Thursday, November 29, 2007
India - by Jessica Atteberry
Two months and counting. How close does a date have to be before you start counting down? I guess it depends on a person.
I feel like I've been slowly counting down the months ever since I found out that I would be leading our January Discipleship Training School (DTS). I found out in June, so its been a long time of waiting, prepping and emailing. Now I have two short months – or so it seems.
Crazy things have been happening - we have a crazy God. I was speaking to a friend the other day and she asked the question "what would you do or what would it be like if God sent you an email saying 'from now on everything will be predictable and in your timing'". Would that be pleasing to us, to me, to you? NO! I would get so bored so fast- I wouldn't know what to do. So God is a God of the last minute- the unpredictable. And that is how I like Him.
I've been having interesting staffing issues - which is what brings up that question. Having faith is more than planning. Its actually trusting God...which I'm getting a lesson in.
Something exciting: For some reason (probably God!), these past few years I've had this desire to go to India - to see the country, the people, the culture, the music, the religion, the Taj Mahal, the clothes, the dancing…need I go on? There is just something about that country that strikes my interest and my heart. I've had random conversations about taking teams there or just taking some time off and going. But now it seems that God wants to bless me and says 'Go to India on outreach'.At this time, we're not sure if an outreach to India will be taking place on Closkelt's January school or if its something we're meant to look into for future schools. We are still in the preliminary phase of deciding on where to go should we take a team - but it's really promising. But the contacts, the students, the staff - many things are falling into place and are just too good to be true - God again. And with that comes my excitement. How many people can say that they would like to go to a country that God has placed on their heart, talk about it for years, and then one day you get released to do it?
Its pretty amazing!
Monday, November 05, 2007
Farewell, Lucky… by Jon Hatch
While reading the paper last Saturday, I was shocked to read that South African reggae superstar Lucky Dube was murdered during an attempted carjacking. He was 43. Most of you have never heard of him, and I’ll admit that I knew about him because reggae- particularly the political variety- is one of my passions. Yet I can assure you that Lucky Dube (pronounced DOO-bay) enjoyed a level of popularity in Africa that most western musicians could not possibly fathom.
Lucky was a tireless activist for peace and social justice in South Africa and beyond. During the darkest days of the Apartheid regime, his music was regularly banned from the radio and public performance. Yet he never wavered to saying exactly what he had to say. His life and music were a testimony to the human capacity to speak truth to those in power and testify to music’s ability to act as a spark for radical social change.
His senseless murder makes him another statistic in post-Apartheid South Africa’s maelstrom of violent crime, a problem that affects all levels of society, black and white.
YWAM Belfast has often sent our DTS outreaches to South Africa, and sponsored nine young black South Africans to live and work with us here in Belfast. It is a nation and people that are close to many of our hearts. Keep South Africa in your prayers as the nation struggles against problems that would (and have) crippled other nations: violent crime, massive economic inequities, and an AIDS rate of 40%.
Now South Africa has also lost one of their greatest voices of freedom, justice, and peace.
Rest in peace, Lucky.
Lucky was a tireless activist for peace and social justice in South Africa and beyond. During the darkest days of the Apartheid regime, his music was regularly banned from the radio and public performance. Yet he never wavered to saying exactly what he had to say. His life and music were a testimony to the human capacity to speak truth to those in power and testify to music’s ability to act as a spark for radical social change.
His senseless murder makes him another statistic in post-Apartheid South Africa’s maelstrom of violent crime, a problem that affects all levels of society, black and white.
YWAM Belfast has often sent our DTS outreaches to South Africa, and sponsored nine young black South Africans to live and work with us here in Belfast. It is a nation and people that are close to many of our hearts. Keep South Africa in your prayers as the nation struggles against problems that would (and have) crippled other nations: violent crime, massive economic inequities, and an AIDS rate of 40%.
Now South Africa has also lost one of their greatest voices of freedom, justice, and peace.
Rest in peace, Lucky.
Breakfast and Ballerinas by Jon Hatch
There’s a wee girl who comes to the breakfast club that we run at Malvern Primary School. The first thing I noticed about her is that she doesn’t ever eat anything.
The second thing I noticed is that she looks so sad. I don’t know why yet, and I don’t know if I ever will. But last Monday, she still didn’t eat anything, but I did get here to smile.
She was sitting on her own, over by a box of books on a far table. I noticed that one of the books on the table of her was from the children’s TV show Angelina Ballerina, which my daughter adores.
I sat down by her and opened the book.
‘My daughter loves Angelina Ballerina’, I said.
She was probably so stunned to see a grown man reading Angelina Ballerina, she burst out laughing.
One little boy just couldn’t make the connection. In a fit of comedic brilliance, he shouted at me, ‘You’re a girl!’
There are a lot of things that I could say that I do as a missionary in Northern Ireland.
As of Monday, I can also say that I make small children smile.
The second thing I noticed is that she looks so sad. I don’t know why yet, and I don’t know if I ever will. But last Monday, she still didn’t eat anything, but I did get here to smile.
She was sitting on her own, over by a box of books on a far table. I noticed that one of the books on the table of her was from the children’s TV show Angelina Ballerina, which my daughter adores.
I sat down by her and opened the book.
‘My daughter loves Angelina Ballerina’, I said.
She was probably so stunned to see a grown man reading Angelina Ballerina, she burst out laughing.
One little boy just couldn’t make the connection. In a fit of comedic brilliance, he shouted at me, ‘You’re a girl!’
There are a lot of things that I could say that I do as a missionary in Northern Ireland.
As of Monday, I can also say that I make small children smile.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
The big day...
Well, the day has finally arrived! What we as a Belfast DTS staff team have been planning for has finally happened. The students have started arriving! The houses are buzzing, and the excitement levels are reaching new heights with each one that arrives.
It’s been a busy few days as we picked the different students up from the airport, and exciting to finally get to meet them in person after looking at their names and pictures on our wall for the last few months. It’s odd to put a moving face and personality to the name!
It’s been so great to see their enthusiasm, to see each one of them taking their own individual leap of faith to leave their lives in their respective countries, and come over here to spend a year seeking God’s will and plan for their lives and spend some time thinking about what it means to serve God with our everything.
Having these students arriving here has reminded me pretty strongly of MY first few days on DTS. I can remember walking through the door of the house where we were staying (which, funnily enough is now our office! I type this blog from where my bed used to be!) and feeling the excitement of this step into the unknown, not knowing exactly WHAT it was that I was getting myself into, but knowing that this was exactly where God had for me to be that year.
YWAM Belfast DTS 2003-4 on outreach phase in South Africa
I can only pray that this DTS that I’m staffing now can play in these guys as big a role as mine did for me, inspiring me to attempt to live my life for God in complete abandon, and seeking to fulfil what it is that He has planned for me. I haven’t gotten it figured out yet, and I don’t claim to! But I know I’m just that little bit further along the journey because of that year I spent seeking to “know God, & make Him known.”
It’s been a busy few days as we picked the different students up from the airport, and exciting to finally get to meet them in person after looking at their names and pictures on our wall for the last few months. It’s odd to put a moving face and personality to the name!
It’s been so great to see their enthusiasm, to see each one of them taking their own individual leap of faith to leave their lives in their respective countries, and come over here to spend a year seeking God’s will and plan for their lives and spend some time thinking about what it means to serve God with our everything.
Having these students arriving here has reminded me pretty strongly of MY first few days on DTS. I can remember walking through the door of the house where we were staying (which, funnily enough is now our office! I type this blog from where my bed used to be!) and feeling the excitement of this step into the unknown, not knowing exactly WHAT it was that I was getting myself into, but knowing that this was exactly where God had for me to be that year.
YWAM Belfast DTS 2003-4 on outreach phase in South Africa
I can only pray that this DTS that I’m staffing now can play in these guys as big a role as mine did for me, inspiring me to attempt to live my life for God in complete abandon, and seeking to fulfil what it is that He has planned for me. I haven’t gotten it figured out yet, and I don’t claim to! But I know I’m just that little bit further along the journey because of that year I spent seeking to “know God, & make Him known.”
