tomtate

I'm spoiling you...

2009-04-22T09:58:00.002+01:00

2 posts in two days?? Crazy...

This is an update I wrote for our YWAM website, so thought i'd post it here too...

Greetings from Burundi!

We are a team of five people currently situated in Bujumbura, Burundi on the DTS outreach. We've had a busy time so far of being involved with a lot of different ministries including working ina hospital, an orphanage, running reconciliation seminars and courses and also playing football with streetkids! Things have been busy for us, but good.

As a team we have been so aware of God's hand of protection on us as we travel through the centre of Africa. We have been blessed by health (for the most part) incredible ministries to be involved in and some incredible contacts (now friends) who have welcomed us more warmly than we could have imagined or expected.

Rwanda and Burundi are beautiful countries that are blessed with natural resources and sunny climes, but that have also seen a history of conflict, hatred and division that has scarred the land and the people here over the last half century. As a team, our prayer is that we will be a group that brings Christ and his healing forgiveness and gift of reconciliation to these places. We know that there is nothing within US that can do this, rather, we are simply here trying to be willing vessels of his power, authority and grace to the people living here. We are blessed and privileged to be used in this way, and it is a gift to be here and see God choosing to work through and use us.

With four weeks left, we are heading to the middle of Burundi today to work with Youth for Christ at an orphanage they run. Our team was there last year and had an incredible time of ministry and getting to know the children and workers there. Please pray for us as we continue on our journey and seek God for us and for those we are meeting!

Long time

2009-04-21T14:58:00.003+01:00

It's been a while...

I think i might have blogged myself out in Rwanda! But, here i am again, three weeks on and i think it's about time to do another quick update.

We've had a great time here in Bujumbura, Burundi so far. It's been great catching up with people from last year and spending time at new ministries. The places that we've been working have been a bit hit and miss over the last few weeks, there's been a few places that we were expecting them to be very organised and have a lot for us to do, and when we arrived, they just didnt really have anything for us to do, so we had to try and find our own things. But, when it's been good, it's been amazing.

Last week we were working at this centre called Mont Sion, which is a Catholic outreach centre in the north of the city. We just got this incredible welcome from them, we're shown amazing hospitality, and kept busy and working for the whole time we were there. In the mornings we were working at this building site for a home they are building for boys who are living on the street. We were excavating land for a garden and when we got tired of wheelbarrowing (ingolofanoing: for those who have been following this blog...) we were sanding and varnishing wooden furniture.

Then in the afternoons we were running reconciliaiton and forgiveness seminars for young people in the area. These were well attended, and we had a great week of sharing our stories and hearing some of theirs. We also found ourselves featuring on Burundian TV because of this.... We never saw it ourselves but have met a few people who saw us on there!

Then on the sunday we shared at the mass of 5000 people, big experience, we shared stories and a song. We were just really thankful for the welcome we got and the obvious organisation that went into the week.

So, tomorrow we're heading to the middle of the country to a place called Gitega to work at an orphanage run by Youth for Christ. We were there last year, and i think i put a video up of our time there last year, so if you're interested you can skip back a few months through this blog for where i'll be and what i'll be doing... If i remember correctly there is a lot of playing and a lot of dancing... Good at the first one, not so sure about the second one...

Some highlights from our time in Bujumbura:

- Last night we ran a fellowship evening in Alison's house. I was leading worship, and at the end of one song, a Burundian lady called Nadine spontaneously took over and led us in the same song, but acapella and Africa style...incredible moment.

- Cake at Alison's house...

- Seeing hippos in the river outside the animal park, then paying 5000 francs to get into the animal park and seeing no animals...

- No mosquito bites!

Moving on..

2009-04-02T14:35:00.001+01:00

So, three weeks down, seven to go! Tomorrow sees us packing up our bags, saying our farewells and hoping our taxi driver arrives at 5:40am to take us to the bus station.. if all of the above go as planned (mostly the taxi driver...) we will be leaving Kigali, Rwanda and moving on to Bujumbura, Burundi.

It's been a fantastic time here in Kigali, the team has been great, and we've met some incredible people and worked with some great ministries, but it does feel like time to move on to Burundi. I'm excited to see the people we worked with last year again, as well as work with a few new people, and to work with Alison and Meg again (two of the students from last years team who are working in Bujumbura now).

I'm trying to think of something in the last week that I should talk about here... We've been up to a lot, but probably the biggest thing was our adventure in Bukora last week. Certainly it was remote, and when the crooked taxi driver wouldn't come and get us when it was time to leave because he claimed we weren't giving him enough money (which we were... we were offering double what we should have paid in fact!) we had to walk for two hours through farmland (bags and all!) to get to the main road to catch a bus back to Kigali (this was also the start of one of the craziest journeys of my life.... but that's a story for another day... and now can you see why I'm worried about the taxi tomorrow morning?!)

While in Bukora we went to a health clinic, talked, prayed and spent time with some of the patients, and also went to a refugee camp. This was a difficult experience, to see the way these people are being forced to live. As we were meeting the people, seeing their homes and playing with the kids, I was so struck by the injustice of it all. The fact that these people's live are being forced on hold while they wait for the government to someday get around to building a house (the houses cost less than $1000 to buy land and build a house on) and while these people wait, they are forced to live in these “houses” which are literally nothing more than some sticks, a tarpaulin and some walls they've made out of cow dung. The injustice of the whole situation struck me hard, and I realised that this is not the kingdom of God at work. Not at all. This was my prayer as we walked around and spent time there, to realise that these are people with real lives that are just waiting for these lives to start again.

One thing I also learnt this week is that whenever I talked about Bukora to people, I said I was going to the “middle of nowhere”. After we got back, I was reading a book (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell... not so great, but a fantastic last page!) and there was a line that struck me that said “Every nowhere is a somewhere for someone”. I realised the truth of this and was challenged by it. Bukora is a place where people live out their lives, where they are born, grow up, plant crops, marry, raise a family and die... What right do I have to call this place where these people “do life” NOWHERE? Would I like it for people to say that about where I live? I'm not so sure...

So, in conclusion, our time in Bukora was great. It was a challenge indeed... Especially our night time visitors the rats on the second evening... But we survived and live to meet another day!

Roll on Burundi...

A few short highlights from the last week:

-Kigali reunions... 5 out of the 8 members of last years team were reunited in Kigali! Along with this years team, we went to see a world cup qualifying match between Rwanda and Algeria...not the greatest football, but good atmosphere and craic made for a great afternoon!

-We were so close to the Tanzanian border in Bukora that we talked the guards into letting us run across the bridge and into Tanzania... there was a pretty incredible waterfall on the bridge too! Good pictures to follow...

-Last night we spent dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the first three weeks of outreach, and also to say farewell to Amalia who's heading back to Canada for her sister's wedding!

-Yesterday it was hatching day for the ants...the flying ants.... THOUSANDS upon thousands of flying ants were emerging from hills all over the base... the birds were having a field day!

-Lowlight: The final death of my mp3 player... Now I no longer even have “Oh Holy Night” to lull me to sleep at night...

Coincidences..... or something else.

2009-03-23T11:57:00.004Z

Forgot to mention this moment that happened earlier today!

So, i'm standing in the Burundian embassy here in Kigali, our Burundian visas are hopefully on their way, but we need to extend them when we get to Bujumbura (the capital city of Burundi) in the immigration department. There were a few questions that I needed to ask the woman in charge of the requests, and they were pretty big questions, but with my pigeon French and her not-so-great English, we were struggling to communicate.

In walks an English family, and the woman sees me struggling and offers to be the translator for us, so we get to the bottom of the questions, and then I start chatting to this family. It turns out that they are visiting Burundi at the same time as us, and not only that, they are staying with the family of the man who frequently hosts us for different events and ministries (those who follow this blog more closely may remember Simon Guillebaud from last year...) They are staying just a few minutes walk up the road from where we're staying there, and we'll probably get a chance to see them while we're there.

Moments like that are those that make me smile.

YWAM Kigali

2009-03-23T11:40:00.003Z

We've been working with some fantastic ministries here in Kigali over
the last few weeks, and now I've had a chance to see around them a bit,
I thought it time to share a bit about them.

The StreetKids:
Serieux is on staff here in YWAM Kigali, and he's been working with the
same group of boys over the last 8 years. These are kids who were maybe
orphaned by the genocide or just have no where to live, and have been
living on the streets. Part of the ministry that we've been working on
is the football, where they come together for 2 times a week for some
intense training (seriously..they are fit...and good) and then have a
little programme after with a talk and some prayer. You can really see
how much these boys respect Serieux and just how much he is dedicated to
them, incredible to see. Once they've been with the programme for a
while they have a chance to attend the Vocational Training School that
YWAM runs on the base, and train in carpentry, tailoring or a few
other trades. It's a great set up, and really making a difference in
these guys lives.

Aprecom:
This is a supportive ministry for those with or affected by HIV and
AIDS. The other day, I got on the back of a motorbike and travelled half
an hour into the countryside to visit one of these groups with a guy
called Amisse. We arrived there to find a group of around ten older
women meeting to support one another and to pray. One lady Veronique
wasn't there, so we went to see where she was. When we got to her house,
we found she had broken her leg. She was just sitting outside her tiny
house on the front garden. We prayed with her, and Amisse gave her a
small sum of money that was all she needed for some medicine, but she
didn't have it.

Harvesters:
Another Serieux initiative. Every Saturday afternoon, about 50 people
in their late teens and early 20's arrive at the YWAM base. They have
an hour of teaching and worship, and then split up into differnt groups,
modern dance, traditional dance, singing... and those are just the 3 I
saw. They practice, and then perform at different venues. It's a great
place for these guys to fellowship with other Christians, as well as
learn a new skill. One of the Harvesters now dances on the Rwanda
national team.

I feel like we've only touched the tip of the iceberg. YWAM here also
runs a pre-school, a primary school, has started a church, numerous
youth and kids programmes, HIV/AIDS ministries, widows ministries and
child sponsorship programmes.

This whole base seems committed to making a real tangible differnce to
the area around here. It is a base full of passionate, committed people
who are willing to go the extra mile to help the people around them.
I've really been struck by how special this group of people is. How
much of a privilege it is to be working alongside them for these few
weeks. We are a blessed team to be here.

Tomorrow, we're headed down to the Tanzanian border with Rwanda to a
place called Bukora where the YWAM ministry here wants to plant another
base. We are the first Western team to be allowed to go down to this project,
so it's a big privilege and a big challenge all at the same time! They have a
house there, but there is no running water or electricity... so it's going to be
a bit of an adventure, but as you've seen from this post,we have some good
hosts so we're in good hands!

Lists

2009-03-21T19:01:00.001Z

Things I love about being here:

- The people, friendly, hospitable and incredibly generous...smiles a-plenty.

- Every now and then as you walk around here, a shadow will pass over you, and you'll look up, and there'll be an eagle passing a few metres overhead. Incredible.

- The singing in church, a dining hall, the street....people bust it out anywhere...

- Rwandan television playing in the background here... There's a goverment announcement happening, and in the background, they are playing "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles.

Things I'm not loving about being here:

- My cheap MP3 player.. I bought it just before I came, and rue the day... I started out with 405 songs, but it's faulty, and so every time I turn it on, it deletes a few more... I'm currently down to 23 songs... 7 of which are Christmas songs which I'm still wondering why they were there in the first place.

- Equator sunshine. I am a lobster today. (Though, probably 5% sunshine's fault, 95% own fault through forgetting of suncream in morning routine..)

Not much more to say... Short and sweet today.

Ingolofane, Ukuguru, Etara

2009-03-19T19:46:00.000Z

We've had a pretty busy week! Straight into the life of YWAM Rwanda here... And I can hardly believe we've already been here a week. In some ways the time has flown, but in others it feels like we've been here a long time, leaving the other half of the DTS in Belfast seems like an age ago!

It's been good being here though, lovely to see people I knew from last year, and catching up, as well as seeing more of Kigali and learning more of the history.

It has been hot though... For one used to the Belfast climate suddenly transplanting myself into an almost equatorial situation has been a bit of a shock to the system. I've felt a bit sapped for energy these past few days, and it's probably a mix of the heat, too much sleep (!) (there's not much else to do at nights...) and a drastic change in diet! So, that'd be great if you could keep the team and I in prayer as we continue to adjust.

Also, i've found the language barrier hard this year. I was so frustrated yesterday when I was standing outside a shop, and a 3 year old came up to me, and I had no idea what he was saying... It just seemed to emphasize the barrier, so I was praying for ways to overcome this communication block.

This week, we have worked a few times with a group of guys who used to be streetkids.. a lot of them in fact still are, but being over 18 it's hard to call them "kids"! YWAM runs a ministry and has done for the last 8 years or so, where they work with this group of guys, playing football with them, and then also trying to help them get into training courses, and different ways of helping them find their feet. When we first heard about the football, I imagined it would be fun... as many of you know, I'm not the biggest footballer, but I figured I could keep up with some kids... I neglected to recollect that these guys have been training for 8 years...and are coached by an ex-Rwandese national player... Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time on the sidelines...

Today there were lots of younger kids hanging around though, but after exhausting my 4 Kinya-Rwanda (the local language here) phrases, I found myself sitting looking at them blankly, not sure where to go from there. All I found in my pockets for my disposal were a pen and a passion fruit.

I pulled the pen out of my pocket, and started drawing a picture of a house on my hand that was in the distance. Some kids started looking, grabbing the pen and drawing on their own hands. So commenced an hour of us laughing, drawing on eachothers hands and learning eachothers languages. It was only after we finished that I realised this really had been an answer to prayer, and that even though we couldn't properly interact, we could still have some fun and share. Here's some of the words I learnt:

Dog: Imoga
Cat: Epussy
Steetlight: Etara
Motorbike: Egaru
Umbrella: Umutaka
Bus: Imodoca
Leg: Ukuguru
Wheelbarrow: Ingolofane

As we got on the crowded bus that takes us home, I saw the man in front of me stealing a glance at my pen covered hands and forearms (pictures to follow..). Looking at him, I smiled and said "Ingolofane!" and then turned away. I like imagining him telling his family at home tonight about the crazy Muzungu (white man) and his wheelbarrow on the bus...

And so it begins...

2009-03-14T13:58:00.000Z

Well, we made it safe and sound to Kigali town, and I have
to say that it is great to be back! Life definitely moves
at a different pace here, though, not a pace that I'm
necessarily opposed to...

We arrived here on Thursday lunchtime after a few too many
plane flights, and were immediately met with the heat of
an African day.

Since then, we're just been getting settled in the culture
and the base that we're staying in. Yesterday we went into
the city centre, introducing the students to the crush of
a Rwandan bus/taxi ride. It's amazing how a bench seat
meant for 3 people can suddenly fit 5!

There's been a few good moments, that have made me remember
Africa works pretty differently from back home.

Yesterday when we went to the city centre, we weren't sure
where the foreign exchange was, so I asked a police man
on the side of the street where we could find it. He beckoned
me to follow him, but little did I know he and his co-worker
had just arrested a man obviously for stealing handbags...
so off we all went for the 5 minute walk up the road,
the 6 of us, 2 police men, and one disgruntled thief in
handcuffs and about 5 handbags slung over his shoulder.

Then, last night after a great meal out with Rowan, one of
the students who I was out here with last year from Belfast,
we were out too late for the buses to take us back to the
YWAM base, so we took a motorbike taxi home. Normally, these
are grand, but as I got on this one particular evening, I
realised that his lights were less than reliable, and his
speedometer was less than working... At one point in time,
I found myself accelerating into the darkness on a back
road in Kigali, thinking "this is interesting..."

So, what do the next few weeks hold for us? We're going to
be here in Kigali for 3 weeks, before moving on to Burundi
for 6, so for the next 3 weeks, we're going to be involved
in a few different ministries on the YWAM base here. We'll
be helping out with some practical stuff on the base itself,
some painting and clean ups, and also working with a street
kids ministry, widows group, and leading devotions in some
schools. So, it's looking like it will be a busy few weeks,
but that's what we're here for!

The team in India also got there safely and are settling in
well!

Until next time...
tom

Sidenote:

Dear Mum,
The second story above (the motorbike one) was a lot less
dangerous than it sounded. After all, you know I tend to
exaggerate for drama's sake... I learnt that from you.
Love,
Your safety conscious son.

A Grand Adventure...

2009-03-09T18:39:00.006Z

Recently, there has been something about the Grand Canyon that has just intrigued me.

I've never been there before, nor have I really ever seen any good pictures of it, and anyways, I'm not sure a picture would be able to capture the vastness of it if I had seen many. The fascination all started when I read this book called "Through Painted Deserts" by Donald Miller. This is undoubtedly one of my favourite books, and I've read it many times, dipping into it countless more.

In this book, he describes a road trip he takes across the USA with a friend of his, stopping at different places along the way. It's not a book that sounds too deep, and in fact, it's not really, but there's something about it that speaks to my soul. So, I read it...

At about the half way section, him and his friend Paul go to the Grand Canyon, and hike down into its depths to camp for a night before coming up out again.

To be honest, I never really knew what the Grand Canyon was, I didn't get how deep it was.. It's a mile deep. A mile. That's about 4 times the height of the Empire State building.

We don't really think of a mile as that long a distance when we're measuring ALONG the ground, but how about down? That's pretty deep...

There's this thing called the "Sky Walk" which you can walk out on, and look down into the Grand Canyon. Looking into the depths. Standing on top of this walk way that is suspended a mile above the ground. As someone who used to have a fear of open stairs...this may not seem like the most ideal of ideas, yet there's something about it that both fills me with fear, and that thrill of adventure.

On Wednesday I am going to Rwanda. I am taking a team of five people out to Rwanda for 4 weeks, and then on to Burundi for 6 weeks. At the minute, I can feel a bit of that sense of fear. I feel like I'm standing at the top of this adventure, looking down. There is that fear, but also that great sense of adventure. These are 5 people that I've spent my last four months with, sharing our lives and walking with God, growing in our relationship and trying to be more like him.

But, just as the Grand Canyon is a long way down. Rwanda and Burundi seem so distant right now. I think I'm ready just to jump into it (Africa...not the Grand Canyon...)

Stay tuned here for more details of our journey. I'll hopefully be a better blogger while I'm away!

This is the team!

Back Row: Jack (Israel), Tom (me...)
Front Row: Nosipho (South Africa), Stephanie (USA), Amalia (Canada), Megan (USA/Japan)

All alone...

2009-01-23T23:25:00.002Z

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend in Bushmills on a DTS New Year Retreat. This weekend has become somewhat of a tradition over the last few years, and we share it with another group that YWAM has good and growing links with, the Sword of the Spirit, and their group of gap-year students.

This year it has been a particular joy to be involved with these groups, as the two communities have mixed well, an outsider might not recognise that there are two groups, so well have they integrated. That's a joy.

One of the things about my life that has become normal, but that every now and then I am reminded of, and remember that it's not normal, is that I am living a very international life. It's not unusual for me to be out with a group friends, and for each of us to be from a different country. I have slipped into this odd little international, multi-cultural world...just off the Lower Shankill. On the Friday of the retreat, I was leading some worship, and as I looked around the room, I realised that I was the only one from Northern Ireland. The 25 or more people gathered together in that room were from a variety of places, but we were all here, united in this place at this time for a common purpose. The worship of the God who brought us all together.

People from South Africa, England, America, Canada, Costa Rica, Greece, Egypt, Argentina, Lebanon, Israel and Japan surrounded me. It made this verse from Isaiah come alive to me:

"On this mountain, the Lord will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all nations; he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth" Isaiah 25 6-8

God is not the God of one nation. He is alive in the nations today, working in each of us, in every nation, tribe and tongue who calls this planet 'home'. This fact cannot be denied. We are called to live together here, to see our shared humanity and to recognise the spark of the divine in each of us. One day, EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, in EVERY nation.

This evening was a beautiful reminder of our unity. That no matter how many conflicts riddle the Earth, how many nations go to war against one another, there is a higher power that unites us. Jesus Christ.

Some of the two groups together in our DTS classroom a few months ago

Don't worry... I wasn't alone for long! A fellow Northern Ireland-er joined me the next morning... :)

Africa

2008-12-31T21:07:00.000Z

There is something about Africa.

I never saw it coming, but it digs right in under your skin and sits there, waiting for the oddest moments when a smell, a sound, even just a feeling will throw you right back there.

Walking through the Kansas City Central library, I just had one of those moments, I think it was a smell. The other day it was something as simple as the feeling of closeness in the air. It’s odd when it happens, it feels like an almost holy moment. I want to stop and try and pinpoint exactly what it is that is taking me back to those red clay streets and bustling markets.

It’s just one of those things that I’m glad to always carry with me. I love how Africa intrudes on my day when I least expect it.

And, thankfully, it’s not always just going to be just a memory. This year for the DTS I’m going to be leading a team of four students to Rwanda and Burundi. I’m excited to get back to these countries, to catch up with some of the incredible people and children we met and to reunite with three of the students I went with last year who are now out there full time, Rowan, Alison and Meg.

I’m excited to relive the old memories and feelings from the past, and hopefully build and experience a few more.

Christmas Update!

2008-12-23T22:52:00.005Z

Music suggestion: Billy Currington “Don’t” from the album “Little Bit of Everything”. I’ve written this entire blog to this song on repeat, so if you want to share in the experience of with me, how about listening to it while you read it? This has zero significance, personal, spiritual or otherwise… I just really like this song right now…. Click on the link below. Could I make this any easier for you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtKhOWhwmOQ

Sometimes, you don’t realise how tired you are until you stop. I think I could say this has been the story of my life for the past few months!

I’ve finally managed to stop…Although, unfortunately it meant putting about 3000 miles between myself and everything that I had to do! I write this blog from the other side of the planet from most of you who read this regularly (and just across the street from others!). I am currently holed up in Kansas City, Kansas, where I’m spending Christmas and New Years this year. I was over here in the States for a good friend of mines wedding in North Carolina, and decided instead of turning straight back around and heading home that it was about time I tasted what an American Christmas had to offer! So here I am…

So, it’s been a crazy few months! I’m actually not even sure where to start! I suppose I could jump right into the DTS…

Lidia, one of the staff on the DTS keeps telling me that “The Lord is spoiling you”, and I have to agree with her! This group of students that we have this year is fantastic. From the very beginning of the school, their openness to learn, willingness to serve and readiness for whatever God has for them this year has blessed me, and made this group of people not just a joy to lead, but a whole lot of fun too. In my first year leading a school, I really do feel spoiled with the group of people that we have! Here’s a few photos of the past two months or so. Hopefully it’ll give you a little flavour of what’s been going on!

Group picture at the Big Fish in Belfast, I think i might have been confused as to where the camera was...

The boys

The girls

Our group with another year out team (from the Sword of the Spirit)…We’re jumping off chairs…not for any real reason. We're just cool like that...

Classroom shot...

We’ve had some great speakers imparting their wisdom and learning to us and the students, a few great trips away to get to know eachother better and some incredible times of meeting with God as a group and individually.

On the not so wonderful side, I have struggled with a few aspects of leading. I think it’s a matter of getting used to the role, and actually starting to walk into it, and also remembering that I'm not in this on my own, that God is the one who put me there, and He's the one who's going to make me able to do it! Although the group has been fantastic, it doesn’t diminsish the responsibility that is on us as a staff team, and me as a leader, and sometimes that can weigh heavy on me. So, the last couple of months haven’t been without their challenges, but with an incredibly supportive staff team, YWAM Belfast community and a great group of students, I think I’m coming out the other side hopefully having learnt a few lessons and better for it!

I’m trying to think of some non-YWAM news now… But, I’m actually not sure there is a whole lot! For the past few months or so, I’ve been going to a pretty great little group on a Monday night where we get together and read a bit of the Bible, chat about it and then pray together. Before we started, I was praying and felt the Lord giving me a picture of soil being tilled and being made fresh. I really feel like this has actually come into being. It’s a great group where we are becoming more comfortable with eachother and getting to know eachother as friends, and also a chance to encourage and challenge one another by what we’re reading in God’s word. It’s really become one of the highlights of my week (and not just because a few of them will read this!) but, because in my little world of YWAM Belfast which can get quite inward looking, this is a chance for me to get out of the bubble and share and be with a great group of people for one night a week. I really have felt my faith being stirred up by being with this group and a freshness from sharing and being with them.

And here I am in America. Contemplating the rest of this year. There are still about 5 months left for this current group of DTS students. What does that hold for us? We have another 2 months of lectures and local outreach in Belfast (including one week of outreach in a town or city somewhere in Ireland for the first week in February). Then, we’re heading off on big outreach. This year we are again taking out two groups. One will go to India and the other will be heading to Rwanda and Burundi.

The students have prayed about where they are meant to go, and made their decisions, and as staff, we have also done this. So the teams are together! I’m going to be going back to Rwanda and Burundi this year, which I’m actually starting to get excited about. I’m looking forward to being back in these beautiful countries, meeting people we met last year again, as well as catching up with some of the students (Meg, Rowan and Alison) who were students on the DTS last year and are now back out there in Africa full time. It’ll be good to talk to them and share in their journeys!

So, can I ask you to pray? (You can pray with or without Billy Currington…your choice!) There are a few specifics:

o For the DTS staff, we have actually found ourselves one staff member down for the rest of the DTS. So as we readjust to our new look staff team and the new year, would you ask God for an easy transition and for us to get things done well and the best they can be?
o For the students as they continue to grow and seek God. That they would grow in faith and in the ability to hear God’s voice (and the staff too!)
o For me, as I continue to grow into my role as the leader of this group (and for grace for the staff and students who are graciously being my guinea pigs for this year!)
o John and Megan Harris as they start out their married life (This has nothing to do with YWAM, but I thought I’d throw it in there…There’s a picture of them below to give you a visual!)

Thank you for your prayers up to now. The fact that the students are doing so well and growing in faith and love is, I am without a doubt, down to those and the goodness of the God who sustains us.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the current trip that I’m on in America. I pray that God will bless your Christmas and New Years, and that He will reveal Himself in the perfect way this season.

Esther, Catherine and Kyler

The Bridal party

John and Megan Harris

John and I

DTS is a go....

2008-11-09T15:30:00.001Z

I wrote this article for the YWAM Ireland website a few weeks ago... Thought if it was good enough for there, it should be good enough for here!

In no less than 4 days time the first of 12 students will be arriving in one of Belfast’s two airports. Laden down with luggage, we will welcome them into our community here in YWAM Belfast.

Next Monday begins the 7th DTS to be run in Belfast (at least this time around! I keep hearing rumour about a DTS that was run here in the 1970’s….) and I think the 4th to have a distinctly Reconciliation focus.

So what’s that all about? Why “reconciliation”? In many ways, reconciliation is becoming one of those buzz words, thrown out there to sound impressive though no one really knows what it means. Here in Belfast, we long to be serious about it. In a world where anger, violence and revenge are often the “go-to” tactics in conflict situations, we wonder whether there is another way?

We believe yes, and we’re going to be spending the next 7 months exploring this idea with this group of 12 students. YWAM’s motto is “To know God and make Him known” and one of our foundational values is “Do first, then teach”. There’s something special about knowing something personally before you move on to ministering out of that. In this time, we want to share with the students the God who came to them, who has reconciled Himself to them, and from that place of knowing God as a reconciler we can move on to trying to mirror His image and be peacemakers in these situations that surround us.

During the DTS students will have lectures, be involved in local outreach in the local community, have a chance to hear stories from people affected by conflict and learn from them, and also engage in a 10 week trip to a post or current conflict area to put what they are learning into practice.

Our vision is for a group of people to emerge from this DTS, trained in both discipleship and an awareness of their relationship to God, but also skilled to speak into conflict situations, to speak out “this is NOT the will of God!” To cry peace in a land of war, and forgiveness in the midst of revenge.

After all, we’ve been told to get on with it: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). We have a mandate…. This DTS exists to raise a generation of people willing to live it… Those willing to give up everything to see it come into being.

A Leap of Faith

2008-09-28T17:05:00.001+01:00

So, I’m back in the “blogging” saddle after a few months away! I’ll write up a quick synopsis of my last few months in the next wee while, but for now I thought I’d share something that’s been on my mind this weekend.

On Friday night, I went to the Belfast Activity Centre with Fitzroy’s youth group. It had been a long week, and I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the experience… Climbing up walls and jumping off high things wasn’t sounding too appealing! But, off we went.

As you can see from the pictures, we spent a good bit of timing climbing up this wall… It was pretty high, and heights aren’t altogether my favourite thing… But I managed it alright after a few goes and plenty of team encouragement!

BUT…. As with all things… Escalation was inevitable…

We moved on to a challenge called “the leap of faith”. This consisted of climbing up a tall telegraph pole (probably about 20 or more feet into the air), and then standing up on a little platform, and jumping off to catch a trapeze bar out in the middle of the air…

I was pretty sure that I was not going to attempt this… I had decided that the climbing wall was enough of an achievement for the evening.

Then I decided to give it a go… I’d love to say that I changed my mind, and just decided to be adventurous and go for it… But to be honest, it probably had more to do with the teenage girls (who themselves had already done it…) in my group gathering around me and telling me to “Be a man!”… Yeah….that definitely did it….

So, as I was being harnessed up for this challenge, I still wasn’t convinced that this was something I needed to do… Until Emmy, our instructor from New Zealand asked me a question.

Emmy: “Why are you afraid?”

Me: “Cos I don’t normally jump off poles into mid-air”

Emmy: “Is this a real risk, or a perceived risk?”

This struck me. What was I really afraid of in this situation? Was it of falling? If so, that was a bit of a ridiculous worry, I knew how well I was harnessed in, I’d seen about ten people go before me, leap out into mid air and come down gently, landing softly on the ground.

What was it?

I couldn’t really put my finger on why I was afraid. So off I went… I climbed up that post, stood atop that platform, and hurled myself out into the air to that trapeze. (All, admittedly without looking down a single time….not even a glimpse…)

But I did it.

I think I learnt a valuable lesson about faith on Friday night, a lesson that has been running around my head for the last few days.

When we “risk” something, stepping out on a limb, for God. Why do we worry? So often, I worry about things, I worry about the way they are going to work out. I worry about the things that God has called me to, worrying about whether they’re going to go well, and whether I’m even able to do them in the first place. I worry about failing. I think it probably comes down to the fact that I’m not always convinced God is there to catch me if I fall.

Is this real risk, or perceived risk?

Is trusting in God a real risk, or a perceived risk?

Is God not who He claims to be? Is He not who He has promised He is?

I believe that He has promised to stand with us, to go before us in times of trial and difficulty, that He will never call us to something that, with his strength, we are not able to do.

Is trusting God a risk, or is it just something we think is risky?

I’m beginning to realise that it’s just our minds. It’s just our own worries and insecurities that make us believe that God isn’t REALLY all that trustworthy. When the truth is, He is.

Another thing I learnt was that in taking a leap of faith. In stepping out for God in something, it doesn’t matter if we are feeling the best about it. As I climbed that pole, I can wholeheartedly say that I was not feeling the best I have ever felt… I was pretty scared!

I think the problem with our churches today, is that we are taught to play it safe. To only “risk” what we know for a fact we can achieve.

What would happen if more people started making leaps of faith. If more of us started jumping out into the unknown? Could this be a church that really starts to live?

It’s not about feeling good about it. But we know, that just as I had a safety harness that was not going to break and was always there to catch me throughout, God is our harness. The one who reaches down and gives us the strength to make the jump.

Here’s to more leaps of faith.

More big jumps into the unknown with a God who we KNOW is there to catch us.

Summer Adventures...

2008-08-01T16:12:00.003+01:00

I write this blog entry sitting warming myself in my friend Karen’s house. I had a complete wardrobe change today when I got back from walking home from the shop, because I got wetter than I think I have EVER been…

Only yesterday morning I awoke to beautiful blue skies, devoid of any cloud cover, and with the promise of another sunny day at 35 degrees celcius… Unfortunately, I also awoke yesterday morning in Spain, and not Dublin.

I have spent the last 5 days of my July luxuriating on the south coast of Spain, on holiday with my family and two other families that we head away with (the Kirks and the Scotts). It was a break that couldn’t have come at a better time, giving me a great chance to get away from Belfast and just get my head showered, and start to get a few things sorted in my mind for next year.

The view from my bed (yes, that is my foot in the foreground)… This is what the sky looked like the whole time. I think I saw 3 clouds in the whole time I was there. Unlike now, as I look out the window and am searching for the blue sky…

The pool…I spent a lot of time in here!

So, after all that relaxing, why am I in Dublin and not back hard to work in the office in Belfast? Well, I’m taking all that rest that I’ve saved up this past week, and I’m about to blow it all on a youth trip to Germany! Bright and early on Saturday morning, I’m going to be heading away with my friend Karen’s youth group to TeenStreet, which is a Europe wide youth-conference run by the mission organisation OM (Operation Mobilisation). From what I’ve heard about it, I think it’s a little bit similar to Summer Madness…but on a bigger scale, so I’m looking forward to seeing it in action!

We’d love to be going to Germany with your prayers. The theme for the conference is “Blindsight” and talking about how Paul became blind but then regained his sight when he met with Jesus. We’ve also been praying about our time in Germany, and feel like this message has a lot to teach to the 7 young people that we’re going to be bringing! The idea that at the minute they may be blind to a lot of the spiritual world around them, but that God really wants to open their eyes and open them up to Him. It’s an exciting time!

Hopefully my return from Germany will also mark a return to regular blogging! I’ve been a little lax these past few months.

I leave you with this passage that God has given us as a team taking these young people to encourage us. Perhaps you can use it as an aid to pray for us.

tom

Mark 8:22-25
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

When I set my mind to something....

2008-07-13T16:38:00.005+01:00

I thought it was about time to share with you, my blogging readers one of the proudest moments of my short life... Relevant Magazine is a Christian magazine in the USA, and every week the 4 editors get together to record a podcast that they then post on the internet. I love the Relevant Podcast....and so, last Summer I made it my goal to find my way onto it. Luckily, we had a way in... On occasion, people we send in food from the US and beyond for them to sample while they record the podcast.

We thought that no "snacks" feature would EVER be complete without the joy of Tayto crisps.... So, my co-conspirator Hannah and I went and toured the factory, documented our visit, and then sent them off to Relevant...
Enjoy....I know I did....

So, why am I sharing this with you now, a year after the event? Well... I woke up this morning to a message from Hannah saying that our "Relevant" exposure continues... In the magazine this month a girl from Belfast wrote in, they commented on her letter:

"Ireland, you say? Can you send us some Tayto crisps? The prawn-flavoured ones are shrimp-a-licious!"

My pride continues to grow....

The Latest

2008-07-10T13:02:00.014+01:00

Here in YWAM Belfast we’ve had a busy few weeks. I realise that I’ve been pretty lax over the last month and a half at updating this blog, funny how when internet is scarce in Burundi I manage to do it pretty regularly, and when it’s plentiful here, I don’t do it!

I suppose I should just backtrack and catch you up…

Summer madness hit us at the end of June/start of July. This year at Summer Madness, YWAM had a big venue to operate from, whereas in the past we’ve only had a small stand, so it was a bit of a step up.

We ran a venue that we called “the Sacred and the Secular”, and in it we tried to address the issue of compartmentalisation that we see in Christianity sometimes today. How we see some things as “holy” and other things as “worldly”. We believe that everything is of God, and we aren’t to put God in a box, allowing him out at our leisure or pleasure. So, our venue had both things that seemed “secular” and “sacred” alongside one another. We had pool tables, playstation, a prayer tent, the stations of the cross, an art station and table tennis.
We also ran two evening shows called “Around the World in 80 Minutes” where we sought to inspire attendees at Summer Madness for the nations and show them a bit of the richness of culture that is outside their own.

(I realised as I was reading through this entry again that it looks like the above picture was one taken at the events we were running...they were well attended, but not THAT well... :) this is a picture from one of the main stage worships at the festival.)

I also had the privilege of helping Fitzroy Presbyterian take their youth group to the event, which included camping there on site….no fancy bed for me! I love Summer Madness and I first started going as a teenager, so I love being able to be a part of other young people’s journey there.

Following Summer Madness, I took part in an event called FWD (“Forward”, or Faith With Deeds). During this time, we served the area of Highfield in the Greater Shankill Area, cleaning gardens, cutting hedges, playing with kids and having a big community barbeque and open air concert. Something that I love about living here on the Shankill is when people come here on mission and seeing the difference that visiting teams make in the community. Streetreach (the model on which FWD was based on) has made a powerful impact on this community in the past 5 years, and so it was an honour to be able to be a part of this continuing on. God is at work on the Shankill, and it’s amazing to watch it happening, and exciting to see how it’s going to unfold…

During our time on FWD, I found myself doing a lot of reminiscing! Lots of the things that we did, funnily enough took me back to Burundi, and to some of the things that we did while we were there. It was a blessed time for me, and a wonderful time of looking back. Below are a few pictures and their contrasting ones… Interesting to see the differences!

Grass cutting: The Northern Irish way and the Burundian…you’d be surprised which one was quicker and more effective!

Carrying bricks…unfortunately the same in any country… Brute force!

So, that was a bit of a catch up for you...hopefully it's answered a few questions and maybe created a few more!

There’s some stuff rolling around in my head at the minute…so hopefully there’ll be somewhat of a more contemplative entry for you in the next while…watch this space!

Challenged?

2008-06-24T14:59:00.006+01:00

When we were driving through Burundi, I was reading a book called "For What It's Worth: A Call to No Holds Barred Discipleship" by Simon Guillebaud. I've been re-reading this book since I got back here, and remembering the challenge that I got from reading it. It was an exciting time, driving through this amazing country on a bit of a crazy adventure, and just being challenged to radical living... Following is the most challenging story I read in it... Be warned that you might not see things in the same way after reading it...

On 4th July 1984, Charlie Peace was hanged. He was one of London's best-known criminals. As Peace was being led to the gallows, and Anglican clergyman followed him timidly, reading from the Prayer Book, "Those who die without Christ experience hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death in itself can bring."
When Peace heard those horrific words, he turned around sharply and shouted in the clergyman's face. "Do you believe that? Do you really believe that?"
His surprised victim stuttered and stammered, "Well...I....suppose i do...."
"Well, I don't," said Peace, "but if i did, I'd get down on my hands and knees and and crawl all over Britain, even if it were paved with pieces of broken glass, if I could rescue just one person from what you just told me."

Challenged??

I know I am...

It's been a while...

2008-06-20T12:13:00.003+01:00

Hi there,
Been a while since I posted anything on here! Below is an article i wrote for my churches magazine. Thought I'd share it on here too...
Happy reading!
tom

(p.s. I haven't forgotten my promise of photos...)

Where do I start to capture in just a few words the time I spent in
Rwanda and Burundi as part of a team of 8 people with "Youth With a
Mission"? Were I to share everything that happened and that we
experienced, it would take a much sturdier staple in this issue of the
Link to bind it together. So, here I sit, searching through my mind to
think of one story that will encapsulate our time, one story to show
the beauty of the countries and cultures that we had the privilege of
catching a glimpse of for a short period of time. One story. Is that
even possible?

Our time in Africa was a busy one, we travelled a lot, meeting many
incredible contacts along the way. At one stage we taught about the
issues of Reconciliation and Forgiveness, challenging 70 pastors
during a week-long conference to think about these issues and take
them back to their congregations and areas. The decision they made at
the end of the week to work together as churches to promote this
principle was an incredibly moving one. Is this the story I want to
share with you?

Or, how about the time we visited an elderly woman in an "Internally
Displaced Peoples" camp; seeing the place that she lived, barely more
than mud bricks and sticks for a roof, and not a scrap of food in the
bare room described to us as the kitchen? The warning to be careful
not to let other people see the £10 gift we gave to her, because, if
people knew, she would be killed for this meagre amount by nightfall?
Do I tell you about the incredible, unexpected joy that I saw in her
eyes? The strength of her spirit and the open arms of welcome we
received from her?

Do I share the laughter breaking in the face of an abandoned HIV
positive baby, now receiving the care and love he deserves at the
hands of an adoptive mother; or the sorrow and desperation in the eyes
of a woman walking alongside our bus, pleading, with arms outstretched
for money to feed her starving children? Do I tell you about God's
incredible provision seen at an orphanage growing in numbers and
facilities; or our confusion at God's apparent 'neglect' of a group of
Congolese refugees, who, having managed to escape across the Lake into
Burundi, weren't allowed further, having merely been existing on a
small patch of grass for 4 months and counting. The love of a group of
young orphans who we had loved, played and laughed with for a week
laying their hands on us and praying for our safety as we continued on
our journey; or the hatred we saw as a remaining rebel group shelled
the city of Bujumbura, killing innocent people and continuing a cycle
of violence that has existed for many years. The pure delight as we
played parachute games with a large group of children, or the immense
grief as we stood and prayed with one of our hosts on the plot of land
where she grew up, and on this spot 15 years ago, 32 members of her
close family were brutally murdered in the Burundian genocide.

So many stories, and so few words to tell them.

In Rwanda and Burundi, there is a lot of need, and a lot of hurt. It's
easy to be overwhelmed by some of these stories, to get caught up in
the horror and the deprivation, to convince yourself that this is what
characterizes a nation.

The most difficult part is to see past these things and to see the
good that is happening; that right in the midst of all these horrific
things is a God who hates them more than we know and is hurt by what
he sees more than we could fathom. This same God is on the move in
these situations and in these places, and for every terrible story we
heard, was a contrary story of beauty and God's intervention.

This is the image of Rwanda and Burundi that I will hold in my mind;
one of hope. A place where people are aware of their difficulties, but
are willing, and able, to see beyond it. To see with God's eyes the
situations unfolding around them and not their own.

To stand with the woman whose 32 relatives were killed and hear
nothing but love for the country and its people in her voice is an
incredible thing. It's something that I know for a fact can only come
from God; a God whose desire for forgiveness and love is far beyond
our own, calling us up from out of the depths of our own despair to
try and emulate and maintain His image.

So, what can I tell you? I honestly did intend when I sat down to
write this account to share only one story, planning to share more at
a coming date; but I now find myself sitting here having given away
most of them! Although a few pages can't encapsulate an experience, I
hope this has given you a flavour of our time.

Without a doubt we met with the power and movement of God, and were
privileged to see and experience both those we met and ourselves
changing as a result.

Youth for Christ, Gitega

2008-05-25T19:21:00.004+01:00

Here's a little insight into what our evenings were like when we spent time at the Youth for Christ orphanage in Gitega, Burundi.... plenty of dancing and lots of good times!

Back in Belfast

2008-05-17T17:39:00.005+01:00

I'm in a dilema....

I'm sitting here trying to figure out if Belfast is actually cold, or if it's just the fact that I've been in near-equatorial Africa for 6 weeks that is skewing my judgement.... Regardless, it's colder here! Though I think i'm okay with that, it's funny how you miss things like clouds!

So, I'd say you can guess from that last paragraph that I've arrived safely home on Northern Irish ground! It was quite the trip with a few overnights gaining us a few extra stamps on our passports, but before we knew it, we were flying high over Loch Neagh, preparing to land!

I'm staying at home tonight before heading off to Closkelt tomorrow (the other YWAM NI base) to debrief with the DTS before they leave next weekend. It's hard to believe that this busy year is coming to an end, at least this part of it.

This blog has been missing pictures for a few months... So, here's a very select few just for now!

Rwanda & Burundi team at Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura.

The pastors from the conference in Buhiga:

Playing with the parachute at the orphanage!

Prepare for a few more great pictures to appear over the next few weeks on this place, none really taken by me! Our team had some talented photographers...

But for now, I'll leave you with a little comedy... You may remember a few weeks ago when I told you about the over-zealous Burundian Westlife fan I met in the internet cafe? Well, I received an email from him where he makes it clear he still believes I'm holding out on him with their addresses... An excerpt can be found below:

Hello .
My friend it's me Tonny Billy Clinton the small boy that you talked about westlife in the cyber . Now I wanna that you'll be my best friend as the westlife Please tell them everywhere you see them that in Burundi there is a boy who love them.
Bye bye

I'm afraid I'm likely not going to be able to pass on the message...but if there's anyone out there with access, be sure to pass it on to the boys!

Blessings,

Tom (Back in Belfast!)

Shortest update....

2008-05-12T15:16:00.001+01:00

This is going to be a quick one! I have 9 minutes left at the internet cafe.... So, we just arrived back in Rwanda safely after our time in Burundi and then a few days relaxing and debriefing by Lake Kivu, a beautiful place.

It's been a busy time, and we're just about ready to get on a plane to head back to (i hear tell of) sunny Belfast! It's been a great few weeks since i last got to internet. We've had some incredible times of ministry, and some great experiences of God here in these countries. I realise this is pretty brief...but i can't even start to think of recounting tales!

We leave on Thursday from Kigali, spend the night in Ethiopia, then fly to London, spend the night there, and back to Belfast on Saturday! So, it's going to be a long travel! Please pray for us as we travel, for safety and that all our connections would be met in time!

Blessings from Kigali.

tom

God is good, all the time.
All the time, God is good.

And now for something completely different....

2008-05-02T16:42:00.002+01:00

So, i realised that with the exception of that last 'westlife' related blog, the last few entries have been pretty serious, so i thought i would make you aware of a few good things that have been happening here in Burundi, good...and weird...

- Discovering on the plane that chocolate jelly isn't nearly as delicious as it sounds....not even close...

- Lying underneath the darkening sky on concrete heated by the hot african sun and a back worn out from a day lugging bricks around, watching the stars pop out one by one, reading the passage in Job (somewhere around Job 39 i think...) about how the Lord is the creator of the Heavens.

- Sitting outside the house in the early morning and seeing items such as buckets, bunches of hundreds of bananas and bags of sweet potatoes 'walking' by. (Our fence is about ( and a half feet tall, the height of the average burundian woman walking by with a full load on her head!)

- Buying 15ft of sugar cane for 25p...that should keep us going for a while!

- Seeing the look of peoples faces when they realize that reconciliation really could work and just might be the answer for the country...

- The house we stay in being inundated by HUNDREDS of large flying insects during a particularly heavy evening rainstorm... i think i saw a side to amalia i never knew existed...and didn't want to!

- Washing dishes in buckets with the sun on our backs and a breeze on our faces.

- Singing goodnight songs together as a group to Danny, one of the orphaned babies at a place we were staying.

- a whole lot of laughter!

This is just a snapshot, and i gotta go here, but i look forward to being a little more specific, and also sharing pictures sometime in the near future!

You should know that things are well here, the team is safe and well, burundi is still a little uneasy, but things are great and we're walking in the will and power of God, so keep praying for us, and we'll let you know how things progress!

Please pray in particular for me as i try and figure out what it means to lead this outreach not in MY power, but in God's.

Nagasaga from Burundi!

Unexpected conversations...

2008-04-26T14:56:00.004+01:00

You can leave the island, but you can't escape it...

I'm sitting in this internet cafe listening to westlife on my computer, and i cant turn it off! I told the guy that they were from the same island and now he's trying to convince me to give him their email addresses.. he thinks im holding out on him... i am not... "I would give you them if i knew them", I promise earnestly!

He did however want me to write down their names for him.. i worringly remember nicky, mark and kian... i think im missing one...

Answers on a postcard to the internet cafe in Gitega!

Go in Peace?

2008-04-26T14:50:00.001+01:00

Finally found some internet! In fact, not just internet, but electricity! We've been out in the sticks for the last week, so facebook and all those luxuries have been hard to come by! But it's been a great week. We have been running a pastors conference in reconciliation and peacebuilding, and it was an incredible time. The team has done amazingly, really stepping up to the plate and preparing so well for the talks we've been taking. I've been so impressed and blessed by seeing them work so well as a team and also individuals this week!

However, the interesting thing is that it was a week that very nearly didn't happen!

Cast your mind back a week to Sunday morning. Rema Ministries, the team running the conference has arrived and is packing our stuff on top of their landrover ready to leave in a few minutes. At this point in time, someone hands me the number for the US embassy in Bujumbura. I call them to make sure that it was okay for us to travel upcountry, what with the trouble that had been going on. He tells me that there is NO WAY we should be travelling upcountry, and that they are currently ''hunkered down'' in town! So, this changes things for us.... I gathered the team together and we sat down and talked and prayed about this recent development. As you can imagine, we were a little on edge...

We prayed and felt God telling us to ''go in peace and protection", but i remained very aware of this warning from the embassy... We asked the head of the ministry Theo, an incredible man, what he thought. He called the 2nd in command of the police in Burundi! We're running in well connected circles! And HE said the compelte opposite of the embassy, that upcountry was completey safe and the city is the dangerous place! So, we are faced with this crazy decision... Two pretty reputable sources saying completely differnet things! So, what could we do?
We went to prayer again, and heard the same thing, that we should go in peace. After a quick early morning wake up call to the head of YWAM NI back in Belfast to confirm our decision, we decided to go with the advice of those on the ground in Bujumbura, and who likely know the situation, and headed upcountry!

We believe we made a wise decision and one based on God and His plan for this outreach. And we were so blessed by this past week of ministry and the pastors we met, that we realised that this truly was God's plan for us this past week.

We recognize God's hand in our outreach and the things that have happened, that He truly has been our protector! Things are still touch and go in Burundi, so we appreciate your continued prayer and thoughts!

We are staying and working in an incredible Youth for Christ orphanage this week, the kids are amazing, and we're looking forward to playing with and learning from them, seeing God's face in them this week after the pastors last week!

Hope all is well wherever you read this from,

Blessings,

tom

The Reality of Reconciliation

2008-04-19T15:34:00.002+01:00

Hi friends,

Burundi is not a place that often makes it onto the news, for some reason the problems and issues here never really make it onto the world scene. So, I’m sure you aren’t aware of the last few days in Bujumbura. Here’s an excerpt from an email that an amazing contact of ours here Simon Guillebaud sent out, before you read it though, know that we are all safe and sound on the team:

‘Last night was the biggest attack on the capital for several years. Earlier in the day policemen were stationed on every street corner and rumours were flying around. Then at about 8:45pm gunfire and shelling kicked off in a big way as the FNL rebels embarked on an audacious/futile attack on various military installations about town. We had fourteen people in our lounge for home-group at the time. It is a surreal thing to listen to the big thuds of shells landing, the occasional whoosh of a rocket hurtling through the air, and the rattling of machine gunfire whilst knowing that it is all real, that people are dying - maybe friends - certainly plenty of innocents caught in the crossfire.

This morning I rang various people to check they were OK. American friends across town had a gun battle going on right next to them on the street. They shifted their 3-year-old and newborn into the corridor on the floor and the kids managed to sleep through the incredibly loud noises. Ours slept through as well, but it was all a bit further away from our part of town. Shadrach, who works for us, came to work and asked to be excused. Two of his children were missing, as they’d fled during the night and got separated. He’s looking for them right now.’

So, there it is. As you can hear it’s been a crazy few days. We could hear these events unfolding pretty clearly from where we’re staying in the capital. This is something that for us isn’t commonplace at all, but for those whom we are working and staying with, this used to be an everyday way of life that everyone hoped would stay in the past.

So, this blog is a call out for prayer for our team, and also for this country. We as a team have prayed about our program over the next few weeks, and we feel God telling us to keep it the way it is. He is our protector and our provider, our strength and our shield. Please pray as we travel upcountry that we will have a safe journey surrounded by God’s overwhelming presence.

Some of you may think us crazy for staying, but you should know that as Simon said, hopefully this is an isolated incident. Also, unfortunately this is the consequence of seeking to work in reconciliation. Divison and violence is real and exists in the world today, and this is just a small part of it here in this corner. As the word says, God ‘gave us the ministry of reconciliation’ (2 Cor 5:18) and to truly be involved in this ministry, to be peacemakers, I suppose it means that we have to go to the places that are in need of peace.

You should however know that we are not taking unnecessary risks or putting ourselves in places of obvious danger. We seek to be as 'wise as serpents and innocent as doves' (Matthew 10:16), wise in the way of making smart decisions about things like this, and innocent in remembering that we have a God who is assuredly our protector, living in the realisation that being here in Bujumbura at this time and in the will of God is a much safer place that safely back at home in Belfast outside of His will. Our God is a faithful God, and we believe in His sovereignty and love for us.

Please pray for us as we live and minister here, and also for those who live here and those perpetrating this violence, that they would be convicted of their actions and lay down their weapons.

One quick story…

Around about 8:30 the other night, a few students and I sat down to discuss a few things that have been causing conflict on the team, a slightly tense situation ensued, and then the fighting started in the background. Although we realised that we couldn’t continue on without these team issues being solved, this fighting in the background served us as a reminder that we are here in Burundi as a team, that if we can’t sort out these relatively minor issues here, then what chance does this country have of even beginning to address it’s history of conflict? What chance does OUR country of Northern Ireland have? We seek to live lives that not only teach about reconciliation, but LIVE it too. A group that loves each other deeply and ministers out of this spirit of unity and love.

Namahoro from Bujumbura!

2008-04-14T15:15:00.002+01:00

Greetings from an oddly rainy africa!

i never expected africa to be so rainy! thankfully though, its the good warm kind of rain and not the cold miserable variety we in Belfast are used to!

apologies for the lack of puncutuation of pretty much any kind, and no doubt before this is over spelling mistakes, but keyboards are pretty different here, and im not sure its worth the effort....
anways, things are going great here. the team are doing well, and ministry is exciting. we just finished a morning of walking a group of students through the forgiveness journey, a separate ministry of ywam belfast. it was a good time of interacting between our two teams, and they had lots of questions that we attempted to answer! please pray for this group of young men as we seek to lead them in this journey.

the next few weeks are going to be pretty busy! this week we're with these students and also doing some outreach in a slum of Bujumbura. Next week we will be going up country to run a pastor's conference on reconciliation, please pray for wisdom for us as we speak to these pastors, that God would give us grqce and words to say that would inspire and challenge them, and likewise that they would do the same for us! After that we go to work with a youth for Christ orphanage for a week and then for the following week on to other ministries in the rural area such as prison and militqry camp ministry. It's a packed time!

Please pray for the staff of this outreach, that we would knozw how to lead well and to inspire and disciple these students as best we can, and for the students that they would have a good mission experience and also be open to God changing and moving them.

How about a few random highlights to finish??

¤ Catching up with the team at YWAM Kigali, hearing all their adventures up to then and looking forward to being a part of some more.

¤ Some quality bonding time with the affectionately named "Sparky the Cockroach" in mine and Rowan's bedroom...

¤ Being inspired by some INCREDIBLE people we've met here. In particular, a guy called Simon and a lady called Georgette.. Remind me to tell you more about both of them.

¤ Standing in front of a Burundian church singing a song i wrote about reconciliation in Kirundi, the local language, and seeing the looks of surprise on peoples faces. Pretty fantastic!

¤ Realising that in Africa, time is really more of a suggestion rather than something concrete!

¤ The bird that sits outside my bedroom window and sounds EXACTLY like the beeping clock in 24. Fans will know what I mean by that!

Okay, we're going to meet as a team in a few minutes and i'm still in the city centre! Will update again soon hopefully,

Until then,

t

Greetings from Heathrow (and thankfully NOT Terminal 5!)

2008-04-07T16:41:00.002+01:00

Heathrow airport is great...apart from one thing, there are hardly any seats to be found, and so, I'm consigned to a space on the floor for the 4 hours before i can check in to my flight which leaves this evening.
So far, this journey has been nothing if not hassle free...a few moments have even had me rejoicing in the goodness of our God. Sometimes, the little things in life that could seem like coincidences are the places that I like to see God working...a few examples of which I've seen in the last few hours!

My bag is pretty full for my trip over here, I'm taking a few extra things which means that I don't actually have a lot of room for my own stuff! On top of the necessities for an African adventure, I have a guitar and a kids play parachute (the latter of which is taking up no less than HALF of my rucksack). The flight from Belfast to Heathrow had a baggage allowance of 20kg, and despite my best efforts a month ago to try and convince them to give us a little bit more, this was where our allowance stayed. The unfortunate thing was that they told me my guitar also had to be taken into account in this 20kg allowance, and it weighs about 8kg alone.

Now, when i weighed these two items last night, they came out at around 25kg total, and after adding a few things to the bag this morning, I just decided not to weigh it again for fear of actually knowing how overweight I was going to be.

Amazingly, on arriving at the airport today, the girl at the check in desk weighed my bag and sent it through and didn't give a second glance at the guitar before waving it through too. She didn't weigh my guitar and add it on to the amount, which saved me about £50! (It's £7 extra for any extra kilogram you have in your luggage)

Then, I got to Heathrow, and, as I said, no seats... I just came into this internet point, intending on spending £2 for 2o minutes of internet (pricey!) I went up to a machine, which proceeded to eat my £2.... Then I realised that someone had already put in £6 and then left. I only had to add another £2 into the machine for it to give me a voucher for 120 minutes of internet (which guarantees me, not only internet until i check in...but a seat too! :D)

These things are small. These are small moments in a day that it's easy to miss, when it's easy to miss the working of God. But my prayer is that my life won't be a series of small moments of seeing God's power, rather, that I will see God working in BIG ways, in incredible ways, ways that I couldn't have imagined. Ephesians says:

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms." Eph 1:18-20

The same God that raised Christ from the dead is that God who is present right now. The God who did this great work, is the same God who can do the same today. We just don't expect as much. In 1 Corinthians 4:20, it says "The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power", and in my Bible, I have written beside this verse 'Let's see the power then!' This is what I want, I want this trip I'm just embarking on to be a time when I experience God power in it's fullness, not just in these small, seemingly insignificant things, but in the BIG things. The things I read about in the Bible and wonder if they could ever really happen to me.

Let's see the power.

Is that a veil or a mosquito net?!

2008-04-06T20:30:00.006+01:00

Although they may look somewhat similar, these two things are obviously used for very different things, and yet both have played a part in my last few days! Yesterday was my sister Gemma's (or, the now "Mrs Bingham's"!) wedding. It was an incredible day, the service was lovely and everything for the rest of the day went without a hitch! A great day was had by everyone who came I think! Here's just a few photos of the day:

And, so, that's where the mosquito net comes in! I stayed behind here in Northern Ireland so I could be at this wedding, and so, now that it's over, I'm pulling my rucksack onto my back at lunchtime tomorrow and starting off on a pretty long trip to Mid-Africa (a journey that will see me touching ground in the following places in a period of about 36 hours.... Belfast-London-Uganda-Ethiopia-Rwanda and then the following day, a 9-hour bus trip to Burundi!) So, needless to say I've stocked up on some good books and music to keep me busy on this journey!

I can't believe that I'm actually going now! Seeing the teams off at the airport nearly two weeks ago was one thing, it seemed a little unreal then, like it wasn't really happening, and yet now, here I stand about to head off....and this time, it's me....and it's for real!

As I sit here on this blustery April afternoon, snow is falling outside my house! It seems unreal to me that this time in two days I will be standing in 30 degree heat in the middle of Africa.

What a crazy life!

I've been talking to Erin, the DTS school leader about this sort of thing recently. Something I hear a lot is that people fight again Christianity or becoming a Christian because they think their lives are going to be boring.... Honestly, I can't imagine living a more exciting life than the one I lead right now! Not that this is the reason why I believe what I believe, but it certainly doesn't stand against it!

I've been realising the honour that it is for me to be able to serve God in this way. The honour that it is for me to be called by Him to this place for this time. And yet, the responsibility of such a privilege also lays heavy on me.

Please pray for me as I leave this city tomorrow, that I would be able to be ever increasingly appreciative and thankful for the honour that it is to serve God in this exciting life.

And if you think about them, lift up a prayer (and a glass?!) for the newly married Chris & Gemma!

Team RnB are on the way!

2008-03-24T13:28:00.004Z

I'm just off the phone with Team Rwanda & Burundi! They left this morning for their journey to Rwanda and are currently wandering through Heathrow airport trying to convince the airline to take their bags a little bit earlier so they don't have to sit with them for their 9 hour wait until the next plane!

As we dropped the team to the airport this morning, it was an odd feeling. Not just because I'm not going with them just yet, but because that moment in the airport really has been the focus of the last 7 months of my life. This is the reason why we on DTS staff do what we do. We're here to get these guys ready for mission, to prepare them (and ourselves!) to live lives set apart for God. That moment in the airport is a pretty momentous one. It's exciting to watch the team as they stand on the cusp of this adventure, knowing that the next time I see them, we trust that God will have done some pretty incredible things in their lives. Please pray that He will do a great work in these students as they travel and seek to be His hands and feet in these countries!

(back row: Lindsey, Jon, Tom & Rowan
front row: Meg, Amalia, Alison, Laura & Kellen)

Meg will be our official communicator for the trip. If you'd like to receive her emails (and, be in no doubt that you DO want to receive them...see her blog for an example of what you can expect) you can sign up for them at:

http://mail.ywamni.com/mailman/listinfo/team-rnb-updates_ywamni.com

Good Friday

2008-03-21T21:24:00.003Z

Today was Good Friday and we had a chance to be a part of a peace and reconciliation walk with churches in North Belfast. It was a pretty special time, and as we walked, it hit me just how radical and pretty incredible a thing it was that Catholics and Protestants walk up and down the Shankill and Falls and through the peace walls together. It really is an incredible testimony to the reconciliation that we can see if we focus not on earthly issues, but on God.

A pretty special experience for our team in particular was that this walk is the only time in the whole year that the peace wall gate right beside our house is opened up. So we finally got to walk through it after living beside it for a year! (Although, the whole thing was nearly hampered by Erin, who parked her car in front of the gates and the guys opening it had to come and find her on the march to get her to move it so they could open the gates before we got there! These are the moments I will think back on and laugh to myself in years to come).

Amalia leading the march holding the cross that went in front:

The march goes through the gate beside the houses:

Outreach musings...

2008-03-11T18:05:00.003Z

Last week I was having a funny week. The life of a DTS staffer is a funny one, in some ways, it feels like I shouldn't feel busy or complain about a busy life. There aren't many things I'd like to do more than spend my days with these 12 people who have come here to Belfast in search of God and to discover what it means to be a follower of Him.

But particularly around this time of year, things get pretty busy... At the minute, I'm trying to do a few things at once, finish the lecture phase of the DTS well, start to think about next years DTS (which, I recently was asked to lead...and said yes...but that's another story for another day!), and all of this while having this trip to Rwanda and Burundi to plan for (never mind PACK for....i haven't even THOUGHT about that yet...)

A few weeks ago I found myself getting pretty overwhelmed by a lot of things, particularly the idea of this outreach. While talking to a friend, I came up with a bit of an analogy for it.

It's almost like the plans for outreach are like a big plate of spaghetti, everything that we need to do, all our contacts and the plans that we have are all sitting here in front of me, but sometimes it feels like when I sit down to look at it, like it's just a big plate of spaghetti, everything is overlapping and pretty overwhelming...I'm not sure if I'm making sense! I think what i need to do is take this plate of spaghetti one strand at a time, but sometimes it can be difficult to not look at the big picture when everything needs sorted!

Things have been going well since I had this revelation...the spaghetti seems to be somewhat unravelling, but there's always room for more!

As such, I'd really appreciate it if you would be able to pray, here's a few points that would help to direct your prayers:

Praise God for the things that have come together already and that we have a place to stay and ministries to work with for a lot of our time away
Pray that the rest of the time we have unfilled would fill up, that i would effectively communicate with our contacts and be able to fit all these pieces together
That I wouldn't be overwhelmed by this big plate of spaghetti!
Bonding for our team as we prepare to head off

Thanks a lot! Your prayers are very much appreciated!

Table Quiz

2008-03-06T19:58:00.004Z

I think i completely forgot to do something that would probably have been a good idea...which was to put up a shout-out up for the table quiz that we had to fundraise for our trip to Rwanda & Burundi....hopefully any of you who read this and would have been able to come heard from some other source!

We had a really great night...table quizzes are great craic, and there was some healthy (or unhealthy?) competition going on between a few of the tables....neither of which ended up taking home the crown though. This honour belonged to the slightly less vocal dark horses of the competition, a table from Bible College. They always did train them smart up there...though i may be biased...

So it was a great night with a load of people coming, and an incredible £463.21 (and $5...) raised for ministries that we're going to be involved in in Africa. Thanks to everyone who came and supported our team, it was a great night when we felt really well surrounded by people who were behind us in what we're doing.

Same time next year....?

Don't be a Dummy!

2008-02-24T13:16:00.003Z

Greetings from the windy north coast of Donegal! Team RnB are spending the weekend up here in a seafront caravan to spend a bit of time together as a team, getting ready for outreach (exactly one month away…)

Here’s a picture of our DTS students who will be going to Rwanda and Burundi, from left to right, Alison, Meg, Rowan, Kellen & Lindsey:

Every few weeks I meet with a guy called Richard to chat and pray. This is something I’ve been doing for about a year now, but back in autumn when I started back with YWAM I started to neglect and stop doing. I really felt the effects of not having this accountable and prayerful relationship, and so about a month ago, we started intentionally meeting up again.

Something that I really appreciate about our time is the closeness to God in prayer I feel when we pray together. Have you ever had an experience of prayer when you can just very quickly feel the presence of God, tangibly taste and feel Him in the room? Well, it seems that this happens when we pray, and I always come away feeling refreshed and ready to face another busy week in YWAM Belfast, knowing that there is someone faithful and prayerful behind me and interceding for me.

When I was over at his house the other night, I think I was coming with a lot of baggage, there was a lot swimming around in my head, a lot going on inside, and so I wasn’t really feeling in that prayerful a mood. We talked for a while, and then we started to pray. Immediately I felt the presence of God, and then as we prayed, God gave me a picture of something that really impacted me.

I saw myself sitting on a chair on a stage. In my arms was a ventriloquist dummy, and through this dummy I was speaking to the people around me. I was using this dummy as my method of communicating with the world around me.

I thought about this vision, and started to pray into it, and God just opened the meaning of it up to me

I’ve just been very challenged by the idea of what image I present of myself to the world. Am I presenting this idea of “Tom Tate: Super Person”? I think it’s easy for me to outwardly seem very sorted, to have this appearance of being all nicely sorted out, and yet on the inside to feel completely the opposite!

Jesus had something to say about this where it talks about the two-faced nature of the Pharisees:

“You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23: 26-7

As the leaders of the people, the Pharisees were putting on this façade of perfection, and yet their insides didn’t reflect the outside at all, quite the opposite.

I’ve been challenged in my own leadership in not putting on this façade myself of sorted-ness, of perfection, because, the truth is (not that this is going to come as a shock to any of you…) I’m not perfect…not even close! None of us are, and yet, one of the hardest things for us to do is to admit our faults or our mistakes in front of one another. We don’t want to be perceived as weak or faulty.

This is particularly a problem I see in the Christian world. On a Sunday morning we come to church with smiles on our faces, and all pretend like we’re doing great, like the problems of the world don’t faze us, because we’re Christians! We like to think that we’re somehow immune to the things that non-Christians struggle with… Sorry friends, but this just isn’t true!

This is one of the reasons that ‘broken’ people struggle to come into the church, or are so wary of Christians. We scare them away with our “perfect” exterior, they think they can’t join us because they don’t have this idyllic life so many of us show to the world. If only they knew that most of the time, underneath this perfect exterior on show to the congregation on a Sunday morning is a soul broken just as much as their own.

This picture of the ventriloquist and his dummy has confronted me. It’s challenged me to not filter my words and my actions through my brain, thinking “how is this going to make me look?” because, you know what, this is just my pride, my worry about how people are going to see me and not wanting to look bad. Instead therefore, the challenge for myself is to live in this attitude of humility, acting out of my faith and my relationship with God, not this pride and attitude of self-promotion.

The author and apostle Peter has the following to say about this:

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5

We are called to cover ourselves with humility, like our very clothing. The humility that we walk in should be as obvious as the jumper I’m wearing right now.

I’d much rather be known this God-given humility than any of these pride-induced fantasy exteriors I project to the world.

Meet the Students!

2008-02-20T21:59:00.003Z

So, i know that some of you may wonder if these students of mine actually exist? I keep talking about them and posting these pictures of random people... well, for your information (and entertainment!) here's a little video of our 12 fantastic students in their natural environment....

Mid-lecture phase Outreach

2008-02-20T17:06:00.006Z

Last week, as you may or may not have known, we spent four days in the West of Northern Ireland in Londonderry/Derry. Amazingly I had never actually been here before, and for some reason, wasn’t really expecting much of it. I was therefore surprised to find myself falling a little bit in love with this small city.

Everywhere we went, I seemed to enjoy the atmosphere, the surroundings and enjoy the people that we met and the ministries that we were involved in helping out with.

It was a week with a lot of stories that could be told, but maybe I’ll just share the one with you!

We were working in this community centre that’s been up and running for about 35 years, and they were having a visit from a government minister the following week (today, as I write this actually!) and so, we were just helping out to get the place looking good again, washing windows, floors, and even walls! To be honest, it didn’t feel like we were doing much in the place! We were just there to try and serve a bit in the community, but the lady who was in charge of the centre couldn’t get over the fact that these 17 people were willing to give their time to help her out for free (or at least, for some ham sandwiches at lunch time!). She watched us for these two days with an odd look of delight and confusion.
At the end of our time there, we were all just sitting around, and Erin asked if we could pray for her. She agreed, and so we proceeded to pray.

We finished and when we opened our eyes, she started to cry and said “The work you’ve done has been great, but I have never had an experience like that before”. Now, I’m not sure where she’s at with God, I don’t know what she would call herself, a Christian or not, but I think that the exciting thing in that moment was that God was clearly moving in her.

And THAT is what makes all that cleaning worthwhile.

Here’s a few photos of our time:

The view that greeted us when we arrived..there’s not much better!

The team enjoying the aforementioned ham sandwiches:

And finally, I leave you with a picture of the bedroom where the boys slept! Thank you St. Augustine’s church for a magical nights sleep!

Rent "Rent"...

2008-02-10T19:15:00.000Z

Last night, I finally got around to something I’ve been meaning to do for a good while. You may not know, but I have a minor (and I say “minor”, but mean fairly major…) love of musicals. So, I took a night to watch the movie “Rent”. It finished in the wee hours of this morning, and yet, since then, I haven’t been able to shake it off me.

In case you don’t know what this stage-musical-turned-movie is about, it’s the story of a year in the life of 8 friends at the end of the 1980’s in New York. There are many issues that this film deals with, we see them struggling with addiction, death, sex, drugs, disease, relationships and more, all in the space of 525, 600 minutes…

The thing that strikes me is that this is a world that is so far removed from my own, and probably from most of you that are reading this right now. You might be thinking “Thank goodness!” and I suppose in some ways, I’m thinking that too… And yet, the picture that keeps coming back to me is an image of Jesus, this Jesus who we assume we know, a Jesus whom we think fits into this neatly packaged box we have created for Him, and this Jesus I see is sitting somewhere that I wouldn’t expect. The Jesus of the Bible, the true Jesus who we are encouraged to pretend didn’t exist more often than not, is a Jesus who sat with the tax-collectors, the leprous, the prostitutes, the outcasts and the despised.

These are the people Jesus spent His time with. And, I’m pretty sure as I watched Rent last night that, were Jesus here today, those people who were on the screen were the ones He would be sitting with. The drunk, the addicted, the HIV+.

There’s a whole world out there that we from our pedestals call “the marginalised”, literally millions, if not billions of people living with these questions on their lips:

“Will I lose my dignity,
Will someone care?
Will I wake tomorrow
From this nightmare?”

“Will I” From Rent
(watch it on http://youtube.com/watch?v=2FKJhKwDaTQ I’d advise it! Great song…)

The challenge? As the family of God, our job isn’t to sit in our churches, Bible colleges and houses and read about the love of God, to theorize about what it means to be “Jesus with skin on”. The challenge for us is to DO it. To take this message of the love of Jesus to these “marginalised”, because, the truth is, in Jesus’ eyes, there’s no such thing as an “outsider”.

While not what I would call an “easy watch” by any means, if you feel like you need to be inspired to see this world through some different eyes, I’d advise a viewing of this movie. Give me a call and I’d be glad to watch it with you.

A few pictures...

2008-02-10T17:47:00.000Z

The DTS has been going great, we’re winding up to head away on outreach in about 7 weeks! It’s coming up quickly! Here’s a few photos from the last few months….

A few pictures from a retreat we took at the start of January to Bushmills on the north coast with a few other year out programs:

Some pictures from my birthday dinner:

And finally, a few shots from a recent fancy dress party we had:

You'll also be impressed to know that I won the limbo competition...that's right all 6' 4'' of me... I was as suprised as anyone! Note the shock on Erin's face behind me in this next picture! Oh yeah....i went to the party as a picnic...in case you couldn't tell....

A Retraction...

2008-01-26T17:18:00.000Z

Am I allowed to do this? Days after writing that last blog entry, I was asked to put together a talk on something that was pretty close to my thinking and heart at the time. The title of the talk was:

“Disciples & Ambassadors: In & Out of Season”

While putting this talk together, I realised that a lot of the stuff I said in that last blog, I don’t necessarily agree with anymore. The biggest thing that struck me is that I really don’t think there is this mysterious question of “What can I do differently?” Sure, I’m sure there’s something that I’m doing that I could be doing better, but the point seems to be that I was looking for an easy way out. A way to “do” spirituality that was easy for me, and really made me want to engage all the time, a way that was never difficult or found me struggling from time to time.

I think in this time of preparation for this talk I realised something, and it’s something I think I’ve always known, but have also always struggled with! The Christian walk is not an easy one. It’s not one in which we can wander through life on this perpetual cloud of happiness, always feeling like we’re on top of the world, and if I try to make it this, then I’m pulling the wool over my eyes.

I think the challenge for me right now is to figure out how to have a good relationship with God all the time, whether I’m in one of these good seasons and times of my life, or in the middle of a bad one.

I distinctly remember a few times over the last six or seven years when I just couldn’t get inspired to read the Bible. I’d go into town and into one or the other Christian bookshops and see a new Bible, in a different cover, whether it had some cool new name or a shiny metallic cover. I would think to myself, “If I had THAT Bible, I would read it every day!” I was thinking that I’d be so inspired to read it because it looked cool. But the thing was that I would get home, and a few days later, the book that had seemed so new and exciting had now just become normal, my “new Bible” had just become one of a growing collection sitting in a pile gathering dust.

So where am I going with this? I think it all comes down to the fact of what do I value? More than anything I value relationship with God. But the sad truth is that I am a human being, made of flesh, and the flesh that I inhabit on this earth struggles sometimes with what my spirit longs to be doing.

There are no easy answers here. There’s no magical way I can click my fingers and suddenly find the perfect way to have relationship with God. Rather, it’s going to take perseverance, commitment and dedication to this goal. The very least I can say about this is that I’m willing to give it a go.

You should also know that I went bowling with the youth group I help out at the other night. While we were there, I realised that this “new” way of bowling I told you about last time wasn’t all that great after all. I think I was happier (if not a little bit better) in my ignorance of the past 23 years!

Ten-pin bowling...with a lesson

2008-01-06T15:50:00.000Z

A fellow YWAM staffer on the base here, Ramy, and I, can quite often be found in ‘Glengormley Superbowl’ on a Monday or Tuesday, when they have a “two for one” bowling offer on those days. It’s a good time of getting away for night out, and a chance to talk through our weeks and what’s going on in our lives.

This past week opened my eyes to something I did not know.

Apparently for the last 22 (nearly 23 for anyone who’s counting ☺) years of my life, I have been bowling the wrong way! I have always wondered how people manage to get so much power behind the bowling ball, and always blamed my lack of dedication to an upper body weights routine! But, I realised this week it’s because I have been bowling (try to imagine this…) throwing the ball with the back of my hand pointed towards the pins, instead of my palm facing upwards after I let go of the ball.

Hopefully that makes sense. But if not, it doesn’t really matter! Long story short, I’ve been bowling wrong, and there’s a much better way to do it! I discovered a way that seems to work a lot better, a way that provides me with a lot better chance of getting rid of those pesky pins.

In the same way, I’ve realised that I’m on a bit of a hunt for a new way of doing “relationship” with God. For a lot of my life, my relationship with God has been, for lack of a better word, “cyclical”. I am generally hot or cold in my interaction with our creator, either finding it hard to escape from his presence and the knowledge that he is closer than the air around us, or else, finding it hard to imagine he’s there at all.

I’m not sure why this is, but I know that this isn’t the way God intended His relationship with us to be. One thing I know for sure is that it doesn’t have anything to do with God, no matter what we do, he doesn’t desert us, or leave us abandoned to ourselves. So that leaves me to the conclusion that it must have something to do with the way I’m relating to Him.

What, the question is, can I do differently?

That’s a question I’m not quite able to answer just yet I don’t think! I’m trying to explore God in new ways, discover Him in places I didn’t expect. I think a big part of this journey is seeing God in every aspect of my life. If I try to compartmentalise my life, saying “this is the ‘God’ part and this is ‘my’ bit” then I’m leaving Him out of something pretty serious. God doesn’t want a part of our life, he wants our everything, but this is something that’s pretty easy to say and can be difficult to put into practice!

As for now, I realise that there’s so much more to explore about my relationship with God. I realise I don’t have it sorted, and I doubt (in fact I’m SURE) I won’t have it sorted this side of eternity. But one thing I’m sure about is that there are ways of meeting God that I haven’t explored, and these are the ones I’m interested in. Seeing God in new places and experiencing Him in ways I didn’t think I could!

Here’s to 22 years of bowling like an eejit, and 22 more of discovering that there’s so much more to God than what we see or know now.

Snow and a Retreat

2008-01-06T15:32:00.001Z

Last Thursday night brought us the gift of snow! We had a great time playing in the snow with our students and introducing our South African student, Precious, to snow, which she’d never seen before! (I introduced her by putting a full snowball down her back…I’m working to getting her to forgive me for that one!) Our mature years also didn’t stop us from engaging in an impromptu snowball fight with some of the neighbourhood kids.

Here’s some pictures from our side of the city:

The snow continued through the night, and I later found out that our area of Belfast saw a particularly deep snowfall.

This made for a decision to be made concerning our staff retreat which was scheduled to happen in the other YWAM base in Northern Ireland, Closkelt.

Closkelt is situated in the middle of the countryside just outside of Banbridge, which we assumed would make an interesting drive in this weather! It went ahead though, and we were surprised to see the snow having melted mostly outside of Belfast and the country relatively green again!

YWAM Closkelt

We were in Closkelt for only one night, but it was a great time of fellowship between the two bases, and a chance for us to get onto the same page and vision for the future of YWAM in Northern Ireland and further afield.

The vision of Jonny, our national director was that these two bases would be 2 parts of a greater family, and it feels like this is taking place through these meetings we’re having and time spent building up something special between our two bases.

Outreach: Both Big & Little “Oh”

2007-12-27T17:46:00.000Z

On the DTS we have 2 forms of outreach on the programme, the local outreaches we do here in Belfast on a weekly basis during the lecture phase (known as “Little O”) and the big outreach phase which takes place the few months immediately following the lecture phase (“Big O”).

We started local outreach just before Christmas, two of our students (Meg & Kyle) and I are working with the Belfast Education & Library Board detached youth workers on the Shankill to meet and talk to young people in the area who are unconnected with youth centres or organisations…more on this in the future, when we’ve done it a bit more! But this blog is all about Big O!

I now know where I’m going to be going in April and May of this year! Drum-roll please…….I’m going to Rwanda and Burundi! We are splitting into two teams on the DTS and one team is going to Rwanda/Burundi (Team ‘RnB’) while the other team is going to India!

There’s a pretty interesting story behind India, so I’ll give you the low-down on Rwanda & Burundi after that…

Before coming back on staff with YWAM Belfast, for the last year of Bible College, I felt myself developing a heart for India, God seemed to be putting it in my path fairly frequently, I kept meeting people from India, missionaries who had been there and having issues relating to India laying heavily on me. I wasn’t sure what this meant, or why it was happening, because I knew that YWAM Belfast had never been to India before on an outreach and I hadn’t heard any rumour that one was planned! So I was confused as to why God seemed to be calling me to YWAM and also putting this seemingly contradictory calling on my heart. But, as per usual, He knows what He’s doing…

I arrived on the staff retreat, and was talking to Erin and while talking we realised that we had both been feeling the same things for that area of the world, me for India, her for Pakistan. We decided to explore it more. When Erin was praying with another member of staff, she independently of Erin also said “Why don’t we go to India for outreach?” We then, months later discovered that a Sri Lankan member of staff had been quietly praying for the year that this DTS outreach would go to India, she hadn’t told anyone, and she hadn’t tried to manipulate the situation. She just prayed and waited for God to work. And it seems He did!

So, you may be asking…. “Why aren’t YOU going to India, Tom?” And believe me…this is a question I was asking myself and God a lot in the run up to Christmas. I was so excited when I found out that we decided to go to India, that I was sure I was going. I had my mind made up! But the thing was, I didn’t stop to say to God, “I know you put India on my heart, but is it THIS India trip that you want me on?” I just powered through, having decided myself that this was the right time!

So, when we started praying as staff about which outreach location we should go to (Rwanda/Burundi or India) I was pretty surprised to hear that God seemed to be telling me to go to Rwanda & Burundi! So, to cut a long story short (if only this was my motto all of the time!) I realised that the timing for India being on my heart was for group confirmation that we should be going there…I think India lies in my future somewhere, but it’s up to God to bring it back into my life somehow!

The exciting thing about the India team is that the ONLY reason they are going there is because God has directed. It was never in our planning to take a team to India, it was never in the over-arching plan of YWAM Belfast, but only because God spoke and led us there are we going. This has some pretty exciting ramifications. The team going there can know that, regardless of the hard times they will no doubt face, they are there on a very much God-ordained trip. They know that they are there for a reason, and that God has a very specific purpose for them while in India. Watch this space for more news of the India team!

BUT, in other news, I realise I sound pretty excited about India, and I’m not even GOING there! (Yet! ☺) But, where I AM going is Rwanda & Burundi.

These two countries are right in the middle of Africa as you can see below, you might need to put some glasses on to see them! They are the two red countries in the middle of all the green!

Below you can see the two countries a bit closer up!

On the DTS group going here, we’re a small team of 5 students and 3 staff members. One of our students has been to Burundi 4 times before, and has plans to stay there long-term in the future, so this is an exciting trip to see roots going down and potential for ministries stretching not just 2 months but into the future!

There is a lot of stuff to consider as we start planning an outreach to these two countries. I don’t know how much of the history you know of these countries, but both of them have been torn by internal and ethnic war over the last 15 years, and the hurt still runs deep within the people there, so it’s an intimidating place to be going into, but exciting, because of the potential for seeing God working in healing in the people. On our team we are all aware of the need for God to be at the centre of our group and the ministry we do there. We can do nothing in these countries without our God to strengthen and guide us. The challenge is in remembering this throughout all the time!

On a personal note, I’m going to be leading this team of 8 people to these countries, something that I haven’t done before. It’s quite a big prospect for me to undertake, so I would very much appreciate your prayers as we start to put our team together, to bond, and prepare ourselves for our adventure and whatever God has planned for us!

There’ll be much more on these countries over the next few months, but if you’re after some reading, check out these sites for a bit more history on these two beautiful countries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda

Pre-Christmas Catch Up (Somewhat belated...)

2007-12-27T17:08:00.000Z

I’m sitting here on my bed at home, full up after two consecutive turkey-dinner eating days, and realising that I should probably make good on my promise to catch this site up on what’s been happening!

When last we talked…. we had just gotten back from Harpenden and our lectures with their DTS. We came back straight into a week of “Forgiveness Training” with the other YWAM ministry here in Belfast. They were training us in how to lead other people in the Forgiveness journey, and how to teach it in schools. On the Tuesday of this week we had an opportunity to go into a school and lead a class in discussion and thinking on this subject which was a good experience, and just a small window into the great work that the guys are doing here working in schools.

This week was also very much charicterised with a great gift in my life... My very good friend Jessica who i went to college with for 2 years at Belfast Bible College was in Belfast for a visit! She was welcomed with open arms into the YWAM Belfast community, staying with us for the week. Jessica is one of my best friends and having her here was a real blessing, it's been funny telling her all about this place I'm living in now and the people I'm sharing my life with with her not having met or seen it! So it was nice to introduce her and give her a taste of Shankill living!

Below are some pictures from her visit...I feel I need to apologise, i think there's at least one picture (and I think you'll be able to guess which one) she told me specifically not to put up here...and yet, here i go.... Aww well, she'll forgive me! (I hope!)

This is not Jessica's usual look! It was a special one night only thing...but i think it suits her!

Jessica, me and a good friend from Dublin Karen spent a weekend on the North Coast. For some reason, this is a tradition of ours when we get together, a picture with toothbrushes! (Mum...I hope you're proud!)

Jessica and I headed down to the City Hall to check out the "Belfast Eye"

It felt like the week was over before it began! Went by pretty quickly...but it was nice to spend a good bit of time with some good friends.

We then were straight into a week of lecture with another “year out” group, also based in Belfast, called the “Sword of the Spirit”, and again these lectures were on Reconciliation. But interestingly from two different angles. A representative from S.O.S. (Sword of the Spirit), Bruce Yocum, spoke for the first few days on the theological and Biblical basis on reconciliation and ecumenicalism working itself out, while our very own Jonny Clark from YWAM NI took on the last few days speaking on how these two issues can work in a practical way.

The following and last before Christmas week, (sorry! I’m powering through these to get through everything!) saw a move in a different direction for the DTS, up until now, it has been quite intellectual in content, using our heads a lot, but the emphasis for the next few lecture weeks is really going to be on the heart, trying to learn by encountering God in his deity and grow spiritually, not just in our brains. So, to start us off on this journey, Jonny gave lectures on the “Father heart of God”, leading us in discussion and meditation on God’s love for us and how it mirrors that of a father for a child. There was a lot more to it than this (but you’ll have to do a DTS to find out what! ☺) Then the week was finished off by two visiting speakers called Andrew & Nice Bowers, who came to speak on “Original Design”, basically the premise being that we have been created to be someone pretty specific, God did not just throw us together and hope for the best, but he has an exact and beautiful design for each of us, but the problem is that oftentimes we don’t believe it, we lose sight of what this is, or else never actually discover it in the first place! Andrew and Nice walked us through this topic, and spent a lot of their time (including their time off) praying with each of us individually and seeking God as to what He designed us to be.

The lecture times are really some of the pivotal moments on a DTS, and we have been very much blessed so far this year with committed speakers who very much value the students that we have and inputing into their lives. And on the flipside, the students have been appreciating what it is that the lecturers bring to the table, fresh ideas and wisdom gained from years of actually getting out there and doing the things that they are talking about, serving God in very practical ways and getting to know Him intimately through this.

One exciting thing though is that it’s not all classroom on this DTS, there’s very much an opportunity for our students to practice what they are learning. In the next blog, I’ll be letting you in on some exciting news about outreach!

Happy Christmas!

2007-12-24T18:24:00.000Z

Hey there,
So this is the big "Happy Christmas" post! There's more to come in the next few days (I keep promising this...i need to actually get on it!) But I just wanted to leave this to say Happy Christmas to all who read here...

Here's a wee picture from our YWAM Northern Ireland Christmas dinner last week.

Hope you have a good Christmas with those you love.

'The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.'
Luke 2: 10 & 11

Harpenden

2007-12-17T17:07:00.001Z

I never wanted to be the kind of person who only blogged every few months…I did plan on keeping this pretty much up to date, and yet, three weeks have passed now, and I haven’t written here. So, this is my attempt at making up for it! Quite a lot has happened in the last few weeks, so I think I’ll not attempt to communicate it all in one go! I’ll start with my week in England…

Harpenden

When you last heard from me, I was sitting in the airport in Belfast on my way to Harpenden, which is a five-minute train ride from Luton airport. The rest of our school was already over there and I was heading over late owing to the fact that I had stayed late to see my friend Jessica from college as she visited from America (much more on this adventure the next time I blog…) I navigated the journey, and arrived at the YWAM base in Harpenden early on the Sunday afternoon. I spent the afternoon getting to know the base a bit better there and had a nice cup of tea and plate of chips with a few people, then getting a good nights sleep!

The entrance to the YWAM base in Harpenden.

We were sharing lectures with the DTS in Harpenden and the guy speaking was an American guy called Carl Stauffer who has been living and working in South Africa for the last 13 years in mediation. The Belfast DTS and base here is very much focused on reconciliation (as you should know ☺) and this was the topic that Carl was talking on over the week. The good thing about this week of lectures was the fact that in the past we’ve been learning about reconciliation from quite a theoretical point of view, but Carl this week, although he comes from a place of great theoretical knowledge, was also coming with a lot of practical knowledge and stories of reconciliation working in action.

The base in Harpenden couldn’t really have contrasted more with our base here in Belfast! There’s a lot of ground around the buildings there, (known as “the oval”) Just before I left, I stood in the middle of the oval and took a video of the base there that you can see below here, it’s a pretty impressive set-up! (That’s one of the Belfast staff Adam running towards the camera at the end by the way…)

It’s funny to see a base that’s been there for so long, that’s pretty well established, when you look at us here in Belfast, pretty much still in the pioneering stage. I’m really encouraged and excited about what is happening in Belfast, and excited to see the future develop, to see what can happen with us. In the world of big YWAM bases, we seem to be doing something a bit different, and it’s pretty exciting to be a part of it.

Harpenden Town Centre

Our students in the dining hall bonding over the table tennis table…this happened a lot!

The students did great in England, I think seeing another YWAM base makes you appreciate what you yourself have, and although we all had a good time in Harpenden, I think everyone was glad to get back to the norm, and to the house and city that is becoming “home” to these students.

Cakes, buns & anything baked now on offer at the YWAM house!

2007-11-26T16:51:00.000Z

We got a pretty incredible phone call last night.

We decided last week that we needed a new cooker for the houses. We have two cookers there already, but neither work very well at all, and a temperamental oven when you’re trying to cook for 16 doesn’t go down too well… So we decided before going out and buying one, that we would take it before God and start praying for one. At our house meeting on Monday night we spent a bit of time bringing our need before God, believing that he is a God who provides us with the things that we need. We didn’t tell anyone outside of the YWAM Belfast circle about our need.

Then we were sitting at the dinner table here in Harpenden last night, and Erin gets a phone call from a friend of YWAM. She is getting a new kitchen put in, and offered us her old cooker for free!!

I’m learning a lot these days about God and how he is able to provide for our needs in incredible ways.

"I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane"

2007-11-26T16:39:00.000Z

Originally written on Sunday 25th November

I sit here in Belfast International airport, laptop on my lap, but with no internet connection…I was hoping to be able to post something today on some free airport internet...but they're trying to make me pay for it! It’ll have to wait for tomorrow to be posted...but I can write it from here…

I’m heading off to Harpenden, a village just outside of London where we’re going to be spending a week in lectures with another DTS there hearing from a guy from South Africa who has a lot of experience working in reconciliation there, so it looks like it’s going to be a good week, it’ll be nice for our students to be able to get a chance to see a bigger picture of YWAM too and meet a group of people who are on the same journey as them but just in a different place.

The school has been going well. We’re just about to enter into our fourth week of the students being here, and it’s been pretty crazy! I think I underestimated the amount of work that actually goes in to putting together a DTS and filling the schedule, as well as finding a bit of time for a life outside of that…

It’s been a bit of a struggle over the last few weeks to really make sure that this DTS doesn’t take over my life… Sure, it’s probably the biggest thing that’s happening right now, but if that’s all that I’m doing or where I’m spending all of my time, then that’s probably not the healthiest. So, please know that I’m trying to figure this out right now, what the balance of working for YWAM and also trying to live a life outside of that means, and so if I’ve been a bad or inattentive friend or family member over the last few weeks or months, please know I’m working on it, and I’m sorry.

In different and happier news though, the students are doing great. They really are an amazing bunch of people. We had a speaker called Steve Sullivan from YWAM in Harpenden (ironically…the very place I’m jetting off to right now!) teaching last week, and what he kept saying was how unusual our students were, and how this is a pretty special DTS. I wasn’t sure what he was meaning by this, and so I talked to him in the middle of the week to ask him to confirm what he was meaning, and he said that the difference with our DTS was that they are coming here to Belfast not just to figure out their own heads, but they are coming with a plan in mind for where they’re going to after this and a goal in the centre of their vision. They are a very purposeful DTS, focused on the direction that God is taking them in and the plan He has for their lives.

I have to admit this is pretty cool. Anyways, the students are doing great, really getting involved and engaging with the lectures and the teaching they’re receiving and so it’s exciting to see where it’s going to go from here!

A date for your diaries…. On Wednesday 12th December (at an as yet undisclosed (i.e. undecided) location) we are going to introduce our DTS students to the world! We’re going to have an evening where the students have a bit of a chance to explain to supporters and friends of YWAM where they have come from, and, as you’ve heard in this blog, a little big of where some of them are hoping to go to after this! So, if you can make it, pencil it into your diary, and I’ll put a location up here in the next while when we figure it out! It’d be great to see you there and to get a chance to meet the students you’re hearing about on here!

Perseverance

2007-11-15T20:41:00.000Z

I just got back from a run with one of our students Kyle. Those of you who have known me for any period of time may find this a somewhat humourous picture! But Kyle was very gracious, waiting for me at various points as I stopped to regain my breath by the road side and putting up with my lack of running experience, sticking by me even though he could quite easily have outstripped me and run ahead at so many points.

So, if you couldn’t tell by now, I’m not really a big runner! But, it’s something I want to get better at, and I’m realising that I need to do something to keep fit, (even though, as we ran through a park, a man told us we were “nutcases” for running…)

The thing about running that I really struggle with is keeping going. I’m the kind of person that when something is getting difficult (i.e. a big hill on the Springfield Road!) then, I might decide to take it easy, walk it out or stop and take a rest instead of keeping going, running through the tiredness.

The thing about running with someone else is that you can take motivation from their journey. Running with someone else encourages me to keep on going, to not let them down by having to stop (too often at least!) and take a rest. Having someone else running with you, particularly someone who is better, has more experience and stamina really motivates me to keep going. Having Kyle running beside me motivated me to keep going, and to try and get better at this.

So, we were on the home straight, about 600m left to go, and I was definitely losing steam, but I made a conscious decision in my mind that I was going to keep going, that I was going to make it to our house without stopping running.

At this point in time, Kyle turned to me and said he was going to run full pelt till he got home, and that he’d meet me there. So, he headed off, and got a bit ahead of me.

And then I stopped running.

As I walked slowly back to the house, this reminded me of something that I read about in the Bible a few weeks ago. Hebrews 12:1-2 says this:

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

While I had Kyle in my sights, and while I followed behind him, I was determined to finish the run, inspired to finish by his example. But as soon as he went out of my immediate line of sight, I gave up and fell away, giving up the run and instead settling for something less.

Our walk and life as Christians can mirror this. We can be following after Jesus and his example, and be following so closely behind with our eyes fixed on Him. But the second we take our eyes off Him and instead choose to look to other things in our lives for our motivation e.g. money, acclaim or other people, then that’s when we fall behind and lose the drive to persevere.

May we always have our eyes fixed on Jesus in this life, may he be our ‘pace-setter’, showing us the way to live as the perfect example for us and inspiring us to persevere through the pain, difficulty and challenges that life throws up in our path. In our lives may our eyes always be turned towards Him, may He be constantly in our sights, and if we ever fail, and look away, may we have the wisdom and courage to look back up again.

May he also be able to do something about my aching legs…

The first few weeks of the school

2007-11-14T16:23:00.001Z

I’m trying to think about where I should start with this entry. It’s been a few days (over a week actually...) since I wrote anything here, and I’m not going to make excuses, but it’s been pretty busy here! (oh…looks like I did make an excuse…) So I’m trying to decide where to start in telling you about all the things that are going on…

I suppose I should start with the students! We have twelve students here currently. One more is on his way tomorrow, and another awaiting a visa (actually, talking about that, please can you pray for Fred Daniel in Rwanda that his visa would be approved and he’d be able to join us here in Belfast!)

The students are from a good variety of nations and backgrounds, and it’s been really exciting getting to know them over the last week a little, and watch them becoming this little community here in these small houses on the Shankill Road.

It’s also been a busy week and a half, we spent the first couple of days on the school doing some orientation, introducing them to the world of YWAM and the area of Belfast (I actually sent them on a “photo scavenger hunt” around Belfast one afternoon….somewhat miscalculating the amount of time it would take, and the distance they would have to walk…they only got about half of it done in the time I had written into the schedule…and they came back here shattered!) I’m yet to gather together the pictures that they took, but be assured when I do, I’m sure a few of the choicer ones will appear on here!

On Wednesday last week then, we took the school away for a few days to a place in South Armagh called “Darkley” to lend a hand to a ministry that’s been doing great things in that area for 28 years. It’s becoming a bit of a YWAM Belfast tradition that we take a group down there once a year to give them a hand doing some of the stuff that the small team working there would struggle to get done in a month! It’s amazing how much a willing and able group of 20 people can get done in 8 hours! So, it was a good time of bonding and working alongside eachother. A few of the students and I had a good time cutting down a load of trees and bushes in the rain and then burning them on a big bonfire. (Can you tell this was MY highlight?!).

We then had the weekend off, and I just spent it catching up with a few friends and spending some time with family. This week marks the start of our first week of following the proper lecture week schedule, and so we’re having some interesting times learning about the history of this island and discovering a bit more about our own national identities whatever they may be!

It’s funny after such a long time of us as staff preparing for the students, that they are finally here. And I just have to say that it feels so right. This group of students really are a great bunch of guys and girls, so eager to be here and to seek after what God has planned for them this year. I can’t wait to hopefully introduce you all to them at some point in the future!

On a Tuesday afternoon we have small groups, where the guys and girls separate and just get a chance to catch up in a group setting and share openly with eachother. Today we were talking about the expectations that we have for this year, and what they as students are looking to get out of the year. It was really encouraging for me as a leader to hear that the reasons and the things that we have been praying for them, and desiring them to come here seeking, are really the things that they are looking for during this time.

It’s a really exciting time right now, but at the same time, it’s pretty scary and a little daunting. After so long having these students just as pictures on our wall and names in our minds, it’s funny to have them living in the room next door! I’m just coming to realise the responsibility that’s on me for this year to really lead these guys well, to try and seek God for the best ways to act and teach them. So, if you’re up for praying, pray for that, for me and also our whole staff team, that we would take this really seriously, and honour God with the gift of these 14 people that he’s blessed us with for this 7 months.

Matt Huber, the brother-in-law of a good friend of mine, Jessica (and now, I think I can say, a friend in his own right) has been staying with us at YWAM Belfast for the last few days, just leaving yesterday. Matt, his wife Karen, and kids Jack & Ella are missionary appointees to Dublin with Greater Europe Mission, and he’s here on a bit of a vision trip right now to try and gain a bit of insight into the work that they’re hoping to be involved with, and to get a flavour of ministry on this island. Matt joined us in Belfast for a few days just to see what we’re up to here. You can read a bit about his adventures (and in the broader scheme of things, how their journey over here is progressing) by clicking the link to their blog on the right. They’re doing some good things in Kansas and it’s really encouraging and inspiring to see a family so intent on following the call of God on their life! So, check it out…

Well that's all for now! Hopefully I won’t wait so long to update you next…

The day we've all been waiting for!

2007-11-04T10:31:00.000Z

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.”

One Day to go...

2007-11-04T10:15:00.000Z

Two days to go...

2007-11-04T10:14:00.001Z

DISCLAIMER:
This is just a silly picture...Amalia is not actually meditating on the number two...

Three days to go...

2007-11-02T20:22:00.001Z

Four days to go...

2007-11-01T17:32:00.000Z

Five days to go...

2007-10-31T13:21:00.000Z

Six days to go...

2007-10-30T09:55:00.001Z

Seven Days to Go...

2007-10-29T21:42:00.000Z

....Till the Discipleship Training School starts!

"Life Thru a Lens"

2007-10-29T21:23:00.001Z

So, I haven't been on here for a while, things have been crazy around here with students starting to arrive for the school this FRIDAY! But I thought I would come on here (let you know I'm back!) and post a few photos from our trip to Amsterdam.

This was the view that my window offered the first morning I woke up, the Dutch architecture is beautiful...

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you! That IS a multi-storey car park for bikes!! I actually really loved the bike culture in Amsterdam, it just seemed like a nice way to get around (even if i DID nearly get knocked over several times...)

This is just a picture of Erin (my fellow traveller and ALMOST roommate!) in front of some of the canals that run all the way through the city:

The YWAM base where we stayed. Quite a contrast to our small community of houses in Belfast! This is also is only one of four buildings that YWAM owns and works from in Amsterdam! Incredible to see the growth that has taken place in this group and the incredible work that can be done here because of the facilities that they have...quite an inspiration to see YWAM Belfast continue to grow and spread the word of God in Belfast.

I'll leave you with my favourite picture of the trip, the canals really were beautiful in the city. It was an inspirational trip for me, a chance to gain a wider vision of YWAM worldwide and to meet some people seeking to live in a similar way I'm trying to do here. It's nice to know we're not alone on the edge of Europe here! That though we may be few, we are part of something greater, YWAM international, and also, the greater Kingdom of God.

Hallo From Holland!

2007-10-23T17:32:00.000+01:00

I managed to find myself some internet connection here on the YWAM base in Amsterdam! And, after navigating around the blog site here (the words around the page are all in Dutch...it took me a while to find the button for 'New Post'...) I thought i should maybe put a wee hello from here up!
Here's something I wrote on Sunday night when we arrived here, but hadn't gotten the chance to type up till now:

Sunday 21st October 2007
The landing of our flight into Amsterdam airport confirmed at least 3 of my pre-existing stereotypes of Holland:

Canals
Flat-land
& Windmills

And these have only been confirmed more as we traveled in, although...Erin and I still have a competition going of who can spot someone wearing a genuine pair of clogs first!

We had a great journey getting here, no problems along the way at all...that is unless you count the confused looks we received when we arrived at the base here in Amsterdam. I thought my communication skills had gone awry, and I'd organised us to stay here a different week or something, until we all realised that there was a bit of a misunderstanding...Apparently, when i say the name "Erin" on the phone to our Indian host from the base, he hears the name "Aaron" and prepares a room for two guys! Ahh, the joys of a cosmopolitan environment!

After an initial misunderstanding, Erin and I were blessed with a sporadic meal from our new friends, and then shown to our freshly prepared (and be assured SEPARATE!) rooms. Then we headed out to explore a bit of the city, walking around for a few hours just getting a taste of what the flavour of the city was.

On this little adventure I bought a phrase book after realising that the only Dutch I knew was:

"I'm sorry, I don't know Dutch"

(and I'm not sure I was even saying THIS right!)
So, now I'm armed with a phrasebook, and about to set about to a quick lesson before tomorrow. However, a quick flick through has alerted me to a few essential phrases one MUST know to survive in Holland...including:

"Voor wie is de erwtensoep?"

Apparently, "Who's the pea soup for?" is a pretty commonplace dilema faced by the waiters of Amsterdamm.. You can however be assured that when I hear this statement across the restaurant tomorrow lunchtime, I will be jumping to my feet shouting: "I ordered that pea soup! It's for me!" If only i could figure out how to say it in Dutch...

The conference is beginning tomorrow evening, so work will start then, but as for now, we're going to take the morning to explore the city again, and maybe trying to make it to Anne Franks house, so we'll see what unfolds!
Blessings from Amsterdam!
Good Night (or "Godenacht"...)

So that was the other night! I realise this has gone pretty long, so I'll just bring you up to date quickly... Yesterday was a good day of exploring, Anne Franks house was both expensive and had a VERY long queue, so we forwent it, but may return on Thursday... Then, we spent the afternoon meeting a Dutch girl called Margreet (I'm pretty sure I just butchered the spelling of that name...feel free to comment below and correct me!) who did the first DTS that Erin staffed in Belfast. So that was a nice afternoon of catching up, and being introduced to some traditional Dutch delicacies!
The conference then began last night, and it's been going well. It's a little intimidating if I'm going to be honest...I'm sitting here around a table with guys who have been in YWAM for over 30 years, and here I am two months in... But, i'm catching a bit of the vision of YWAM worldwide, and trying to find a voice for myself here and see what I have to offer in this group.

So, that'll do us for now I think... We're about to head out in half an hour for the night with the people on the conference, so that'll be good to get to know each other a bit more informally and share in that environment.
Hope things are well wherever you find yourselves reading this!

W5?

2007-10-17T19:40:00.000+01:00

In Belfast there’s a science museum for kids known as W5 (the 5 W’s standing for “Who, What, When, Where, Why?”) I was thinking about this today and that it could be an interesting way to introduce you to the inner workings of a DTS… and in doing so, explaining exactly what it is I’m going to be up to on the Shankill for the while! I’m changing the order to make it flow a little better…

What?
A DTS is the shortened term for Discipleship Training School run by Youth With a Mission (YWAM). The purpose of a DTS (this is pretty fresh in my mind from our staff training this week!!) is to gather groups of people together in often culturally diverse groups to challenge them to learn more about God and to grow in relationship with him. As a result of this, the vision is for them to be inspired to go out into the world, better equipped and ready to tell others about Him! The DTS is also the entry into other Youth With a Mission opportunities, including staffing or even pursuing a degree with the “University of the Nations”, in which students can get more vocational specific training in missions and other topics.

Who?
On the DTS we’re about to run, we have 14 students coming from a variety of different countries and contexts from all over the world. The countries that are going to be represented are the United States of America, Canada, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England, Holland, Rwanda, South Africa and Palestine! So, it should be a pretty interesting group! The students range in age from straight out of school to some with a few more years under their belt!

When?
The students are going to be arriving on Saturday 3rd November and then we’ll have a YWAM Belfast community meal on Sunday evening to welcome them into our community, and the school will properly start on the Monday morning.
The first half of the school (the lecture phase) will take place from then until around mid-March, when we will be heading off for an 8-10 week outreach to an area around the world in need of reconciliation (although, this year, I’ll be heading off a wee bit later! Gemma, my sister is getting married on the 5th April (at least I THINK it’s the 5th… ☺) and so I’ll join the team after that!). Then, we’ll head back here to Belfast and debrief in May and the school will end around the end of that month.

Where?
The lecture phase is going to be here in Belfast, and the outreach areas haven’t yet been decided…but watch this space…we’re in the midst of praying and seeking God for His will for our teams!

Why?
The one thing that unites the students (and indeed the staff!) is a passion for learning about God, and also a desire to spread the word of God to the nations (which is summed up in the motto of YWAM, “to know God, and make Him known”).

So, I hope that answers a few questions that you may have had about exactly what it is I’m doing up here! Any more, drop me a line and I’d love to meet up, or share a bit more about what’s going on here.

'Celebration Day'… or just another excuse to go to Portstewart!

2007-10-14T13:14:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday we decided to have what is now affectionately known as a “Celebration Day”. Pretty much we took a bit of time out of our usual weekly schedule to take a wee road trip together and spend a day celebrating what God has done in our little community of staff. So, we ended up in Portstewart on one of the most beautiful days we’ve had for a while!

We spent the day having some good food, walking, and working on a little project for the students (that you’ll also see in good time…) but generally just enjoying the community of being with one another. Here’s our staff by the sea.

YWAM Belfast DTS staff 2007/08
(from left to right: Laura, Adam, Amalia, Sujee, Jon, Erin & Tom)

As part of our day we decided to build a “cairn”. Jon spent about 20 minutes constructing this amazing piece of art on the beach in front of the sea.

However, the beauty was to be short lived… Erin decided that a close-up picture was needed to immortalise the scene, and went to try and capture one. Of course, this ended in disaster, and we spent the rest of the day taking the mick out of Erin for knocking it over. The look of horror on her face as it fell was PRICELESS…

Please give thanks to God for this team, for the joy that we have and are finding both in each other and in God. We’re having a great time so far, and hoping that it can only continue as we welcome these 14 new students into our midst in 3 weeks time.

Cool?

2007-10-11T17:33:00.000+01:00

I was reading a magazine the other day, (for the sake of not getting sued, I won’t mention the name!! ☺) It had an article in it entitled “Hip” in which it showed you everything that you need to be cool in the world we live in today…
According to this magazine, the things I need are as follows:

This bicycle:

An apartment in this building:

This bag:

This particular brand and bottle of water:

And the list continues… These are the things that the world around us is telling us we NEED, the things that we can’t do without, the things that we DESERVE and owe to ourselves to have.

But what does God say? What is God’s ‘check-list’ of the things that we “need”? In the New Testament, Paul lists the things that we as Christians should have:

“Love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control”
Galatians 5:22-23

Maybe these things won’t draw turn heads as we walk along the street, maybe we won’t be upheld in the eyes of this world as a celebrity or a trend-setter because of them, but I’m thinking that maybe this isn’t such a bad thing…
The things from the first list are all things that we can buy with money, but they are also things that are (as the article suggests) “Hip” right now. In a month or so these things will be “out of style”. The second list, these nine attributes (known as the fruits of the spirit) may not win us awards, but we can be assured that they aren’t going to go out of style! What they can do is help us walk closer to the heartbeat of God, see people through his eyes and keep our minds focused on Him and His ideals.

I’m not sure about you, but I think that’s better than a bike.

The ramblings of my brain...and some pictures!

2007-10-07T17:13:00.000+01:00

Sorry haven’t written for a week! Here’s a long-ish one to make up for it…!

It’s been a funny week since I moved into these houses. I think what I’m finding difficult right now is finding a balance between this new world I find myself living in both physically and mentally, and the world I used to inhabit. I’m coming to realise that maybe I’m not going to be able to do everything that I want to, or used to do, because, as of now, I’m in full time job & ministry here! I understand that this might sound a bit childish, but be assured, I’m not whining about the fact that I don’t get to go out to the cinema every night! It’s just that lifestyle changes usually happen gradually, or one at a time, whereas in this case I’ve found myself with a new job, a new place to live and a new community of people to get to know around me in one go. Don’t worry, it’s going well, it can just be a bit difficult adjusting at times.

One thing that I’m finding difficult coming to an understanding of at the minute is the atmosphere I’m living in. For the last 22 years of my life, I’ve lived in Belfast, and yet, it only really struck me the other day that this truly is a divided city.

There’s something about living in a situation where you’re faced with the reality of this everyday that really opens your eyes. It’s no longer something you can ignore or put away at the back of your mind, because, every morning you have to wake up to the sun rising over the peace wall out your front window, and every journey planned has to start with the question of “what time is it?” to check if you’ll be able to go a certain way, owing to the closing of the peace wall gates.

This is the road I walk on every morning on the way to the office.

Please know that I’m not making a judgement on anyone reading this who hasn’t come to this conclusion, after all, until only a month ago, I was living in the same understanding. But, this blog is for you guys to get a snapshot of what’s going on in my head, and, currently, this is what’s going round there!

I’m not sure what to do with this new information, or realisation of our city’s situation, but I don’t think it’s something to be afraid of. Obviously, the ministry of YWAM here in Belfast is one of reconciliation, and of bridging the gap between the two communities that exist here in our city. I’m not sure what my understanding of this was before starting with YWAM. I obviously knew that there was conflict and division, but exactly what this means is only just setting in. The reality of this is beginning to make sense to me, and it’s something that brings me to mourning for this city, for the people who live here. Not only the people who are my neighbours over here, for in a way, they live in the reality of the situation; but I also mourn for my neighbours back home across the city, and for the general population of this city living in the assurance that “everything’s grand” and “there’s only problems in a few areas”. Because, the thing is, even if the division is only physical in a few areas of the city, the fact remains that in so many other areas the physical barriers are very often replaced by emotional or spiritual barriers in places that are often seen from the outside as “mixed” or “integrated”.

I’m not sectarian, and I would never claim to be in any way. But in my time here on staff in YWAM Belfast, I’m realising that I am a product of my country, and all the baggage that goes along with that. This is just going to be a journey of figuring out what that means, and trying to reconcile what I realise to who I am and discovering how that affects my ministry here.

On a much lighter note…. I found out the other day that I am going to be heading away on the 21st October to Amsterdam in Holland for a 4-day conference with other YWAM bases from Western Europe. This is a really exciting prospect for me, not only for the chance to go and learn about how we, as we grow as a base, can make sure we stay outward looking (instead of focusing inwards on our own needs and desires) but also, it’s the chance for me to catch a bit of a bigger vision of YWAM worldwide. YWAM is a massive organisation, I once heard that it’s the biggest mission organisation in the world, and yet, my only view of YWAM is this tiny little community on the edge of Europe! YWAM Belfast is the only base I’ve ever really known, and so I’m excited to meet some other people from other bases in an attempt to catch a vision of what they, and through them, YWAM worldwide are up to!

I also had a great time last weekend with some good friends down in Bray, Co. Wicklow. I was there to celebrate the birthday of a friend of mine I met while I was in Bible College called Jane. We had a great weekend of exploring Bray, throwing stones on the beach and catching up. A few select pictures below…

Birthday girl Jane & Rachel

Matt, Rachel, Me & Iain

My attempt to be artistic…the moon was beautiful over the sea, so tried to capture it!

Matt, Elaine, Jane, Me & Gerrard
I appear to be VERY excited about my plane…

You know you live by the peacewall when....

2007-09-27T15:40:00.000+01:00

...the fact that you havent yet figured out how the key works in the back door, means a ten minute trip, driving round to get round to the front door on the other side of the wall....and after all that, you drop your top of the range, newly purchased tooth brush down the toilet....now THAT'S a night to remember!

Home sweet home...

2007-09-26T20:04:00.000+01:00

Today was the big day! Finally I’ve made the big move from home to my new house with YWAM. It’s been difficult commuting over for the last few weeks (especially as my timekeeping isn’t the best…) and just generally not being able to move in, but finally the back door is fixed, lockable, and with a brand new pane of glass. So the house is all secure, and here I am!

I’m sitting on the bed in my new room (which I’m sharing with fellow staffer Adam Tjernagel (get your tongue around THAT name!)) and just thinking about being here and about the new phase that I’m moving into now. It’s odd, but I think it feels more real now I’m actually living here and not at home.

It’s funny moving up here. I think for a while before I came up, I was really looking forward to it, the idea of moving into the heart of where I feel God has called me is obviously something that’s pretty exciting, but, when I started up here on the Shankill and was driving around it, I began to think to myself… “Am I crazy?” Not only am I moving into one of the most notorious areas in the whole of Northern Ireland, but I’m moving into a house which is at the point where two conflicting communities meet! I’m not saying this so that you’ll all think “Look how brave Tom is!” because the truth is, bravery and courage is the furthest thing from my mind right now! But I’m just saying this to show that I’m here by the grace of God, I’ve followed Him here, and I’m going to have to trust that this is the best place for me.

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, and I was reading Psalm 57 in the Bible. In it is says this:

“He sends from Heaven and saves me,
rebuking those who hotly pursue me;

God sends his love and his faithfulness.

I am in the midst of lions;
I lie among ravenous beasts-
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.

Be exalted, O God above the heavens;
Let your glory be over all the earth.

They spread a net for my feet-
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path-
but they have fallen into it themselves.

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast.”

Psalm 57: 3-7

What encouraged me about this passage was the way that the Psalmist is talking about the difficulties he’s going through and enduring. That he is existing in a place of trial and somewhere that isn’t easy by any means. But the thing that struck me was that although he acknowledges these things that are difficult around him, his acknowledgement of the difficulties that surrounds him are separated by these words of praise, adoration and thanks to God for the strength to keep going.

This is what encourages, and also challenges me. For the next period of my life, I’m going to be living in a place that isn’t easy, a place that it’s likely it’s going to be challenging to live in. But what I want my time here to be characterised by is this trust in God, and the belief that I am here for a reason; that, as the Psalmist says, I can be assured of his love & faithfulness, and if I hold on to these things, will remain steadfast in my heart.

Following are some pictures of the house, so in case you ever come to visit, you have no excuses for driving past it! The two houses are on the Springfield Road in Belfast, and YWAM Belfast is renting them for the students and staff on the DTS. The one on the right of the picture is where I’m living (369) and where the guys on the DTS will be staying, while the one on the left (371) is for the girls.

This is the room I’m living in, and that bed is where I’m sitting right now…just to give you a visual!

This is the house from the front, my room is the one on the first floor (the big window). As you can see, the house is attached to the peace wall, which is an interesting living situation! The front door opens up onto the Springfield Road while the back door leads onto the Shankill.

And this is the house from the back.

I was sitting talking this afternoon to a guy who’s living here with us at the minute called Stephen (we quickly bonded over a mutual love of the TV show ‘24’…). He was saying that when he first moved into the house, his car had a brick put through the window, and was suggesting that maybe it wasn’t the best idea for me to have the car up here with me. I was worrying a bit about this (as you would…) and so I put the car into the driveway and went out into town. As I walked out the back gate, a man a few houses up was driving along and stopped to ask me if I knew whose car it was that had been parking outside the house over the last few days. I said it had been mine, and this man just suggested that it would be best for me to put the car in the driveway whenever possible because of the location of the house beside the peace wall. Apparently kids sometimes throw stones over the wall, so Stephen’s car wasn’t broken because of malice, but just because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was just a really nice time for me to see God’s hand at work as I moved in here. I was worrying about this whole thing and whether it really was good for me to have my car up here, and it was incredible to see God putting someone in my path just as I started to worry to calm me down and to show me that there wasn’t a need to worry, that I just have to be careful.

So, this brings the end to this pretty long entry… Congratulations if you got through the whole thing! Please pray for me, Adam & Stephen as we live here for the next while and indeed for all of those in YWAM Belfast who are living here on the Shankill & Falls. Pray for us as we try and live in these communities, that we would build good relationships with our neighbours and the people in the streets, and that we would be able to show them something of Jesus by the way we live and go about our everyday lives.

I'm going to make a wonderful husband someday....

2007-09-24T17:50:00.000+01:00

One of the things I love most about working with YWAM is the fact that when I arrive at the office at 9 in the morning, I never know where the day is going to lead. For instance, last Thursday saw me trying to navigate my way around the kitchen to make a load of scones for the cafe last Friday. Come on up any Friday in October and you can judge my creations for yourself... Though... I'm realising that for those of you who know me, maybe this isn't the best selling point! Example of what you can expect below...

Then today saw Laura, Amalia and I literally overtaking a launderette in the Holylands in Belfast. We were washing and drying all (and I mean ALL) of the linens that are used by YWAM Belfast. You should have seen the faces of the two girls who were working in there when we rolled up with my car completely packed the brim with washing… This picture gives the idea, though, this is only about half of what we did!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring…

A Challenge...

2007-09-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

We’ve had a busy week this past one. It came with a few wee changes to our usual schedule. Unfortunately, it started off on a sad note, as on Monday, we attended the funeral of one of my fellow YWAM staff-mates younger brother. The church was full of people eager to show the love they had for Vishnu, and to show their sympathy to the family circle.

As I stood in that crowded church, I started to think about youth work, and the importance that working with young people has in the society we live in today. Over the last while, I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges young people face. In fact, just last Sunday, I again came face to face with this as I heard of a young person known to a friend of mine who took her own life last week.

What really challenges me as I try to think about working with young people in a variety of different contexts, is being someone whom they can feel comfortable to share their lives with. We need to realise that young people are going through a lot, what we see on the outside and the image they choose to show us may not be what’s going on under the surface. Only God knows what’s really going on underneath there, but that shouldn’t stop us being open to being used by Him. The challenge to me as I stood in that church was to be someone whom young people feel okay coming up to and talking about something that’s troubling them. Being someone they feel they can open up to who won’t judge them, or look at them differently and spread what they’ve told me around.

On Thursday, Erin (the DTS leader) and I met with a guy who’s a government youth worker on the Shankill Road, to discuss the possibility of us working alongside them in some stuff they’re doing. Nothing is for sure, I’m holding onto these plans lightly at the minute, but the idea of working with young people on the Shankill is one that excites me, but also terrifies me…for the reason’s I’ve shown here.

I also started volunteering at a teenage youth group on Friday night run in Fitzroy Presbyterian, called “Flipside Plus”. It’s a group for 15-18 year olds, run in the halls of Fitzroy. I’ve only been there one night, so I haven’t really gotten too involved, but any group that has a chocolate fondue on their first evening meeting can’t be too bad! I’m looking forward to getting a bit more involved there and starting to invest time in relationships with the young people, as well as some of the leaders there.

There’s so much in youth work that can be difficult, seeing young people struggling and trying to come to terms with what’s going on in their lives…but the other side of the coin is that it’s also one of the most rewarding things you can do. To see the energy and enthusiasm of young people is so exciting, and ultimately, to see a young person coming to know God when they are still young, and then growing up into his plan for them, seeing them reaching their full potential…there’s nothing better!

On a lighter note, on Thursday night I went on a wee road trip with a college friend of mine called Dave, to visit (of all places) Castlewellan! The Belfast Bible College pre-term week away was happening, so Dave and I went down to live in the past and catch up with a few people who haven’t managed to escape just quite yet!

We spent a bit of time in Newcastle, with a quick stop off to the dodgems… and then we headed over to Annalong where we had dinner at the Harbour Inn, with a wee walk along the harbour thrown in for good measure. It was a lovely night. I really enjoyed just sitting down, having a nice meal with some good, good friends, and just had a really lovely evening of relaxing and enjoying the company of those that God has blessed me with. Below are a few pictures of our time.

Me (attempting to look dangerous…I think it works…:D), Jonny, Dave and Iain

Holly and Laura

A Café, a Greengrocer and a Job-description…

2007-09-23T16:35:00.000+01:00

Originally posted on Friday 14th September

It’s been good settling into a routine and a rhythm this week working with YWAM, although it could be argued that it’s not really a routine when every day is different! This week we’ve been spending a lot of time cleaning out the houses that the students (and myself!) are going to be living in when they arrive at the beginning of November. More to come next week about these houses…hopefully some pictures and a story about why they are some pretty special, location wise…so keep your eyes peeled for that!

One thing that has kept us occupied this week was that the Shankill Methodist church asked YWAM a while ago if we would be interested in helping to open up a café with them. This is something that we as a team decided to take on for the next few months before the students get here, both as a way of raising some money to help fundraise for some of the students who are coming from developing areas of the world, and also a way of helping our staff team bond a bit and figuring out our working relationship before the students get here!

Below is a picture of the café we're working in.

We spent the last few days preparing for the big opening of the café today, figuring out a menu, shopping for the food and getting the café ready for having people coming in. A pretty amazing story that happened yesterday when we were setting up was that Shankill Methodist was having a prayer meeting, and one of the congregation was standing outside the doors welcoming people to it. Amalia (also on DTS staff) and I were going out to pick some stuff up, and got talking to this guy. It turned out that he was a local vegetable shop owner, and when he heard what we were doing, he took us over to his van and gave us a load of vegetables to make the soup! He also gave us his number and told us to give him a ring next week and the weeks after that to let him know what vegetables we needed for the café, and he’s going to donate them to us! This is an amazing gift to us, and a real sign of God’s blessing on what we are doing.

Today went well, we saw quite a few people coming through the doors, and even made a bit of a profit which was great for our first day open! Thanks to all who came around and visited! If you’re around any Friday in September and October between 11 & 2, feel free to drop by and enjoy a sandwich and bowl of soup… It’d be great to see you! Text or email me if you need any directions…

A few pictures of today's café:

As promised, I thought it was time I let you know exactly what working with YWAM Belfast actually entails! My role here is going to be working with the DTS (which stands for Discipleship Training School). The DTS will start on November 4th this year, and will involve two main parts, 5 or 6 months of a lecture phase which will be followed in the middle of March/start of April by a 2 month overseas outreach phase, the location of which is still to be decided, but will most likely be to an area that has seen conflict and is in need of reconciliation and forgiveness. This is owing to the fact that the DTS in Belfast is known as a ‘Reconciliation DTS’, with a lot of the lectures being focused on this aspect of our faith and our mission to the world.

Most of my time with the DTS will be taken up in sitting in on the lectures, running small groups and working on a one-to-one basis with some of the students who come, encouraging them in their relationship with God and helping them to figure out stuff in relation to this. It should be a pretty exciting time. My DTS really was life-changing for me, so I’m excited to be a part of these new students experience and trying to make this year a time both of learning, but also of great fun.

Another ministry of YWAM Belfast is known as the Forgiveness Programme, also working in the area of reconciliation, (are you sensing a theme?!), in which a team of staff are working in schools in Belfast and presenting a message of forgiveness and reconciliation to the kids who go there. It’s an exciting ministry, but one that I don’t really know a lot about, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about it, learning and working alongside them for a while too!

Staff Retreat

2007-09-23T16:31:00.000+01:00

Originally posted on Saturday 8th September

Yesterday saw us returning from the 5-day staff retreat in Castlewellan. It was a real time of relaxation for me (which, no doubt many of you will be saying I didn’t really need…seeing as my last few months have consisted of not much BUT relaxation!). But the difference here was the chance to spend time getting to know this group of people that I’m going to be spending the next season of my life with.

The days consisted of a morning and evening meeting, where we had different speakers coming talking about the direction that we as YWAM may be going in the coming years, and challenging us with a messages of faithfulness and the call to seek and come before God in repentance. We also spent time thinking and praying about the period of transition that YWAM Northern Ireland is entering, a change that is symbolised by our new national leaders Jonny and Jenn Clark (on the left), who are taking over from Mike and Ros Oman (on the right) who have led YWAM here for the last ten or so years.

It was also a real time of confirmation for me that YWAM is where God wants me to be for this time. The ease with which I related to this group of people and the friendships that have begun (or re-ignited!) combined with the way God was speaking to me through the week, showed me that this is the place for me right now. I may not understand the whole picture at this time, but I feel like I’ve found my calling and my place in YWAM Belfast.

The rest of the time was free for us to go on walks, play some frisbee in the grounds, try and find our way through the hedge maze in the Castlewellan grounds (I failed…Many thanks to Sarah for directing us from the top! I’d probably still be in there otherwise) and just spend time getting to know one another while drinking a LOT of tea! It was definitely a time that was really beneficial for me. It can be a bit intimidating going to work with new people, and this week made this process so much easier. Even though I already knew some of the people, I haven’t really spent a significant amount of time with them for a few years, and so this was a good time to catch up on these relationships as well as starting off some new ones!

I’m really excited for what we the future holds for YWAM in Northern Ireland. Staying at Castlewellan was a group of 28 people from a variety of different countries, including Canada, the USA, Ireland, England, Holland, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, New Zealand & Sierra Leone. All of these people are here with the same goal in mind, to see the Gospel preached in this nation and to see people coming to know Jesus in a personal and real way, finding embodiment in a living faith. It was exciting to sit in the meetings and to look around to see the number of people sitting there, to feel the passion for what we are doing that was in the room, and to imagine the impact that God can have on this nation if we are willing to work as a team, follow God’s word and listen to His will for us. Hopefully these are exciting days to come!

The Beginning

2007-09-23T16:29:00.001+01:00

Originally posted Sunday 2nd September

Starting something like this is a funny thing. I’m not really sure where to begin or what I should write about, but I reckon that probably the best thing to do is just start from the beginning… I imagine that most of you who are reading this will know who I am, and will have found this site by me telling you about it. But I suppose that for those who maybe don’t know me as well or have just stumbled across this, I should do a bit of an introduction… Not too long, just the basics!

My name is Tom Tate, I’m 22, born and bred in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I went to Stranmillis Primary School, then Belfast Inst for secondary school. While I was at Inst, I became a lot more involved in different Christian organisations and clubs, and then, when I was 16 at an annual Christian youth event called ‘Summer Madness’, I realised that even though I had been brought up going to church and in this Christian environment, it wasn’t something that was playing any part in impacting who I was. So at that point in time I realised that this was something I needed to remedy, and this was when I would say I actually became a Christian.

When it came time to leave school and go to university, I had my plans all set in place to go to Belfast Bible College. However, it seemed that God had other plans, and he directed my path in a different direction, and I found myself working with a worldwide Christian organisation called Youth With a Mission, YWAM for short (pronounced ‘why-wham’). This was the year when a relationship with God began to take a real priority in my life. I found myself falling so much in love with this God who had literally given everything for us, and realised that because of this, I had to start living my life in the reality of this fact. I spent an incredible ten months working on the Shankill Road in Belfast and in South Africa living and learning about the character of God and finding myself catching a piece of the vision of God’s heart for the world.

After finishing my year with YWAM, I started at Belfast Bible College for a 3-year degree in Divinity. These were years that were marked by a very real sense of God’s blessing as he provided me with an amazing community in which to learn more and go deeper into God’s word, and with some great friends to make these 3 happy years fly by in a no time.

The question was always at the back of my mind of what I was going to do after I finished college. I spent a lot of time exploring different options and seeking God’s will on where it was that he wanted me to be after I finished. It was a difficult time as I struggled to hear God’s voice and I wasn’t sure what it was that he was telling me. It was frustrating for me to not know where I was going to be next, as I like to know the next step! But thankfully he revealed it to me in his own time, and I was accepted to return back to YWAM in Belfast as a staff member.

So that’s pretty much all there is to it. Tomorrow is the big day I’ve been looking forward to for a good while now, the staff of YWAM Northern Ireland is going to be getting together for a 5 day staff retreat to get to know one another and also spend some time sharing ideas and visions for God’s heart for this country that we live in.

And that’s where this entry will come to an end I suppose… Over the next wee while I’ll be putting more up on here about what working with YWAM actually involves, and there’ll just be updates on what’s happening with me, the team and things that are going on that you can pray for us about!

The last time I worked with YWAM, it was an incredible time of discovery and growth for me, both personally and in my relationship with God, so I’m excited about this next period that I’m going to be involved with this organisation; but also about sharing the adventure with others, the things that are happening in my life and what God is doing with and through the small team of us that live and work on the Shankill Road in Belfast.

I’ll try and update this pretty regularly…and hopefully I won’t be too wordy! I’ll try my best to be concise… though, if this is the case I’m not exactly starting in the way I mean to continue!

I’m hoping this is going to be an interesting few years, so I’m looking forward to sharing the journey!

Tom