days 1-10

Hello all! I barely have been on the internet in total more than 45 minutes since I have been here, but we have a couple hours free and the ministers house this beautiful saturday evening, so they have offered us their tv and laptops for a few hours. so, since i have not really spoken to anyone since i came here, i will try to remember what i have done so far, day by day, even though it feels like i have already been here for months and i have attained a slight accent.

day 1. we arrived on thursday the 18th, and the customs and immigrations agents did not like us. so we were detained for 8 and a half hours, while they told us we would be deported for not having volunteer/work visas, since we are working for the church. they fingerprinted, searched, patted us down, and held us in limbo land for a long time. finally a minister from the presbyterian church of ireland contacted the airport, because he happened to have 4 emergency visas left, and the airport finally ok-ed it. so two wonderfully irish people from the church picked us up, took us out to tea(dinner), and we slept for 14 hours.

day 2. we were staying at a christian owned long term-hostel place for the weekend. so we met up with the church in downtown belfast, went over all the legistics of the trip, and took a red double-decker bus tour of the city. it was really interesting to learn about the political/religious conflicts of the troubles in ireland. we went to the famous Crown Bar for lunch, with delicious irish stew, and then went and toured around the city by foot with a local college student.

day 3. woke up early for 12 hours of training for a couple of the camps we will be working with later on. it was ok. most of the counselors were age 17-19, so it was a little boring. but overall it was nice to meet our future teammates. afterwards, stanley stewart, a minister at a small church in donegal, which is in the republic of ireland in the beautiful country, came and got us and we spent the night at his house.

day 4. we went to stanleys church that morning. then we went to a concert in londonderry, and they let lindsay and i and stanley's daughter and her boyfriend sit in the box seats at The Getty's concert, a famous irish christian band who raises money for 3rd world countries. and then they dropped us off at our flat(apartment) that they rented for the four of us to stay at for the next two weeks while we will be working in donegal.

day 5. kyle, a young youth working with local presbyterians picked us up and we went to a local elementary school and went to every classroom and invited the kids to come to the nightly vacation bible club. so then we went home for a while, then had a wonderful huge irish dinner with a local church old couple, and then went to teach at our first night of holy vacation bible club. this is just like VBS at my home church, but it is at night for two hours, so i made cute little necklace nametags for all the kids, and we played games, and learned memory verses, and told stories, and did arts and crafts. about 55 kids came, from age 4-11. it was fun and LOUD!

day 6. we went to a different school in the morning with Kyle, and played games with kids for a couple hours, then taught they some bible club songs. then we went to holy bible club again that night, and i got to teach the story. so i made props and told the story of the big picnic where jesus turned 2 fish and 5 bread into enough food for 5000. it was fun, and i think i kept all 50 entertained.

day 7. wednesday morning we went to another different school and played rugby and baseball with them, though they all wanted to play soccer(football) but they wouldnt let them because the boys get too rowdy. then they asked us questions about the usa, and we taught them songs, and they sang songs in gaelic to us! we again did bible club that night.

day 8. thursday, the 25th. we didnt have to go to any school today so we slept in till 2 in the afternoon. then worked on our lesson plans. tonight at the bible club, i led the quiz time, so i did jeapordy and the girls team won, of course! it is really fun to work with all the kids of this age, and to handle creating different games for kids of such varied ages, but it is a good challenge.

day 9. friday we went to the atlantic coast in the morning and played at the beach and tried playing soccer, but no one was great at it. so we tried to play volleyball, but i think i am too competitive with sports, so it is good for me to stick to theatre and singing, though my soccer and volleyball skills have bettered a little since highschool, hahaa. we had our last night of bible club and said goodbye to all the kids. i was the leader tonight, and it was so hard to quiet them in transition from and the activities. that night, Valerie, Stanley's wife, took us to the minister's gathering, so i met ab0ut 50 presbyterian ministers and their wives, and some of them were so funny. we spoke with one man, Joe Fell, about theology and C.S.Lewis and other stuff, and it really made me again fired up about the posibility of going to seminary after college, just to study theology, but not to become a minister. It was a great spirit lifting talk with all these wise ministers, and it made the trip become a mission trip, versus me just volunteering at different bible camps with kids.

so FINALLY, today is day 10. we got up early and went to this really fancy cool, private gardens place, where a train goes around the property of this mans private botanical gardens and it was very cool. then we went to the malls in londonderry, and it felt like we were in a crowded san francisco-meets-london shopping district. it was very fun. now we are back at stanley and valerie's, bar-b-que-ing and watching The Office, and resting. It has been a good energizing but not overwhelming first week. Next week we will be working with High Schoolers(oh no, i hate high school boys) so that might be a challenge. But then we get a couple free days so i convinced the group we should go to Scotland, so we are going, and i am very exciting. i am enjoying my time here.

Ireland is far to beautiful for words, and it feels like a volunteering-vacation, not a mission trip! i cant help but feeling like I am in Narnia, but most importantly...

HARRY POTTER COMES OUT IN 16 DAYS AND i am so excited. i am almost done rereading the 6th book here.

hahahaha. sorry, i love harry potter too much.

so, i need to go practice my soccer skills and watch a Manchester United game or something.
cheers, and I hope all is well in the states, though im sad michael jackson died???! super young, definately had another album left in him.

much love to all.
email me at kmthoma@u.washington.edu if you want to talk

i miss you all, but i love europe and the UK. its quite awesome over here.

cheers and prayers,
kelly thoma