What are we doing?

Hello readers! The past few weeks have been crazy busy, but full of blessings! For those of you who may be confused on what exactly we are doing here and what ministries we are working with, allow me to explain our exciting new lifestyle!

Dundrum is a small town situated on the east coast of County Down, Northern Ireland just 4 miles from the popular seaside resort of Newcastle at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. In the past 10 years, Dundrum has become a ghost town with littler or no job opportunities. In recent years however, the population has been increasing proportionally with the developments and is currently around 3000.

With Dundrum growing, the numbers of young people in the area are growing as well. Therefore, the need for youth ministry and the opportunity for kids to hear about the love of Jesus is also increasing.

Right now, Danielle and I are working with a community ministry called R.I.O.T. (Revival In Our Town). RIOT’s mission is to benefit the inhabitants of Dundrum by providing a welcoming community facility for all ages. Their overall goal is to improve the life of the community, and create programs for groups like: Mums & Tots, Suicide Awareness, senior afternoon activities, smoking cessation programs, ect. Every Friday night there is a high school drop in where kids can come to hang out in a safe and accepting environment. The point is to show that Christ loves and accepts them for who they are.

We are also working at the Kairos, which is a youth ministry very similar to RIOT, but located in Newcastle. (About 10 minutes outside of Dundrum) It provides after school homework drop in time, drop in hang out times, worship nights, and many other events. Kairos and RIOT partner together to reach the youth of the area. Danielle and I have the pleasure of volunteering at both ministries.

We are having a great time here and we are staying very busy! We have met so many people in the past two weeks and we are feeling very at home now. Our theme of this trip is to build “intentional relationships.” We have already formed so many relationships and friendships, and with each new relationship our goal is to show who Jesus is.  

We will be starting an e-mail newsletter on top of this blog that will contain some more specifics on what we are doing and what we are involved in. If you are interested in being on our e-mail list, e-mail us at ymi.jenna.danielle@gmail.com, with the subject “newsletter.” We will hopefully be sending our first newsletter out in the next week.