A child's innocence part two...

A child's innocence

Sometimes we forget that in each and every nation in the world there are children who experience all the wonderful or terrible things that happen each day.

In Nigeria, children starve and watch their parents and siblings die because they don't have enough food to eat or clean water to drink. Children in Nigeria starve each day.

In the US children are subjected to countless marketing molestations, we call advertisements, each day; telling them they are too fat or too skinny, or that they need this toy to live, or must start smoking if they want to be cool. Children in the US are expert consumers.

In Palestine children play futbol in formerly lush olive tree groves that have been demolished by Israeli construction teams and bounce their futbols off the 27ft. tall walls that surround many Palestinian cities, under the trained eye of Israeli snipers. Children in the Gaza Strip now go to bed each night listening to the lullaby of bomb blasts--some which kill their friends. Children in Palestine are prisoners in their homes.

Children in Uganda are routinely kidnapped and forced to kill and rape other children. Children in Uganda are murderers.

So too in Northern Ireland children are subjected to hate ridden fear of the other--the Protestant, the Catholic. Children in Northern Ireland have seen people gunned down on the streets because of what Christian denomination they adhere to. Children in Northern Ireland are sectarian and fearful.

A child’s innocence is worth dying for. A child’s innocence should never, never be taken from them.

Yet, all around the world, in Nigeria and the US and Palestine and Uganda and Northern Ireland children dance and grin and walk through life with hope and love. Only if we could approach life and God like a child does.

A child's innocence--what a wonderful thing.

The included pictures were taken while we were in Northern Ireland.

,Adam

More Pics

Photo #1: A picture of us (Ben, Adam, Ang, Peder) in front of a Habitat Project.
Photo #2: Peder interviewing Mr Porter at Clonard Monastary.
Photo #3: Our friends at the Christian Renewal Centre.
Photo #4: The Stormont Parliament Building[s].
Photo $5: Father Ephraim, a Benedictine Monk devoted to peace and reconciliation.

The first photo was taken at the Stormont Assembly building just outside Belfast. For those of you who don't know all of us, from top to bottom it is: Ang, Peder, Ben, Adam. The Stormont Assembly building is where the Northern Irish Assembly (like our Congress) meets. Their government is organized in an interesting power-sharing parliamentary democracy, that though meets, ratifies, and makes their own laws independently, is still under the Queen.

The second photo was taken at the Giant's Causeway. Once we post more pictures, we'll be sure to add some more pictures of the Giant's Causeway.

The third photo is of Harry Smith at the Christian Renewal Centre. We were discussing his book that is due to come out at the end of July, which discusses deep-rooted problems within the Protestant and Catholic communities due to the Covenants that were made in the early 20th century.

peder and adam

We are now back in the states reflecting, resting, and visiting with family and friends. Throughout the trip, I (adam) took over 2000 pictures. Beyond just personal rememberance I tried to document our trip visually. Along with my pictures, Peder filmed over 5 hours of video footage. Peder and I hope, sometime in the near future, to use this material in order to put together some type of trip video. Meanwhile, depending on how much memory we have left on the blog, we will periodically share some images from the trip with you all.
Salaam, adam and peder

Last Day

Hello Everybody!
Today was our last day in northern ireland and was designated as a free day to do some touristy things as well as shopping. We slept in and then went to see the film "The wind shakes the barley". It was about the beginning of the Irish Republican Army and the beginning of the Irish Free State process. It was a very good film which among many things taught that violence only begets violence. After the film we went shopping in the center city of Belfast for souvenirs etc. Then we met Gareth Higgins for dinner and debriefing of our experience. Gareth has been very inspiring about the peace process in N.I. and we have learned many important lessons from him. That is about it for today. It has been an extremely fun as well as educational time for all of us here in Northern Ireland. We will be home soon to tell you all about it I am sure! Peace and blessings to you all.
-Benjamin Brown

The Giant's Causeway

Today was our first of two final free days to end our stay here in NI. We got up early this morning to catch the antrim coaster up north to the "8th natural wonder of the world": The Giant's Causeway. If you haven't been, you should go! It's an absolutely beautiful shoreline site of naturally formed basalt rock from slow cooling lava over many centuries to create almost perfectly symetrical hexagonal shapes stacked one on top of another. The combination of the high cliffs and the crashing waves was...well, it leaves me at a loss for words.
It was quite a day hiking around the site and spending over 6 hrs in the bus going and coming, but what a day to remember!
Peace,
Ang

Christian Renewel Center, David Porter, and....THE world CUP!!!!!

Deutschland hat verlorn. Germany lost. And tears were shed.

The morning and afternoon were spent in Rostrevor. After parting with our new friends we hopped on a bus back to Belfast. Arriving in the evening, we checked back into the Belfast International Youth Hostel--a luxury hotel including room service and complimentary massages, okay, actually its a pretty basic hostel with bunk beds. But we do the best we can! Shortly thereafter, we walked to the Center for Contemporary Christianity in Northern Ireland and met David Porter for an alternative tour of Belfast. One focusing of the Catholic-Protestant conflict. It was quite interesting and provided a nice visual basis for much of what we have learned so far. Sectarianism has left its mark on Belfast. Divisive murals and war torn neighborhoods were common sights on our scenic tour. Also, Porter's deep understanding and insight into the conlfict made the tour wonderful.

'Bout eight we wound down eating and drinking, watching the semi-finals of the World Cup (Soccer--Futbol) between Italy and Germany in a local pub.

Needless to say, we are saturated, tired and inspired. Our time here has been more than we could have ever hoped it to be.

Cheers. Adam

Stormont and Christian Renewal Centre

We visited the Parliamentary Building[s] today, the Stormont Assembly. It was spectacular. We had a very in-depth tour on the history and the present state of the Assembly. We even got to see one of the more known political leaders in Northern Ireland. (Maybe you guys can guess who). I ain't mentioning any names tho.

The road that leads to the Stormont Assembly is a mile long. Luckily the guards let our taxi through, so we made it to our tour on time... actually... thirty minutes early. But then we had to walk back down. It was a beautiful walk. We stopped at a reconciliation monument on the way down.

Shortly after the Stormont visit we met with some of the staff at Habitat for Humanity. They presented on a number of projects that they are currently working on. They took us to some of the sites they were working on, and then raced us to the bus station to catch our bus to Rostrevor.

Now we're in Rostrevor. It's a quaint, coastal town. As the tide went out this evening, we went for a stroll. The view is incredible.

We sat down with Harry, the director of the Christian Renewal Centre, and we had an extraordinary conversation on his book that is coming out soon, which describes the great underlying reasons for the sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland. Although his overall description of the matter is relatively distinct from others we have heard, it makes complete sense. It is great to have a variety of perspectives. All fit in the big picture.

Our time here has been inspiring, engaging, challenging, motivating, and visionary. Thanks so much for keeping up with us.

peace,

peder

Forgiveness as part of the process to peace...

Today we joined over 3,000 youth and young adults at a festival called Summer Madness. It's a Christian event to what I assume would be similar to the States' Creation Festival. We sat in on one session of Ramy, a friend we met through the Faith in Conflict Conference, to hear his testimony of finding forgiveness for his father.

I thought it was both insightful and inspiring. Here are some of the notes I took on it in regard to the process of forgiveness for the victim:
1) One must acknowledge anger
2) One must not cause harm or take revenge
3) Look at the bigger picture and recognize the humanity of the one who hurt you
4) Know you and your feelings can change
5) Get on with being your best self (from victim --> survivor --> thriver)

It is hard, but every step is your choice to take. Forgiveness is not forgetting what happened, rather is an every day journey in finding the way to heal hurt.
Pain is very personal, but God is our Redeemer and Restorer of all good things if we allow Him to.

I am reminded of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's quote:
"To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. It is also a process that does not excude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.
However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator. If you can find it in yourself to forgive then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator. You can move on, and you can even make the perpetrator a better person too."
Amen!

May it be so in all our lives for the glory of God,
Ang

Contemporary Christianity

Today our group met up with David Porter, the leader of the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland. It was one of the richest political, social, philosophical and religious discusssions we have had as a group so far, even including our time at school. It challenged and stimulated all of us to some degree. David Porter has had much more experience in Northern Ireland than anyone else we have met on the trip to this point and has the advantage of having lived and grown up here his entire life. He gave us a wonderful and explanatory history of northern ireland as well as all of the groups involved in the conflict. We visited three different parades today. One commemorating the history of the battle of the Sommes in which 20,000 soldiers died during WW1, another parade that was for peace and reconciliation and finally a parade hosted by the Orange order of the Ulster Unionist parties. It was a wonderful experience all around and we are thankful to have had the tour and experience of someone so well versed in Northern Irish History and culture. It has been one of our most educational days!