Peace Walls or Walls to Peace?

I wanted this post to be one of those witty, eloquent ones. Where my words flow out as naturally as thoughts. Instead, I've been sitting here rubbing my eyes for 15 minutes; I keep writing sentences and always end up erasing them. Grrr...The gift of words does not belong to me today. If you can bear with me, I hope it will be worth it.

Ireland is not exactly what I expected...

Well, to clarify, Northern Ireland is not exactly what I had expected. I didn't even come in with a lot of set expectations. I don't know what I was thinking it would be...rainbows and leprachans and green rolling hills full of redheaded children. While that kind of explains it, what I never knew about Ireland is the underlying turmoil that exists. I mean, I knew that thinks haven't always been hunky-dory over here (i.e. potato famine), but surely things are good now?

It's a bit complicated, by which I mean really complicated, but basically Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom (along with Wales, England and Scotland) and the southern section of the island is its own country (Republic of Ireland). Some of the people here are pretty okay with this arrangement. They represent the loyalist population and at least in Belfast, show it quite proudly by displaying the Union Jack all through their neighborhoods, painting murals and starting defense task forces like the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) and Ulster Defense Association (UDA). (Ulster is the province that contains all of Northern Ireland and is used as another name sometimes.) Others, called nationalists, think that the island of Ireland should be united into one country outside of British rule. Due to historical reasons that I can't explain/won't go into, protestants are usually loyalist and catholics are usually nationalist. There are obviously exceptions to this, but people here tend to use the terms interchangeably.

Anyhow, in 1920, Ireland was split into the North and South and then violence really began in the late 60's and lasted clear through the 90's. This period of time was known as "The Troubles" and basically represents decades of hatred, fighting and extreme acts of violence. It's hard to expain, but there are Protestant neighborhoods (loyalist), Catholic neighborhoods (nationalist) and neutral zones.

(Red= protestant, Green=Catholic)



Groups on one side would kill people on one side, and then the others would get revenge and so on. All this tension built into pressure for something to change, so in 1969, temporary walls were put up. These were only meant to last six months, but grew into 99 permanent structures towering as high as 40 feet. While a few gates through are open during each day, most gates remained closed and are only open once or twice a year. Protestants and catholics are live pretty much segregated lives. They have separate schools, community centers, stores and communities. Often times, university is the first time they ever come in contact with each other. This type of separation leads to even more misunderstanding. Violence has mostly dwindled with the occasional random outbreak. Some areas are worse than others, but regardless, hatred continues. Belfast is hoping to have the walls down by 2023, but a lot of community growth has to happen first. Many people still see the walls as their security. The problem isn't gone. A recent decision about flag flying at city hall threw the cities into over a month of rioting (google it).

People still don't feel safe and why would they? The city is full of paramilitary groups on both sides, violent murals and a lack of communication.

 

This bottom mural no longer exists, but it was a part of the neighborhood we will be working in for a week in August. We visited this week and it was heart-wrenching. I haven't felt that surrounded by darkness since I visited migrant camps in Mexico. I watched a 7 year old drop the f-word like it was commonplace. The kids are almost mean, but you can't blame them. They've grown up in a place where they have to be. Honestly, my heart aches for the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland. Seeing lives ripped apart by an old conflict sucks. And I can't understand it either.

 

So many things are confusing about it. What does it have to do with religion? Can't we talk this one out? It's manic, but to them it's just life. Yesterday, a guy named Jim who works with an organization that works to orchestrate cooperation on both sides of the wall took us on a tour and gave us all the history. So many people needlessly died, a lot were just innocent civilians taken out by bombings or shootings. It makes me hurt inside just thinking about it. I can't imagine living through the troubles or even in the aftermath of them.

 

I can't wait to go love those kids. It's going to be hard, but just knowing what they are living helps so much. I hope you will join me in praying for the people of Northern Ireland. As I reflect on this, I'll probably have more thoughts about it, but typing it all out made me exhausted all over again, so I'll get back to you.

 

I signed the peace wall between Shankill and Falls. The three blocks next to this on the Protestant side are vacant because they don't want to deal with the violence anymore. The Catholic homes that but up to it have backyards that are fully enclosed in a cage-like structure so nothing gets thrown in.

Reconciliation between the two sides would be incredible. The combined community resources would benefit them economically, integration would lead to a more peaceful existence and definitely more progress when it comes to deciding the future of Ireland. I guess at this point we can only pray, hope and love each other. Cannot wait for the day we see these walls come down.

 

No news is good news

Hello again!

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, but when that happens it's safe for you to assume I'm just busy. Which is very true. It has been a jam-packed few days. Monday, Fiona played tour guide for us and took us to Titanic Quarter. It was beautiful there and super interesting. She took us to Dock Cafe, which is lovely Christian cafe in the area and then to Wolfe's which is a gourmet burger place. She was a fantastic guide. She also took us to her house and C.S. Lewis' house, "Little Lea." It was a day full of craic. We made it back just in time to go to our Holiday Bible Club in Clough, which is a rural town about 45 minutes out of Belfast. It was really good to get started working with the kids. I was assigned to cooking being the little domestic child that I am. It ended up just being decorating gingerbread cookies, thank goodness. I sat with the P6's (5th grade in the U.S.) and we had a splendid time. One girl told me she loved my accent which was very nice of her. Anyways, it was fun, but pretty hectic, we had about 75 kids.

We found out that nobody says "dang it" here so that's strange.

Continuing....Fiona came after bible club and Nikki made some delicious burritos and we hung out way too late, but it was very fun. Fiona's a blast.

Tuesday, we had to go to the PCI office inside Belfast so we trekked down there where we had meetings and lunch and planned our holidy off with Graeme. We are going to Scotland for the first wee bit before heading down to Dublin for a few days. After a lot of logistics and figuring things out, we think we can do it. We spent about an hour walking around Belfast, we saw city hall, Nikki and I bought crew necks. Then it was back up to Clough for us. I sat with the nursery and P1's this time (preschool and kindergarten) which was manic. There was this little boy with glasses who introduced himself as "Robbie Scott." He made faces at me and was pretty much just adorable, but also quite the handful.  After bible club, Fiona brought some friends over and I made us late tea.

Today, we found a starbucks to make our first American coffee run (but it wasn't the same...Seattle wins in the coffee olympics). We met Helen and Jessica for an insider tour of Queen's University which was simply stunning. It's designed to look like Cambridge and Oxford...I may look into studying abroad there. The school has a really fun feel. Apparently it is pretty normal for Student Union buildings in Europe to have pubs in them...this one had three. Such a different culture surrounding drinking. Then we came back to DV and met Johnny and David for a tour of Sandy Row and the Frienship House...we'll be there for about a week and a half in August. We met some kids and members of the team that we will be working with. That's probably going to be our most challenging week, but also the most rewarding. The closest thing I have to relate it with is the migrant camps in Mexico. It's a largely unchurched, rough, Protestant area that has been kind of hardened by the conflict in Northern Ireland. The kids are honest, rough and in deep need of love. Start praying for us now, because we are going to need it. Clough was chill tonight I think the kids are getting tired.

My contact may be more sporadic now as we move into camps and away from Belfast. I'll update as much as I can, but if you don't hear from me, I'm not dead.

 

Little Lea, C.S. Lewis' home in Belfast

 

 

Belfast City Hall

 

Clough Presbyterian Church...literally surrounded by fields.

I'm not proofreading this...it's bed time. Good night!

The North Coast

Hi yous! (That's like the Irish version of ya'll)

Ireland is pretty great. We've been having a lot of crack. Apparently that's an Irish term that can mean either "fun" or it can be used in a sentence like "What's the crack?" which is like "what's up?" People basically say a lot of weird things here. Also, this keyboard is really hard to type on because the left shift key is smaller so I keep hitting \ instead of shift. Also, the quotation mark is on the 2-key and the @ symbol is where the quotation mark should be. It's surprisingly annoying.

But beyond that, I've just been very busy. Yesterday we had training with all the people who are doing summer outreach teams which was cool because we got to meet a lot of people we'll be on teams with later on in the summer. Jet lag is pretty rough though. Definitely almost fell asleep during a few seminars.

Today, we went to Knock Presbyterian Church which is Graeme's home church  (Graeme is one of our main coordinator guys) and then we went to a barbeque with a bunch of people our age (Graeme's small group). We went up to the North Shore (the uppermost shore of Ireland) which is where Giant's Causeway is. We didn't get to see it, but we are hoping to go back. We got really good ice cream. I was suprised at how pretty the beaches were. Like there was sand and everything. But the waves were crazy. It was very intense.

Here are some pictures!

Here's the team plus our new friend Fiona who we'll be serving with next week. She is fantastic.

Well, we start our first camp tomorrow from 6-8pm. Love you guys!! Cheers!

Day 1: Long naps and even longer flights

WE MADE IT!

I'm mostly just really happy to be here. But also really tired. Some of us managed to crash on the plane (Levi and his 11 hour nap)...but not this kid. This kid watched all of the Blind Side. I also didn't sleep before getting on the plane, so as you can imagine...I'm beat. It's also almost midnight here (8 hour time difference) which is not helping. I managed a two hour nap today, which I think brings me to a grand total of 5 hours of sleep in the last two days. No. I do not approve.

But today was fun...we met Graeme and Lois, who are two of the people who have organized their trip. Now I don't know if I just love them extra for their accents, but they were both great. The food here is more different than I would have thought. Even just a simple loaf of bread is not entirely the same as back home. The cheese is saltier, but the desserts. The desserts win. Ireland kicks America's butt hands-down. After dinner we went wandering through the streets of Belfast, saw the beautiful Queen's University (from afar) and visited our first Irish pub. We have our first training tomorrow and have to be up bright and early, so I'd better be off to bed. Can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds. Much love...good night!

So this is good bye

Well hello there...

I guess this is goodbye for a bit. In less than 8 hours my team and I will be boarding a plane and on our way. We are off to Ireland where for the next two months we will be working with the Presbyterian church in to run vacation bible school and evening youth programming at different locations around Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland. I am incredibly excited. Like beyond a normal level for humans to reach.

It's surreal to think that soon I'll be in a country I've never been to, surrounded by tons of people I do not know. Luckily, I have a great team who I'm pumped to get to know. You may be curious how I came into this crazy adventure. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

I really had no intention of going on Deputation when I first heard about it. It just wasn't even on my radar. Then, a week before applications were due, both the message at Bethany on Sunday and the Inn on Tuesday called me to the trip. I've never felt so compelled to do something before. All of a sudden, I had to go.

C.S. Lewis in The Pilgrim's Regress says to dive is not an action, but ceasing to hold yourself up..."to abandon all efforts at self-preservation." So I dove. I stopped planning my summer and I signed up for two months in a foreign country with people I didn't know. I was so excited to be assigned to Ireland and have loved getting to know my team. Looking back, I can see even more how God was working having me sign up for the trip. It will be good to get away and serve outside of my home church and the youth ministry I grew up in. While it is hard to leave, I can see how important it is for me to go. It all just makes me more confident that this is where God wants me to be.

That being said, I know God is going to work in fantastic ways this summer. I can't wait to update you all with stories. Thank you all for supporting me. I hope you'll continue praying for me and my team as we embark on this journey.

Be sure to check back here for updates and also check out www.theinnseattle.wordpress.com to see posts from my team and the other 7 teams serving around the world this summer.

To be honest, I'm not sure where I am headed or who I will meet or how this summer will turn out. But I know I don't have to worry about it because worrying could ruin everything. I have a mission, I have a team, I have a purpose. So while I wander, I am not lost...simply seeing where God will take me.