The bereaved

Sick. Deep down. Want to laugh and smile, but I can't. A mile off down the road a motorcade of dozens of police cars and motorcycles lead a procession of six buses loaded with the grief-stricken family members in the wake of Flight 5191... [Lord, hold them close]

There we stood, holding signs saying: We love you. We're praying for you. God loves you. We're so sorry.

Such a small gesture - they said it would be a glimmer of good in the midst of this air disaster. And so we stood. There's nothing we can do except be there. I held a sign with a huge heart. I heard "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the way back to the church. It somehow fit well with the ache in our stomachs, the cloudy and rainy skies, and the tears in our eyes.

Taking the plunge

Well, she did it. My oldest daughter jumped off of the diving board on Saturday. This after a whole summer of splashing in the shallow water, moving on to neck-deep territory, then on to water over her head. When I finally told her she could try it, she climbed up, walked out to the end of the spring-board, looked for a moment as thought she might turn back, then grabbed her nose and jumped into the 12-foot end of the pool! She was so excited to have finally done it. Her first words after taking hte plunge? "I want to do it again!"

Not so good.

What's up with the current ranking of 17th place for the Gunners? It's just a momentary lapse... but I guess they've earned it. Setting everyone up for a surprise comeback... Yeah. That's it. Natalie, Jamie, Sara - If you're out there, I don't want to hear anything about it...

It's good

What's good?

• The entire family piled on one couch last night to watch a movie.
• Arsenal won yesterday in their Champions League game
• Reading a cool book called "The Tipping Point"
• Ran across a great worship song called "Love Song"
• I woke up today
• I have a Fuji apple on my desk just waiting for me to bite into it
• Natalie (my partner in crime at work) ate at Sonny's last night so she's in a good mood
• I'm in the process of listening to my entire U2 collection today

What's good for you?

Philippians 4:8

There's something wrong with the gravity

Either I've got some serious problems with allergies or somebody has knocked my sense of gravity off-kilter. Maybe I'm just used to standing at 6 Degrees West Longitude. Here at 85 Degrees, I'm standing nearly sideways. How's that theory work out for you all? So, if I fall over or stand leaning sideways, maybe I'm still getting used to being back on this side of the planet. Cut me some slack, will ya?

Worship

Sunday felt odd being back in the worship center at Southland, surrounded by 3,000 other worshippers in the fourth service of the five on the weekend. I felt like a stranger, a bit disconnected after worship last weekend at Newcastle Baptist with friends from several denominations singing together as members of one body. It was like a gift, however, that God led our worship team to sing "I Stand Amazed"... That song spanned the gap in some ways. I closed my eyes and remembered that this is not about location - it's about our One True God. There will be a day where we will be divided by neither denomination, time, nor location - nothing at all to separate us from God or one another. Today, I have an acute ache for that day.

Lord, thank you for the Body of Christ. Unite us in this world as we look forward to that glorious unity yet to come.

Number 90

Well, here goes post #90. It's Friday afternoon. Monday was kind of removed from the calendar of existence since it was spent travelling and under the influence of Tylenol PM and a dreadful length of time spent waking and fitfully sleeping. Tuesday was much the same - I tried my best, but went to bed around 8 PM after a long nap in the afternoon. Wednesday was back-to-work. That flew. Top it off with the vague dizziness of jet lag and sinus pressure. Thursday. I think I lived it. Now it's Friday. For five days, it seems like only one or two.

This weekend - an exciting, action-packed, rollicking time of fun. We're going to camp out in the living room tonight, watching cartoons until we can't stay awake any longer (which may not be very long for me). It's off to the Horse Park on Saturday for their day of free admission - pony rides, dressage, and horse jumping. That should be fun. It was last year. I forget how cool it is to live in Horse-Country. A birthday party and/or the Sawyer's house later in the evening. Sunday together with the rest of the Body - Breaux is here this weekend, so that'll be cool. He's got a new book out, so I'm sure it will be a crazy time for him.

That's all for now... Oh, wait - how about I wrap up with a poem I wrote last week in Northern Ireland?

Two seconds of sun
On a new Irish day.
It's better than one
Is all I can say.

Back home.

It's good to be home, yet I miss my new friends in a huge way. The ministry in Northern Ireland was a unique experience for me - getting to know so many of my fellow Christ-followers in a deeper way than ever before. I thank God for the extended time with them. It was amazing to see God being glorified by the unity of our team, the young local believers, lost people being drawn near to God through worship. Please continue to pray for the Body of Christ in County Down. Please pray for our team as we re-enter life back home. Thanks!

So, I guess I'm pretty good lookin'...

So, Megan told me that on the plane flight home from Dublin to Shannon, the flight attendant was checking me out. I guess I'm pretty good looking... The only thing is that he was bald, just like me. Yikes.

Three days of good-byes

We're in the process of unplugging ourselves and turning the pieces we've been carrying for the past two weeks back over to the local leadership. As we wrapped up Fused, the featured speaker was the local youth worker. We've pointed the students to the local churches. S. is connected with a mentor here.

We said many goodbyes after Fused. We said more last night as the Northern Irish folks moved out of Murlough House. We'll say more after church this morning. And more still after the evening celebration. Then, it's packing and off at half-four in the morning.

It's been a wonderful time. There is a growing sense of belonging here as the relationships have multiplied through a myriad of conversations. I am so looking forward to seeing my family soon. I look forward to diving back into the ministry at Southland after two weeks away. I have a new appreciation for all that we are able to do in the place God has planted me for ministry. My prayers will continue to resonate for this land of County Down - the people of Dundrum, Newcastle, Ballynahinch, Belfast, Castlewellan, and Clough. God is moving.

Please pray for the unity of the believers and for God's glory ot be seen here in Northern Ireland.

Fused: Week 2

This week has been good so far. We're doing a program each night for students and then focusing the rest of the day on building relationships with those students. We've got a compassion team who is visiting nursing homes and special needs facilities. There's also a practical ministry team (which I'm serving on) who helps with whatever is needed. We've mostly been working on the teen drop-in center, doing some painting and cleaning up.

Our evening program is being held in a huge festival tent. Setting up the tent was everything that purgatory would be for me - if I believed in it... All (and I mean ALL) of the guys on the team plus wquite a few men from the local churches came together to put it up, and no "leader" had been identified. It was a chaotic process of several older ones posturing for who would lead the operation. After a leader finally emerged, no one could do anything right in his sight. No matter what you were doing you weren't doing it right, even though he would show you how and it was exactly what you were doing before. BUT - it was finally completed.

The program has been good. We had 160 in attendance last night. One guy - S. - left all of his friends behind and came to the event. They were giving him all kinds of stick over attending, but God was tugging at him. He has decided that he wants to check out this Christianity thing. He's connected with some local believers now and I think he's really primed to be discipled.

I had a really good Americano today at Cafe Creme. That hit the spot! Oh, yeah - I preached at the Presbyterian church this afternoon for their midweek gathering. It was about "me" versus "we" Christianity. The pastor said it was a word in season for his people. The churches here are just chock full of conflicts under the surface and most of it comes down to selfishness. We're supposed to get together and talk some more later this week. I've been leading worship on Sunday evenings at the Presbyterian for the past two weekends and for our team at the end of each day, as well. That's been good. My voice is going out, though.

Well, enought random rambling - pray for S. Pray for our health. Pray for strength. Pray for the people of Northern Ireland. Pray for my voice. Pray for Travis as he preaches each night. Pray. Pray. Pray. Thanks.

a day off.

Today was our first day off since we arrived one week ago. The rest of our team is now here, so they were mostly getting acclimated to the surroundings, so a bunch of us that have been here (plus two brave team-members from the second group) joined a couple of Northern Irish leaders for a long day's climb - to the peak of Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland's highest peak.

Beginning at sea level, we climbed to roughly 2,400 feet. I found myself trying to keep up with the guide, and nearly died about 100 yards from the peak. My legs were rebelling against my brain. I had to take 100 steps, the another, then another 50, then 25, then just keep going... The view was spectacular. You can see the Isle of Man, all of the surrounding towns and even Belfast far away to the north. Then the clouds rolled in and we were enveloped in mist. An amazing, exhausting, and yet rejuvenating experience.

When we returned to Murlough, we discovered that two of the French people who had turned back early in the ascent had not rejoined the rest of the group, so we had to run about Newcastle trying to find them. They were at the KFC. Mission accomplished.

Oh - I had an experience the other day when I was leading worship that was unbelievable. I'll have to tell you in person - it just doesn't go well here. So don't forget to ask me about it. When I say "unbelievable", I mean that even you who know me well may not believe that it actually happened. Probably one of the more, um, miraculous things I've experienced.

Please pray for our health and strength. Another week of ministry starts today!

An end and a beginning

Last night marked the end of week 1 of Fused. We had an evening of celebration where the kids brought their parents along and they got to experience a little of what we've been doing this past week. The teamwork on the first week has been nearly seamless, with our small group of seven blending in with the Northern Irish contingent with only an accent to differentiate us. It's been great to get to know the older students. Each day we started with a time of fun and Bible study, in which they participated much to the surprise of the local leaders. In the afternoons we alternated service projects ("windie" washing at the Special Needs Home and Murlough) and fun time (Castlewellan Lake and the paddle boat swans). In the evening we had a program that included crowd-breaker games, video, teaching, small group time, and worship. It was an amazing week. It's exciting to know that we have another week with these older students, as the program that the rest of our team has arrived to pull off is geared at the same students we've already gotten to know a little bit. In the past, at this point, we're ready to leave and all we can do is wonder if there will be any follow up later. This time we get to be a part of at least one more week of investing in the lives of these teens.

On a side note - Murlough has also been hosting three French teenagers who, for the first two days kept mainly to themselves after discovering that they came into a group of nearly 50 who didn't speak French and they only speak a few words of English. After trying a few times to talk with them myself, I began to notice that people started to shy away from them until they were sitting alone at their own table at dinner one day. I deiced to sit with them anyway. As we ate, it occurred to me that maybe they spoke German. Their eyes lit up as Matthew said, "Ja!" Another Irish leader sat down with us at that point and we proceeded to have a conversation that began in either French or English and ran through a German filter. The funniest thing at that meal, though, was when Jonny Heenan dug deep into his past - way back to French class in school - and tried to tell them that he really liked the chicken that we were having for dinner. What he ended up saying, however, brought uproarious laughter to the French. His botched French came out, "I love you, chicken."

Who's that talking funny?

OK. So we're getting used to the accents again. After so many times over here, I'm beginning to be able to distinguish a country, city, and Belfast accent. I have this weird thing with mirroring accents, so I'm talking all funny, too.

A couple of days ago - I think - (How long have we been here anyway?) we had a late entry in the "Daft Raft Race" put on by the Newcastle Yacht Club. Peter Dueppen and Richie Shilliday were the pilots of our "vessel". About a thousand people lined up at the harbour to watch the race with makeshift rafts. We thought that an entry would be good publicity for our outreach. So there we were in our team shirts with this pitiful little raft - we were the only ones to simply sink. Everyone else at least finished... but it was fun for all.

My biggest cultural faux paux so far: And I quote the wee laddie Jonny Tweedie, "You just indicated the wrong direction!!!". Apparently when you drive through a roundabout you don't signal into and out of it, but instead the direction you intend to take after going around the circle. Oops.

I've got the roughest bunch of kids for a discipleship group. Pray for C, D, L, and R. And for me as I get to spend time with them. Most of C's questions last night were about the salvation of cows. The others seem to be ready to listen, but afraid of how they'll look in front of their friends. Thanks for your prayers.