change change change

Hello everyone! I'm back from a phenomenal mission trip to Romania. We did a bit of sightseeing in Budapest as we passed through Hungary and then went on to Romania to lead Vacation Bible School at a couple of churches, visit elderly and sick people from a congregation, visit a Roma village as children flocked to us, visit an orphanage and spend a good deal of time travelling together and getting to know each other better as a team. I think the most profound part of the experience for me was walking through a Roma village that had open sewers and no running water just feet from wealthy areas. A little girl came smiling up to me and just took my hand as we walked through the village.

I later reflected to the group about how moving this was for me, that she would warmly welcome me into her community where she has nothing and how she would not receive such a warm welcome were she to come to Northern Ireland or America where we have so very much. I talked about how we belong to each other now--how the whole world does--and how I have to remember that little girl. I have to remember her when I'm seeking calls, looking for missional and giving congregations. I have to remember her when I'm thinking about buying a shirt I don't need, wasting food because I have more than I can eat, deciding what place to live in and when I'm caught up once again in materialism and status. I have to remember this little girl because she reminds me that truly blessed are the poor, that the gospel is not about preaching with greatest acclaim or making a name for myself but it is about loosing the bonds of injustice, freeing the oppressed and caring for the foreigner, orphan and widow. It was a powerful trip I won't soon forget, and I know the 20 fantastic young people who came with us feel the same way. Here's a great youtube video of some of our pictures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6u0wULIJPg

And here are some other pictures taken by me and others:

romanian (non) holiday

Hello, m'dears! Just a wee note to let you know I'm off to Budapest & Romania for our youth mission trip for 10 days and won't be blogging here while I'm away. There might be a few updates here if you're interested in hearing about our trip. See ya when I get back!

:) Whit

divine distractions

-Reading curled up on the couch with a blanket while my housemate got up, went to the kitchen, made a bagel, ate it, and came back without me noticing any of it because I was so enthralled with my book. Page 583 out of 1300+ and I still just love it. Go Wilbur.

-The fun of preaching.

-Going to Janet's evening Lectio Divina service and feeling that those 20 minutes spent in absolute silence contemplating scripture spoke to me more than the last couple of weeks put together. Amazing.

-Irish hospitality.

-Long, thoughtful conversations over lots of food with records playing in the background.

castlerocks

Well, dear friends, it was high time I snuck away for a couple of days to Castlerock and so I did just that. Sermon marinating, liturgy for Sunday finished, t's crossed and i's dotted, I took that cosy Hogwarts express (donning my comfy beach dress with coffee in tow) to Castlerock to stay at the wonderful Auterson's holiday home. The mission was simple: r&r in the form of delicious homemade food, a marathon of the old BBC Pride & Prejudice dvds, lazy walks on the beach and reading that infamous Wilbur Smith tome. Mission accomplished (as you can see)!

After unloading my obscene amount of stuff in the house (remember just how massive that Wilbur Smith book is), I walked up to the one shop to get the necessary dairy products (milk, cheese, butter) and then to Ruth's Bakery for wheaten bread hot from the oven and, finally, to the butcher. He looked barely open, but I shyly entered and asked if he might have some sirloin steak, chicken and farm fresh eggs and he got them for me. He asked if I was there on holiday and I confirmed this and informed him that I was planning to clearly eat my way through two days. I said I was glad he was open and he smartly remarked, "Well, with pretty girls like you coming in, we'll always be open!" I actually giggled, despite myself, giddy with the promise of a good steak and fluffy compliments.

Don't think I left you behind, chums, on my Castlerock Adventure Part II. I've taken plenty of pictures to share. Enjoy your wee trip to Castlerock with me. :)

coffee on the casterock express

blondies made from (oh yes) Barefoot Contessa mix. divine. they tasted remarkably like the giant cookie cakes my Mom used to make me for my birthday as a kid. curious. ;)

chicken-wrapped asparagus with thyme-scented rice and lemon-garlic butter. shazaam. those are some delicious hyphenates.

that glorious steak with homemade fries and roasted fresh corn.
a perfect cup of tea worthy of Mr. Darcy.

it was windy.

heavenly.

deliciously decadent

Lest you think, dear blog reader, that all I eat these days is zucchini from the produce stand and Pom juice, let me set the record straight: This was dinner tonight. Yum.

With this... (also yum)

And I'm off for a couple of days to sermonate and soak up some Sabbath time before our Romania mission trip, and I'm gonna be making these:

It's a good week.

some kind of wonderful

-Discovering that my Tesco now stocks Pom juice! I love the stuff...my Mom got me hooked on it. I love the sweet-tangy taste and also the effort that must have gone into making it. If oj makers are little league players, pomegranate juice makers are major league baseball stars.

-A fresh-from-the-produce-stand speckled zucchini/courgette sliced thinly and roasted with red onions, garlic and parmesan.

-Walking down the street and having a perfect, magical little ladybug land on my shoulder.

wanna pray, cupcake?

-Making decadent nutella cupcakes for dinner at Dorothy's tonight. They even have a nice little bit of nutella in the middle...yum!

-Meeting June Pat for coffee and watching the way her face lights up when she talks about something she's excited about, like carving her own wooden bowl at a workshop in Scotland.

-Falling asleep as I pray. My friend Padraig tells the story of his mother's Catholic prayer group where she inevitably falls asleep each week, calling it "a holy sleep" [try your best to hear this in a southern Irish accent] because she was praying at the time. There's no shame or embarrassment..."holy sleep" is a good thing. I think I had a holy sleep last night.

from Texas to Africa to Ikea

Apologies, dear friends, for not blogging daily. Sometimes these things get away from me. :)

-Part of the delay was due to my attempts to retrieve pictures I took while Skyping with my nieces, but it seems they have miraculously vanished. Had I found them, you would see lively snapshots of my parents and nieces smiling at me from Texas, Natalie "giving me a hug" by squinching up her eyes and shrugging her shoulders and Gianna smiling as contentedly as if she has not a care in the world. They were staying with my parents (Nonnie and Papa) for Camp PapaNonnie 2010 for a week and we skyped every single night. I was just wonderful to connect and before the video was even started hear Natalie say, "Weeeeeza! Hello Weeeeeza??" You can see great pictures of all they got up to at Camp on my sister's blog.

-Reading Wilbur Smith with avid interest. I adore his way with words and the excitement and intricacy of his stories, which is really the only reason a person would pick up a 3-books-in-1-volume book with over 1200 pages and find it enjoyable. I'm on page 288. This book is a treat for my imagination and my biceps.

-Going to the always productive Linenhall Library to work on a sermon and discovering two wonderful things: 1, a little old man in a green tweed coat (in summer), with a white fluff of hair dozing peacefully in a chair near me. I always see a little hobbit/leprechaun looking elderly man dozing in a chair...a different one each time. And 2, discovering that the heavily-etched old desk I was using said "Becca and Kate 1935." Now it's possible these two friends just put 1935, but in a place as historic as the Linenhall Library, it's also possible they sat at this same desk 75 years ago.

-Walking through one of my favorite little walkways and leaving the hectic clatter of shopping and construction to enter a serene space filled with classical music.

-Wearing my collar to a pub for lunch with lovely church folks and finding great amusement in the offering of water only, the polite and impolite stares and the people who just smiled at me because of it. It was a fun little social experiment. I kept it on because I decided it was no bad thing for people to see a 28-year-old female minister, as it probably has never happened in that pub before.

-A fun trip to Ikea with the housemates complete with silly shenanigans, a yummy lunch of meatballs and fries and seeing other good friends there.

Grace, it's a name for a girl, and also a thought that changed the world

My wonderful friends Karen and Rob are having a baby! I'm so excited for them. They'll be such great parents. Oh, and it's a little girl. And her name is Grace.

celtic, children and choirs

Let's play catch-up, shall we?

-Going to the novena at Clonard Monastery and listening to Steve talk about the importance of the Bloody Sunday Report, that made some great strides in healing from the terrible events of that day. It was powerful to hear a Protestant from Ballycastle speak to a church absolutely packed with Catholics from a posture of repentance, talking about the need for Protestants to receive the report as a positive step that is instrumental in Northern Ireland moving forward.

-An impromptu mid-morning stop for coffee with Andrea and Tilmann. They return to Berlin on Tuesday (and I'm very sad about this), so we're spending as much time together as possible! They're having a great barbecue tonight. I'm so glad that I get to visit them in Berlin in August.

-Walking over beautiful celtic designs changing ordinary pavement into an artist's canvas. I'm so comfortable living here that I sometimes forget I'm in a foreign country, until I come across things like this that just ooze Irishness.

-A fabulous and wonderful Children's Festival at Fitzroy complete with a massive ark to tell the Noah story, dozens of children laughing and dancing, teenagers dressed as clowns and even a juggler/fire breather! It was great. I'm exhausted. :)

-Going to St. George's with Andrea for her last time. They were having a heritage day and there was a group of women singing protest songs from the women's movement, and they sang "A Song of Peace" which is one of my favorite songs ever. It was very moving.

sun, moon and stars

-Sunlight reflecting off of a green wine bottle on the wooden table, making it glow.

-Spending the day painting and setting up the hall for our children's festival with a crowd of lovely folks, REM blaring in the background, breaking only for an ice cream treat. We got so much done and it looks fantastic with a massive ark, beautiful paintings of Jesus with children and Daniel in the lion's den done by some of the amazing team and even a rainbow and sun and moon and stars hung from the ceiling. I can't wait for the children to see it. We're looking at big stories from the Bible and they'll see them all illustrated as soon as they enter.

-Hanging out with fabulous friends drinking wine and eating chocolate. Life's good.

swing low

-The relaxing rhythms of the lovely farmhouse at Craigantlet I often pay a visit to. It's a pretty busy week, but I was able to get away and do work from here. It's also been refreshing and wonderful to read old Wilbur Smith books and hang out with my good friends Jonee and Katrina.

-Sitting on a grassy hill watching the ocean's waves lap around it and a family of birds traverse the tumultuous waves. Warm sun on my shoulders and brilliant blue sky and the constant slish slosh of the waves gave me a sense of peace and connection with an intricately orchestrated creation.

-Jonee making a swing out of an old piece of driftwood we found on the beach. It was hung from a shady tree in the garden and we had so much fun taking turns swinging on it and laughing with the joyful abandon of children.

tin woman

-Finding an adorable antique tin that holds tea and sugar in two separate compartments. I just love it. I think a very long time ago, this would've lived in a lunchbox.

-Wearing a long, flowy maxi dress and sandals and my favorite denim jacket. It's funny how an outfit can shape your mood. Today with the sun shining, soft fabric draped around me and comfy sandals on my feet, I feel as carefree as I would be on a holiday while still in work getting lots done. Listening to Ennio Morricone's The Mission on the walk in to work also set the tone for a great day.

-Talking to my sister and finding encouragement and support, as always. There's nothing better than a sister.

-Let's catch up a little: I led worship Sunday night and we looked at Ecclesiastes and environmental disaster and I was reminded of how incredibly alive I feel when leading worship. Singing together "It is Well with My Soul" was deeply stirring and powerful.

-Feeling ever-so-slightly like Holly Golightly as I strolled down the street with my coffee and croissant in hand.

short stack

-Hearing Fiona (one of the young people at Fitzroy) speak with poise, sincerity and conviction on the floor of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland's General Assembly. There are so many gifted young people in PCI.

-Frances treating me to fluffy pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup at the whimsical Avoca cafe. It was delightful, and so was our conversation.

-Going to the rarified surroundings of the Linen Hall Library to write my sermon for Sunday evening. I'm preaching on Ecclesiastes and environmental disaster (just a light one, clearly!) and I don't know if it was the pancakes, the wisdom of the library, the Spirit--or more likely all 3--but it just came to me. I love when that happens.

tea time

-I remember this particular grouping of trees in Ormeau Park to be beautiful last year, but with a long, hard winter, it's even more lovely this year.

-Having my final ladies' Bible study and enjoying the wise, insightful company and delicious treats. These teacups belonged to Eileen's Grandmother (Eileen's in her eighties). They are just so special. The ladies all took me out to lunch as a farewell/thank you because the Bible study doesn't happen over the summer. I'm really going to miss them and their constant encouragement and joy. What a blessing they've been to me.

-The soothing cadences of guitar and prophetic, velvety voice of Caroline Herring.

eyes wide open

-Meeting Ri for coffee and her asking if we could pray. Honestly, I'm sometimes a little uncomfortable praying in public places but we just sat side by side--music blaring, people talking around us--and prayed for each other with our eyes open. It was holy. There was something so profound about not shutting out the world by shutting our eyes, but instead praying with our eyes and ears open.

-Falling asleep to rain on my window and waking to that same soothing cadence.

-Getting emails about work that include thoughtful niceties that take just a little more effort, like "I'm glad you're still with us for a little while" and "Lots of love." It makes all the difference.

breakfast, lunch and dinner

-A really fabulous dinner: poached farm eggs from the market with asparagus, thyme-roasted potatoes and a white wine sauce. Then, easy strawberry shortcake! Yep, it's official. I'm a foodie. Yum.

-Having a breakfast outside the church for our Romania trip and getting to mingle from table to table catching up with great folks.

-Lunch with the lovely Mulhollands that was relaxed, delicious and inspiring (through our conversation, I got a great idea for an upcoming sermon).

those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

-You can't probably see it from this picture, but little sun-illuminated flies were dancing in the sunlight, ushering in feelings of those lazy days of summer.

-Sitting with good friends sipping a Baileys coffee at the end of a very busy week.

-The fun of wearing a cotton dress on a sunny, warm day.

cloud atlas

-A phenomenal cloud formation in the sky (even more impressive than thumb's up or rubber duckies!). I just stared overhead, mesmerized.

-Seeing a single star twinkling in the velvet deep blue sky outside my window.

-Today's lectionary reading includes Psalm 143 and it hit the spot.

Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,

for in you I put my trust.

Teach me the way I should go,

for to you I lift up my soul.

Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God.

Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.