Second Day off – Lunch in Portrush, team Wifi and good fun
Our second day off we headed to the coastal town of Portrush. We were told that they had a super good restaurant with three floors, one of them being good pizza! We got there and the level with the pizza was closed so we got to eat at their normal restaurant, which was fabulous! After stuffing ourselves we wandered around for awhile. Joe came with me in search of my seal while everyone else headed to the beach. Once we had our fill of Portrush we headed back to our town for wifi and much needed time with friends and family!
Girls Night at Katchya's
Our main contact while in Coleraine was a wonderful woman, named Katchya. Our last week there she invited all of us girls to her flat for a girls night. It was so fun to get dressed up and to hang out as women. I got the privelege of borrowing my clothes out and helping with hair and make up! Katchya had prepared delicious food and drinks for us, as well as stuff for pedicures and massages! It was a wonderful time for relaxing and bonding!
Car Boot Sale
We did a lot of different things for ministry, such as cleaning toilets, praying for anyone and everyone, passing out candy and pop, helping at food giveways but our biggest project was preparing for the Car Boot Sale. The church owned a large wear house that they wanted to host a garage sale/flea market/craft show once a month. We helped clean it out, sort the stuff that they wanted to sell, set up tables and pass out advertising. On our last saturday there we got to see it come o completion and it was a huge success! God was so good to let us not only have it be a blessing to the church but to be able to actually get to see it! Vineyard is hoping to be able to not only do it every month but to do it every other week!
Ministry in Enniskillen
After two wonderful weeks in a church of about 700 people we headed to the church plant of Vineyard Enniskillen. John, the pastor there, was so excited to have us there to help with their week of LOVE Enniskillen. We helped him love on the community in many ways from lawn work, passing out free coke, lunches and donuts, cleaning toilets and washing car windows. It was really interesting to see how different it was in a community that didn't have the established ministry like in Coleraine. People were not nearly as receiving and we had a couple occasions when we were confronted about what we were doing but God had His hand on it all. Sometimes the first steps are the hardest.
Treasure Hunting
In both churches they encouraged us to seek out people that God wanted to speak to and let them know that God loved them. One of the ways they had us do this is by what they called Treasure Hunting. We would take a few moments to ask God who He wanted us to find. We would write down anything that came to us, like what they looked like, what they would need prayer for, where they would be, ect. My first time in Coleraine I was like "ok God I don't really know if I can do this or if I am really hearing you but I will give it a try." The things on my list were a young man sitting on a bench, he had dark hair and eyes, i thought maybe he needed prayer for a burden and i saw the color yellow. So my group started on our search and pretty much the first bench we walked past had a guy with dark hair sitting on it but I just didn't know for sure if he was the one or not and so we kept walking. My friends encouraged me as we kept searching that maybe he had been the one and if he was still there when we returned I should pray for him. Well after looking and not finding anyone else's "treasure" we headed back to where we had seen him but from far away we could see he wasn't there. As we kept walking towards it there was another guy sitting on a bench, with dark hair and eyes and seemed pretty young. One of the guys in my group came with me to ask if we could pray for him and we walked up I noticed that he was sitting in front of a BIG yellow door! We asked if we could pray for him and he looked at us like we were kinda crazy but said yes. After I got done praying for David (that was his name) he asked why we were doing this and we got to have a really good conversation about how we serve a living God that is at work! SO COOL!
My next time treasure hunting was in Enniskillen and I was partnered with a leader from one of the other teams we were with, Caleb, and one of the newer church members, Zoey. Zoey got all sorts of things from God and I was blessed to see her find three treasures that day! God used me to build up both Zoey and Caleb and in turn I was blessed very much by them!
Community BBQ in Enniskillen
Our last day of ministry in Ireland we helped the church in Enniskillen host a community BBQ. It was a normal day in Northern Ireland, which means chilly with off and on rain… not the perfect day for an outdoor event and for awhile we thought that is how everyone felt. But around 11:30 (the event started at 10) people started showing up! Seeing people smiling and enjoying the different activities we had put together for them was good but seeing them welcome the love of God through us was awesome! The next day the church congregation was doubled by the people we had encountered that week and at the BBQ.
