Just as I promised, here are some photos that Mel’s family took while they were visiting in December. We were really blessed to have her family come and visit us and it was a blast to have them with us.
At the end, I also threw in some pictures from our last team photo shoot that we had back in October before Roy went back to America. It was a really great day and I will always cherish these pictures of my teammates.
This is something one of my best friends found on the internet, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to share it with you all. And, honestly? This is totally true. On Christmas, it rained all day and hasn’t really stopped since.
(Source: nobeardsa, via lifeacrossthepond)
I swear, the last time I checked my calendar it was almost Thanksgiving and I was worrying about whether or not my Pumpkin Pie would burn or not. Now I’m looking around at the empty shells of our Christmas parcels, and I realize that today marks the fact that I only have two months left in this wonderful country.
In other news, it’s been one of the busiest months I’ve had since moving to Northern Ireland. We’ve had three new AIMers sign up to come to Coleraine in the spring, two more funerals to attend and one brilliant Christmas day with my teammates and coordinators. As for the three AIMers who will hopefully be coming in the spring, I’m very excited. They’re three girls who I don’t know, but I’ve added them on facebook and they all seem very excited about coming to Northern Ireland for their field time. I will get to meet them when I go to Lubbock for graduation in March.
I know I’ve been lacking in the posts, but I will make up for it by posting some pictures from the last month for your enjoyment later this week. Also, we had Mel’s family come and visit us for two weeks near the beginning of the month so I’ll have a few pictures of the group and a few scenery pictures I took while they were visiting.
Thank you for your continuing support, because my work and life here wouldn’t be possible without you.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Hello Everyone!
I’m sorry for not posting sooner, but the last few weeks have been absolutely hectic for my teammates and I. We’ve been working on new projects, getting used to life without our fifth teammate (Roy) who went back to America and doing a wee bit of revamping on our activities and schedules. It’s been rather mad over here, but I really feel like everything’s balancing out once again.
One of the things we’ve been working on these last few weeks is a brand new Youth Club for the children of our Church here in Coleraine. It’s replacing our monthly “Parent’s Day Out” and it occurs every Friday evening. Youth Club mostly consists of fun activities such as playing games, drawing, having a wee snack and doing a short devotional with the kids. We also plan to have a movie night once a month with them because we really think they’d enjoy that. Youth Club has been a really fun challenge for us all and I hope to be able to share pictures of it with you all soon.
I also got to do a bit of travelling since the last time I wrote to you all. My teammates and I were asked by our Church’s Associate Minister to go hear a lecture by N.T. Wright on the “Role of the Church in the Community” in Dublin a few weeks ago. It was a brilliant and very inspiring lecture and it definitely helped me to see what the Church in Ireland really needs from its members. After the lecture, my teammates and I stayed with some of the Dublin Missionaries for the night and then the next morning we walked around Dublin and enjoyed the sights. I really love Dublin, so it was really neat getting to spend time with my team there.
We’re also planning our first Thanksgiving in Northern Ireland. Last year we spent Thanksgiving at the European Missions Retreat in Scotland, where the Church hosted a potluck for our Thanksgiving dinner. However, this year we’re hosting our own dinner for a bunch of Americans at the Kilcranny House. I plan to make Mashed Potatoes and Pumpkin Pie and my teammates and I are going to try and figure out how exactly to cook a turkey….and yes, I will take pictures of us trying to figure it all out for your enjoyment.
In other news, I have started to look into buying tickets for my flight back to America. My teammates and I are discussing the possibility of us leaving at the end of February, but we’re going to look into prices and the availability of seats before we decide on an exact date.
I just want to end this update by thanking you all for your faithful support. My work here in Northern Ireland wouldn’t be possible without your prayers and encouragement. Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Kelly
Hello Everyone,
I’m so sorry about not updating these past two weeks. It’s been a hard time for my teammates and I as we’re facing a series of really difficult changes, decisions and transitions.
Roy left Northern Ireland today (we said goodnight Wednesday, though) and he will officially be stateside sometime on Friday. We’ve lost a teammate before, but this time it was under different circumstances. Roy finished his field time and we will get to see him again in March for graduation. However, it doesn’t make his leaving any less hard for our team. We’re not really sure how the next few months will go, so I would really appreciate it if you all would keep us in your prayers.
On a happier note, I want to take a few minutes to thank you for all of the extra support, love and encouragement you have been sending my way these last few weeks. I have really been needing it and I am so very blessed to have supporters and friends like you.
I will write more on Monday or Tuesday about the work I’ve been doing and the events I will be a part of in the weeks to come, but for now I am afraid this is all that I have for you. Also, I will have pictures for you all the next time I update.
Thank you all so much for your continuing patience and kindness.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Recently, I tested a new Sugar Cookie recipe to see if it would be the recipe I would use for this holiday season (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years). I really liked the recipe (it’s pretty light and not too sweet) and I wanted to share it with you all!
http://www.joyofbaking.com/SugarCookies.html
p.s. I didn’t try the icing recipe, so try it at your own risk…
p.p.s. Real update coming later!
My add my niece, Jenny Davis, to your prayer request as she has just been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is starting chemo ASAP. This is her second bout with cancer.
Thank you – in Him,
Melba McKee
Hello Everyone!
I’m so sorry that it’s been a full week since you all last heard from me, but I have been having a lot of trouble with my laptop lately. In July, my screen stopped working and on Monday my keyboard decided that it just wouldn’t work either. However, I realized that I could just write my updates using my phone. Thank goodness for technology!
Anyways, these past two weeks have been a period of constant learning for me. If you read my last post, you’ll remember that I asked for prayers over a new ministry opportunity in the Heights neighborhood. We’ve been working there for two weeks now and it’s been so nice to get to strengthen our connections with the people we know up there and to make some new friends as well. Also, we’ve learned that constantly wearing a hairnet is not as bad as it sounds…so it’s definitely been a win-win situation all around.
Also, we’ve had two meetings of our Small Group since I last posted. The first one was a combination of the boy’s and girl’s small group, which was super fun, and the second was split up by genders. When it was just us girls, we made a curry dish for dinner and went over this really neat book called “Dear Lisa” which talks about questions non-Christians might have about Christianity. It was a really neat discussion and I’m really looking forward to continuing it later.
I’ve also done a bit of learning about friendships recently. I learned that a real friend will not only listen to you, but hear you. They will remember aspects of your personality that you didn’t know they knew about you. A real friend respects you from day to day and sincerely lets you know what the craic is.
Prayer Requests:
I will be writing and posting regularly from now on, unless my phone decides to just up and quit, so you can expect a new post every Tuesday. Also, I will be following up this post with a bunch of pictures that I’ve taken on my mobile. I love to take pictures, but often the only camera I have on me is my phone so I try to capture absolutely everything that I can with it.
Thank you so much for all of the encouragement, emails and support you all have sent my way this past month. I appreciate it more than I could ever say.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Heya Everyone!
September’s here and I can proudly say that I am terribly excited for Autumn to arrive. The weather is changing, the days are getting shorter and I find myself wearing wool more often than not, but Autumn is my favorite season in Northern Ireland. I decided to include a picture from the beautiful weather we had a Camp Shamrock, because I know that the gray days will be here to stay soon.
These past two weeks, I’ve been rather busy getting back into the groove of things again (like I wrote about in the post below this one). My teammates and I have been putting major effort into working on our church building recently, which is a new but much-needed work project, and we’re very pleased with the results of our time there. We’ve updated the building’s sound system, painted a room (which involved the removal of several layers of old paint) and tidied up our classrooms and kitchen in order to be ready for the winter.
We’ve also started back to teaching the children and youth Sunday school classes, which has been a blast! My teammates and I rotate around the different classes in order to share the workload and this next Sunday is my turn with the children’s class. I absolutely love teaching and spending time with the kids in that class and I am really looking forward to my turn this week.
We’ve also started our Small Groups back up for the coming year. We had a “Fun Night” two weeks ago, which included bowling and stopping by McDonald’s for Ice Cream, and it was great! We had several new people come along to hang out and a bunch of our regular members joined in as well. We start our normal Bible Study again this week on Thursday, and I’m very excited to get back into it.
Last, but definitely not least, we’ve been doing our regular visitations again! The girls and I have been out to Robert and Eva’s (an older couple who attend church with us) to garden and eat lunch with them a few times now and I’ve loved getting to spend time with them again. They are a joy to our lives and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to minister to them. I have also started meeting with my friend Jessica (she’s one of the more active youths at our church) again on Friday afternoons for tea, and it is such a blessing! Jessica is one of my closest friends here on field and I really look forward to our weekly meet-ups together.
In other news, I am going to try to start posting weekly about what has been happening in my life here in Northern Ireland. I want to included you all more in my life here and I honestly feel that my monthly newsletter just wasn’t performing that purpose any more. I find it easier to share more information here on my blog and I hope that you will have a better picture of what life here is like for my team and I.
Prayer Requests:
Thank you all for you loving and faithful support while I have been here in Northern Ireland. I honestly could not continue on without your emails and letters, prayers and the constant encouragement you send my way. You all mean the world to me.
Sincerely,
Kelly
