Fat Tuesday... Ulster Style

To be completely honest, we haven't done anything specifically for "Shrove Tuesday", but Tuesday is the morning the Men from the local shelter come for breakfast.  Eunice, one of the full time staff here does a legit Ulster Fry for them each week consisting of: Egg, Potato Bread, Soda Bread, Pancake, Sausage and Bacon (back bacon).  All of the above are fried, even the eggs are fried in oil.  It truly is greasy goodness, we look forward to the Ulster Fry.

We had the middle aged kids (8-11) for afterschool club today and took them to the park.  They obviously love to run the majority of the way leaving us in the dust, but when we get there we are beackonned to the swings for a push or the zipline, a round or football, or really a good chase around the park.  These boys are quite particular and actually issued me off the "pitch" for their football game, I suppose its because I'm a girl.  (Get off the pitch! he says)  Afterward the retreat back to Friendship House for homework club on Tuesdays.  It is a chance for them to have help with homework that is probably not offered at home nor encouraged.  I thought it may be impossible to coax them to do homework but they sat down and it didn't take long for almost all of them to be working away.  It is another fantastic opportunity for them to have one on one time with volunteers and just be cared for.  Its great to see them feel so accomplished when they finish their work.

The evening program is Youth Alpha, and this week was really amazing.  We set up stations this week more like a carnival so that they could choose individually which activities they wanted to do, earning candy/chocolate for their attempts.  They showed quite a bit of interest which was new to us for the msot part.  Doug's station was probably the most curious: " Ask Doug Anything!"  We fully expected the questions to be awkward, immature, or just an attempt to get an inappropriate word or topic brought up, however the result was the exact opposite.  The questions ranged from: "If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would you go?" to "Why are you here?" (as in why do you exist) or "Are you a Christian?" to "When were you most afraid?".  These kids want to know about life.  They desire safety and people they can trust to guide them through the ethical soup they wander through daily.  Every so often we get to see their vulnerability and the deeper side of these children, and we feel so privilaged to be able to speak into that, even if its for a moment.  We continue to be blessed and thank God for the opportunities he has given us so far.