Now that I know it works...

Howdy! It's my turn to post for the group this evening from Belfast. I'll fill ya'll in on Adam's attempted report from last night as well, I think one of the highlights for him was explaining in detail the "Ulster Fry" or famous breakfast dish that serves an egg, beans, sausage, tomatoes, and of course potatoe bread...mmmm!
I'll recap the activities we've done since our arrival. When we arrived on Tues we dropped our luggage off at the youth hostile in Belfast before catching the bus to Corrymeela (a word of Irish origin meaning "Hill of Harmony"). It as a great two days with a group of young adults from all over the world sharing a similar passion for peace and reconciliation.
On the final day, there was a video featuring the Middle East wars and our group gathered to pray for those who would be returning there from Palestine, Lebanon, and...Adam (he was asked to join since he has a particularly strong passion for this part of the world and is called to this area, as well)! It was a very moving and meaningful part of the time with YWAM before we said our good-byes.
This morning we met with Gareth Higgins, a leader of Zero28. We immediately took to this "lively chap" and had a great talk with him about our purpose here and ideas for the next few days' events. His humor and wit won us over, but he is also very knowledgable about the current religious and political environment we now find ourselves in.
I just want to say, on a more personal note, that I truly appreciate all your prayers and support in sending us here. It has been a wonderful and awe-inspiring few days already and I know God has many more great things in store for us for the next week.

Love, Peace, and Prayers,
Ang

So we've been struggl'n

with the technology, that is! We've been trying to post blogs and pix, but mostly have failed. Will this work?

Prayer for Palestine

This morning was momentous. From the moment we arrived in Northern Ireland we heard faint murmuring of a sensational "Ulster Fry." A breakfast, of course, consisting of beans, bacon, eggs, sausage, fried tomatoes, and potato bread. Well, we had it. And it was everything it was made out to be. Wonderful. Delectable.

Following our morning indulgences, proceeded to "The Oasis" where we met up with the lovely group of "YWAM'ers" that we met at Corrymeela. We spent the morning and afternoon hearing a string of narrative oriented speeches by a woman who has been involved in reconciliation work in some of the most war torn portions of the world for many years, including Rwanda, South Africa, Liberia, and many others. Her stories were steeped with emotion and insight. Quite inspiring and substantive.

Following the speeches, we began the long, emotional process of parting with many of the wonderful people we have met so far. This time included a heartbreaking slide show of pictures from Palestine and Israel spanning the last 50 years and a spirit filled time of prayer for peace in the Middle East. The prayer time was sharp and poignant. In the group were many activist for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, as well as two Palestinians and one Lebanese man. The sense of unity and love the invaded us was overwhelming. As tears flowed, the spirit moved. Our prayers were like one voice--a melodic song of hope and peace.

Really, words cannot express the value of our time so far. Yet, the people we have met and the words we have heard are buried deep in our hearts and minds. Who would think that we would come to Northern Ireland only to meet a bunch of Palestinians. Providence.

Comments or questions welcome.

tomorrow we plan to meet with Gareth Higgins (Zero28) in the morning and then head on to "Summer Madness" (a reconciliatory gathering of about 5,000 Northern Irish and Irish youth) in the evening.

Cheerio then.

Back in Belfast

Dear Friends,

We have returned to Belfast today. We left Ballycastle around 10AM, sad to leave such a beautiful part of the country.

We had a little prayer time in the morning in a nice, quaint worship center, but it was more exciting than just a 'center'. The accoustics were such that if you were sitting on one side of the room you could hear the person on the opposite side whisper due to the circular/domed ceiling.

So... We arrived in Belfast then. We met with Catholic and Protestant leaders who work closely together and who have been rather significantly involved in the peace process in recent history, dating back to 2001 or so. They have a vision of working together, continuing and building closer relationships between the drastically divided community. Here's a visual: One road divides a community into exactly a 100% Catholic community and a 100% Protestant community, the road goes right down the middle. This road is the where most of the deaths and violence took place during the Troubles. The Church we visited sits right off the road.

Later on this day we heard stories from Rwanda. A woman shared about her peacemaking work in Rwanda. We also were able to talk to several others on different other issues they have been working on for years now. Amazing stories.

We haven't been able to post pictures yet. We've very sorry. Hopefully soon we will post some so you can get a glimpse of what we're experiencing.

Peace to you all

PS. We will describe more about the Five Pillars soon, so stay tuned.

Five Pillars

These are the five pillars of our trip so far.

1. Iconic
2. Apocalyptic
3. Emergent
4. Heretical
5. Failure

These were a few fresh words from our new good friend Jon, who described to us the community in which he lives. People from all backgrounds get together to follow Christ in unique and creative ways. He has been quite the inspiration for us thus far.

We did in fact make it safely to Belfast, two hours later than scheduled. When we arrived at the Hostel we received a note from Gareth stating that we would be leaving to in the next hour. We, being us four: Ang, Peder, Adam, Ben.

On the way there we had to change buses, and remain at a bus stop in Ballymena for severals hours. Here we found ourselves surrounded by school children. We took many pictures and video. We conversed with several of them about what was going on, from the World Cup to Bush.

The Bus ride to Ballycastle was reasonably long, which gave some of us time to catch up on much needed sleep. As we neared Ballycastle the mindblowing beauty that awaited us became quickly apparent. Ballycastle, is a lovely little costal town in the northern portion of Northern Ireland. The bus dropped us off right near a peer full of quaint sail boats. Soon thereafter Jonny, a man who was staying at corrymeela (City on a Hill) community, picked us up and drove us up the coastal precipice to Corrymeela. The community actually looks more like a full scale retreat center than a modest hilltop cottage.

At Corrymeela we were greeted by 13 community members and 30 YWAM guests consisting of at least 16 different nationalities.

The beauty of the landscape surrounding Corrymeela was matched and surpassed by the wonderful group of people we met here. As the evening progressed, each one of us had wonderful and challenging conversations with a number of the Corrymeela community members and the YWAM guests, as well as eating dinner together and engaging in an extremely stimulating presentation on various historical and contemporary aspects of the Northern Irish sectarian conflict. (He also spoke extensively on Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory, using common language rather than the eloquent, hard-to-read Girardian wording). He also compared and contrasted the Northern Irish conflict to various similar conlficts around the world, including the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the Lebonese conflict between the Christian and Muslim communities, and many others. We rounded off the night with a delighful hike down to the beach that culminated in a bonfire as the sun set red and bright (around 11:30 PM!!!). We are beat and sleep deprived but inspired and intrigued.

The Trip Is On

After several set-backs and struggles, we have been able to pull off this trip.

It's going to be an awesome Northern Ireland trip!

We are leaving on June 26th and returning on July 7th.

We have plans to meet up with all sorts of people who have been involved in the reconciliation process for decades. We'll be updating you as we go along on this trip, sharing personal stories about what we see and what we learn and who we meet.

We have trip a full of activities and excitement. We hope to connect with some great people in Northern Ireland. We hope to learn as much as possible about the ever-long sectarian conflicts. We are not going with answers, but with a willingness to learn, listen, and interact.

Peace to all of you,