the end of a long week

Well, YFC leaves tomorrow. It's been good having them here, if a little exhausting. Last night I went to an event in Belfast called Mannafest. It is a big "worship event" in Belfast for teens. There were probably 800 people there and they sing for 30 minutes, then have about 30-45 minutes of teaching, then another 45 minutes of singing. I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first because of the lights and stuff, but the music was so joyful (and ROW-DY). I really felt uplifted as I walked away. There's something pretty cool and infectous about people who are really happy about worshipping Jesus and pretty free to show it.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it over to Maude's for ice cream today (so we can't give an official answer to the survey question) because the group wanted breakfast an hour later than we thought. We decided we would stay home and pray and read the Bible on our own, so we did. We invited the cooks to join us and one of their daughters did. I was amazed that any teenager would want to come read the Bible with a couple of old folks like us. We found out that she actually met Jesus a few years ago here at summer camp and that she likes the book of Revelation, but she also thinks it's scary. She believes that God still talks to people like he talked to Philip in Acts 8 and now she knows what an Ethiopian eunich is. I'm sure her parents are glad. :)

I find that it can be really hard to learn how to incorporate spiritual life--reading the Bible, praying, living as if God is actually who He says He is--into daily life with other people. We're so used to spiritual things having a certain amount of affectation: taking a certain tone when we pray, using (overusing?) weird words, needing to always have answers. I want to learn how to share spiritual things with people naturally. I can talk about music or relationships or even sports naturally--why is it so hard to talk about spiritual things, which are just as real if not more? Maybe it's because we in the West have accepted this crazy idea that "religion" is a private matter which should only stain certain spheres of life. Maybe it's because the Truth of Christ hasn't permiated every aspect of my permiated every aspect my personal life like it should. Maybe it's because it's always scary to share the things at the core of you. Maybe it's just a lack of practice. I don't know. But that's something we've been thinking about recently and, I think, something that's really important for a generation (including myself) which doesn't want the Bible to be confined to "Bible studies" and prayer confined to "prayer meetings" and the Way, the Truth and the Life confined to only a nominal or superficial influence on how we live. I guess we don't want preaching confined to pulpits either... :)

Many of you have prayed that we would have joy and the past few days we have really felt that. Thanks. May God bless you.

Mark

N.Irish word of the day: class = really cool. Usage: If I were coming from a party that I really enjoyed, I might say: "I had a really good time. That was class." if I were Irish or Northern Irish or an American posing as Irish.