a dear friend and "mate"

a dear friend

challenges you

shows compassion

and kindness

and cares.

a dear friend taught me

true hospitality

true gentleness

what it means to be "church"

what it means to be family

outside those brick walls.

my dear friend

my "mate"

will be missed.

my dear friend was

a blessing.

belfast

will never be the same

without David.

but we can rest assured

he is Home.

 

I checked my email Tuesday morning and found that a member of the church in Belfast I served in had passed away after a near three year battle with cancer. David and I grew close over my time in Northern Ireland. He and his wife Carol's house became my home away from home and I got to know the Rankins incredibly well. I now realized how blessed I was to have done so.



Kendra, me, David & Carol

David taught me many things through the year.  He taught me the importance of questioning and seeking to learn about your faith.  Depending on your pastor, if David was in your congregation then his inquisitive nature would quickly make him either a favorite member or a complete pest!  He always wanted to know more about God's grace, His loving nature, and faith in general.

David, together with Carol, taught me what it means to truly be hospitable.  If they knew I was coming over, there were always snowballs or Jammy Joeys waiting for me, my two favorite Belfast buns.  But even if they knew I wasn't going to come over, and I just swung by, I knew I would be welcomed into their home not as a friend but as family.  It didn't matter what time it was, I would be welcomed in as family and share in all the joys that come with being part of a family.  That, as I have come to understand it, is a major part of hospitality.

On Friday nights during my year, I met with David and a few other men for a weekly Bible study.  David always picked me up for the Bible study since I didn't have a car.  I'd usually be reading in our kitchen until I heard his horn honk around 7:15 and then I would run downstairs and we'd head off.  One evening, I climbed into the car, we took the first turn and coming down the road were the Mormon missionaries.  I made a comment along the lines of "There's the Mormons," and David quickly put me in my place. "That's how I would've said something like that about Catholics thirty years ago."  From that moment on I couldn't quit thinking about ecumenical/interfaith relationships.  My next one-on-one meeting with Doug, our site coordinator in Belfast, was all about that one little comment David made. He may not have known it, but I am still constantly thinking about that challenge David put in front of me with one little reply and am excited to engage in and explore how we can do positive ecumenical and interfaith work together.

I learned thankfulness from David. I know that I've been incredibly privileged in my life and have had many opportunities that other people have not or could not, but I think, that when faced with death, I would only be able to look at the downside of life ending. David, on the other hand, was thankful for all that he has had. When we would pray, I would see David shaking his head and hear him remark, "All He's given me already and I still ask him to heal me." His outlook was incredible. He knew his blessings and he cherished them. When we so often want more, more, more, David showed me how to be thankful for what you have, especially those around you.

our Friday night group

David also showed me how to fully care for someone. When Kendra and I were having issues with our debit cards, David phoned me daily to ask if we were doing okay in terms of money. We always were but he called anyways. More importantly than that, when I wanted more than anything to have one last men's Bible study my last week in Belfast, David made it happen. Nevermind the fact that every single speed bump hurt for David to drive over. It literally hurt him because of the stage the cancer was at. And there are a lot of speed bumps in Belfast. But it didn't matter. I believe he wanted to care for me spiritually as well and knew that one of the moments I would cherish most, not only from my time in Belfast, but in my life, would be that last time that Finian, Bobby, Alan, David and I gathered around Alan's table to share tea, buns, fellowship and the Word.

For all of these things, I am thankful for the time I was fortunate enough to get to know and serve beside David. While he will be missed, I can rest assured that my "mate" is Home.

David, Carol, me and their grandson Riley

Here we go! Work at CHRPA, Sleeping Frog farm, YAV camping

Well, we're pretty settled now that we've been in Tucson for three weeks, so I suppose it's time to get everyone updated on what and how we've been doing.

Our first week in Tucson was spent having site orientation. Brandon, our site coordinator, helped us get our place together, start finding our way around the town, and led many discussions on what to expect from our placements, from living together, and from Tucson. We also met numerous times to discuss house rules for the year, cooking schedules, decide how we would buy groceries, etc. Living with eight other people is going to be a challenge but it's shaping up to be quite exciting, too.

We started work at our placements almost two weeks ago now, once orientation had ended, and I'm really liking my work at CHRPA so far. I came into the year having a goal of fixing a swamp cooler all by myself. I've already replaced two and fixed another, albeit with help, but I think that my original goal will happen sooner rather than later. It may even happen later today if I climb up on our roof and see why our cooler has been leaking some. If it's just an easy adjustment to the float, then I can cross that goal off the list!



new bathroom floor and toilet we installed

Aside from working on coolers, the work at CHRPA has been all over the map. I've installed a window, a door, replaced a hot water heater, done a roof repair, and replaced an entire bathroom floor. I've even gotten to do a little bit of plumbing and have quickly come to find out that a SharkBite connector is one of the best weapons in a plumber's arsenal!

But I've quickly come to realize that the work at CHRPA is far more than home repairs. Last week I was in a home where a young, single mother of one needed numerous repairs all over the house. We replaced the cooler on day one and addressed a small electrical issue on the roof so that the cooler could run. When we took our lunch break, the mother invited us inside to eat at their kitchen table while she helped her daughter fingerpaint. On the second day, we replaced the front door. The previous door was in a pretty sorry state. The security door was nothing but a couple of bars at this stage with a baby gate lashed on to the bottom to try and keep animals out. Behind the security door, the front door was essentially missing it's bottom half, with a piece of carpet stapled into place to try and cover the enormous hole. The combination of this set-up didn't really do anything to keep much out.

We started installing the doors and as we went, the mother took pictures of the old doors coming down, pictures of the new ones waiting to be installed and texted many of her friends. I overheard her on the phone excitedly telling someone "I'm getting a new front door!" As debris fell from our work, she came over and swept it up quickly, not wanting us to pause. As we got further along with the installation she started doing work in other parts of the house, cleaning up, getting rid of unneeded items her daughter had grown out of. I quickly realized that we weren't just giving this family a new door. We were giving them a new sense of security and were empowering the mother to make things better for her and her daughter in the ways that she could. It was a great experience to be a part of and an indicator that I am really going to love my placement this year.

Me and Ellison on the farm

This past weekend all of the YAVs went camping in Cascabel, east of Tucson about an sixty miles. On our way to the campsite, we stopped at Sleeping Frog Farms, where Ellison is placed for the year. Sleeping Frog is a terrific farm and do a great job of providing the area with reasonably priced, local, organic fruits, vegetables and eggs. But even more importantly, as we learned Friday night when we had a wood fired pizza party with them and other Cascabelians, they're great people. We had an incredible time during our short visit to the farm and were fortunate enough to leave with some terrific vegetables in hand. Our whole is looking forward to going back and helping with some work out there.

look close and you might see the Gila monster

After the visit to the farm and the Friday night pizza party, we spent the rest of Friday evening around the campfire and then spent Saturday exploring a bit of Hot Springs Canyon seeing some of the sustainable housing projects that are going on there and where our February retreat will be as well as just learning more about our desert surroundings. We were even fortunate enough to see the elusive Gila monster on our Saturday hike.

Once we got back from camping, we got down and dirty prepping all of the goodies we got from the farm. It looks like we're going to have some terrific food for this week! And maybe the next one or two as well.

that's all basil!

sitting around the campfire

our beautiful desert landscape