The Happy Pear – Ireland July 2012

 
            Overall, this was a great month.  Sure, there were some struggles but there were also some victories.  The “base camp” for our ministry this month was Greystones, Ireland.  However, we were doing ministry all over the island of Ireland.  There were ministry opportunities everywhere we went.  Our main objective was to pass out tracts to the people who lived in the residential flats around the city of Dublin.  At first, this seemed like a very mundane task.  This made me question why I came on The World Race for the first week or so of the ministry month.  It was my opinion that tracts don’t work and don’t bring people to Jesus.  This was a generalization based off my experience with them in America.  But, I was not in America anymore.  I was in Ireland on The World Race and God was about to show me that he is bigger than my thoughts or generalizations about tracts. 
 
            However, this revelation from God wouldn’t come until after He showed me a little piece of home.  This little piece of home came in the form of a organic market coffee shop combo.  This market was called The Happy Pear.  I first stumbled upon the market around the end of the first week or beginning of the second week in Ireland.  It reminded me a lot of my family, specifically my mom, Debbie, my sister, Sarah, and my sister, Hannah.  This small revelation gave me a peace about the month and a peace about my calling to The Race.  This small revelation was also a precursor to the larger revelation previously stated.
 
            Like I said before, God was about to do some things that I would shock me.  After my encounter with The Happy Pear, my mood started to brighten.  And after my mood brightened, God started to work.  Teams would come home from ministry with awesome stories of people being open to talk to a group of Americans passing out tracts, people allowing us to pray for them openly in the street or parking lot, and people accepting Christ as their Savior.  Tracts were just our conversation starters, but our outward display of faith in Jesus gave us a way to the hearts of the people we met in Ireland.