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