Actively Waiting

I have gradually been introduced in the past two weeks to the staff and programs of Dundonald Methodist Church, and am still discovering my role and place in the community that I have been place. On a weekly basis I am in and out of the church for a variety of youth and fellowship activities that include not only the members of the church, but also the surrounding community. On any Monday or Thursday afternoon I am busy helping to coordinate the PAKT (Parents and Kids Together) program. The program is primarily geared for children from the community between the ages of 4 and 10. It offers a drop-in half hour of table games and homework time, and then an hour of gym games, crafts and cooking classes. Nearly 35 children participate in the program. Monday nights I help assist John, Dundonald's associate pastor, with the PAKT+ program geared for community children ages 11-14. On a typical evening John and I take the kids on outings in the community and invite them into the church to play football (soccer here) and to play games and do crafts. (In the next few weeks we plan to take them swimming at a local club - I'm super excited about this!) Wednesdays I assist Heather Woods, Dundonald's family worker with the Sticky Fingers program, which is geared for young (often single) mothers and their toddlers. The program provides an opportunity for the mothers to socialize and to bring their children to a safe playing ground in the community. I find myself interfacing with the mothers, asking them about their weeks, and, of course, playing with the kids (they are precious!). We also serve the mothers and their children toast, juice, coffee and tea which makes the visiting time extra special. Wednesday afternoons I help to coordinate Kidz Klub, an afterschool program geared toward 4-10 year-old children which provides table games, crafts and gym games. This program serves as a recreational alternative for community children. Belfast is a city with very few recreational spaces and facilities, and the churches are opening their doors as a playing venue to keep the kids out of the streets and out of trouble. Wednesday and Thursday nights I help assist with the Guides (the equivalent of Girl Scouts) and Scouts (the equivalent of Boy Scouts). Both groups are filled with kids from around the community, and from the planning meetings I sat in over the past week, I have the feeling that I will be going lots of places and doing lots with both groups this year. Sundays are comprised mainly of church-related activities. I lead a Bible class for 11-14 year-olds in the morning, and assist with Youth Fellowship (for 11-18 year olds) on Sunday evening. And, somewhere in the interim I do a bit of admin work in the church office. So, I am anything but bored, and am feeling very welcomed by the church family at Dundonald. I cannot begin to count the number of people who have asked me for Sunday lunch or who have invited me to their home to welcome me to Belfast. It is truly amazing the amount of welcome I have received. David Campton (the minister) and Sally (his wife and community coordinator) have been wonderful in helping me to get acquainted with the church and the programs, and I've enjoyed, among other things getting to know them and their two children Cairan and Owain (whom I have "child-minded" on two occasions and thoroughly enjoyed). All in all, I've found that my first two full weeks in Dundonald have been predominantly comprised of waiting. I've been waiting for these programs to start, waiting to find out what my role is in each of the programs, waiting to get to know and develop relationships with the kids. Waiting, however, I've found can be active. Waiting, I think is one of the hardest things for any one to do. As an American I am inclined to thing that if I'm not constantly moving and doing something then I am somehow inefficient or out of place. My greatest challenge over the past two weeks has been responding to that cultural train of thought. Somewhere in the midst of clearing out game closets and putting together bulletin boards for the many community programs that Dundonald runs weekly, I found myself thinking about waiting and what it entails. As I was stapling and cutting and clearing I realized that in many ways waiting is about preparation, quite like the preparation that I was doing for the upcoming community programs. As preparation, waiting is really anything but stagnant. Waiting , rather, becomes a response to the knowledge that God is continually molding and actively shaping us into the people we are to become for Him. Understanding that God is moving in every second, minute and hour in our lives with compassionate grace, we realize that the "waiting time," or so we dub it, is anything but insufficient or unproductive. Waiting provides us moments to listen deeply, to look critically, and to love more fully on those around us. It is precious time embodied in alphabet bulletin letters and Monopoly pieces. Psalm 130:5-6 - I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.