The Day the Americans Crashed a Birthday Party

Our second day in N. Ireland was Sunday and we started the day with church. Saturday night we had all prepared to hear that the church service started at like 8am, but to our pleasant surprise the service actually started at 11am! The church was a wee church that seated maybe 75 people (actually I'm not very good with estimating, but it was small).
The service was short and sweet and was only an hour long. I was preparing myself for some long international church service that would last all day, but it wasn't!We sang a few songs, the children had a short message, then came the adult message and then it was over. We stayed and chatted with a few people that Chad knew from past years and then we headed back to Paul and Marina's for nap time and dinner (which they refer to as "tea" time).
Nap time was great and well needed as most of us were still catching up with the jet-lag. I'm the one all the way on the left. I felt so at home at Paul and Marina's house. It was like we were all family and their hospitality was so welcoming. Their house was a safe place where we could share our feelings, be our loud American selves and simply relax. This sense of radical hospitality is something I have never experienced to this extend before and has really left an impact on me. I also think being able to have a place where we could unwind and feel comfortable really made this trip what it was.
Sunday was also the day that we broke out the dutch blitz! Paul and Marina had a deck of their own from a visit to PA, but they didn't know how to play. A bunch of us played and we had to play in teams so more people could play. Thomas (Jordan and Keith's host brother for the week, and a guy who did a lot of things with us) was my partner. We lost every game, but it was a lot of fun anyway.
After eating dinner the real surprise came. We were told that one of the teachers (Deborah) was turning 30 and we were attending a surprise party for her. It's a surprise that Deborah became one of our good friends after we crashed her party. Our talking bus made it difficult to arrive at her house in a discrete way. After saying hello and introducing ourselves to everyone we squished into a small room to mingle with some of the other guests.
Then we were fed dinner again. I'm not talking small party foods here, I'm talking several "try everything on the table" courses of food. The food was great and we got to meet Deborah's family. I had a lovely chat with her mother.
It was a great Sunday and we all went to bed very exciting for the school week to begin!

A Few Important People

I figured I'd introduce you all to a few of the important people from this trip.
First here's the team:(From L to R -- Paul, Jordan, Chad, Aletheia, Amy, Sierra, Todd, Me, Keith [in front] KB and Sam)
And here is Marina and I.
And last but not least, here's Deborah and Alanna!
These few people mentioned here were not the only ones involved in this wonderful adventure! The rest will come later throughout the story! Until then, this should help put some pictures with the names!

Adding Another Stamp to my Passport!

Day 1/2 - Departure and Arrival
The trip I had been thinking about and planning for since October had finally arrived. My suitcase was packed the night before and I was ready to leave 15 min before I actually needed to. If you know me, this is pretty shocking as I am normally throwing wet clothes into my suitcase because they just came out of the washing machine. But that wasn't the case this time!
The team met on campus and then loaded the van and departed Messiah around 4pm. After a few stops, we arrived in Newark, NJ to catch our flight. Mom, Dad and Tyler came down to the airport to see us off. It was nice to see them even though it was only for a short while.
We made it through security without any problems and then started to head for the gate. We came upon one of those carts that drives people to the gate and one of the girls in our group (Amy) said how she wanted to "hijack" it and ride it to the gate. 2 lessons could be learned from this: 1. never say "hijack" in an airport and 2. you never know who is listening. The driver overheard and came over to us and offered us a ride. It was a quite humorous conversation that ended with all but 3 of the guys loading up this cart and being driven to the gate. This driver was crazy and almost hit a few people along the way, which lead Amy to scream "beep beep!" and "spring break!" to let everyone know we were coming and what we were doing. The trip had only just begun and we had already started to fulfill several American stereotypes. It was a hilarious ride that became the joke of the entire trip.
Our flight was uneventful and I slept for part of the time. 6 1/2 hours later, we touched down in N. Ireland! We met our wonderful hosts, Paul and Marina, and instantly fell in love with them. We loaded up the bus, which talks. Yes, this was a speaking school bus! Typcially when you reverse a larger vehicle it beeps, well, not this school bus! This bus actually says "STAND WELL CLEAR, VEHICLE REVERSING!". Not only does it say that, but it also says "please fasten seat belts!". So everywhere we went, we were heard.
We went immediately to the house the girls would be staying in. One of the teachers gave her house up for the week for the girls to live in. She completely moved out and gave it to us who were practically strangers to her. This radical hospitality amazed me.
We moved in, choose beds and immediately crashed for the next several hours. It was so great to be able to take that time and just sleep and prepare for the week ahead.
(This is the outside of the house. We lived in the one on the right.)

(This is the view down the street. We lived at the end of the road.)
After we woke up, we headed to Paul and Marina's house for dinner. Paul is an amazing chef and our stomachs were treated very well on this trip. After dinner we all hung out for a little while before finally returning to Jenny's house to go to bed.(Paul and Marina's lovely country home!)
It was a great first day full of many many laughs and meeting great people. The week had only just begun and I was just starting to see how amazing N. Ireland really is!
I wrote this in my journal on the first day and it was true throughout my time in N. Ireland. I never once regretted giving up my spring break and going on this trip. I had wondered when I applied for the trip if I would be sad that I wouldn't get a real spring break. But what I experienced was so far for this! I loved every second of my time there and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Welcome Readers!

Hello and welcome to my blog chronicling my newest international adventure. This blog will tell of my trip to Northern Ireland over spring break. It was a trip that challenged me in many ways. I learned a lot about God, missions, myself, leadership, and the list could go on.

For starters, here's a few basics of the trip for background knowledge:

• I went with a team of 7 other students from Messiah College and 2 faculty advisers. There were 6 girls and 4 guys.
• I was one of two student leaders on this trip and my co-leader was a guy who went on this trip last year.
• We spent 9 days in N. Ireland in a town called Lurgan which is about 40 min outside of Belfast.
• We worked at Lurgan Jr. High with the students and teachers.
• Specifically our contacts in N. Ireland were Paul and Marina. You will hear their names mentioned numerous times. Marina is a music teacher at the school and Paul was a music teacher but now has taken over working on a newish project - a broadcasting studio (more to come on that later).
• We also go pretty close with two of the other teachers, Alanna (another music teacher, the teacher I worked with most closely) and Deborah (teacher of "maths").
• We met a few other N. Irish people who did lots of things with us and I'll introduce you to them throughout my story.

So sit back, relax and enjoy a little taste of Northern Ireland.