Final Blog

Sorry its been so long since my last blog. This is going to be my last one, since I'm going home on Tuesday. (I won't be back in St. Marys until Saturday though). Its been weird saying good bye. I don't think it has really sunk in that I'm leaving so soon. It has been such a good and challenging year, and I would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for me during my time here. The challenges haven't stopped quite yet though. Last Sunday Caitlyn (the other RAD participant here with me) fainted in church. She went to the hospital for a few days, and remained kind of out of it. She and I got quite familiar with the British health care system (its not all its cracked up to be). The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her, but released her anyway. She is back at the house, but still very weak. It will be very difficult for her to fly home, both physically and mentally. Please keep her and I in your prayers as we finish our time here, and head home. I can't wait to meet all of you again, and I can tell you about my experience personally.

The Beginning of the End

Greenhill has been under construction for about the last 5 months. They are building new guest accommodations, a new parking lot, new tent bases. The center is definitely in a state of transition. It is true for the volunteers as well. Although Caitlyn and I are the next volunteers to leave (on June 24th if your wondering), there are a lot of others who will be leaving soon after. By September there will only be one member of the current staff left. Because of that there are a lot of "newbies" now. There are two locals (Jason and John), and two internationals Pavel from Czech Republic and Chantle from Spain. They are fitting in very well, and have really become part of the team. Its nice to meet new people, although its weird to think that I'll be leaving them in a month. One more thing that has added a change in the atmosphere is that Christof and Seb are on vacation for the next month. They are the two most experienced instructors, and the two that I probably got the closest to. Christof is going on a road trip through Scandinavia, and will be back two days before I leave. Seb is visiting family in Peru, and won't be back until after I leave. I will really miss those guys. Plus almost all the climbing I did was with those two, so now I have to find new people to go with, this should give me a good opportunity to get to know some others in the short time I have before I leave.

Norway

Last week Aidan (a Greenhill worker) and I went to Norway to visit Stefan, a friend who used to volunteer at Greenhill. One the first day we hung out with him at the school he is now volunteering at, and did some work with him as well. On the second day Aidan and I visited the Nobel Peace Prize Center. It was really refreshing to see how much good a person can do. We then toured around Oslo with Stefan and his freind Fritz. After that things got really exciting, and we took tones of pictures. since pictures say a thousand words, I'll just let you see what we did. for the next four days.

Norway Photo Journal Part One: Oslo

Norway Photo Journal Part 2: Road Trip

Norway Photo Journal Part 2: Road Trip

Tide

The tide has been extreme high and low this week in front of our house. Thats about the best way to describe the things that happened last week. There were some of the most encouraging and discouraging moments of my time here. Two of the major ones happened about half an hour from each other.

On Monday night I was talking to Kevin. He told me that because of health problems and other issues both at home and here he was going home. I knew about the health issues a bit, but it was still a pretty big shock. Things moved very fast from there. He left Thursday morning. Luckily we got a nice goodbye meal with him before he left, but its odd here without him. If you could all keep him in your prayers it would be appreciated.
About ten minutes after that Philip came into the house. He had just finished a 30 page report to his sending organization about Greenhill: All the volunteers, activities, accommodations, pay, everything. I wanted a copy of it, to share, but it was all in German. He did share with me what he had written about the RAD team. He basically said (and I'm paraphrasing some) that the Americans changed his idea of the stereotypical American, and also the stereotypical christian. We encouraged everyone to explore faith, but don't "point fingers." We have helped him with his faith journey, and he is very glad that he's gotten to know us. If I would have written out goals for my time after being here a month that is exactly what I would have said they were. It was so encouraging to hear a friend say that I've reached my goal without even know he was saying it.
It was a whirlwind of a night. Thats how it goes sometime, high tide and low tide, but for the most part I'm feeling great about my time here.

Rolling along

It feels like ages since I last blogged, it has been a while, but also so much stuff has been going on. I don't know where to start updating you all. Things at work have been going decently well. I’m now qualified to lead most of the activities the center provides. My favorite one is the adventure walk. We only do it with young kids, but it is basically an imaginary scenario. The kids have to sneak all around the center, because everyone is out to get them, and they have to save the world, and get very muddy in the process. It’s so much fun for me to use my imagination. The more I act like a kid the more fun the kids have and the more exciting the adventure. Outside of work things are going brilliantly. The slightly warmer and less wet weather has allowed me to get out of the house a lot more. I’ve started climbing regularly in my time off with some other volunteers. It’s so much fun just spending a day in the mountains with friends. I feel like I’ve really hit a groove in my time here. Things are rolling along well. I sometimes wish they would slow down a little, but at the same time I can’t wait to go home and see everyone again. I guess that’s a good dilemma to have.

London and a Retreat

Last week was brilliant. The weather, which hadn't changed since November, finally got a bit warmer. Its amazing how warm weather can raise your spirits. (I even got to wear shorts one day :)) After a very fun week the RAD group headed to the North Coast for a Mennonite Missions Network (MMN) retreat. The North Coast is a beautiful part of Northern Ireland (it's the same place I went with my parents). We spent one day site seeing, but the rest we spent at a Christian retreat center that was right beside the ocean. We met Tim, two MMN volunteers from Bradford, and one from London. Also two of Tim's friends who are preachers (Anglican I think)came as well. It was very refreshing to hear people who are doing similar work, and going through similar challenges. I had an amazing time. Rod came on Sunday night, so that he could spend the night, and get up really early and take us on a plane to go to London.

An airline called Ryanair was selling tickets to London for one pence (Cent). The leadership at Greenhill decided that it would be a nice brake if everyone went on a day trip to London. So at 5 AM on Monday morning Caitlyn, Kevin, Rod, and I left the retreat center to meet up with the rest of the staff at George Best Belfast City Airport. The plane left at 8, and we got into the heart of London around 10. There were two types of plans people had. 1)visit everywhere you can in a day, or 2)find one nice attraction and spend the whole day there. I decided to go to as many things as I could. A group of 6 of us all traveled together (by foot we didn't want to spend the money for a bus tour) to almost all the major tourist attractions. We didn't go into any of the because they were too expensive for our volunteer budgets and because it would take up more time. In only 8 hours we saw St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Place, Westminster Abby, snow sleet rain and warm sunny weather, Trafoger Square (pardon the spelling), Big Ben, the Globe Theater, The London, Millennium, and Tower Bridges, The Tower of London, and I'm sure I've forgotten to include some spots. As you can guess we were all dead tired for the trip home. It was a great day.

Things are going better than ever for me here right now, which might be why I'm finding it so hard to find time to write. I'm loving every minuet of it, But I would also love to hear whats happening back home. Write me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The last week was a bit rough. The weather was cold and rainy. We did the helicopter crash scenario with a group, which wasn't bad, but cold and tiring. The week did come to a nice close, when the group left they really seemed to appreciate the time they had spent with us.

Then after a relaxing Sunday it was St. Patrick's Day. About half of the Greenhill volunteers were gone for winter skills training in Scotland, but we did have some visitors. A few old volunteers who came back for a couple of days. The only one I knew was Stephen, who I had gotten to know really well when I first got here. He is now working at a YMCA in Norway. Anyway all of us went to Down Patrick. Down Patrick is a town near where we live. It's near where St. Patrick landed in Ireland, and its where he is buried. There is a large parade held there every year. While we were waiting for the parade a bunch of us went up to see his grave stone. It was amazingly unimpressive. Only a rock with the name half broken off. It really makes you think. With all the glamor and the celebration associated with the day, how humbly he lived. We then watched the parade which was a lot of fun, and it was a great bright sunny day to help get everyones spirits back up.