faithactionreconciliation

My history with YWAM and boats goes back quite a way. This weekend YWAM's newest sailing vessel has come to Belfast on its maiden sailing voyage. The Lord Mayor has turned out to see it and a number of pastors, business people and lay men and women with a desire to see first hand what YWAM is up to...

But YWAM has been operating ships for the past 2 decades. In about 1975, the year of my birth, YWAM decided to purchase a ship in New Zealand called 'The Maori', it was to be the first of a number of a 'mercy' vessels that would sail around the world fulfilling the 3 core elements of Youth With A Mission; to train, to evangelise and to do mercy ministries. The year before the purchase was a year of huge PR campaigns and fund raising. By the time the ship was nearly bought practically the whole population of New Zealand knew about this group called YWAM and the ship that they wanted to buy. The end of the story was that one day YWAM's founder, Loren Cunningham had a vision of a crowd celebrating the beauty of the ship, but in the shadows lurked a neglected Jesus. Immediately Loren felt convicted that YWAM had turned their attention from God to an infatuation with a ship. What followed was a very public decision to choose humility and to stop the purchase.

Interestingly enough my parents had put their names down on the list of people who wanted to go and be missionaries on the ship...how my life would have been different. I wonder how many other families and individuals lives were drasticaly altered by that decision.

In 1978 YWAM had finally purchased a ship, and in 1982 I boarded it for my first and only time, in New Zealand. The Anastasis was a huge foating hospital, relief and training vessel. As a 7 year old I was pretty much awe struck by this organisation called YWAM that seemed to be brimming with vision, ideas and enthuiasm. A year later, my parents finally joined YWAM and I began a new life initially in England and after a year there, we moved to Northern Ireland where I have been ever since.

25 years after first seeing the Anastasis, I boarded YWAM and Marine Reach's (Marine Reach is the marine arm of YWAM now) newest ship, a 52 berth ketch that has a very real beauty about it. What's it's purpose- well unlike other Marine Reach ships, its purpose is not so much relief, mercy and development work. The captain of the ship, Brian Sloan, said that in many ways it is a living prayer for a Next Wave of missionaries from these shores that will go out and demonstrate the love of God to the nations of the world. It is a vessel that will be used for hosting leadership and discipleship training schools as well as being able to host reconciliation events on board as it sails into ports in places such as Beirut.

It is here in Belfast for just 6 days, may it be a prayer for this island, that we would once again be a nation that blesses the world.

So I like Scrubs. You know the T.V. show 'Scrubs' on NBC. well thanks to YouTube and the wonders of High-Speed Internet we can now enjoy this lovely video.

On Thursdays we all try to wear the same colours to the office, as a sign of unity.

(the following is a blog I wrote for the SummerMadness website today, and I thought I'd throw it up on here, too. The preface is so you can read it in context of getting young people excited for serving in StreetReach.)

Right now I’m listening to a Rob Bell podcast, because I’m going to see him tomorrow night and thought I might just listen to a bit more of what he has to say. I really like the way he says “Jesus.” Maybe it’s his familiar-sounding Midwest-American accent. Or maybe I just like the way he emphasizes both syllables or something. But interestingly enough, Mr. Bell has inspired me about StreetReach, but also I was inspired about this idea of how to live a missional life.

He said this (regarding Moses giving the 10 commandments):

”But the people remained at a distance.”

This is probably geographical, but also metaphorical. We have been called to a divine task, and there is something within us that says, “I'm going to stay at a distance. You don't know, God, what I've done, you don't know who I've been with. I don't have the skills that that person has. I didn't grow up religious, so I'm just kinda clueless to all of this..."

…There is something deep within the bent sin-condition of a human being that we stand at a distance instead of stepping into our sacred calling to be priests and a set-apart people to save the world. Because that's God's plan.

I have high hopes for StreetReach, and what will happen in people’s gardens and hearts over the 5 day mission. But, truthfully, I have higher hopes for what might happen afterward, not so much in the gardens, but in the hearts. (Shall I make the seed analogy?) Let’s pray that we StreetReachers become missional in our lifestyles, not just in the way we radically serve for a few days in the summertime. Let’s name the fears and then scoot them to the side. What if we are in danger of becoming people who remain at a distance, though we’ve heard the call?

__

They’re collecting for the bonfire already on the Lower Shankill, and it’s the hugest pile of junk and wood scraps I have ever seen. The other day, when it was pouring down rain, I was walking past the enormous lot of rubbish piling up. Getting absolutely soaked. And I felt that I had the modern day image in front of me of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Elijah and Ahab were having a competition to see who had the most powerful God. They both were to build altars of wood, but not set fire to them. The real God would lit fire to his own altar, essentially.

The remarkable thing is that our God, and Elijah’s God, set the pile of wood ablaze. But he did it after four large jars of water were poured on the altar—three times! And this is what God did,

Immediatey the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

God does not just the impossible, but the impossibly impossible. I thought about that as I saw the mountains of wooden crates and couches getting ready for the bonfire on the Shankill. I’d imagine, too, that the more impossible it all seems (this standing up and not standing by stuff) the more chance God has in showing up in His power, not ours.

Somehow I seem to find myself still awake at 3am and I figure, now is as good a time as ever to write a little somethin' somethin'. I'll also try uploading a few photos...

This past week has been full. I finished my time off and got right into this past week. One of my highlights from my time off was a nap I almost took in a field full of tall grasses. I lay back to watch the clouds pass by (something I haven't been able to do since I was a kid...) and found myself dozing off. It was a great place for a little sleep.

Monday was the beginning of our new Peace and Reconciliation program, Incarnate. So far its been great! This week we listened to lectures by Jon Hatch on "The Kingdom of God". A big theme we talked about on Monday and Tuesday was what we can do to aid the poor. It was interesting to talk about issues such as dropping the debts of developing world countries, about the issue of child soldiers and, about what people are doing around the world. Man, the conversation really got going! Who knew YWAMers could get so zealous?

One thing that keeps on touching me and I just talked with Sujee about tonight is how international we are. I've become so used to it and, dare I say, even taken it for granted. As we sit about our houses or our lecture room, we represent a shocking amount of countries for such a group of people. Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Argentina, South Africa, Costa Rica, Palestine, Canada, England, Northern Ireland... its crazy, isn't it? Our director introduced our group as 'the future United Nations' and while we sat around talking about issues such as dropping the debt, this fully hit me.

So, we spent 3 days in the lecture room and 2 days working at a local Primary school here in the inner-city of Prod Belfast. This is the same school where we are a part of the Breakfast Club (we serve breakfast each morning to primary school kids) so its great to see the kids during the day and help out around their school too. We've been painting classrooms and things look great in there! Haha, we have seen some crazy side affects from being locked in rooms full of paint fumes but, we've all really enjoyed the week. One of my favorite parts about working at this primary school is the school's custodian, Roy. Roys a dad of 4 kids, is a huge Chelsea soccer fan and has a heart of gold. He really loves all the kids at the school, knows their family backgrounds and would probably do anything for anyone of them (even if it means stealing toast and adding extra spoonfuls of sugar to cereal bowls). Hes a great guy and working at the school gives us plenty of time for conversation. The thing that really gets me about this guy is that he isn't a Christian but he is in there serving, laying down his rights, loving those kids, and being an outstanding example to those of us who are Christian. Working in an inner-city school is hard - the kids are tough! - and I sometimes think to myself, man, if I wasn't doing this because I thought God has called me to it, I wouldn't be here... but heres this man. It really makes me think. He may not know Jesus personally but his heart and the way he works in his community is a picture of Jesus and that blows me away.

Alright... its 3:20 and I imagine I should try to fall asleep. Tomorrow morning is a busy church service. My dear Sri Lankan friend is doing a fund raiser at a near by church and I volunteered to help. We're cooking Indian curry during the service and then serving it as people leave the church. And man, Sujee's curry is wonderful! They're (I'm!) in for a treat!

Oh, and just as a little tid bit... I'm still off to Israel and the West bank as of July 15th. I'll be there for two weeks and will be part of a peace and reconciliation project there. I'll be working at an orphanage, riding camels, but am most excited about helping out in a refugee camp. I'll write more about that soon!

Lots of love,
Christy

a few photos:
These were taken at a little village near Gitega in Burundi...








These are the men of the village, trained up to be drummers as an occupation from the time they're approx. 8 years old. This art is phenomenal! Really, truly inspiring and gave me some dreams for possible music ministry in the future. Through their music they preached about the importance of reconciliation and can also speak on AIDS/HIV and the Gospel of Jesus. Not only do they support their commuinity but they enrich their culture and aid their country's peace efforts as well.

My son JJ is nearly 11 months old and he laughs all the time. Seriously he does, he even laughs in his sleep. I wake up every morning at 6am to the sounds of blah blahing and doh dohing and giggles. And every morning is the same- 1. I peek around the door 2. he sees me- 3. gets SO EXCITED! 4. scrambles up the crib to meet me, and Im sure pees his pants a little.

What a greeting.

I think one of the reasons he's so happy in the morning is because he knows how things work. He knows that after chatting away to himself for a few minutes Mom or Dad will pop around the corner, give him a change and a cuddle, some breakfast. Then maybe a trip into town, followed by lunch, some play, a nap, dinner, bath, bed.

Then Mom or Dad pops around the corner and 1,2,3,4.......

Now Im the first to admit Im no perfect Mom, but there is a unique and moving connection thats made when parent responds to child in love. When he's hungry you feed him, put him down when he's sleepy...you get it.
Why can't I be as secure in the plans God has for me? Why can't I goo goo to myself in the morning instead of stressing about how money will work or.....well any variation of the money thing really. Wouldn't it be great just to kick back in the big old pram of life and let God wheel me around? Every once in a while pulling over for a change and a cuddle and some mashed potato?
But then I would be out of control. I wouldn't sit back and be wheeled around at all, I'd struggle up to see where we were going and that if we turned left here we could really miss some traffic. Not such an enjoyable stroll after all.
And for some reason I think control is more fun than a ride through the park in the arms of my Abba.

Hmmmm

Well I'd love to write more, but you know who's calling at 6am.

Goodnight my friends
Mama JC

What changes have been going on around here?! The DTS is OFFICIALLY OVER, :( Incarnate has just started, :) and I’m watching the days go by until the summer comes and many staff and former students leave. I’m currently trying to compile all of the lectures from this past school and fit them onto discs for the students. It’s crazy just how many weeks went by and what amazing times we had. Here’s a quick view of most of our lecture topics and speakers:

1. The Father Heart of God
2. Catholic Theology P.O.V.
3. Reconciliation
4. Nature and Character of God
5. Salvation and the Cross
6. Jesus and the Emerging Church
7. Relationships
8. Holy Spirit
9. Adoption-Fellowship-Conflict Resolution
10. Celebrating the Banquet of the Nations
11. Post Modernity and Evangelism
…and so much more

Not to mention our many Reconciliation Tuesdays and our local outreach and trips we took. This was an amazing DTS and we all grew in so many ways. Ok, I got to go help set up lunch now.

pura vida

--mikey

So this week brought a wee change for me- a friend who works as a teacher at my kids' school needed someone to look after her 14 month old for the remainder of term. her regular childminder had to quit and gave 1 days notice, so i've stepped in to mind him for the next 4 weeks! and whoa, i've not changed a poopy nappy in 2 1/2 years! but, it's gone well so far :)

in other news the kids and i are going up to corrymeela this weekend as part of the interface area samba band i've sort of joined. we're going to bond, practice more and apparently make sparkly t-shirts...not sure how i feel about that last bit. in fact it kinda scares me. the kids are excited to go because the really enjoyed it the last time we went, although iain and i are quite gutted we'll miss Doctor Who saturday night. boo hoo...