So, it's the end of February, and that means it's time for another post! I thought I'd pass on a story this time. I shared it with a good friend of mine earlier this week, and as small as it is, I think it speaks volumes to what's happening here in Ballybeen, and particularly within the walls of Dundonald Methodist Church. I will start with a woman I will, for her sake, call Cathy. Just before Christmas, Cathy's husband left her with four-year old twins and a two-year-old. He also left her deeply in debt to the point that she was wandering the streets with the kids to avoid using up the electricity and heat in her home. It finally got to the point where she had no food in her house, and social services was offering very little hellp. After hearing about her situation, Dundonald Methodist Church stepped in and provided relief for her family. For the past month and a half Cathy has been coming up to the church on Thursday mornings to volunteer her time, something she felt she wanted to do in response to the church's outreach. When she first arrived I found her quite shy, and rather quiet. I've had her cleaning out cupboards with me and sorting files over the past few weeks. This past thursday, though, I let her loose. I presented her with a giant display board and told her that we needed to create a display of DFCI's programs and photos. Cathy took a couple of looks at the pipe-cleaners, foil, construction paper and stickers on the table, and set to work. I walked off to make a cup of coffee for her in the kitchen. "I need a glue gun," she announced when I returned with the coffee. With a spark in her eye that I hadn't seen before she said "We're doing a space theme." She then had me sit down and trace out stars for the board. As I traced and cut, she began to glue-gun various craft bits together and she started talking to me. First she started making fun of my stars and saying that I was totally OCD because only OCD people find the need to attach miniature confetti stars to twenty some-odd construction stars that they've just spent 30 minutes making. I got cheeky back and told her that my stars were going to be the first thing people noticed when they walked into the church, and she laughed and said that was because they screamed OCD. From that I went into how I did, in fact, have OCD tendencies as a child. I told her how when I was two, my parents totally did the spoil-the-firstborn thing and took a baby pool, yes, a baby pool to the beach because I didn't like the feeling of sand on my feet, and I would have a fit if a few grains of it managed to touch my toes. Go figure. Needless to say this acquiescence of my parents stopped abruptly when my sister was born. Cathy got a good laugh out of that, and started asking me more questions about home, and work, and life. She asked me what I did in my spare time, and I mentioned some of the places I'd gotten to visit, some of the books I'd read recently, some of the outings I'd had with the other YAV's. She looked at me and said, "I'm 25, and I get pretty excited about the hour I get to spend, while my kids are asleep on Friday night, watching Lost and eating Chinese. I'm in a low-place, you know. My husband left me and my three kids a couple of months ago, and I still can't figure out why. I woke up one day and he was gone." I looked up at her, as she fiddled with the end of a yellow pipe cleaner. "You know, Cathy, I think that one day he's going to wake up and realize what he's missed." She looked up at me with a half-smile and said," Yeah, he is. They're only wee once. I'm glad I have them now." All I could do was nod my head in agreement with her and smile. I gestured toward her hand, "What's that you've got there, Cathy?" She held up her creation. Cathy had pieced together plastic and aluminum foil to create a spaceship, and inside the plastic half-cup was an alien fashioned out of pom poms, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I ooh-ed and aah-ed over it for a while. Before she left, Cathy proudly pinned her alien to the display board. As she walked out the door, she turned around and waved: "See you next week, Hannah!' I sat for a while after she'd left looking at that alien. I realized that the woman who brought it to life had probably, at one point, felt as isolated as the little creature inside. But I also admired her, because she'd stepped into a space that was completely foreign to her - the church. And I considered myself blessed that I had been made a part of her re-entry into self-esteem and meaning. I'm looking forward to getting to know Cathy better. February has also included some exciting eventsfor DFCI and for myself, personally.
On Saturday, February 14th, eight volunteers through DFCI (including myself) came together to work with Habitat for Humanity of Northern Ireland. We called the event Operation Love Shack, which turned out to be quite catchy, and quite successful. The majority of those who went were actually a part of our Youth Fellowship at Dundonald Methodist. The work site was in West Belfast, just off of the Shankill Road, and we spent the majority of the day painting and doing a bit of roofing. It was a great way to spend Valentine's Day, and full of laughs, and the majority of the youth that came asked when we could go back! Another highlight of this month was turning 23 years old! For the first time I got to celebrate my birthday in a different country! And, it was a good one. I spent the day of my birthday in Donegal, a town at the North-Western tip of Ireland. I think the highlight of the trip was getting to stick my feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, it was cold, and my feet turned a bit blue, but it was totally worth it!
