Dear Friends, Family, Supporters, & Congregation members,

I want to begin this letter by giving my thanks to everyone for the continued support I have received. From the emails to messages passed on, they all make a huge difference to me.

Much time has elapsed since my last mission update letter and how everything has changed. As many know I spent the last year in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the fist part of this letter I will bring that chapter to a close and in the last part I will begin to share with you the new chapter in my service.

To write about closure to Belfast has truly been the hardest thing about any of my letters because I am still coming to terms with its end. Since the last update many things took place and memories created. One of the most significant in my year was the July 12th celebrations. This holiday is only celebrated in the Protestant communities and I took the invitations of some of the kids I worked with to join them and their families for these events so I could experience this and see it through their perspectives. Without going into much detail the Twelfth celebrates one of the most significant events of the island’s history. This holiday marks the day when William of Orange (Protestant) and James II (Catholic) confronted each other in battle for the English throne. On this day William of Orange defeated James II to secure the throne and to also secure the protestant faith as that of the state.

Maybe it was the fact that the community I felt apart of was just across the street watching with disgust and sadness or the attitudes of many of the people I came across that night but it left nothing other than a sickness in my stomach and a guilt like none I have felt before. The next day I went to see the Orange parades, which go throughout Belfast and eventually converge in the city center and head out of town to a meeting place where they have speeches and lunch. As I watched many of the kids I worked with marching by in the pipe bands I found that I was proud of them but at the same time saddened by it all. The atmosphere was festive but only for half of Belfast, the other half not present. That night in Ardoyne (Catholic), a community not far from the New Lodge, tensions broke and some clashes between the community and police broke out. Many people say that things should have been different and all sides say completely different things to that effect.

As I reflect upon my final month in Belfast there were also many good things that occurred. One good thing was a day camp for children in the community around Fortwilliam Park, which lasted over a week. We had over 30 kids coming each day to either go on a small trip or play games or work together at the church. To me this was the ideal of what the part of the future holds for cross-community work in North Belfast. The only negative part about the whole thing was that it had to end, and the kids, the other workers, and I were truly sad to see it finish.

A whole year in Belfast, and it all can be summed up in one sentence. Without love there can never be peace and Jesus calls everyone to love and be peacemakers.

With the end of that chapter in my mission work I have also want to begin sharing about this next chapter in my mission work. I will spend the next year in Munkacs, which is in Trans-Carpathian, in Ukraine just over the boarder of northeastern Hungary. Here I will be working with the Roma (Gypsies) in a few different ways.

I have now been away from you all for over a month and I just now arrived in Munkacs on the 21st of September. After orientation in Chicago with all of the Young Adult Volunteers (PC USA) and Young Adults in Global Mission (ELCA's respective program,) I along with four others left for Budapest, Hungary. In Budapest we spent the next two weeks learning Hungarian with some to little success. From there we attended another orientation this time for all of the volunteers in this program and it is here in a little village called Gara that I met my co-worker Robert Mida. Robi is an eighteen-year-old Hungarian. We will be working most of the time together in Munkacs.

As to what I will be doing it all is still a bit hazy but most of it is figured out. In the mornings I will teach English at the Ukrainian State School for Roma, then in the afternoon teach at a Roma church school. Here we will be teaching Hungarian reading and writing and other things. I also can imagine many people finding humor in me teaching Hungarian at my stage of language mastery but for now that is Rob's job and I will focus on the other aspects of the class.

I hope to in further letters go into more depth about what I am doing once I get more into the rhythm of things. Also I will give more information concerning the community here as I did in my letters from Northern Ireland. I now know my actual address so here it is

Brenton Thompson
25/1 Vozednanjo
Munkacs, UA 89600
Ukraine

If by chance you received this letter from someone else or came across it somehow and would like to be added to my list of people I send this to feel free to email me at Brenton_NI@yahoo.com Also if you have any questions or anything please send me a message at the above email address. I haven’t updated my photos as of sending this letter but I hope by the next one so I might just surprise you in the next month with some and as always these letters will be posted on my website: http://Brenton-ni.blogspot.com

I lastly want to thank everyone again for your prayers and support. If in your prayers you can include my attempts at learning Hungarian I know it will help.

Peace,
Brenton Thompson
Roma Project YAV