What is EBM?
East Belfast Mission.
Newtownards Road. Methodist.
Action. Serving. Doing.
The mother of projects…Skainos.
Compass, Irish Class, Stepping Stone, Hosford House, Kidz
Gap, more.
re:fresh, re:store, re:furb.
Sharing space, embracing change.
Tent of meeting.
Meetings daily.
Tea with milk.
Partying hard. A new building wedding.
So many Marks, and so many Garys.
Getting crisps from Davy.
Being part of a family.
Embracing chaos.
Reconciling brokenness.
A place for the family, a place for the many.
A place of grace, a place of mercy.
Some of my thoughts and the things I have seen or heard over
the first four days of being in Belfast. The mission is more than just the
church, it reaches beyond the very many walls of the building that it sits
within and shares what it has with the community that surrounds it. Thus far,
despite my jet lag which manifested itself in my feverish attempts at sleep,
lack of hunger, the deep urge to need a nap in the middle of the day, and the
most relentless headache known to man…I have been welcomed in by all those in
the community that I have met, and I have had the pleasure of multiple
different settings to interact beyond a Sunday morning. I have attended a
wedding, watched part of Eurovision, attended a wedding reception, sat in on
meetings, engaged in prayer, hip hop danced with some women, had a family
dinner, and who knows what else has slipped my mind in these four days, which
Gary says feels like forever already.
I am excited to get my particular project underway, and I am
enjoying my time to engage in the community, and look forward to some of my
other work beyond my initial project in implementing creative arts.
Right now, I am missing home…it’s very hard to be this far
away and this time difference away. I need to find the grocery store…this could
be helpful in the very near future. Apparently I need a phone…and if I could
have magical wireless internet capabilities, that would be the best thing ever.
I like crazy colored ikea couches, but these may get old to sit on to talk to
people late at night in ten weeks time.
Things I have also learned:
- a purse is a wallet, not like the whole bag…that’s a bag
- chips of course are fries, crips are potato chips
- washing machines are tiny here
- it’s tea with milk…
- a few magic tricks from some cute little girls
- I truly cannot understand some Irish accents...I’m trying!
- it gets dark here around 10:30 and light around 5:00…by
the end of the summer that is supposed to be midnight and 4am…I may sleep in my
windowless bathroom.
That’s it for now I believe…
I’ll try to be at it again soon, once more of my project is
underway.
Love,
Carrie
