I wish I had a nickel for every astonishing moment we’ve had since arriving in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
One happened last Wednesday night. Audra, Shelby and I finally got a chance to spend an evening riding along the coast with Hutch.
This man has the most generous, spontaneous heart of anyone alive. Of his own volition, Hutch singlehandedly raises donations from the church community to bless World Racers whenever they come to Coleraine. He takes entire months off of work to spend time with Racers, taking them on adventures to see sights along the coast, putting on BBQs and heaping blessing upon blessing upon blessing into their month.
So Audra and I are in the backseat, gazing at the rolling green meadows and breathtaking oceanside cliffs. We have the day off tomorrow, and I realize that I want nothing more than to lay in the middle of a field and spend hours in all that beauty. Audra agrees. We start commiserating. It would take too long to walk to the coast… bikes, perhaps?
“What are you girls talking about back there?”
We told him our idea. A little later we hopped out of the car to take in a beautiful view of some castle ruins along the coast. We returned only for Hutch to tell us he’d made a call, and rented the two of us bikes for the next day.
What? Just like that?
(It ended up being absolutely the greatest day. We explored secret coves, rode a roller coaster, saved a baby, were given £5 by a lady in a thrift shop, climbed a sand dune, and accidentally trespassed on cow pastures along the river. Among other things.)
And everyone in this community has been amazing to us. You have to be careful what you say, because they will pounce on an opportunity to bless you.
One day at a giant garage sale at the church, I commented to the lady I was working with that I was glad we were near the kettle corn stand, because it smelled so delicious. Next thing I know she’s run off and bought me a whole bag.
Of course, it is hard to receive all these gifts, letting people go so out of their way for us…
But Hutch has told us, “You just came from Asia, right? In those poorer countries, did they welcome you into their communities and give you their best? Did you let them? Well, we’re giving you our best. It just happens to be a little more.”
Yes, we’ve done a fair share of hard work this month. We did lots of physical labor as we cleaned in an entire warehouse of donated items. We worked at the church’s food bank, and at the apartments they built to help transition people out of homelessness. We went out onto the streets with Mark Marx, and met with people in the community who were recovering from addiction.
One full week was devoted to helping run a VBS for about 200 kids in the community – many of whom had never been to a church. A bunch of other huge events at the church took place this month, meaning tons of stacking chairs, unstacking chairs, and hoovering.
Needless to say, we were never at a loss for things to do.
But we were told on our first day that as much as we have come to bless the community and make an impact, the Vineyard hoped that we would be blessed and changed just as much by being here.
It definitely happened. This community has taught us so much.
Amanda, Anthea & I with our main contact, Jonny
I’ll tell you more about Northern Ireland next time – today we leave for Debrief in Romania!
