On Being a Servant

      As I watch buses pull out with the newest members of my Derry Family on them, my heart is filled with mixed emotions. One of the emotions is sadness, not from the fear of never seeing them again (I know that we shall all have a great reunion one day with the Lord that brought us here) but sadness from missing the daily joy that they brought into my life these last 9 days. The way God knit us together was nothing short of amazing it was also timely and instructive. I shall always remember the time we all surrounded the Guild Hall and knelt and prayed, it made no difference Catholic and Protestant those divisions disappeared like the morning fog on a river and for one moment I got to share with you a glimpse of what God envisioned, one humble family seeking God's entry into our lives for our good and the good of all his children. So to you my new family members in Nebraska, California, Indiana and Washington DC "May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face; the soft rains fall upon your fields and until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of His hand." and I might add to this Irish Blessing "May every breath you take be blessed by Him and the path in life you make guide others to Eternal Life" Travel Blessings and God's Speed to you all.

      To my permeant  Derry family you have taught me countless lessons on what it is to a be selfless servant, infinite thanks are owed to you, you wear Christ well and you extend a warmth to strangers that should put us all to shame and at the very least change the way we look at others and greet and care for them. You will always have a place in my heart and home. I hope that your prayers for Derry are answered beyond on your wildest dreams and know that when ever God thinks of you He smiles. There is only one scripture that comes to mind when I think of this week and the love you lavished on us Yanks.  “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! (Matthew 25:21) I have no doubt that you will be at the front line to hear this from the Lord.

May all Your Heartbeats be Irish

Shalom My Friends

patrick

 Billy Anderson Fire Fighting Hero and Billy Leonard's Keeper

 Billy Leonard first class Human Being and Vice President of Mischief

 Brian Somerville Man of God and Captain of the Cornerstone Ship

 Roy Warke keeper of David Canning and because of this is a

candidate for Sainthood

 David Canning CEO of Derry Mischief Inc. world class

Slagger especially enjoys working up people from California,

once was an air rifle sniper at boarding school, also

said he worked in banking....... sure you did David.

David Taylor World Class Host and Person

 David Whyte Great Servant and Mess Cleaner Upper

 Victoria Riddles Great Leader

 Greg Stewart Grand Master of Craic

Jennie Shiels Food Purveyor and World Class Mother

 Leslie Lynch Woman in charge

 Paddy (His name says it all)

 

 Raquel Suarez Head Worker Bee and 

person fighting for her sanity.

 Robert Suarez watcher of fine Movies

and all around great guy.

 Ryan Leonard keeper of the words brutal

and quality soon to be Bend, Oregon 

resident due to kidnapping by 5 Bend

women.

 Tim Inman sanity manager at Cornerstone

Distance runner and Lover of Jesus

 Chris and Ann Sinclair, people who get it done with a smile.

.

Vincent Brown Humble Servant Lover of Lost Souls

Role Model to All!

On Being a Night Light

You can see them working their way down the cobblestone streets of Derry, they wobble their way to the taxi stands, their eyes are fixed as they seem to look right through you, they try negotiate walking in high heeled shoes, straining not to reveal more than their clothes already reveal. At the taxi stand they scan the crowd for a familiar or friendly face they can hook up with, if they can make contact, their night may not have been in vain, even if that validation is for a fleeting moment they take the bet. Soon a taxi pulls up, they fumble for some cash to hand to the driver, they take a last drag off their cigarette scan the crowd one last time, slamming the door of the taxi they disappear into the darkness of Derry. Last night I watched this scene repeated over and over again; many were very young some as young as age 14, such loss of innocence, such emptiness, such utter despair. I too was a child of the night. I knew that the darkness could cover the shortcomings of a person who was too insecure to talk to the opposite sex without the cover of alcohol and night. I hurt for those young people because I still ache over some of the choices I made in my youth, I bought the lie and paid for it with more brokenness and insecurity.

Darkness is great camouflage; it allows sin a residence and seduces us into to believing that we can get away with it but we are only lying to ourselves. The darkness covers up and endless streams of cigarettes, alcohol and meaninglessness. Darkness affords a disguise to the mess that our lives have become but the very fact that we do things in the dark; things that we would never do in the light, is telling and convicting. Night after night the search for life goes on, stumbling our way through the darkness to quote Pink Floyd “Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.”

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16 NIV) The answer to our darkness problem is simple but yet so difficult. The simplicity comes from the fact that the enemy of darkness is light to vanquish the power of darkness and the foothold that it has in our lives we must simply shine light on the problem (Psalm 119:5). We have light for our lives and a lamp unto to our paths in God’s word; we also have God’s directions for life and living The Bible. God’s word is a GPS for all who open its pages and read and heed its instructions.

The difficult part of bringing light into the darkness is that with the illumination of problems comes the responsibilities that lies with being the light. Simply put it’s easy to tell someone that they are off the pathway of life, piece of cake I can tell people all day long that they are wrong and I might add would give me a certain amount of pleasure. However, God’s word here doesn’t say be a flashlight, it says be the light. In other words we must shine, our lives cannot simply reflect God’s Love, it must be God’s Love.

In closing let me use this illustration. Bringing babies into the world is wonderful business, but there is cost to the wonderfulness. The cost comes in the form of dirty diapers, teething, sickness, broken relationships, heartaches and a multitude of difficult times. I mentioned the difficult times of child rearing to simply say; to get through these times it takes commitment, hard work and a spirit that says this is all worth it. Likewise, with loving a lost world it takes commitment and love, and as God says it must come from Him living in us saying it with our lives, that those young people are worth the toil, we have to quit just telling people that Jesus loves them, we must be ready to show them as well and for that to happen we have to become the light we are called to be.

May all your Heartbeats be Irish

patrick

Party On

There is an old Quaker adage that says, “Mock the devil and he will flee from thee.” The Bible has a identical take on it when it states this “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7. In both of the quotes that I just shared we see a literal playing out of one Newton’s Laws (3) “ for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.” So the lesson here is if you want to really have the devil off your back throw a party. Remember that this can’t be just any party too; it has to be a party that is one of those parties that people laugh, dance and sing. The kind of party where there is good food and good craic, (Irish for atmosphere) parties where abundant life flows and joy abounds. The devil hates a good time, he hates the idea that life can be lived away from him and the sorrows and the strife that he wants for all of our lives.

 However, there is a large caveat here in that Satan too has infiltrated the party scene in that he wants twist parties into a place where the following mornings are filled with regret and pain. Today parties have become a celebration of our emptiness and brokenness, a place where we try to “hook up” with the right person or get drunk enough or high enough to take the edge off of our lives. You see James and the Quakers have it right in that if we really want to have the abundant life that God richly promises us we must choose God and resist or if you will mock the devil and when we do he will then have no foothold in our lives. Resist and mocking the devil aren’t easy but rarely are things that are necessary easy.

So the next time your life is more pits than cherries break out the party hats and recall all that is good and worthy of your gaze, grab some confetti and start up the grill, then celebrate the virtuous and rejoice in the meal that God has prepared for you a great and satisfying meal.

May all your Heartbeats be Irish

patrick

Raining in Attitude

" Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky." The apostle Paul speaks these words in the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians
and is really challenging we believers to take what ever life gives and not to complain about it. Complaining is an outward sign of an inward dissatisfaction, it stems from our wills being in conflict with the situations that we are facing or the lack of control of the things in the world around us, aye there lies the "rub." You see Paul is spot on in that he views his ciricumstances as opportunity and not affliction and says that it is not the situation that needs adjusting it is our attitude in the situation that needs to adjust. Paul the chief jail-bird of the Bible says that circumstances are opportunity, so instead of Paul getting his tin cup and rattling the bars of his cell yelling that he was framed, he sees his jail as new field to harvest, a new area to spread the Gospel. Paul exhorts us to be pure or undefiled by staying away from the poisons of arguing and grumbling, things that stifle and kill abundant life, things that rob us of the life that we could be living now. "Attitude is everything" as Chuck Swindoll would say, I know that my title has a incorrect word usage but I chose it as a play on words in that our attitudes are often affected by things that we have little or no control over things like the weather or planes that are late, things that we allow to ruin the day and our attitude. Instead Paul says that if you check your bad attitude at the door you will truly shine, you will be set a part from the complainers and truly be attractve to those you serve because of the light that you bring. So we can chose to reign in our attitude then the rain won't reign us in, allowing us to make the most of opportunities, so if it's 50 degrees and raining or 100 degrees and dry, use the circumstances as an opportunity to shine in a world that desperately needs light.

Hoping all Your Heart Beats are Irish
patrick

A Couple of Firsts

   Today started a little slow and confused we are meeting at a place called the Gas Yard which was a gas (petrol) storage place that was blown up in "The Troubles"was rebuilt and is now a community center in the heart of the Bogside which was the epicenter for Bloody Sunday and is still a stronghold for the Irish Republican Army (the IRA). What is so amazing about our time there is that the sponsoring Church (Cornerstone Community) has been trying to get into the Bogside for years and had almost lost hope of ever getting into the community but all was not lost just when things seemed darkest the Community Center invited Cornerstone to come to into the community and do their Kid's Week program. The turn out was small but the Mothers of the children that went were enthusiastic and took flyers and handed them out in the Bogside I don't know which is more amazing the invitation to come into the Bogside or the Bogside residents  taking over the marketing of the program. One more thing about the Bogside, the bogey man is dead, I found it to be the exact opposite of its reputation it was a very warm and loving place with very friendly, embracing and loving people who like all parents love their children and want the best for their children.
  The next first of the day was working in Rosemont and Creggan where the Bogside has the reputation as the flashpoint of the Northern Ireland resistence movement Creggan and Rosemont are closed neighborhoods. In Rosemont we worked at a community center that play multiple roles in the lives of the people into those two communities. It works with so many issues in the community that it is difficult to list them all but is a valuable resource center. In Rosemont we picked up rubbish (trash) and did yard work Kiersten, Bella and Kathleen Y all picked up trash and Morgan and Kathleen M used a gas powered trimmer and I mowed the lawn with Kathleen Y as my back up. An interesting observation is that both Kathleens love gas powered tools so watch out Bend they may form 2 Kathleens Landscaping. Two things come to mind in closing out this entry one is the words of St. Francis of Assisi who said "go and preach the Gospel and if you must use words."Which always reminds me that if the is no action behind my words then I'm just a noise maker. The second words come from the Apostle John who said this "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:7-10 The Cornerstone Church has loved well and that investment in Derry is paying off, just think of the joy that God has in these who have followed
His greatest Commandments.
Hoping Your every Heartbeat is Irish
patrick

The Bogside

The Gas Yard

Creggan