Email: Alex Creager

Dear Friends,

Usually in Belfast, not much happens during the first couple of weeks of July. Most families go on vacation, and a large chunk of the population leaves the country to get away from 12th of July celebrations (a holiday celebrated by Protestants/Loyalists with huge bonfires across the city and an all-day parade around the whole city). School is over, businesses shut down, and even shops and restaurants are closed. So our church, Whitehouse Presbyterian Church, doesn’t usually have too much going on this time of year.

But we’ve been active this year. Our youth group has continued meeting, and we’re having a lock-in this Friday. We’ve been running a Wednesday night Bible study called “Gospel in Conflict,” which is a course for adults to learn how to be a part of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. It includes lessons on handling disagreements, learning how closely united Presbyterians and Catholics used to be in Northern Ireland, and personal challenges, such as taking time to read the Irish News, a paper considered to be Catholic.

Last week was our busiest week. A youth group from Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago came to Belfast for a week to learn and serve. Eleven of them came to Whitehouse and helped lead an afternoon youth club I organized. During the weeks leading up to the youth club, I was afraid that kids weren’t going to show up because it was only days before the 12th. I thought all the kids from the neighborhood might be gone or not want to come to a church event.

But every day during the week over 30 kids from the neighborhood came out for the afternoon youth club. Ten minutes into it, we had over 20 boys (and a couple girls) outside playing football with the Americans, and 15 younger kids playing games in the hall. The Chicago group led the kids in group games, making crafts, and singing songs. They taught them really silly but fun songs with actions, like “Pharaoh, Pharaoh,” and then would end leading the kids in simple but wonderful worship songs like “Sanctuary.” Even though these kids had never heard any of these songs before, by the third day, every kid there was singing the songs as loud as they could and knew the words as if they had been singing these songs for years.

Every day the Chicago group put on a different skit based on a Bible story. They did the Prodigal Son and taught the kids the importance of forgiveness. They performed a modern version of Jonah and the Whale called “Joey and the Car” that emphasized going anywhere God wanted, even if it meant going to where your enemies are and trying to help them. Instead of Jerusalem and Nineveh, they used Springfield and Shelbyville from The Simpsons TV show. And they even did a Belfast version of the Good Samaritan, where a Rangers fan, who would almost always be from the Protestant community, was helped out by a Celtic fan, who would almost always be from the Catholic community.

We finished the week with a huge water fight in 60-degree weather. All the kids who came loved it and wanted to keep going, even though they were soaked and freezing.

A large group of older youth from our own youth group came every day to help out the group from Chicago. They acted in the skits, helped set up and teach the games and crafts, and they even joined in doing the actions for the songs. Every evening our own older youth then would go back with the Chicago group to where they were staying in a Nationalist/Catholic part of town. It was an area most of our youth would rarely go, if ever, and it was interesting to see how surprised they were at seeing things like “peace walls.” It was also probably a surprise for them to see a Presbyterian Church that stayed in a Catholic neighborhood.

Our youth joined in with theirs for dinner and evening activities, often having good discussions about the differences in the countries and what problems and divides existed in each other’s communities. On Tuesday night, coaches from local rugby and Gaelic football teams came, taught drills, and led us all in games. For the youth at Whitehouse, it was the first time any of them had played or been exposed to Gaelic football. Even though it is a huge sport in Ireland, it was something none of them had ever grown up with.

The week with the Chicago group was fantastic. Our youth loved hanging out with the Americans, and we had kids begging for the youth club to go on every week. It was a great way for me to end my time with Whitehouse. I’ve been incredibly blessed this year. I’ve had loads of support from my family, friends, and people from my church back home. The program has given me opportunities to live out the gospel in North Belfast, an area of the world I never thought I’d ever be able to serve in. And leaving here is going to be incredibly hard because of how warmly I was welcomed into Whitehouse Presbyterian, how much I was cared for by every member in it, and the friendships I have that will continue after I leave. I’ll be attending Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall, and I’m extremely excited about that, but it’s going to be hard leaving Belfast because of how much I was loved while I was here.

Alex Creager

P.S. I'd be very pleased if you visited my blog.