My hope is to now give you the full story of Northern Ireland… the good stuff… the fun stuff and the life we were blessed to live while joining with Causeway Coast Vineyard church in Coleraine.
My whole squad lived together in a scout hall built in the 70s. The scouts are still extremely active and the men who slept in the gym had to pick up their belongings and beds most weekdays to share the room with our gracious beaver scout hosts. The scout hall boasted dorm style showers, and several storage closets that doubled as the women’s rooms. My team was blessed with a small room to ourselves.
We had a kitchen where we took turns providing meals for the 53 of us. There was a large carpeted room on the second floor that became the Squad room. It came complete with a few couches, several chairs and a tv with working cable. Downington Abbey and Walking Dead fans were instantaneously happy once we learned of the tv schedule and the rest of us avoided the room on Sunday evenings.
Surrounding the scout hall were several wonderful, lush green soccer fields and one hardplatz field. I slept nearly the whole ride into Coleraine and my first view of our home for the month was of these beautiful fields with a rainbow over them. Pot of gold found. Boom.
The downtown area was a ten minute walk from the scout hall and it reminded me of life growing up in Germany. There were several cute little shops and cafes. And all of them close no later than 6 pm. I still managed to spend plenty of time with a coffee mug in my hand, but more on that later.
About a ten minute walk in the opposite direction from the scout hall is Causeway Coast Vineyard’s home base. And from the moment we sat down with Katya to discuss the schedule and the month’s happenings, I knew that this month in a developed nation would be more than worth it.
During the month we learned more and more of Vineyard’s heart for the lost. Vineyard carries out their vision to reach the lost in the most consistent manner I have ever experienced in a church. They examine everything they do to determine the ability to meet the unsaved where they are. It is a church that draws the lost to it, but only by being a church that is willing to step out and into the lives of those around them in the community.
The church has a sister ministry called Compassion. Between the two, there are over thirty different ministries. Each one of these is consistent with passion and hope to be a light to those who live in the dark. Kids ministries and youth groups have been revamped to make the ministry about reaching out to the lost. Songs that are vague or filled with “Christianese” flowery language are not sung during church, so that someone who has never stepped foot in a church before can understand and hear the Gospel in worship. Good ideas for discipleship Bible studies are encouraged, but not sponsored by the church unless there is a means by which an unbeliever would also be able to join and be engaged. The Gospel message is shared every Sunday. This church lives out what they preach.
We were able to work with several of the projects. The church has plenty of volunteers in the various projects, but our presence for the month provided a much needed break to those that serve year round in children’s ministry and hospitality on Sundays. Our hands and feet reorganized a massive old lumber shed of old building materials and household appliances. We organized donated clothes in a large thrift store area. We helped serve at a local vintage boutique, working in the store, refinishing furniture and creating jewelry pieces. We worked in the office, organizing the websites and burning CDs of sermons. We helped to run the largest Car Boot Sale (Garage Sale) in Northern Ireland and interacted with the youth at several of their many, many youth events. We simply sat and chatted with people coming to gather food from the food bank over tea and coffee. And to culminate the month, we decorated, catered and served at a Compassion Volunteer event, so that the people who dedicate so much time all year long could be recognized.
This month was about being the hands and feet. But it was also a month of preparation and a month of being served. Not only were we able to give reprieve, but the people of Coleraine and the Vineyard blessed us beyond belief on so many occasions. And during the entire month, we were challenged as Christ followers to walk boldly into the authority that we carry through the Holy Spirit.
A man named Hutch taught us what it means to give, and to trust that God is our provider. Read more about him Here.
A squad mate trusted God’s voice and began working at a local pub for ministry. By being willing to scrub some toilets, God used Aubray to speak to the heart of a man that has battled depression for several years. His sister, one of the pub’s managers, was so grateful, she blessed our squad with a meal and shared several of the local tourist locations with Aubray. Read more about this here.
Several members of the squad worked out at the local Crossfit Gym this month and developed a great friendship with a trainer, Robin.
My teammate became friends with a local tattoo artist and his daughter after getting her nose pierced. She began volunteering in their little shop and they blessed her at the end of the month with some gifts, the biggest ones being that they valued her willing heart and loved her.
I was blessed to help out in our kitchen for a few days with some squadmates, getting to know them better and serving our squad. In doing so, I helped plan meals and shop for food to feed 53 of us for a few days at a time. Trevor and Fiona are members of Vineyard church who volunteered to drive us to ‘Walmart’ and other local grocery stores a few times a week. Trevor shared testimonies from his and his family’s lives and I was blown away by his faith and the way God has worked in his story. Trevor often came to help us in between appointments at work. He would show up in a borrowed car, big enough to carry all of our food and two shoppers and very cheerfully hunt down the best bargains for us. I loved spending this small amount of time with him and thank God to have met such a humble and cheerful man.
The church had a few ministries that they are extremely passionate about and they wanted us to catch the excitement. But more than that, they wanted us to experience how God still moves and breathes among us today, performing the miracles in and through his children in the same manner that He always has. I’ll write another blog on this soon… Encounter, and healing on the streets needs more than a little footnote… and this blog is too long anyways.
Congratulations and thank you for reading this one to the end.
