P.S. Below are the pictures from my last post.
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| Church Decorated for Christmas |
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| Advent Wreath the I lit every Sunday |
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| The windows in the church Decorated for Christmas |
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| The Tree in the vestibule |
Friday, January 20, 2012
A time of Advent and Christmas
So...I am sorry for not being able to post for the last while... Unfortunately I have not had a computer. I found out before Christmas that my computers motherboard died. :( Sad day! But after getting on the phone to Santa and telling him that Grad School applications needed to be done, it was my dads birthday, and Christmas was coming...I was lucky enough to get a brand new computer brought over with my friend who is visiting from home. So the next few post might take a bit of time to catch up on but bear with me!
So the last I talked about I had been travelling with my church and the YAV's to different retreats. Since then I have gotten to experience such new and exciting things. I got to experience advent, I got to experience running a whole children's service ( which included a mini sermon from me), I got welcomed into someone's home for Christmas dinner, and I rang in the New Year in Dublin.
So Advent is a time about Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. In Regent Street Presbyterian Church advent was done not to much different from home. I found out that it was not until a few years ago when one of the previous YAV'S brought the advent wreath to the church. From then to this day the wreath has been a part of advent. Which since the YAV brought this tradition into the church they keep it the tradition of the YAV to light the candles and read about that candle. So during advent I lit all the candles except for the one Sunday which was the children's service.
So as advent was lurking around the corner I was asked to lead the children's service. This was something I was not sure what to expect but said yes. In the church the children split into three Sunday school classes... Since I'm not positive of the ages... it is basically chresh...which is the babies.... then the young Sunday school class... then the middle age group then the high school kids. So I thought about how to include everyone in the service and in the end... The little ones read poems about Christmas and sang songs... the middle age kids did a skit called Michael the Mouse which was about the nativity story... and the older kids did all the parts of the service and I was luck enough to do the reflection. So all in all it was a very well done service and it turned out lovely all the kids had a great time and the congregation loved it.
Christmas in Northern Ireland... where in the states Christmas services are a huge deal here in Northern Ireland its not that they are not a big deal but they are done a bit differently. In my church here we have both a Christmas eve service and a Christmas day service which both are very informal. They involve many hymns and are basically just a typical service. Christmas day gets quite chaotic because all the children are running about and it is welcomed. There was one child who was running up tot he front of the church banging on the drums and would be followed by his father.. so it was very informal. But none the less it was very lovely. The church was all decorated and everyone was in a great Christmas spirit. After the service I was invited to Gordy's (who is my boss at The LINK) family's Christmas dinner. It was absolutely lovely. A full spread of turkey and Ham and potatoes and veggies and then cheesecake for desert. It was wonderful. During Christmas everyone in the church was wonderful.. I think maybe for about three to four weeks leading up to Christmas I was getting gifts from many different church members. It was lovely, and it made me feel at home.
After Christmas, I was lucky enough to have a friend come visit me from home. She came and stayed for three weeks and so we got to travel around and we rang in the New Year in Dublin. It was grand, two other YAV'S were in Dublin for New Year's so we all went out for food and then went to a pub to count down until the new year. The pub gave everyone a free glass of champagne. It was a beautiful New Year.
Well I will continue to post more about the recent times so look forward to the next post which will cover things from before Christmas and into the New Year. The photo upload is not working right now... So I will post them when it is working again. :) Miss and love you all!
LIZ
So the last I talked about I had been travelling with my church and the YAV's to different retreats. Since then I have gotten to experience such new and exciting things. I got to experience advent, I got to experience running a whole children's service ( which included a mini sermon from me), I got welcomed into someone's home for Christmas dinner, and I rang in the New Year in Dublin.
So Advent is a time about Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. In Regent Street Presbyterian Church advent was done not to much different from home. I found out that it was not until a few years ago when one of the previous YAV'S brought the advent wreath to the church. From then to this day the wreath has been a part of advent. Which since the YAV brought this tradition into the church they keep it the tradition of the YAV to light the candles and read about that candle. So during advent I lit all the candles except for the one Sunday which was the children's service.
So as advent was lurking around the corner I was asked to lead the children's service. This was something I was not sure what to expect but said yes. In the church the children split into three Sunday school classes... Since I'm not positive of the ages... it is basically chresh...which is the babies.... then the young Sunday school class... then the middle age group then the high school kids. So I thought about how to include everyone in the service and in the end... The little ones read poems about Christmas and sang songs... the middle age kids did a skit called Michael the Mouse which was about the nativity story... and the older kids did all the parts of the service and I was luck enough to do the reflection. So all in all it was a very well done service and it turned out lovely all the kids had a great time and the congregation loved it.
Christmas in Northern Ireland... where in the states Christmas services are a huge deal here in Northern Ireland its not that they are not a big deal but they are done a bit differently. In my church here we have both a Christmas eve service and a Christmas day service which both are very informal. They involve many hymns and are basically just a typical service. Christmas day gets quite chaotic because all the children are running about and it is welcomed. There was one child who was running up tot he front of the church banging on the drums and would be followed by his father.. so it was very informal. But none the less it was very lovely. The church was all decorated and everyone was in a great Christmas spirit. After the service I was invited to Gordy's (who is my boss at The LINK) family's Christmas dinner. It was absolutely lovely. A full spread of turkey and Ham and potatoes and veggies and then cheesecake for desert. It was wonderful. During Christmas everyone in the church was wonderful.. I think maybe for about three to four weeks leading up to Christmas I was getting gifts from many different church members. It was lovely, and it made me feel at home.
After Christmas, I was lucky enough to have a friend come visit me from home. She came and stayed for three weeks and so we got to travel around and we rang in the New Year in Dublin. It was grand, two other YAV'S were in Dublin for New Year's so we all went out for food and then went to a pub to count down until the new year. The pub gave everyone a free glass of champagne. It was a beautiful New Year.
Well I will continue to post more about the recent times so look forward to the next post which will cover things from before Christmas and into the New Year. The photo upload is not working right now... So I will post them when it is working again. :) Miss and love you all!
LIZ
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Food is good but travelling is better!
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| Holy Cross Sanctuary |
One of the first trips I was lucky enough to go on was one with the other YAV's to the Holy Cross Monastery. This was a little over an hour drive from where we live up into the Mourne mountains. It was a lovely trip with beautiful scenery. While at the monastery we were able to join the Benedictine Monks in their Eucharist and time of prayer. In between these services we were lucky enough to get to talk with Brother Thierry and hear about the reasons he became a monk, more about his life story, the way the monks live, his beliefs on many different topics like: reconciliation, ecumenical worship, and Christianity.
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| Holy Cross Monastery Monks center their lives on three main things : work, prayer and community. These things truly made me think about the way in which I have been living my life and how simple life can be. One of the things that Brother Thierry talked about that really stuck with me, was the idea that they treat everyone as Christ and seeing the good or Christ like parts that people bring into relationships. Relationships are key in community and are something that the Brothers take very seriously. One can not be self sufficient in their minds because that is when we stop learning from others. Another point that he talked about was hos self sufficiency is the death of the church. This truly hit home considering that to be able to grow in spirituality and as a body of Christ we have to interact with others and learn from those who are different. |
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| Brother Thierry |
Brother Thierry also expressed his views on reconciliation and how to go about building relationships, and diminishing the conflicts between the many different faiths. He stated that the main problem is not with the theology of the church but in learning to love one another and accepting others differences. It is only when this happens that we can open the dialogue of theology between the different faiths. This was profound and really stuck with me and made me think for the rest of the day. All in all it was an amazing way to get away from the hectic lives we live in Belfast and spend a day questioning our faith.
Another trip that I was lucky enough to go on was the all church retreat to Drumalis. This retreat was an overnight at a huge lovely home/ conference center that was run by nuns. It sat right on the water and had amazing scenery. We got there at tea time (dinner time) on Friday night had a meal and then had our first session. The next day we got up for a lovely breakfast and then had another session. After that Ellison (one of my house mates that joined me on this retreat) and I got to go for a walk around the grounds and then to the coast to see the beautiful scenery surrounding Drumalis. This was a time I really was happy to get away and be able to have time for reflection. When we came back we had a communion service. Next we had our tea and headed back home. This was a wonderful way for me to get to know some of the people in my church and was a lovely weekend away.
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| Regent Street Minister Allen. |
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| Ellison in part of the house. |
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| Beautiful walk on the grounds. |
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| View of the coast. |
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| Me by the the coast. |
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| Tower down by the coast. |
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| Low tide at the coast, Ship docked. |
Yet again I was planning on continuing and writing about the other trips that I went on thus far but it would be a huge post and there many more pictures I want to show with the other trips so I will save them for the next post. Thanks for your continued love and support. :)
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Baking is good for the soul!
So to continue part two of many of this series of blog posts... FOOD! Recently, I have found out that I love to cook. I probably have spent countless hours cooking since I have been here. I have made tons and tons of baked goods everything from chocolate chip cookies, to Oreo pie, to brownies, to cake, to cup cakes, to homemade pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. I think i have come to a realization that baking and cooking to me is relaxing and a way that I have found puts my mind at ease. Not only have I baked though... I have cooked meals for those in my household and the other Yav's. I have had baked ziti dinners, chicken dinners, and even made two different soups.
I have recently been learning to cook more and more things and just recently have not had much time to do so but hopefully I will be able to cook some more traditional dishes and might even share some recipes with everyone. Harvest is a huge deal here (will talk more about it later in this post). Well below is the picture of the harvest baking I did. I did not remember to take a picture of my lovely pumpkin pie but this is the pumpkin bread and cupcakes and soup that I made. It was quite interesting for me to find out that most Nothern Irish have not tried anythign with pumpkin in it. It is not a typical food that most would cook with.
So now that you know what I have been doing in my spare time... I should mention the main reason that I had time to do so much cooking would be the fact I was so ill. So me being the lucky one must have caught something on the plane ride over. I was trying for the longest time to just take sinus medication to hopefully get over it but that did not happen. I have made three trips to the doctor and after a sinus infection, respiratory infection, stomach infection and needing to be on 7 different medications I am back to my normal self. I think this made it very hard for me to adjust due to the fact that I was not feeling well ever. It is lovely to finally feel like myself again and be able to do my jobs to my fullest potential.
Oh and by the way the dates on my pictures are not right. So that was only two weeks ago. So now I will move on to the Harvest service. This was an absolutely beautiful service. Harvest is a time in the church sorta like our Thanksgiving. It was put in place to celebrate the abundance of crops and how thankful the people were because of that. In the church its a time when they all come together and decorate the entire church. There are all sorts of fruits and vegetables and bunches and bunches of beautiful flowers. This is a time when most of those who do not attend church regularly come to hear all the wonderful music, and give thanks for all they have. After the evening service where it is also packed, everyone comes together to put everything in bags and put bunches of flowers together to take to those who cannot make it to church. They bring the order of service and fruits, veggies, and flowers to those in need. This night was a lot of fun because the Youth group that night got to deliver harvest goods to those and learned what an important part of the church life it is to see those in need. So all in all this was a very amazing time in the church and I was really thankful that i got to experience something this profound.
As I did in the last blog post I think I will end here for right now. I am doing well and enjoying life... I went to Dublin yesterday so that will be in a blog post to come! Miss you all!
Liz
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| Baked Ziti I made |
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| My cupcakes, pumpkin bread, and potato and leek soup |
One of the many activities that I have been lucky enough to be involved in is ten pin bowling (our regular bowling) with one of my house mates church. Every Monday night I am lucky enough to go and bowl with around 12-15 older people at the bowling alley. This has been great fun or in Nor Irish great craic. We all bowl one game and its just a fun time to get to know others from other churches. One of the things this group does is give out the spoon (for the "loser") and the cup (for the "winner"). These are both things that I have not had the luxury to win yet but are fun to keep up with. The way it started was that the loser gets the spoon the winner gets the cup well now it has changed and it is whoever won the spoon the week before bowls and during the following game whoever gets the closest to their score wins the spoon and it works the same for the cup.
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| My two house mates shaking after passing off the spoon. |
One of the recent changes that has taken place is a lady from the ten pin bowling mentioned she was a retired hair dresser that travels around to peoples house to cut hair and offered to cut mine since I had said I needed it cut. So a few days later she came and cut my hair.
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| Before, Not the best but had long hair! |
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| After... all gone!! |
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| All my hair.... EEK!!! |
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| Window in the church at Harvest. |
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| The vestibule decorated for Harvest |
As I did in the last blog post I think I will end here for right now. I am doing well and enjoying life... I went to Dublin yesterday so that will be in a blog post to come! Miss you all!
Liz
Saturday, November 5, 2011
So much happening so little time!
So first off I have to apologize for not posting regularly.... it has been very busy and there has been so much to do! So I think over this week will will sort of do a series of blog posts to catch everyone up on my life and that way its not a long and boring rant. So since the last time I wrote I have gotten pretty much fully settled, I have started baking a lot, I have had three infections, I have learned to play bowls, I went on my first all church retreat, I went with the YAV's to a monastery, I have traveled to Carrickfergus, Harvest happened, I went on my first YAV retreat which included going to the Giants Causeway, and finally the European Music Awards were hosted in Belfast. So many things keeping me busy and I will elaborate of the first few now!
I have finally gotten fully settled! I have a waterproof coat since that is extremely necessary. My house is lovely and I am enjoying living in an intentional community. Settling into work and a typical routine has also been something that I have done in the past month. Regent Street has been absolutely amazing. It is home away from home. The congregation has been so warm and welcoming and the craic has been wonderful. I am getting to know people a lot better and even learning most of their names... considering that there are at least a handful of Pats so if im not sure I can fall back on that. Now that I am settled in as a part of the church there are so many amazing activities that I am doing. My typical day in the church is a Wednesday where i get to meet with the minister and associate minister... and if you thought there were a lot of people coming through the church office daily in the States... well you would be surprised. It is wonderful to be able to see so many church members come through the office on a daily basis. So I get to be in the office in the morning and in the afternoon I get to go out and do visits. This has been something that I totally love. To me this was something different, in the states the experience or knowledge I had of visiting was to those who are sick or shut-ins. This is very different, not only do you visit those who are ill or can not come to church but you have a list of everyone in the congregation and the minister and associate minister go out and visit people on those lists. Yes, this church is much smaller then Nassau or Lawrenceville, but it is just common practice for ministers to do. It has been a real time of joy for me to be welcomed into someones home and be able to sit and hear about their lives and how they are doing. It has reminded me to value the face to face conversation that is readily available but yet not taken advantage of often. These visits have also helped me to get to know the congregation and learn about the culture.
Another thing within the church that I participate in is Bowls. To compare this to something that someone in the states might understand I would say it is like Boccie ball but harder. This is something that happens on Thursday nights at the church and it is with many of the older but very vibrant congregation members! the way it works is your put on a team of four people and you play against another team of four. Each player has two bowls and you go in the order you are on the score card. The idea is to get your ball closest to the jack. You cannot hit the stick in the center and the bowls have a bias so they turn when you roll them. You get two bowls every hand and normally you would play anywhere from 5-9 hands. For every hand you get points depending on who was closest to the jack and if their team has more then one bowl close then the get more points if the other team has no bowls close they get no points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the number of hands your playing wins. It sounds much more complicated then it is, I promise!
Thursday nights have been a great chance to get to know the congregation and have also helped me to learn a new and challenging game that is a part of the Northern Irish culture. The craic is wonderful, they are some of the funniest people I have met in my life and I just always leave laughing and ready to go back the following week. Also, a part of the culture I am still getting used to is the fact they drink tea/coffee maybe 5 times a day. So after the second full game of bowls every Thursday everyone stops to enjoy a cup of tea and a biscuit. So next week is our first tournament against another church. I hope by the end of this year I can be brilliant at this game.
Sundays at the church are very busy. It starts at half ten (10:30am) in the morning where we go to the church for pre-service cuppa which is like coffee hour in the states. Then the service starts at 11. In the beginning I was sitting in the services and just getting a feel for how church is run and how things happen. Now I have begun to take part. I have sang in the choir, done a scripture reading, and more recently have been going out to help with the different Sunday school classes. I am still learning the curriculum they use and getting a feel for what it is like but I have gotten to know some of the children and hope to be much more active in the Sunday school classes as time goes on. I recently have been given the job of putting together the children's service which is December 18 (my dad's b-day) so I have been working on that and putting it all together. Should be a lovely service. After the service or Sunday school, I am usually invited into someones home for lunch which has been amazing since Sunday lunch here is a huge part of the Northern Irish culture. There is actually a sign up sheet to have me for lunch. It is wonderful. Then every other Sunday there is an evening service which if this is taking place youth fellowship takes place after. On nights of no service it happens earlier. Youth fellowship is bundles of fun and it has been great to get to know the youth. One of the main things that I and the associate minister are trying to do is recruit more youth. At the moment the largest number of youth we have had is ten. So we have been trying to increase that to build up the youth fellowship program. So far youth fellowship has been a ton of fun. Everything form laser tag, to movie night, ten pin bowling and then on nights of the evening service very good discussions. So overall the church life has been wonderful and I am loving my time in Regent Street Presbyterian.
So I was planning on continuing this post but I did not realize this one was so long so I will start a new one and leave you with some new phrases and language differences I have come across so far!
Whataboutya = how are you
good craic = a good time/ anything enjoyable
come by you = Pick you up
call by = stop by your house
wee = an adj they use in front of everything, meaning small.
pram = stroller
child minder = baby sitter
hiya = hello
crisp = chip
chip = french fry
jumper = sweater
trousers = pants
pants = underwear
skint = broke
bap =roll
cheeky = rude
foot path = side walk
baby grows = onesie
rubbish = trash
solicitors = lawyers
fortnight = every two weeks
plait = braid
dead on = o.k.
gutties/ trainers = sneakers
peelers = police
motor way = high way
to let = to rent
Those are just a few of the many words I am learning here... and supposedly I have heard from my parents that I am starting to talk a bit more NorIrish! :) Next post on its way! Miss you all and thanks for your continued love, support and prayers! :)
I have finally gotten fully settled! I have a waterproof coat since that is extremely necessary. My house is lovely and I am enjoying living in an intentional community. Settling into work and a typical routine has also been something that I have done in the past month. Regent Street has been absolutely amazing. It is home away from home. The congregation has been so warm and welcoming and the craic has been wonderful. I am getting to know people a lot better and even learning most of their names... considering that there are at least a handful of Pats so if im not sure I can fall back on that. Now that I am settled in as a part of the church there are so many amazing activities that I am doing. My typical day in the church is a Wednesday where i get to meet with the minister and associate minister... and if you thought there were a lot of people coming through the church office daily in the States... well you would be surprised. It is wonderful to be able to see so many church members come through the office on a daily basis. So I get to be in the office in the morning and in the afternoon I get to go out and do visits. This has been something that I totally love. To me this was something different, in the states the experience or knowledge I had of visiting was to those who are sick or shut-ins. This is very different, not only do you visit those who are ill or can not come to church but you have a list of everyone in the congregation and the minister and associate minister go out and visit people on those lists. Yes, this church is much smaller then Nassau or Lawrenceville, but it is just common practice for ministers to do. It has been a real time of joy for me to be welcomed into someones home and be able to sit and hear about their lives and how they are doing. It has reminded me to value the face to face conversation that is readily available but yet not taken advantage of often. These visits have also helped me to get to know the congregation and learn about the culture.
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| Debbie Bowling |
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| Bowls on the mat at the end of a hand |
Thursday nights have been a great chance to get to know the congregation and have also helped me to learn a new and challenging game that is a part of the Northern Irish culture. The craic is wonderful, they are some of the funniest people I have met in my life and I just always leave laughing and ready to go back the following week. Also, a part of the culture I am still getting used to is the fact they drink tea/coffee maybe 5 times a day. So after the second full game of bowls every Thursday everyone stops to enjoy a cup of tea and a biscuit. So next week is our first tournament against another church. I hope by the end of this year I can be brilliant at this game.
Sundays at the church are very busy. It starts at half ten (10:30am) in the morning where we go to the church for pre-service cuppa which is like coffee hour in the states. Then the service starts at 11. In the beginning I was sitting in the services and just getting a feel for how church is run and how things happen. Now I have begun to take part. I have sang in the choir, done a scripture reading, and more recently have been going out to help with the different Sunday school classes. I am still learning the curriculum they use and getting a feel for what it is like but I have gotten to know some of the children and hope to be much more active in the Sunday school classes as time goes on. I recently have been given the job of putting together the children's service which is December 18 (my dad's b-day) so I have been working on that and putting it all together. Should be a lovely service. After the service or Sunday school, I am usually invited into someones home for lunch which has been amazing since Sunday lunch here is a huge part of the Northern Irish culture. There is actually a sign up sheet to have me for lunch. It is wonderful. Then every other Sunday there is an evening service which if this is taking place youth fellowship takes place after. On nights of no service it happens earlier. Youth fellowship is bundles of fun and it has been great to get to know the youth. One of the main things that I and the associate minister are trying to do is recruit more youth. At the moment the largest number of youth we have had is ten. So we have been trying to increase that to build up the youth fellowship program. So far youth fellowship has been a ton of fun. Everything form laser tag, to movie night, ten pin bowling and then on nights of the evening service very good discussions. So overall the church life has been wonderful and I am loving my time in Regent Street Presbyterian.
So I was planning on continuing this post but I did not realize this one was so long so I will start a new one and leave you with some new phrases and language differences I have come across so far!
Whataboutya = how are you
good craic = a good time/ anything enjoyable
come by you = Pick you up
call by = stop by your house
wee = an adj they use in front of everything, meaning small.
pram = stroller
child minder = baby sitter
hiya = hello
crisp = chip
chip = french fry
jumper = sweater
trousers = pants
pants = underwear
skint = broke
bap =roll
cheeky = rude
foot path = side walk
baby grows = onesie
rubbish = trash
solicitors = lawyers
fortnight = every two weeks
plait = braid
dead on = o.k.
gutties/ trainers = sneakers
peelers = police
motor way = high way
to let = to rent
Those are just a few of the many words I am learning here... and supposedly I have heard from my parents that I am starting to talk a bit more NorIrish! :) Next post on its way! Miss you all and thanks for your continued love, support and prayers! :)
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