Fused evening session with Holiday Club and Speakeasy is on.
Fused evening session with Holiday Club and Speakeasy is on.
The old external wall of Newcastle Presbyterian Church is now the internal wall of an extension to their building. This space is pretty high tech with automatic doors, all digital audio, a modern kitchen and an espresso bar among other amenities.
The best part of this space is the openness of it. People have been walking in off the street to check things out all week. And that’s in addition to all the Fused kids running around as we worship and open the word.
It’s cool to see a church with strong history and tradition open to where God is leading them with new technology. It is even better to see that they are going forward in this way with the right purpose in mind: People.
On Thursday night we’re planning to answer any questions that the students at Fused would ask. We’ve been anonymously collecting and compiling these questions over the past few days. There are some strong themes among the questions asked, including many repeat questions.
These questions are great. They allow us to meet these students where they’re at. They also give us an invaluable glimpse into the struggles, sorrows, misconceptions and values of the youth in Northern Ireland.
Below is the list of questions asked so far.
This is a kebab on chips with taco sauce and cheese. Nothing about the naming of this meal makes sense. Unlike a typical kebab - it’s not lamb meat shaved off a rotisserie - it’s diced up fried chicken. The taco sauce tastes nothing like tacos - it’s more of a ketchup-mayo and spices concoction. For the Americans, these aren’t chips - they’re french fries. The cheese is appropriately named.
Naming conventions aside, this meal is important. Not because it’s incredibly delicious. Don’t get me wrong - it is incredibly delicious. But that’s not what makes it important. It’s important because it’s meals like this that serve to bring us together while we’re all serving in Northern Ireland.
Putting on a two week program together, you end up sharing a lot of meals. While some of them are more memorable than others, they all share a common theme of being shared together. While we eat we talk about what Jesus is doing all around us. What he’s teaching us. What he’s preparing us for tomorrow. Where we saw him work in the life of a student today. We just talk real life that overflows from doing what he called us to do - loving one another and making disciples.
This meal doesn’t look very much like the bread Jesus broke and the wine he poured out on the night he was betrayed. But his intentions for that meal take place - we all do it together with great thanks in remembrance of him.
Day two of Fused 2010 is well under way. The afternoon sessions are meeting right now. It’s so fun to sit in a church that is alive with life. The elders are walking around talking. The youth are in the halls playing games and hearing about Jesus, many for the first time possibly. Relationships are being built with the teens as they talk about real life with believers their age. Down the street another age group is meeting in another church hall, as Fused is a program birthed out of multi-denomination collaboration.
In the midst of all this excitement, the overwhelmingly cool thing is to see God’s family working together as we seamlessly integrate across cultures for the purpose of making Jesus known. Serving together. Praying together. Breaking bread together. Speaking truth together. Making disciples together.
♫”We’re all in this together.”♫
And it’s all because of Jesus.
For those who want to follow along with bite-sized updates, we also have a Twitter account at http://twitter.com/norniron/.
Today our 14 American team members split up into smaller groups to be a part of six different churches in the area. We worshipped and fellowshipped with Newcastle Presbyterian, Newcastle Baptist, Newcastle Church of Ireland, Newcastle Methodist, Newcastle Elim Church and Castlewellan Presbyterian.
Everyone had a slightly different experience, but some things were common. Seeing people who have responded to Jesus in repentance and faith who have a genuine love for him being the key. Out of this, the kindness in the N. Irish’s speech and their effort to make us know we’re noticed is refreshing. In the Baptist Church there was a 60 year old man standing behind us who was singing loudly with such honest devotion. When there was a break in the service, he immediately took interest in us, and we shared a nice conversation. It was a smile-inducing experience.
One of the most special things we experienced was being welcomed and knowing that we belonged, knowing that we’re all part of God’s family. God is building a family that isn’t limited by border, boundaries or barriers. We are grateful that we get to be a part of God’s family and experience this kind of acceptance both now and in eternity.
One thing we say over and over as we travel to Northern Ireland is that God’s prevailing power is released in prayer. Tonight at our commissioning service we spent some time praying, worshiping and encouraging one another as our team was sent out by friends, family and the Holy Spirit.
At the end of this time we gave out a prayer calendar. Commissioning isn’t the end of the mission for non-traveling team members. We need prayer support from our friends and family every day just as much as we need to be on the ground in Northern Ireland.
If you’d like to support us this way, the prayer calendar is available in both pdf and png formats.
In five days our team of 12 Americans will travel to Newcastle, Northern Ireland to partner with a much larger team of Northern Irish to be a part of Fused. Fused is a program for the youth of the city that is a result of multi-church collaboration.
This collaboration is a beautiful glimpse at the redemption and restoration that Jesus brings. Especially in a country that has had such a long history of separation and conflict. Multiple denominations all working together for one purpose - to share the love of Jesus with the next generation. Brilliant.
