Ireland in July
Last month! Here we GO! 🙂
I'm living in Coleraine, Northern Ireland (which is actually part of the UK) and it is beautiful here! My squad of 55 is living together this month, staying in the Boy Scouts community building, which means floor sleeping and big meals cooking. Feels a bit like I'm back in youth group on short-term missions, except we are doing the cooking and cleaning…and I haven't been home in almost 11 months. 😉
We are working with Vineyard church here, a Spirit-led, outward focused church, and my squad and I are completely blown away by how this church serves its community and reaches the lost. In the foundation of the church almost 12 years ago (it started 14 years ago in a married couple's living room as a church of six Christians desiring God and not religion), Jesus told them, "If you take care of the lost, I'll take care of the church." And they are living that out full force! Here's a link to show you some of the programs we're involved in, notice I said some…there are more behind the scene programs like food-drives and clothes sorting and organizing that we also do, as well as prayer walking and helping with their consignment store "Hope and Gloria" that helps with church funding and programs.
http://www.causewaycoastvineyard.com/main/get-involved
Our squad also worked their week long summer children's program, Destiny Island, and it was a blast! Seeing how they taught the children that the Kingdom of God is in them was powerful. Two days that week, we went out with the kids to "give out God's love," a term the church uses when teaching the children about taking church out of the building. One day, in small groups of four kiddos with one adult, we walked to a nearby neighborhood and gave out goody bags filled with a light bulb, tea and biscuits (cookies), and a bag of gummies. We split up the neighborhood, greeting ten homes a group, and went door to door handing out the goody bags, telling the people that we were there to give out God's love, and asking if they needed prayer for anything. And here's what really got me, the kids were doing it! My group had two six year old and two ten year old little girls, and they were so confident in going up to the door, giving out big smiles, saying we were there to give out God's love, and asking if they needed prayer. And when they said yes, the girls asked what for and the girls prayed. It was so cool. We had one lady that was having pain in her lungs, and she said she felt better after ten year old Lois prayed for her. We ended up praying for half of the people we encountered. I only helped facilitate a few conversations along the way and encouraged the girls to pray for the families that weren't home. On our way back to the church, the girls were skipping and laughing, talking about how much fun they had and how much they enjoy giving out God's love. Amy had a big smile on her face as she walked forward, a new bounce in her step, and she stated loudly, "I am so much more confident now!"
The next day we went out into the town and went to a car park, placing envelopes with 40 pence (the amount to park a car in the lot) on windshields. As we met people there, again the girls would ask if they needed prayer. We walked to the town center to get ready for the Destiny Island flash-mob, and as I was walking with my girls, an older lady came up to me, grabbed my arm, and asked me to pray for her. I was startled for a minute. As much prayer as I've done over the past 11 months, most of the time, I asked if I could pray for the person. This was the first time that I had a stranger notice me as a Christian in a crowd on a busy street and come up to me and ask for prayer. I smiled at her and told her of course I would. I asked her what she needed prayer for and she told me of all her body issues that were causing her pain. I looked down at my girls and young Amy looked up at me with excited eyes and told me that she wanted to pray as well. We commanded the pain to go and thanked Jesus for healing her body. We asked if she felt any better and she did! The lady had a sweet, content look on her face. Smiling at us, she said, "Thank you. That was lovely." The girls and I waved goodbye and walked over to the flash-mob. I was wearing a Vineyard shirt with the Destiny Island logo on it that day, and in this community that means something. I thought, "Wow, they've started a new Christian culture here." I'm starting to understand what Jesus meant when He said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the children.
It is so God to put our last month in place where they speak English (with a wee cool accent), where it looks and feels a lot like home (we have a Starbucks, though I prefer Bentley's-a local place), and where we are serving in a church that is living out Acts and living life as a Christian body of impact. We look at each other and say, this is what God has been saying to us this past year- to have an outward focus- and we're experiencing what that visibly looks like and the difference it makes. Kingdom on earth.
We have an exercise that we call ATL, Ask The Lord. I want to encourage you to take time to get quiet and ask God what you should pray for you, your family, your community, your church family (if you are a part of one), and your nation. He speaks and as His sheep we hear Him.
I love you all so much!!! Thank you for your time, your support, and your love! I could not do this without you, and I'm so glad God tells us not to do it on our own but rather to be a Body and love and serve each other.
Big, big hugs AND I'll be home SOON!!!
Abundant love,
Monica
~ Run on! ~ 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
~m
