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

As time has progressed I have found that each month these letters become oddly tougher. I figured that with time that I would have less new information and they would be just updates but as I sit here to write I find that I have continued to experience so many new things that the difficulty is not in finds things to write about but what out of the many things do I write about.

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and continued happy holidays. Thank you very much for all of the cards and letters that were sent to me over the holidays. They were of great encouragement and upliftment in the season, which found me away from my normal comforts of home. I want to express my gratefulness in all of the prayers and support that I have been getting through the entire time while here in Belfast.

Just to update all of you sports fans my favourite Irish League team, the Cliftonville Reds, have not done as well as I hoped and they have slipped to next to last place but there is always the long shot of a major come from behind to finish somewhere respectable in the charts.

This month's program focus will be the work I do with the Castle High School Singers. Castle High is what most would consider the school you don't send your kids to. Here the program for public schooling is that you can choose where to send your kids to pending their locations acceptance of them. Also there are two types of schools after primary school, Grammar and Secondary. Grammar would be the better and would be the top schools and secondary is more for the kids who wouldn't have done well enough to go to the grammar schools based on their standardized test scores. Also within those two types of schools there are options based on schools that offer mixed or single identity make-up of the student body. Castle High is a protestant secondary school. Their reputation more recently is that these kids tend to be from the working class and strong protestant identity areas. The group that I work with consists of around 13 girls (no guys have been interested in joining yet) ranging from 12 to 16 years old. Castle High has the room for around 1,100 students and in the past would have been a packed all male school but now is mixed gender and has about 160 students. I got involved there through connections that the Minister at Fortwilliam had there.

I was asked to come in and do music with a group of kids because they have no program due to realities in funding and the student numbers which led to their music dept. being dissolved over 5 years ago. The goal was to have the kids learn a couple of pieces to perform at Prize day (which is an awards ceremony during the school day each year) and Grandparents tea (which is tea and lunch with music and other forms of entertainment put on by the students). We met twice a week for about an hour to learn and rehearse the pieces that we were doing. The two pieces were "California Dreaming" by The Mommas & The Poppas and "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Before I get to much farther I have to say that I wasn't doing this alone, the group was formed by Castle High teacher Elaine Magill whose relationships with the girls prior was the glue that made it come together also Ernie who also works at the school was able to help with support and ideas on how to help the group get going.

In early December they had their first performance on Prize Day. The weeks leading up to this first performance was stressing to me because there were some fears that the girls wouldn't be ready in time and their performance might be cancelled. The main concern I had was to their self-esteems and if they preformed and it didn't go well that this could have a negative effect on them emotionally. I think it was all just pre-performance jitters, which went away right before we went on. The girls were magnificent, they sounded excellent and I was relived that everything had gone well. Our next performance I felt would be the most important for the girls to do well. It was at an event held at Fortwilliam Presbyterian Church. Other than the Castle High Singers there were to be 3 other groups there; a catholic grammar school, a catholic primary school and a protestant primary school. My fear was that each of those schools, who have music departments, would overshadow the girls and make them feel inadequate and possibly that hey were of lesser ability. Once again the girls put all my fears to rest when they preformed because they were at their best and it showed in their voices and attitudes. Also the other schools kept coming up and telling me that they, the Castle High Singers, did such a wonderful job and it just vindicated their hard work that they had put forth.

Sometimes there are days when I get home after work and I begin to think, while sitting in my room, about the reasons that I am here in Belfast and then I drift to the, "What am I doing here?" and then to the dreaded "Am I actually doing anything here?" Those are the days when I am at my lowest personally but they do pass. After listening to the Castle High Singers perform I do realize why I am here or at least partly. I can see it in my life when it comes to music, the expression of ones self through music is an outlet that these girls don't have on a structured level and to give them that chance and for them to see themselves succeed gives me the feeling of accomplishment as it also does for them. Continued with the other work that I have been doing from the kids at the 174 Trust to the relationships through the Fortwilliam programs has given me a renewed sense of energy on those lower times.

Christmas has come and gone and I wanted to alleviate anyone's fears that I spent it alone and in the dark. I was able to share the holidays with the other volunteers and guests that stopped by. Members of the church congregation we very kind with making me feel home here and I was even able to share some Christmas meals with some of the families. Also I was able to attend a Christmas Mass at St. Patrick's church, the local Catholic Church, and then Fortwilliam's service on Christmas day. The contrast in the services gave me different things to think about during the holiday season.

I want to remind everyone that these letters are going to be posted on my website Brenton-ni.blogspot.com Also I will be adding more pictures from the previous month to the photos section so be on the lookout in the upcoming weeks.

If anyone is getting this letter from a friend or as a forward and would like to be added to the list of people I sent this to please feel free to email me at Brenton_ni@Yahoo.com to be added.

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