Romania Go Relief Team 2007

I hope this doesn't sound like something written for the Messenger..

The 2007 Team consisted of 62 members, around 40 of whom flew out on Wednesday, with the rest joining on Friday. I went with the majority on the Wednesday morning, although I actually left home at about 11.45pm on Tuesday. The flights and all that went smoothly and we arrived at Casa Shalom at about 5.30pm local time after a journey on our lovely bus, Bessy. Now I’ve been on some ropey buses in my time, but this just took the biscuit.

We then had an interesting meal which nobody was really sure how to eat, or what went with what. I should have taken a picture of it. Among other things it consisted of honey, gherkins, corn bread, strong cheesy stuff and sugar. Still, it was nicer than the rubber breakfast we had on one of the flights.

We were staying in what I must say was very nice accommodation. The building has been just finished in time for our arrival, so I think we were the first people to sleep in the rooms. So after little no sleep for a very long time we went to our rooms and hit the sack.

Thursday was a pretty normal day, up at 7.15 for Team Devotions, Breakfast at 8.00 and starting work at 8.45. I spent the morning scraping a tin roof with Michael (as in Michael was also scraping, not that I was using Michael to scrape the roof) which wasn’t all that bad. After lunch we were painting the underside of a canopy and although it was quite tedious some of the kids were running about so it was a chance to get acquainted with them. Of all the children, Maria was probably the most active and talkative, so it was very sad to hear that she had broken her leg that night, and as a result spent the week in plaster. Still, she was always smiling and was generally great.

On Friday there was a bit of a rush to finish off the building that we were staying in, as the remainder of the team were arriving that night, and their rooms not quite ready, so a lot of us went inside to help finish off the rooms. Painting inside is not half as much fun as outside as I soon learned. That evening, the children sung for us, both in Romanian and English. It was mostly hymns, but like whatever, it was a great evening, you could see how much the children were enjoying it, especially Vali, and that they actually understood the words they were singing.

At the end, Marius got up and played us a tune on his Mandolin, which was class. Another day over.

Saturday was much the same, but in the evening we went into Bucharest for the first time and a walk round Cismigiu Gardens.

Despite being around 10pm it was probably hotter than it would be here at midday, which was a bit of a strange sensation. In the park, Calvin, Matt, Sarah and Marius rented out boats to go on the lake. That was quite fun, especially jumping up and scaring all the people in the posh looking hotel. Yeah.

After that we had time for quick, but much needed dash to McD’s. And that was lovely.

Sabbath was a slow relaxing day, as it should be. In the morning John Hawthorne took worship, and it was translated into Romanian by Nelu (who is quite simply the man). Lunch was a bit dodgy, so I had a sleep in the afternoon. Evening worship wasn’t the usual, various people spoke about their experiences and stuff including a few of the older children, and that was really encouraging.

The rest of the week consisted mostly of painting, messing about and a couple of bonfires. On Monday evening we had worship around the bonfire. Ian took it because Captain Ronnie who was supposed to be taking it was out shopping (seriously). After that we were talking about what we could do with the bonfire. Eventually, Phil ran over and threw in a can of lynx, and you can watch the results below.

Wednesday was our free day and we were to go to the Black Sea for some big European Naval display but because of Maria being immobile and the thought of spending 7 hours on Bessy it was generally agreed to scrap that. Instead we spent the day in Bucharest. We visited the big palace that Ceauşescu was building for himself.

Easily the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, it was a very impressive building. We had a tour of it, but it was a pretty rubbish tour to be honest, all we got told about were the floors, the ceilings and carpets. I don’t have any photos from inside as you had to pay about £6 for that privilege.

After that some people returned to Casa Shalom to continue with the ground work while the rest of us ventured into the centre of Bucharest. Sadly the places where we were were very Westernised. The shops and prices were much the same as here, which I found a bit surprising. Still it was fun..

After that we went down to a lake, hired out boats and a had a waterfight. It was class.

Thursday was results day for the A/AS-level people so that was the main talk of the morning. Yeah..we all got on alright. Later that day Calvin decided to paint me. Well it wasn't quite that simple, but that was the end result.

On Friday evening all of the children were given gift boxes, and 4 new mountain bikes we given to the home. After that, all of us were given a small present. After sitting in the same seats for almost 4 hours we went outside for another bonfire.

And with that done, we stayed about talking with the kids for a while, and then slowly drifted off to bed, although there was not a great deal of working going on.

On Saturday morning there was a still a bit of work to be done, so it was an early start at 7.30am. The rest of the day was spent taking photos, hugging and saying bye. It was quite sad because chances are we're not going to ever see any of these people ever, in this life anyway.



Overall, I would say that this was easily one of the best weeks of my life, I learnt a lot from the children. For example when Becky asked for someone to come up to the front and pray about something, there was always 5 or 6 children crowding round her. I think the project that was chosen at Casa Shalom was very good in that you were able to talk and interact with the people who were benefitting from what you were doing all the time, and you could see that they were really appreciating what you were doing.

Definetely a case of getting far more out of it than you could ever put in. I've left out a lot things that went on during the 10 days, but it would be impossible to cover everything that went on. To understand the full scale of what went on, you really had to be there.

I'll end with a few prayer points that I took from the week.

• The little girl, Maria, who has a broken leg at the moment
• This week the children who have someone to go home to went home, pray that as they leave Casa Shalom they will be kept safe
• The older children, especially Marius, as they leave the home and go out into the world
• Becky, who is the president of the home, as she carries out her work and teaches the children, that she would be kept healthy and strong

I'm sure there are lots more, but that will do for now.

Click here for lots more photos..

The End

Andy Morrison

Cloughmills Go Team 2007

Last week was the Cloughmills Go Team. My first ever go team! It was a really good week but because I'm now in the middle of the Dromore team I'm not able to write any more but Amy McCollum kindly made this video of pictures from the week. Hopefully I'll be able to write more about it at a later date. The captions and all are Amy's so the video is probably considerably funnier than if I'd made one. So big thanks to Amy and enjoy!

Boys Adventure Camp 07

With James being too mature for this years Adventure Camp (yeah right) I was the sole representitive of DMFWS so its my duty......nay honour to bring you a report of what happened.

Without trying to sound like a Messenger Report here it goes:

Well this years Camp was held like every other year at Larne, at I think it does prove that with time............things rot, but nevertheless that didn't stop 51 Boys and 11 Officers from spending the week. On arrival, we played Football for 2 Hours untill tea was ready, and then after we had our first talk on Daniel, these talks opened my eyes on this book, it was very interesting to how we as young men could relate to Daniel in the different trials he faced in his walk with God. There was many different challenges in these that would be helpful as we left Camp and went back to School. The methods to rouse the crowd of drowsy campers differed from Officer to Officer. Tims was my favourite, chucking a glass of water around boys, which got some ones Bible soaked, thats one way to start paying attention! Watch out whatever Congrecation calls him! :)

After the talk we had the infamous Campzai which activites varied from Egg Throwing, to piling into Chris Lee's Fiesta and pushing his Fiesta, which the mighty Alan Blackwell won!
On Sabbath we worshipped at Trinity and Larne, Larne helped me remember those congrecations who don't have big numbers and remember to pray for the coming GO Team.

On Monday, Squad Games commenced and in the afternoon, we Bowled and played Crazy Golf at Dundonald. In the evening, we played Messy Games, which lived up to its name, where games included, dunking heads in cold spaghetti hoops to retrieve marshmallows, decorating a squad members face with shaving foam and fives and eat through a jelly which had peas and a skittle in it.

On Tuesday, I got broke during Squad Games by Desmond Scott, he's on the run at the minute, if you see him, give me a call. This resulted in my ligaments in my ankle being damaged and missing 2 other cricket matches that day. In the afternoon I had to hobble about and referee the Officers vs. Boys Match, also being Boys Team Manager I was perhaps biased, but the officers romped home on 3 Occasions. The Cooks making a surprise appearance in the 3rd Game for the Officers, they were more talented than most of the boys! We had Water Games that evening too.

On Wednesday, Team Challenge took place and we got sufficiently muddy and eaten alive by Midges, on Thursday, we had Watersports at Craigavon and did Tubing at the Ski Slope which is very fun, I also shrugged off my injury to return to Squad Games where I scored 2 Goals.

On Friday, squad games concluded, myself finishing with 14 Goals over 9 Games, then we went into town to buy sweets and a present for our Officer - Andy McKelvey, who actually can't do every thing as I witnessed him not being able to juggle! After Lunch we went off to play Skirimishing which was as ever great fun. That evening 2 Hours of Football cancelled the Officers Hunt and the Tournament Finals were held, where I witness the longest 6 Ball Pool Match ever and I was beat by Joel Cromie in the Table Tennis Final.
We saw the early hours of Saturday Morning in the Chalet before resigning to Bed and reflecting on a pretty darn good camp!

If you have never been to an R.P Camp before, I would definately recommend them as they are a great week of fellowship with other guys and dolls your age. Watch out Senoir Camp Next Year! Don't Make Friends with Salad T Shirts will be on display!

Prayer Points relative to DMFWS: Cloughmills GO Team (where James is at)
Lisburn Go Week 19th to 24th
Dromore Go Team 11th to 18th

Alastair

Update

Dear readers (both of you!),

Just to apologise for the lackage of posts the past week. Believe it or not I've been working hard and not just at my Football Manager career! I've basically been painting an entire house, not a picture the real thing, and this has severley limited blogging time. Young Alastair has been off at the legendary Boy's Adventure Camp which I have sadly missed this year. Hopefully he'll be able to give you a full BAC report sometime in the not so distant future! I'm heading off on the Cloughmills Go Team on Sabbath and I would value your prayers for the week.

Fantasy Football. If you're an RP and you want to join the RP fantasy football league.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
And our league code is 314786-63387.
Come and see if you can challenge some of the best teams in the Country! Only join if you know me too as the thats the fun of it, beating other people you know!

Another thing to check out is Andy Mo's latest compilation video on BATW. Well worth watching and who knows if loads of people watch it he might even smile!

Finally, we really appreciate any feedback. Comments or emails. We'd like to know what you'd like to read more of here on DMFWS. So get in touch via dmfws@hotmail.co.uk.

James

Motive Check

Currently I'm reading Andrew Bonar's biography of Robert Murray McCheyne. I'll give you a full book review once I'm actually finished it but I came across a challenging quote from his journal in regard to our eagerness to serve Christ in missionary work, such as Go Teams, in comparison to our service of him where He's placed us now, among our friends and family.

"Self-examination. Why is a missionary life so often an object of my thoughts. Is it simply for the love I bear to souls? Then why do I not show it more where I am? Souls are as precious here as in Burmah. Does the romance of the business not weigh anything with me? - the interest and esteem I would carry with me? - the nice journals and letters I should

write and recieve? ... Am I wholly deceiving my own heart? and have I not a spark of true missionary zeal?"

Robert Murray McCheyne

How To Be A Completely Ineffective Church Member (Part 2)

Only Pray Occasionally

Paramount in your quest for ineffectiveness in church life is that you have infrequent communication with God. Infrequent prayer will develop an icy breeze that will blast through your character and cool down any heart warming for a closer walk with God and a love for others that might be heating up within. Don’t be misled into thinking that the simplest route is to abandon prayer completely. Such a drastic step has the possibility of sparking feelings of guilt, which will hinder your slip sliding away approach to church commitment. Remember that a slow death of spiritual vigour is the easiest to handle, so you do need the odd gasp of the vital breath of prayer to make the whole process a lot less painful. On a personal level there are some basic components that assist in developing an irregular prayer life. A meaningless repetitive grace at mealtimes can help make the whole sphere of prayer a mere recitation. It is also advisable for those infrequent excursions to your knees to gather up as many little clichés as you can. These will ensure that your infrequent prayers don’t get too personal, for that again tends to stir up the spiritual juices. Try hard to limit your praying to cover the big decisions of life – what your opinion should be on global warming, the expansion of the European Union and the pros and cons of world trade embargoes. Such an approach will help you work into your life a sense of the utter futility of prayer.

Do not at any cost start talking to God about who He is, your sin, what you have to thank Him for or communicate with Him about the details of your everyday life. Keep prayers really vague, “God bless all missionaries everywhere all the time.” These generalities will mean that you will never be aware of God answering prayers and the desire will decrease. Remember also to only pray when you feel like praying. Never force yourself to your knees. No matter how many times the minister asks for prayer for himself and the church missionaries you must resist any tendency to do this on a regular basis. Once a year would be a reasonable approach for such prayers as a good conscience salving measure. When the church has a bookstall, divert your eyes from books on prayer and any study guides for exploring Bible prayers. If the minister announces a forth coming series on prayer you must initiate Getaway Plan A, that long planned visit to your mother’s second cousin twice removed in Outer Mongolia. Sitting under preaching on prayer will scupper any progress you are making.

With regards to prayer at a corporate level there are ten golden rules for utter ineffectiveness in church membership: Only appear at the Sabbath morning prayer meeting when you have a doctor’s certificate to say that such an early start will not seriously damage your health. You need your lie in. Make several guest appearances where you talk about the importance of the prayer meeting to as many as possible. Such holy chit chat will give the impression that you are there all the time. A few well-timed appearances at the prayer meeting just before the annual session oversight visit to your home, will keep at bay any pleas for commitment to corporal prayer.. When the elder who leads the prayer meeting asks for prayer points keep your head down and your lip firmly buttoned, unless of course you have some juicy gossip to share. During your infrequent appearances try to tune out the passionate prayers of others in case such godliness rubs off. Think rather about your busy schedule for the incoming week. Thinking about going more often than you do is quite sufficient. After all it is the thought that counts. If your congregation issues a prayer diary each year leave it in your pew or at least stuck at the back of your Bible. When mission activities are coming up in congregational life avoid those extra prayer times that will be announced. Your life is too busy. Tune out the pleas of the minister for a deeper commitment to prayer in the congregation and don’t believe him when he says that without prayer there will be no blessing. Don’t allow guilty thought patterns to develop. You do go to the prayer meeting. It is just that the times that they arrange don’t fit in with your hectic lifestyle. Remember a regular prayer slot in the Christian life is like breathing in invigorating fresh mountain air. Start praying regularly and you will soon find that your “Royale family style couch potato” lethargy will begin to disappear and the next thing you know you’ll be one of those active members that encourages everyone in the congregation. You’ve been warned – Keep off the knees.

Bible Bits to keep clear of: Philippians 4:6&7; Nehemiah 9, Luke 11:1-13


David McCullough

A Tribute

All good things come to an end. Including Brian Wright's stay in Northern Ireland. Today he is sadly flying home to Boston. This, the first post back after my holiday, is a tribute and a thank you to him. I'm sure many of you reading this also got to know Brian and please leave your own comment in tribute to the "American Refugee".

Some of you may have been confused in the past be Brian's many names. Credit for this has to go to Joel Sommerville who decided "Brian" didn't sound American enough and began to refer to Brian as "Brad" the trend was continued at the Sommerville's legendary New Year's Eve Party where the name "Buzz" was created by Brian Rankin. Many other names have been coined since including "Sugar Buzz", "Bard", "Bingo" etc. In my opinion Brian sums up most of what is good about America. Good crack, good music and a powerful and reliable ally in times of trouble. Hopefully he'll be able to write some articles exclusively for this blog in the future so watch this space!

Below are some pictures and a cover of Chasing Cars done entirely by the man himself; vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, mixing etc. If there are any record producers out there interested in this unsigned talent let me know as I have appointed myself his European Agent!

The man himself

Fun times

East-side!

ChasingCars.m4a

Fantasy Football

Totally unrelated but the RP fantasy football league is back with more vengencethn a Robbie Savage tackle. http://fantasy.premierleague.com Contact me for the league code!

Strawberries and Cream

As it seemed like every one had headed off to Senoir Camp, I was left on Monday wandering what to do with myself, I turned on the T.V and suddenly remembered how to pass this first week of the Summer, watching Wimbledon! However, this years event has not all been Strawberries and Cream, seeing the covers being pulled on and off every 10 Minutes got me thinking.......

Do we, as Christians, some times pull on the covers, straightaway at the first sign of danger in our lives? Now i'm obviously not talking about stopping the grass getting wet but more protecting ourselves from potential embarassment or maybe verbal abuse. Its a problem i'm sure nearly every one of us has encountered at least once in our lives so we all need to work at it.

Do we some times quickly change the subject after being asked what we did at the weekend? Or perhaps sneak off to S.U in school as we're embarassed by people seeing us?

It is an aspect we must work on in our lives, the Bible gives us always should give us huge hope as in Romans 8 vs 31 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' (NIV)

By now, shouldn't be already be trusting in the Lord as sovereign in our lives after every thing we've learnt, read and heard?

Jesus in Matthew 8 vs. 23-27, rebukes the disciples as they did not have faith in Him as they thought they were in severe danger from the raging seas. So how should we respond to these "storms" in our personal lives? We shouldn't be afraid, rather we should know that Jesus has control over every thing, sickness, weather, demons, the lot.

So rather than pull on the covers straight away, call on the Lord in prayer to help us know that he is sovereign and that it would reflect in our lives.

Alastair

(I'm heading off to Co.Galway for a few weeks now too so keep watching this space, hopefully it won't be dormant for too long!)