Hello friends,

As I type this, we’re sitting in Dublin Airport waiting for our flight back home to Pennsylvania. The last few days have been a blend of outreach and fellowship, service and rest.

The weather on Wednesday was perfect and allowed us a wonderful time presenting on the street in St. Andrews. One of our friends estimated that about 40 people would walk past in the space of one song and about 20 would linger to watch. We presented somewhere around 20 to 22 songs on the street, sharing the message of grace found in Jesus. Later that evening we led a workshop with our friends at St. Margaret’s Church. We had met Eileen Miller on our last trip and this time we came to partner in ministry with her church. The youth and adults that came were enthusiastic and received the most comprehensive training of our trip.  May God bless and nurture the many seeds planted.

Thursday, we took the train to Edinburgh and visited various sites and shops. We enjoyed an amusing time at The Camera Obscura, meal next to John Knox’s house and a wander through St. Giles Cathedral among other things.  After a full schedule for most of the trip, it was great to get some down time as a team.  Friday was similar, hiking with one of DRAMA’s honorary grandpa’s, Sandy Mutch, followed by a final team time and time with the partnered ministers whose churches sponsored our visit. It was a great time reflecting on all that we had seen God do over the past two weeks.

Early this morning we said our final good-bye’s. Shortly we’ll be returned to you all bearing in our hearts more stories than our weary bodies will likely be able to convey and leaving behind a land that is now a second home to many. DRAMA’s 9 year partnership with the churches in the UK has not merely been a cause to be served, but a deep friendship with our brothers and sisters in the family of God. May God bless and strengthen His children near and far. We are thankful to glimpse another part of that beautiful and vast body of Christ.

For Him,
-tim

On Saturday October 17th, Alpha had an service day outreach a God’s Clear View Ministry, or for those who know them better as Carlos and Migdalia. 🙂 We were able to have Joseph Queen join us for the day.

We met early in the morning while it was dark and cold outside and came home late that same day, when it was dark and cold outside also… When we arrived, Migdalia had lots of food to snack on before we started working.  It was a very chilly day over all, we even got to experience some snow while we were there …. yes, snow!

Our first job of the day was to move a LARGE pile of fire wood inside. We made an assembly line and started pilling the wood higher and deeper along one of the hallways inside. That ended up taking us most of the morning. We then took a break for a delicious lunch, thanks to Migdalia again. 🙂 After lunch we split into a few groups. One group was the wood burning crew, who worked away at cleaning up scrap wood pieces and then attempted to fit them into barrels to burn. Another group worked in the Blessing Shop, they organized the cloths and swapped out the summer clothes for winter clothes. And the last group worked on cleaning up the garden, they pulled out weeds and covered the garden with straw to winterize it.

-Amy-

Hello Friends,

We’ve enjoyed today and yesterday as we returned to Burntisland and Kinghorn Primary Schools. Between this week and last week, somewhere around 500 young people have gotten an introduction to mime and practiced presenting one of our songs with a gospel message. We’ve gotten to know many of them and leave a lot of new little friends to hold up invisible walls and escape from invisible boxes.

Tomorrow we’re returning to St. Andrews with the hope of presenting in the street, if weather allows. In the evening we’ll be partnering with a church in Glenn Roth to give a workshop and presentation to their youth. Then on Thursday we’ll take an off day to Edinburgh to see the city and procure peace offerings for our families back home.

I’ll try to get one more update out before we fly out Saturday morning. Continue to pray for our health, for weather that doesn’t hinder our witness opportunities and for wisdom as we encourage the many new friends we’ve met along the way.

For Him,
-tim

On Monday October 12 Alpha had an outreach at Hope Rescue Mission, which is a men’s shelter in Reading. Since we have practices on Monday afternoons we put on our face paint after we practiced and loaded up into two vehicles and traveled there. We were glad to have Tim King come along with us. While we were driving we attempted to eat our packed suppers without messing up our paint.

As we walked through the door we were greeted by several people. The main room where we were going to be presenting, was full. Since we had some time until we were presenting, we decided to do some “stroll miming”, such as playing tug of war, playing baseball, and getting stuck in “boxes”. Then we presented several songs. At the end we were thanked by several people. As we walked out we saw a mural on a building close by, so we had some fun taking pictures there.

-Amy-

Hello Friends!
We’ve made it through our first week and what a week it’s been!  We’ve managed to present and teach in three different schools over four different days, give workshops in St. Andrews and Kirkaldy and present for youth gatherings and a Scottish dance. It went by rather fast and I don’t have pictures of it all, but enjoy some below.  Today  (Sunday) we’ll be presenting and participating in remembrance services and taking a lighter, more restful day.

As you pray for us over the next week, we’ll be back in the schools and returning to St. Andrews for some street presentations.  Please pray that our energy would be sustained, that we’d be protected from sickness and share the Gospel with grace and love.

For Him,
-tim

Hello Friends!
We’ve completed our preparations  (see pictures below ). Now, it’s on to presentations!  Today  (Sunday), we’ve had two presentations in the morning and will have a brief workshop here in a moment. After that, it’s on to a joint commissioning service with our host churches.  Tomorrow, we’re off to the schools.  Keep us in your prayers as we continue to share the love of Christ.

In Him,
-tim

On Saturday, May 16th team Balfata ( a combination of team Alpha, team Beta,& Joseph Queen) met at the Lancaster shopping center at roughly 6:30am and when the whole team got there we prayed and then headed out for God’s Clear View Ministries.  When we arrived, Carlos and Migdalia (directors of the ministry) had food and hot drinks waiting for us.  After using the restrooms (which was mostly girls) and a light breakfast and prayer.  Michael Austin (Beta’s director), Trent Martin (Beta’s assistant director), and Alex High (Alpha’s assistant director), who where heading things up for the day, split the team into two groups, one to work inside and one to work outside.  The outside group was under the direction of Alex and the inside group was under Trent’s direction.  Each group was divided into crews to accomplish the different jobs.  Below are some pictures of the different crews:  Above two: Blessing shop, sorting clothes, Amy High & Jesse FellenbaumAbove: Outside clean up, Hannah FellenbaumAbove: Yard sale room, sweeping cobwebs, Alisha WeaverAbove: Edging, Hannah Landes & Alexis Weaver

Then around 2:00pm we took a break for a very, wonderful lunch! Pictured below: After that we finished up some of the projects we had started before lunch and also got some extra things done. Above: Fixing wall, Alex High & Connor FellenbaumAbove: Pantry, checking expiration dates, Selena Gerlach & Liana Horst

Then we headed out at roughly 5:30pm. Everything went well and praise God that we were able to finish all the jobs they had for us plus some extra jobs as well! 🙂 We arrived home safely and I think the whole team would agree it was a great day!

Praise God for all he did!!

~Alexis Weaver