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

As I sit down to reflect on the previous month the whole nine comes rushing back. As I sit thinking I only realize that in less than two months I will leave this home to go back to my previous home. The feelings never stop changing or evolving and each week continue to surprise me somewhere and somehow.

The longer I am away the more I appreciate the many emails and letters that I have received. I want to express my gratitude for the continual showing of support and encouragements. Each message is able to bring a new energy to my week. Also other thanks to the many prayers for me while I was walking the Belfast Marathon which I successfully completed in 8:01hrs

This month's program overview will be the 174 Trust afterschools program. I work from 2 to 3 days a week in the afterschools from 2pm - 5:45pm. The Afterschools club is open to children from the ages of 5 - 11. We pick the children up from their school when it lets out and bring them back to the club until their parents come to pick them up. The founding idea behind the club is that with the younger ones we just let them play in a supported and safe environment. With the older ones we facilitate with their homework and allow them to build themselves up through positive social interactions at the club. Within the local area there are few places available for children to just play outside on a playground. The only thing they would normally have would be to just play in the streets and due to the history here even that is restricted. Also another thing is that we work with children with special needs which can be a handful but add to the overall atmosphere of the club. With it being so open and inclusive it creates a place where everyone can have a positive experience.

While walking the Belfast marathon I had a lot of time to think and reflect. I knowingly discovered that I am going to miss Belfast in a big and heartfelt way. I have mentally connected with the fact that I will be leaving in less that two months and it is taking its toll on me. I find that thinking about it sends my spirits lower than they have been since I arrived.

The pain is that I am finally really beginning to make the connections that are the basis for all of the work I have done. With the boys in the Football Club at the 174 Trust, they now seek me out and want to talk about things where as before I had to drag anything and everything out of them. When one of them sees me out they stop me, which isn't new but there is more of a desire/friendship in place. When I arrived I cared for their well being but now if I had more time I would get more involved in their lives. Many of them have problems in and with school and need someone to get involved there to get the support they need. Some of them will be making choices soon about continuing school or getting jobs and I wish I could still be there for them. I want to continue to be an influence and contrary to the jokes many make a positive influence of a personal nature but on a spiritual nature.

I through my life have found one of my strengths to be that I connect well with people on a personal level and it is that gift that I do my ministry by, what I call relational ministry. We don't talk about Jesus all the time and it is more on the rare side but it does come up. When it does I am not some guy on a street corner, not a person marching in a parade or the local priest, I am someone they connect with who is a Christian. The boundary of protestant/catholic isn't there because with me they've moved past that to what really matters.

Then there is Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian church where I have called my church home for the past 9 months. I am now at the point in the congregation where I am one of them, maybe not to them but to me I am. When I arrived I was just the PC(USA) volunteer who did odd children's songs and the youth work. Now I am the youth worker who they know truly cares about Fortwilliam and its members.

I don't want to leave anymore, it isn't that I wanted to but I was always aware that I would be, but now I don't want to. I want to see what happens to the youth, how school goes, how their sporting activities go, how their Christian faiths continue to grow. It is sad for me because their families have taken me into their church family and I am part of it all and now I step back from it. I am going to miss the people and the relationships. What gives me comfort is that next year someone else will come to Belfast and will work with the same people and they will be able to experience what I felt and know the joy in it but none the less I am sad about leaving.

Just a little reminder that this letter and any previous letters can be found on my website at http://Brenton-ni.blogspot.com In the next few days I will be updating my photos with pictures from the marathon and several other things.

If you are receiving 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.

Once again I cannot express how much your prayers and continued support at appreciated. Please feel free to email me or write me with and thoughts or questions.

Peace,

Brenton Thompson