Hello friends!
This is Sara again. I offered to let someone else blog, but I got passed the laptop again. :)
Our time here has been absolutely lovely. There is a lot to update on, so I'll try to do my best.
Back to Sunday night:
We led a very impromptu worship service at the mission. I mean, we knew we were going to be leading it, but we were a tad unprepared. :) We did our best to throw together a praise team even though none of have any talent to speak of. It was a delight. Only one man shook his head in outward disdain. Oh well, our music may have been repugnant, but at least we did it in the spirit of the Lord. :)
Monday could be properly dubbed "St. Patrick's Day," not in the sense that we drank a lot of green beer, but that we learned about St. Patrick and his influence on Ireland. We strolled the countryside (in the giant blue minibus), checking out some notable sights like the Nendrum monastery and St. Patrick's grave. Several of the highlights from this trip were doing a three point turn on the busy highway (most of us screaming in terror), and Mitch having some trouble controlling the volume of his voice when he asked our host Gillian, "WHAT'S YOUR DOG'S NAME?" Of course, the story makes no sense now, but we'll certainly share when we return. :)
On Tuesday, the pastor at the mission, Gary, gave us a tour of the many murals splashed about the streets of Belfast. These murals can be described as disturbing, provocative, and awesome. They often portray militaristic images to a disturbing degree. One thing that the mission is doing is repainting some of the more disturbing murals depicting the violence to reflect more congenial images, such as images of C.S. Lewis (who was born in Belfast), and Titanic (which was built in Belfast). We also saw the many walls that separate the Protestant and Catholic communities. Seeing the highly fortified walls separating the communities really opened our minds to how serious the troubles have been here. It is striking how when people speak to us, they so casually mention bombing and deaths that have even directly affected their own families. We are continually processing the troubles here as we learn about the efforts towards reconciliation.
Wednesday can properly be described as THE MOST INTENSE DAY EVER.
We spoke with 3 absolutely fascinating men and heard what they had to say about their work, experiences, and theology. We first talked with a man named Mark who is the missions director here at EBM. He expounded the theology behind EBM, focusing largely on the theology of poverty. It is clear that the Bible speaks strongly and often about the poor, and yet we so often fail to recognize this. Mark spoke of God's economy and how to reconcile the difference between working to pull people out of poverty and yet recognizing the theology behind "blessed be the poor." EBM puts a distinct emphasis on justice, recognizing that we cannot forever say, "We'll pray and count on God's faithfulness" while we lie dormant, not rising to serve as the hands and feet of God in our own communities. This focus on justice leads directly to the emphasis on bringing the kingdom of God to our world now, by caring for creation and by actively seeking to further efforts towards redemption in God's world. Needless to say, this topic is intense and I won't even try to conclude these thoughts in a tidy way...
Up next, we talked to Glenn who is the man in charge of the new building plans the mission is working toward. Glenn spoke to us about the theology of architecture, or working for justice by being conscious of community development. This part is a tad difficult to explain on a blog, but it's simply fascinating to think of how our theology can extend to something like architecture and be absolutely and completely relevant.
Furthering our mind-exploding day today, we went on to talk with Peter Rollins, an author and a figure in the emerging church movement in Northern Ireland. Rollins heads up a church called Ikon, which describes itself as iconic, apocalyptic, emerging, heretical, and failing.
Let's just say, this guy was likely one of the more interesting persons we've ever met. He was entirely brilliant and put on almost some sort of philosophical standup show. He was fantastic. His views would be perhaps a little challenging to the Northwestern community. Actually, I shouldn't try to soften that. His views would shock and appall most of the Northwestern community. Oh well though, Mitch asked him to come speak in chapel. :) Rollins very much advocated a theology in which God cannot be explained nor reduced to any system. We cannot explain God--we are all heretics. Basically, he put a lot of challenging ideas out there for us to mull over. The fascinating part about him is that he is very much grounded in Scripture, even though his interpretation of such isn't "orthodox" in the slightest. Our experience talking with him was undoubtedly worthwhile.
After all of this, we hadn't had enough apparently so several of us headed to a socialist workers' party meeting [Blaine wants me to say that he didn't attend :) ] The speaker talked about politics in America and basically ripped into Barack Obama big time. Interestingly enough, all of us that attended had supported Obama in the caucus. After much discussion, the people said, "well, we've got a whole bunch of Americans over there, let's see what they think." Eli and Mitch provided eloquent responses for the views that we hold and how we see things unfolding within America.
Even though I've been telling you about all these crazy, intense discussions and things we've been learning, we've been able to hang out a lot as well. We listened to some jazz last night, and we've also had the chance to get to know our host Gillian much better as well. She is fantastic, and we love telling her stories about Northwestern because she thinks our college is crazy. :)
Overall, what we have been learning has undoubtedly already expanded our perceptions and worldviews. It is overly refreshing to see a mission organization seeking to take a broader vision of God's world and working to make that vision relevant within the world of the people. The focus on a social gospel allows us to see how God's plan for redemption expands much further than salvation and thus our image of God almost expands to incorporate a broader image of God.
Very well then, I'm getting a little too into "paper writing mode." :) We are all doing very well and hope that you are all as well.
Here's hoping that everything is going brilliantly in the States,
Sara & co.
Katie and Maggie at the market.
Great games at Friday Fusion.
Friday Fusion crafts, fun!
Sarah by the sea.
Sarah sitting. & smiling.
Katie at the Causeway.
. . . & Harriet and Andrew, down to their last potato. So sad . . .
Dinnertime, or "tea," Paul, Blaine, Mitch
Blaine in the pulpit of the church built on the site of the
St. Patrick's grave
Paul poppin' his colla' with his new red euro-t-shirt. If only someone had told him to pack a change of clothes in his carry on . . . (!)
Chris finding something he loves in Belfast. . .
Glenn Jordan tells us about Skainos, EBM's ambitious building project of an entirely new complex to house the church and all her varied ministries. "Skainos" is the Greek word tent/tabernacle, as in "the Word became flesh and tented with us" (John 1:14)
Sara, Eli, Sarah
Britnee, Chris, Maggie, host Gillian, & Katie
Gary Mason, EBM pastor, showing us one of the 58 peace walls (in background).
Loyalist/Protestant mural in East Belfast
The CS Lewis mural which replaced a more militant mural. He was born near EBM and is one of the most famous sons of Belfast.
L to R: Brittnee, Sarah, Eli, Maggie, Blaine, Sara, Katie, Chris.