Work and Fun

We have had an incredible education in the daily struggles and issues of ordinary folks in Belfast who take a step out everyday. We met three ladies who are long-time users of the community center. They told their stories of how they came to be involved in the center, the friendships they gained and the friendships they lost, because they wanted to know about people on the other side of the peace wall. We met an ex-offender who is now heavily involved in working in the Community alternatives program with young people who have gotten in trouble but are not part of the juvenile justice or adult justice program. It implements the concept of restorative justice drawing together the community, the victim, and the offender with a growing amount of success. Tom Winston was in prison for many years as a political offender.

Friday evening after a hard work day we went out to an Irish pub in city center and talked and listened to Irish music. Ireland has an nationwide no-smoking ban in public places. And to those doubters that it harms business they should see how jam-packed the pubs are!

Yesterday we worked most of the day during numerous painting jobs that can not be done during the week because of traffic in and out of the building. Doug and Diane have made significant progress in the “dungeon” storage room which will be used for storage when it is finished.

Last night the ladies of the center hosted a “barn dance” or square dance in the multi-purpose room. We had a great caller/instructor. About 70 community people attended so it was quite a crowd and great fun was had by all. There was a huge amount of food most of it donated by center members.

This morning we are doing the service at the Springfield Methodist Church. Our resident team pastor is doing the sermon. We even have a retired choral music teacher leading the singing. Afterwards we are off for a day of rest and touring out in the country to Down Patrick and a ferry ride.

Cheers and peace, Dottie

This entry was posted on May 13, 2007 at 3:47 am and is filed under Ireland 2007 Mission Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.