Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues, Supporters, and Congregation members,

This months letter though wasn't as hard as the last one to write but it still is such a great task to try and once again attempt to put into writing the emotions and feelings that I have experienced so I have done my best.

I want to continue to thank everyone who is reading this letter for taking interest in the mission that I am involved with and for your continued support through prayers and the many other ways that have been done. I want to relate my joy for everything that people have been doing to support me in my year of mission.

It is time for me to tell you what has been going on with me since the last time I checked in with everyone via my last letter. I have found that as the time progresses I am constantly experiencing and learning new things here.

I have now become a supporter of the local Irish Premier League Football team the Cliftonville Reds. For a bit of boasting, they are the oldest football club in all of Ireland. Also they just won the CIS Insurance Cup, which is one of several separate Cups that run in conjunction with the continual league play. I unfortunately cannot say that they are doing well in the league but they and I hope that they will move up in the standings after a few weeks. My connection to the club other than my geographic location is that they have been very supportive of the 174 Trust and the goals that it holds to. The 174 Trust Football/Youth Club have been invited to many games and have facilitated some of the cross-community programs of the football/youth club. They provided their stadium, which is called "Solitude" for a cross-community football (soccer) match between my club (which is Catholic) and a group from the Boys Brigade (Protestant) who live in a nearby Protestant area, which was the inaugural event in North Belfast for the new "One Small Step" campaign, which pushes for small interactions between the communities on the more personal level. Unfortunately for us we lost 4-1 but everyone enjoyed themselves and both teams played with true sportsmanship.

Each month I wanted to try and give a closer view at the different programs I work with so that you could see more closely what it is that I am doing specifically and the impact that it is having within my experience. I want to share the work that I am involved with the 174 Trust Football/Youth Club. I work with this group on Monday and Thursday afternoons and also on Tuesday nights. This group of kids have been partly responsible for me beginning to see what life is like here for people and I see it through their eyes, the people who are the future of the continuing peace process. These guys range in age from 10 - 15 years old and live in and around the 174 Trust in the area of New Lodge in north Belfast. These are kids that others and I would label as "high-risk" kids. The come from working class families and live in an area that sees much trouble with teenage drinking, substance/drug abuse and other stigmas associated with a low income areas. They also have also experienced things that have shaped who they are and could lead to them making choices that wouldn't benefit them later in life. One of these kids has experienced some thing that I hope never occurs again, when he was a young child his front door was kicked in by Loyalist Paramilitaries who then shot and killed his father. The aftermath is what he has had to live with his whole life. He lives near me and he is an inspiration to what love and forgiveness can do. He doesn't view violence as an answer to the problems here. At a time when kids in this neighbourhood would still jump at the chance to participate in rioting with the opposite communities he turns away from what many would see as his right, due to his personal history. He isn't the only kid to have experiences in their past either. What I do with these kids on Mondays and Thursdays is basically run a football club where we all play football inside the 174 Trust hall. Then on Tuesday nights we take them out somewhere. These kids may never get the chance to ever really leave Belfast and really some may never leave north Belfast. We do things like bowling, go play football at a park somewhere that they would never get to go play at, swimming (I am even in the process of teaching one to learn how to dive into the water), go to the movies and even go to cultural things like a museums or plays. The goals are to get them to get them experiencing new things. An interesting thing is that the previous group of kids in the club actually just enjoyed riding in the bus around the city, they would drive for a hour around Belfast in the areas that they never got to see and that made them happy. Something so simple brought them so much joy.

My expression of my previous month has largely been talked about above with the 174 Trust club. When I am walking in the neighbourhood and I have one of them go out of their way to say high whether that be by trying to scare me from behind or waving or even just chatting as we both walk along I feel that I am making some impact in their life. I am at least connecting with them on a deeper level. Initially to them I was their first American volunteer to have come and work with them who sounded funny but now I have moved past that to someone who they can talk to and in their eyes who doesn't judge and wants to understand. These kids can sometimes be the hardest ones for me to work with but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Now I want to update you on some technological advances that I have made. One is that I now have a web site. Brenton-ni.blogspot.com From here you can read my previous letters, read any update messages that I have posted, link to where my photos are online and finally links to some other sites that are connected to my mission here. Also for those who just want to see what I look like or are interested in seeing a bit of what it is like here check out my photos online at photos.yahoo.com/Brenton_NI (this is the same link that is on my website)

I want to encourage anyone who received this email as a forward or in any other way that I would enjoy adding you to my list of people I send this letter too. Please just send me an email at Brenton_NI@Yahoo.com

I want to thank everyone again for your prayers and continued support. Please, if you have any question or just want to see how I am doing personally feel free to email me at the email address afore mentioned.


Peace,

Brenton Thompson