Final Countdown

This 10 week trip has come to a close. (Aside from my three-day debrief that ends on Wednesday.) As I type out the final chapter of my summer adventures, I'm sitting in JFK waiting for my last flight to Seattle. This will be my sixth plane this summer.

SO! My last stop in Europe was Northern Ireland. I spent two weeks working with Youth Missions International United Kingdom (YMIUK) which is a sister organization to YMI in the US. There is also YMI Peru and Brasil. 

I stayed with Trisha Smyth, a lady who shared over 100 mutual friends with me on Facebook but I hadn't actually met yet. She used to live not too far from me in Western Washington where she was heavily involved with Awana (where we gained all of the mutual friends) and where she then worked for YMI. A couple of years ago she was a leader for a high school team to Northern Ireland for just over a week. There she met this dude Paul... (and by "dude" I mean that he's six-foot-something-fierce and a single dad to two grown kids). They kept in contact after her trip, eventually fell in love, got married and blah blah blah. The point is that she moved to Northern Ireland to join her new husband and then started YMIUK where she is now the Executive Director. (Fancy, right?!) I got to live with Trisha and Paul and work alongside Trisha and her full summer intern, Olivia. Olivia stayed in Northern Ireland for eight weeks. 

There's a ton that I could say about Olivia and even more about Trisha! I learned so much from being with them for those two weeks. I had very little idea of what to expect because I didn't even know for sure if I would get to go to NI until the day I started my YMI trip. A huge part of our training is to be flexible and understand that schedules can change. Schedules do change. A lot. God shows us that His plans aren't always our plans. This summer is a beautiful example of that. 

We were originally going to be serving for two weeks at a teen conference where Trisha was to be a keynote speaker. She has spoken all over the US and Northern Ireland,  mainly with teenagers, about living your life to the fullest for God's glory and recognizing the value He has given all of us. (I REALLY loved being with and learning from Trisha. We have a lot of similar passions and we got along like old friends. I pray this is just the beginning of a long ministry partnership with her.)

Anyway, the summer was spent planning and looking forward to this two week conference, but plans changed. The opportunity fell through and God showed us that our plan wasn't His plan. We then found an opportunity to serve at a family camp at a Christian conference center not too far from Trisha's house. This wasn't just any family camp- it was a retreat for single moms and their kids. 

When I got to Northern Ireland we got an estimate for around 20 kids. Our new job was then to put on a Holiday Bible Club (or "Vacation Bible School" as we call it in the States) for three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon for Monday to Friday. Olivia and Trisha had already started brainstorming themes, Bible lessons, and games. 

But plans change. God showed us that our plan wasn't His plan. Two days before the families were due to arrive we learned the real number of kids... four. Four kids is not twenty kids. And the retreat started on Saturday, not Monday. Seven days of lessons is not five days of lessons. We were also asked to come for two hours in the morning and were told we could stay home in the afternoon. Two hours is not six hours.. 

Trisha looked at me and said something along the lines of, "That's not what we expected! Four kids..." 
I smiled, "We get to do all of this for four kids!"

We finalized a theme (that we followed very loosely), divided up teaching days (which ended up starting on Monday like we planned- we gave the families the weekend to get settled), wrote our curriculum, and thought up some games.

On Monday we showed up with extra candy and fairy buns (mini cupcakes) ready to meet the kids and have fun. We ended up with three boys and a girl. The youngest boy is six and the other three kids are between nine and twelve. We also had the pleasure of spending time with William, a twenty-year-old guy with Down Syndrome, who joined us almost every day. His live-in caregiver was given the week off. We were told he doesn't speak much and that he has a mind close to a six-year-old. 

We had a blast that week! Trisha talked to the moms after our first morning and bonded with them right away! (Trisha spent a number of years as a single mom with her son before Paul put a ring on it.) After talking to the moms it was decided that we would not only come every morning, but would also come back for two game-filled afternoons and a movie night. 

The mornings with the kids started with music. Not the latest pop-Disney-superstars or catchy-but-questionable songs off the radio... We brought along our totally-cheesy-get-stuck-in-your-head-for-three-months childrens Jesus music! (Complete with dance moves!) The first day was really awkward. Four kids is an awkwardly small amount to get excited about cheesy dance moves. Especially when 75% of them have hit the "I'm-almost-a-teenager-and-can't-be-seen-making-a-fool-of-myself" stage. BUT William LOVED song time! He was even dancing along. He sang along at some points and started talking as the first morning went on. We couldn't understand what he was saying as his language skills are under developed, but smiling and laughing is a universal language. 

By the end of the week we had the crankiest kid dancing. And singing a little bit, too. I call that a success. This is the same kid who on the first day told me, "You mean we have to spend EVERY morning with you guys?! That's just torture!" Yeah, I caught him smiling by Wednesday.

Besides music, we had a specific lesson time every morning. Day by day we went through the key points of the gospel. I taught Monday and Friday, Olivia taught Tuesday and Thursday, and Trisha taught Wednesday. Our theme was Clue (like the board game... but apparently in the UK they call it "Cluedo"... and Mr. Green for them is Reverend Green). We focused on uncovering the mysteries of God. A mystery is a truth that's hidden or not yet revealed. The first morning I talked about the mystery of God and how He reveals Himself to us through the Bible and creation. Tuesday was the mystery of sin- what it  is and why it separates us from God. Wednesday was the mystery of Jesus- He is the bridge to a relationship with God. Thursday was the mystery of faith and Friday was the mystery of eternity. These mysteries don't have to remain mysterious. We had fun Pinterest crafts to go along with each lesson. Each day ended with a lot of games!

On Thursday we had a movie night and let the moms get all dressed up and go out to dinner. We didn't even give them a curfew. On Friday afternoon we finished the week with a scavenger hunt around the conference center property. 
It was a great week that I will remember for many years to come. 

Right now I'm praying about my future as this summer has opened a few different doors. I don't know what next summer will hold, but I have a few ideas of what might be... One of my biggest goals for this trip was to pursue long-term involvement in Europe. 

But all of that deserves a blog post of its own ;)

Trisha- as you're reading this I want to publicly thank you for being genuine and loving. Thank you for all of our conversations and answering all of my random questions. I learned a lot from you in just two short weeks. I definitely wasn't ready to say good-bye, but those kinds of things are never easy and I've already gone through a lot of those this summer. I look forward to seeing what God does through you this next year in Northern Ireland! And I'm excited to be your friend for many years to come- even into eternity ;)

Party... People... Portugal!

I have one week left until I return to the States and I'd say it's about time for an update!

The last time I sat down to type about everything was before the camps started in Portugal. I have since finished my month in Portugal and am now one week in to my two-week trip to Northern Ireland.

July 12th started the International Camp at Centro Biblico de Esmoriz (the Bible camp in Esmoriz, Portugal). We had a high school team come from America through Youth Missions International (YMI). The team happened to be led by a couple from Christ's Church! (That's the church I've gone to since I was 2 and that first got me connected with Awana and YMI. I basically owe most of who I am today to the people and ministries God has put in Christ's Church.) Kind of like the Canadians in France, this one-week team "adopted" me as one of their own. I joined them for daily devotions and assisted them in running the International Camp. We also had this dude come from England who came to help with sports. 

(This English Dude... Joe... I looked at him the first day he came and I thought 'Sweet! He must be.. 18. That's close enough to my age. We can have mature conversations and be friends!' Then I made the mistake of asking Joe how old he is... FIFTEEN!!! And it turns out that he thought I was SEVENTEEN. Granted, that's a step up from the usual sixteen that people peg me as, but still! I am a twenty year old woman who wants friends her own age! But I digress... Joe turned out to be really cool and we ate biscuits and drank tea as time went on.) 

For the International Camp we had around 20 campers.The focus of the camp was practicing English. If anyone was caught speaking Portuguese, they had to help with dishes for the next meal. All of the group times in the camp were gospel-focused. We had morning devotions with our rooms led by an American and a Portuguese leader. Then after breakfast each of the American teenagers on the YMI team took turns leading a daily lesson. The theme was sports, so we talked about what it looks like to be on God's "team."

I connected pretty quickly with two high school girls who came to the camp to practice English. Apparently "American English" isn't taught in their schools. These two girls, Diana and Daniella, were super excited to speak English with a group of Americans. From what I learned in my conversations with them, I think they grew up going to church with their families, but they are unfamiliar with Christianity outside of the pews. I shared a lot of goofy conversations with those two girls, but one day on the beach we were able to have a serious discussion about sin. Those girls have a lot more questions and things to talk about than what can fit in one week. They loved camp so much that as soon as they got home they started planning on coming back for Sports Camp. (Sports Camp started the week after I left.) These are just two campers who demonstrate why camps like this exist. The gospel is being shared. Lives are being changed- one conversation at a time. 

I wish I could go into detail about all of the campers that I got to build friendships with. That week we became family. I was encouraged daily by all of the goofy faces and sincere hearts shown by the people I was surrounded with. 

The church youth in Portuugal don't have a lot of programs to connect with each other. I grew up with youth group, Awana, and a strong group of Christians in nearly every school I went to. (And I went to a lot of schools...) But in Portugal the community is significantly smaller. The camp is one of the main ways that the christian youth can meet and gain the tools to share their faith with others around them. 

After International Camp came Kids Camp. This was my last week in Portugal. Another American YMI team came, this time a church group from the Key Peninsula, but they focused on park evangelism that week.  I had a simple week of introducing the daily Bible story and hanging out with the kids. The hardest part of kids week was that I still don't know Portuguese and most of the kids don't speak English well enough to hold a full conversation. We communicated mostly through charades or grabbing a Portuguese leader to interpret. I think at one point I was playing "Simon Says" with one of the smaller girls who pulled me outside, but I was just copying whatever she did until she yelled in Portuguese and then laughed again. It was a very confusing time. One guy just kept speaking to me in full Portuguese whether I understood or not.

Overall, Portugal was a refreshing time of connecting with the local church and pouring into the youth. I will forever treasure the friendships that I made. I'm praying for a couple of my new friends to join me at Moody in Spokane next year! 

On Friday the 24th I traveled to Northern Ireland. The missionary I'm serving here is fantastic and I can clearly see how much I have to learn from her! The first week here has mostly been our tourist days and preparing for a single parents camp this next week. 

I'll update on Northern Ireland later... when I can give it the time it deserves... most likely when I'm home from my trip. 

Thank you for taking the time to read about what God has allowed me to do and be a part of! If I left out anything you want me to talk about or if you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me a message!