Celtic Tidings: Belfast! For a little over a week.

I have been here a little over a week now and am already finding that explaining my experiences here is going to be difficult. I find myself repeating things to people back home and I still can't do what is going on in my life justice.

Words cannot describe how beautiful the grass is, or how it feels to touch and words cannot describe the frustration in little cultural differences. When I say frustration, I say it in that it is the little things that throw me back or humble me. Counting change, understanding different words and phrases, and realizing that it will take about an hour and a half to do one load of laundry and another day or so to dry.

I am not complaining. These differences frustrate me however, they bring me back to reality in that I am here in Belfast! And I am loving the process of embracing all the differences.

Quite frankly, I am loving it here. Granted, in culture shock stages I am clearly in the honeymoon phase where everything is great. However, I am finding it incredibly liberating to be away from American culture and finding new perspectives.

What I mean when I say I am already having a hard time explaining my experiences to people back home is that I can already feel a change within me and changes are hard to articulate and better if seen or experienced.

Sunday I went to Garnerville for worship and it was lovely. Everyone was incredibly welcoming, though I did hear about Ellison (the previous YAV) but that is honestly to be expected. The service starts at 11:30 a.m. I could really get used to sleeping in on Sundays. But everyone was friendly and kept saying "You're very welcome." That is a hard phrase to respond to when you're American. I am used to stating "You're welcome" after first hearing thank you. So when being greeted, I responded with "thank you." I am not sure if that is the proper response, but I really meant it.

I was so thankful for their welcoming smiles, hugs, kisses, and felt blessed to be here among them. I sat with Caroline who I will be working with closely at Garnerville. And am looking forward to it since she is my age and we've gotten along great so far. We will work together on F.O.G (Friends of God) their Sunday school service and S.N.O.G ( Sunday Night Out at Garnerville) their youth fellowship group.

Their service is pretty similar to Westminster's however, the music is more contemporary and they do not use bulletins. Instead everything is projected on a big screen up front. I really enjoyed the sermon and felt very comfortable there.

And quite honestly like the experience of being opened up to different types of worship services. It is eye-opening and reminds me that church is more than just the one service you get in the habit of going to, and it is far more than just the church you attend. A church is a building, but faith is a moving, fluid, powerful concept that stretches far beyond the walls and stained glass windows of the church.

After church, I went over to my pastor Peter's house and enjoyed a wonderful lunch with his wife Asa, daughter Hannah, and son Daniel. I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to get to know them and everyone at Garnerville and have been humbled by their generosity. I really feel at home in their house and sometimes wonder how can I possibly get homesick when these people have opened up their home to me.

For me, this welcoming and generosity I have experienced is really incredible. Here I am being offered food and a place to go by people who really don't know me. Here I am being offered rides, coffee, and hugs by people I do not know. I was given keys to the church before Peter had even met me. I wish everyone could experience this and everyone could be the giver of these experiences. If we all welcomed the stranger, I believe we'd be living a lot more like Jesus did and life could be better.

Peter offered me the book "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claibourne and said I'd pretty much either love it or reject it but either way have my mind blown. I have started it and Shane makes really valid points. I really liked one passage and I will share it here.

"Only Jesus would be crazy enough to suggest that if you want to become the greatest, you should become the least. Only Jesus would declare God's blessing on the poor rather than on the rich and would insist that it's not enough to love just your friends. I began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said. I thought it we just stopped and asked, what if he really meant it? it could turn the world upside-down."