BBQ's and Mission reports

I had a busy weekend, we had a show Saturday evening for a church barbeque and Sunday morning was spent sharing at Trinity Presbyterian. The church barbeque was near Ballygowan, they were raising money to send three young people away on mission trips this summer. We were there to share with the children.

They say the eyes are the windows of the soul. I was reminded of that on Saturday night as we shared. The eyes of these children were eyes of those who were really listening. The show was such a blessing. My first show back home again and it was a real encouragement.

Sunday morning I was telling a new story, I had only told it once before. It will need more work yet, but all went well.

This week I am heading west for a few days break, rest relaxation and hopefully some surfing. The pressure is still on with South Africa and sorting the flights, but Scotland is all sorted, ferry booked and ready for my week’s ministry there.

Home Again

This monday I decided I needed a day of, it was quite the contrast to the previous Monday. It was a 24 hour day that finished at 5 on Tuesday morning when I sat down in my seat on the airplane. It was not until this monday that I really had a chance to take a day of and recover.

At the weekend I was working with friends in a band reality, we involved in sharing at a motorbike race, the North West 200. It is about 100,000 people in the Portrush and surrounding area out to have a good time.

Saturday afternoon we did a street show, it was lots of fun, but so much harder with only a few regulars to help rather than the normal team of the guys I travel with. Still a great day, I think around 60 were listening as the group sang, the puppets danced and I told stories.

Right now I am preparing for the weekend, the summer and South Africa, lots of fun, flights to book, people to call, shows to organise. Oh yeah and the exam I have friday, all fun.

Laughter

This has been my biggest joy, the greatest privilege I have. To make children smile, to hear them laugh. Especially children that have little laugher and joy in their lives. What can be better than that. Could I ever have any more fun than this? These past few weeks have been a joy, hearing time after time the children laugh, seeing them smile.

At the minute I am starting to think about the coming weeks, looking at them with a mixture of fear and anticipation.

Here we go.

More laughter 

Childrens Laughter, What stops a child from laughing? 

War weary

The body is willing but the spirit is weak. I think it is the other way round actually. Right now I am totaly banjaxed, knackered (exceptionally tired). Three programs done today, a meeting with the team here and running messages. Sleep will be a rare occurence tonight. A night of burning picture CD's is ahead of me.

This trip as usual has taught me an awful lot, Slovakia seems to be a country that the Lord teaches me much in. It is somewhere he uses to break my heart with what I see, with the stories I hear.

More than any other country this is one where I know what is going on in the lives of alot of the children we work with. It is hard to imagine the cesspit that is life for them, the question I often ask myself is how often do I want to imagine it? What am I doing about it? I know there are children and young people that live in the most horrible situations everywhere. Do I do enough for the ones on my own doorstep? I see often these children on other peoples doorsteps, but they are harder to see on my own doorstep, many of these things are hidden at home. Many I simply do not want to see, not an easy lesson to learn or be reminded of.

I look at how much I have, and how many people in this world have nothing. They are treated like dirt by many, they are dirt to some, what am I to do? These are the people Jesus came for, ministering to them is where He is at. The challenge to me has to be that I am there with him, not just in the places I travel to but at home. I need to be His hands and feet, rather than sitting doing nothing as He weeps over what these children live in. This is what Slovakia hits me with each time I come.

Heard a story today, of one shelter we shared at last week, a man had turned up at the weekend offering children of 10 and even as young as 8, the equivelant of £2 to go with him. There is such evil everywhere, there is so few standing up against it anywhere. One guy worked at that shelter, he was not always there and what could he do if he was.

These are the stories and worse that I have been hearing daily, the stories I often hear. These are the ones Jesus came for, am I reaching them with His love? Please Lord let me be there, let me be the hands, let me be the feet. Keep my heart broken, give me your eyes to see what you see.

Turn arounds and Spisky castle

This weekend we were participating in a conference for people working with at risk children. It turned out interesting, not quite what I had expected. I got more into things as time went by, today being just great. To see things and not be able to worry is always good, that I always enjoy.

The time this weekend with old and new friends was great, a really encouraging time of fellowship. Its quite cool, going to a conference in another country and meeting friends you have worked with in past years.

The drive home from the conference was a great blessing. The scenery was beautiful and we stoped at Spissky castle along the way. It was an amazing place, built on a site origanally used by the Celts! Like being home.

So often we have driven past this castle, on this trip and previous ones, this was the first time we had seen inside it. The Castle was impressive and the views were amazing. It is refreshing just thinking about them now.

One last day, tomorrow. One more early morning start.

Spissky Castle 

The Bronx

From the infamous Lunik Devit, where the effect of years work, has made its impact, to somewhere that this kind of work is just beginning and then to the village near Poland. I saw God at work in each place. Lunik Devit known as the biggest Gypsy settlement in Slovakia, where the first team to work there was a team of 30 who practised leaving the housing complex before they even started their first program there, it earns its nickname “The Bronx”. There are many stories to go with the nickname.

The afternoon was children playing the game. The, what can we steal game. The adults though were listening even if the children were a little lively! (Okay maybe they were more than a little lively.)

The evening was like returning to friends, the little village of Forbassy near Poland. No church to speak of for miles, but yet there was warmth, a joy and openness to what we were doing. In the end there was the now familiar sound of voices praying, both young and old.

Sometimes I wonder what on earth I am doing. Why am I doing this? Its days like today that remind me why.

I want a better look 

The Wild West 

A parents smile

When you see children smile it is one thing, but when you see the mother of a child on a cancer ward smile and laugh that is something completely different. It was at the final show of the day and only for 6 or so children, and some of their parents. All the children were very sick. They were able to see our full program, to smile and laugh, what must be a rare experience for them right now. They also heard of the hope that comes in knowing Jesus, those children and parents desperately need that hope.

The trip to this country first time around changed me, I had been praying that God would help me loose my inhibitions when telling stories, I was up to then to reserved, not animated enough (I was afraid of looking stupid). I wanted to be more animated, better at working with children. It was in Slovakia that first trip that this prayer was answered, most shows the choice was either get animated or you were in trouble. It was great fun.

This trip I see other prayers being answered, as we do the programs and travel around working with our friends here. Many people hate the folk we are sharing with, in Ireland people hate the Gypsies to, but God loves them. There is nothing like seeing God at work in the lives and hearts of the people we are sharing with. I get to see those the church is least likely to reach being those who respond most readily to Jesus.

Children at show 

Gypsy homes 

Return visits

Today I was in a school we were in three years ago. The teachers remembered us, but we could not remember the school, let alone the teachers. So many schools they all blend into one in my memory, most Eastern European schools look the same in my memory.

The children today were mainly Gypsy children, we saw them smile and laugh, not a common experience for them. Their homes are less than pleasant and home life for many of them is something most of us cannot even imagine. I saw these children experience real joy, as they watched our programs. I heard many pray with us at the end of several of the programs.

Four shows in total, one thing is really clear, it is nothing like Ukraine. The darkness of communism has lifted here. That evil has gone, the people are free and for a time this country is really open to the Gospel, in the way I have seen it in Ukraine at times. The darkness having returned in parts of Ukraine, is barely noticeable in Slovakia, it does not feel oppressive at.

The effects of parents bad choices or simple lack of choices is plain to see in the behaiour of children, and in their appearance. So how the children have responed to us has been prescious.

I saw some Gypsy homes in the countryside today, I do not know whether it is sad or shocking seeing homes like them in Europe, you cannot imagine what you are seeing really being in Europe.

From the ground 

The houses last year. This year, they are worse. 

Past Memories

One of the problems with having been a farmer is the reminders I now have of things I saw on the farm. The smells in the orhpanages of the calf shed at home. I was reminded today, as I visited some homes, of the old farm sheds when they had the refuse cleaned out. I will never be able to adequately describe what I saw, this is often the case, you have to be there, you have to see it, you have to smell it. Can a photo show you even part of it, never. Would it even have been right to take a photo, no.

I have so much, food, clothing, a warm clean bed most of all hope. What do the people I met today have, little or nothing, almost none of the above. I saw one glimmer of hope though, drawn on a boarded up window was a heart with a cross on top. For some there is hope, they have accepted Him. They know Jesus love as a major reality. They choose life maybe not an easy life now, but in the end they choose life. We have so much its hard for us to realise thats the only choice worth making, choosing Jesus.

I have tried to give a glimpse of this morning, we took food, we prayed for them. Can I say anything more? Think again when you meet badly behaved kids, when you meet people who smell, you do not know where they come from. It was they who Jesus came for.

What can you say to a kid that just wants love

A homeless shelter and an orphanage, two shows. What can you say to kids that just want a hug, that just need love. Those with parents who don't care, who just don't love them, those with no parents at all. A truly amazing evening at the orhpanage, such fun, such love and Gods spirit at work. A day not to be forgotten very easily.

What can you say to a kid that just wants love

The Blue House 

Castle in Tatras 

High Tatras

The back seats of small minibuses are never fun, especially when you spend 8 or 9 hours in them. That was me this afternoon, stiff and sore by the end of it, but glad of the experience. I think I felt the same friday night also after we arrived in Bratislava. We were there for the weekend to work with the team we equiped last year.

The drive to Bratislava took us on a southern route through Slovakia and the return took us on the northern route, both 8 or 9 hour drives. Slovakia is an immensely beautiful country, high mountains (the Tatras), forests, castles. Just amazing scenery, on past trips the ground was always covered in snow this time its spring and life abounds everywhere.

Yesterday in Bratislava was great we did 5 shows, with three of them on the street, one in a cinema and one out side a big blue house. The big blue house was a small block of flats that housed 59 families. The kids were normal wild kids, you had to earn the right for them to listen to what you are saying. We made many great new friends in Bratislava, the love of the team there for the children they are trying to reach is truly encouraging. The children they work with live in bad places, they do not behave well, but yet God has laid them on the heart of some people from this small new church.

By the end of Saturday's shows I was knackered, so today was nice, communion with the folk we worked with Saturday, lunch and the drive home to recover from yesterday. Along the way, while we were on the road I recieved text messages from the team back home, they also were on the road home from a big show. It was really encouraging hearing from them.

Something I have never noticed before in Slovakia, there now seems to be lots of graffiti. There was none last year or the year before, it comes with greater wealth suppose.

motocross

This arriving a day earlier than expected can have its advantages. I had one of those gifts I rarely recieve, maybe every second or third year. A friend suggested we try and get a run on his old motocross bike, 500cc's of madness. Riding through forests tracks and fields, a bike way to powerful for the conditions, just what i needed a days good clean fun! I had an encouraging day of fellowship with friends.

Tomorow morning is one or two shows then we have a 5 or 6 hour drive to Bratislava for the weekend. We will be doing minstry in a part of the country we have not worked in before.

I have felt tired all afternoon and evening, I just realised why, being out in the fresh air on the bike and trying to avoid binning it! It was quite a challenge at times, on slippery mud with a powerful bike, knackering.

cancelled flights

My Dublin flight was cancelled, oh no. But all things do work together for the good. The phone card I was by chance last week came in rather useful. I called friends who were able to track down the phone number of the ministry we are working with. I emailed a warning and called as well all worked out better than planed. Its amazing how these things just happen sometimes. And then the guy on the plane next to me from Prague just happening to work in Lisburn. It is truly a small world, with a great big God.

The landing in Kosice i think was about a 7 really fun! Well are unpacking is done for the evening. It is so good to be back here, what will tomorow bring?

May day Fair in Castlewellan

May day in Castlewellan, puppet shows, sunshine and showers, not this year for a change. Three shows yes but this time the rain stayed of until we were packed, most unusual for Ireland. Lots of kids folk coming and going to the Fair, great day.

Each year in spring I forget one simple lesson I should know, when you are getting thin on top wear a hat even if the sun does not appear to be that strong. Sunburn on the top of your head is far from fun.

Happy days in sunny Ireland.

New resolutions

Im sitting here, in a room full of I should have done tidied this long ago. Saw friends from the past this evening. My life seems to get faster, others seem to settle down. It seems I often end up talking to folk either before or after trips.


I leave wednesday for Slovakia, a country dear to my heart to work with many great friends in many fun places. It will I know do my heart good, be an encouragement and a blessing. Least I hope and pray so anyway.

This morning was great apart from my forgetfulness, thankful not a major problem I was able to pick up what was forgotten on the way to the show. Hillside community church this morning 81 kids what a blessing for them, what a blessing for me to get to share with them. The new sketch went down so well and the story I has worked on first thing, was pretty good to.

Its days like today that the Lord encourages me through, to keep going, where I get to see Him at work elsewhere, where I get encouragement from others. This past week has not been bad either with all i have sen in Downpatrick, all encouraging getting into working with the guys there again.

So many adventures to come this summer, a few challenges along the way, like to keep up with this and my email updates, or rather start this and keep up with my updates. Watch this space.

Sunday nights