The ninth week of ministry…already??!! I’m really beginning to settle in now that it’s been nine weeks here in Dundrum. The time here seems to be flying by, and the Lord is doing great work here!
The ministries continue to go well; we held our sixth week of kids club bible school this past Monday. The kids really seem to be enjoying it and learning a lot. So far, we’ve covered creation, Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and Joseph. The kids are enjoying the activities and crafts that we do with them, along with a memory verse and other games. I’ve added a picture of the Joseph craft they did on my Facebook page “Jess Grove: Northern Ireland 2010 – 2011.” If you’d like to see the pic, ‘Like’ that page on Facebook!
For the high school girls’ night this week, we had a Halloween party and pot-luck spaghetti dinner. All the girls brought different desserts and salads and we made them spaghetti and garlic bread. Cynthia and I decorated the Crosspoint Centre with balloons, home-made streamers complete with pumpkin and bat cut-outs, and a huge spider web made from white yarn hanging from one corner of the room. The girls all wore costumes, carved pumpkins and watched a Halloween movie. It was a really great night! Also, for Halloween here in Northern Ireland there is a parade and fireworks, so that was a bit different than how we have Halloween in the states.
This past Thursday was a wonderful time to tour the local sites with Cynthia and Bryan (the other intern here). Thursday evening, a few of us headed up to Belfast to do some evangelical outreach in the city. It was quite a night! I haven’t been involved in street outreach like that before. We all gathered in a church before we went out on the street to pray for the night ahead of us. Then we set everything up in the streets, complete with white boards and paints. One of the guys with us started talking and we all stood around like a fake crowd to listen to him. When people stopped to listen we would be able to ask them what they thought of what was said and get to know them. It was incredible to see how God was working that night. Many people found encouragement and started to think about Christianity for the first time in their lives. It was exciting! I also met a few girls who I will become friends with on Bebo (like Facebook) so that they can stay in touch and ask questions, etc. Very exciting! Praise God!
Another encouragement this week was a conversation with a few of the girls at Crosspoint. They talked to me about relationship troubles they were having and it opened an opportunity to speak in regards to a God who loves them and about loving yourself first before you try to love someone else. It is one of those rare moments I’ve had here where the girls have opened the opportunity to speak a bit of truth into their lives, very encouraging.
I believe that is all of the updates for now, but I’ll leave with a quote from a book I’ve been reading this week: “Our greatest task and privilege in life is in fulfilling his purposes for us and through us. Once this vision has filled our hearts and minds we put our own purposes, wants and needs into second place.” The Prayer Principle ~ Michael Baughen
If you’ve been partnering in prayer with me, I have a few prayers listed below:
- Please pray for continued opportunities to speak truth into the girls’ lives
- Please pray for the families of the children and teens we work with
- Please pray for the health of all who work at Murlough House
- Please pray for Jen Shilliday (Richie’s wife) as she begins a new job at a hospital over an hour away.
- Please pray for continued strength in my relationships with the girls in Danville, IN that I work with in Northvi ew Christian Church
Take care and God bless!
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