Galway, Ireland - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

My team, City Lights, as well as team Green Light, has been living in Galway, Ireland for about a week. After traveling from the Dominican Republic, we stayed in Dublin for a week for the Awakening conference, and then traveled a few hours to Galway.

We are camping in our tents, which makes for some very cold and rainy nights, (I’ve actually thought my tent was going to get swept away Wizard of Oz style a few times) but the beauty of the coast of Ireland is well worth the unpredictable weather. It’s normal to wear and remove a rain jacket at least ten times while walking somewhere, because it randomly rains so much.

Because we’re camping and don’t have access to a stove or refrigerator, our diet for the month mostly consists of instant soup and fruit. Not ideal, but not too terrible. I’ve also only showered twice since we’ve been here because we have to pay 1 Euro per shower…which seems cheap, but not when our budget consists of 3 Euro a day (hence the instant soup and fruit).

The culture and scenery in Galway is absolutely amazing; there is every kind of restaurant and boutique that you can imagine, along with street musicians and vendors in the open market that have really unique art and jewelry. It’s great to be in a country that speaks English, although understanding an Irish accent can be quite challenging sometimes. I’ve drank more tea and coffee during the past two weeks than I have in my entire life; any type of conversation takes place over tea or coffee so it’s rude to refuse it. I also discovered a little cookie called a Hobnob that is delicious when dipped in coffee.

So, now that you know where I’m living and what I’m eating, you might be wondering what exactly I’m doing for ministry in Ireland. It’s been really awesome to see God connect the dots from the things we’ve learned along the way about building relationships and loving people to the church that we’re working alongside in Galway.

Discovery Church is a culturally diverse church that began six years ago by a man named Paul that was a missionary in America, but then felt the need to return to Ireland and plant a church. There is less than 1% of Christian believers in Ireland; the depression and suicide rate is extremely high (our contact told us that a funeral home does at least 2 funerals a month of people my age because of suicide).

One of our main purposes while being in Galway is to encourage the believers that live here; we’ve only been in Ireland for two weeks and it’s already evident that it is easy to become frustrated. Our task for this week is to distribute CD’s of the worship band at Discovery Church. A church in Nashville, TN raised the support to fund the recording of 10,000 CD’s. The worship band from the Tennessee church led worship this past Sunday. It was such a blessing to be able to have conversation with other “Americans” and to be able to attend church in English, something that can sometimes be easily taken for granted.

Today, as well as the next few days,we divided up into groups and walked around the city dropping CD’s into mail slots and handing them to people on the street. A few months ago, something of that nature would have been intimidating to me. I never want to be a pushy person so I’ve always viewed not talking to random people about God as respecting their space, but I’m now realizing that when I take the focus off of myself and what their reaction will be then it doesn’t really matter. I know the beauty of a true love so why be hesitant to share it in a nation that is so desperately in need of truth?

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I surprisingly have only been sick a few days since I’ve been on the race. Because the weather is so rainy and crazy cold here, and we’re sleeping in tents, please keep our health in your prayers. Also, pray for continued boldness to build relationships within Galway and Discovery Church. Love love!

(Also, an update on the CD’s since I wrote this…we finished passing out the 10,000 CD’s yesterday. The church received an email from a young guy that loved the CD so much he is using some of the songs at his wedding reception next week. God is already using them to reach the people of Ireland…well worth the walking!)

Here are a few pictures of where we are living and just some random outings 🙂

Me, Sarah, Kendra, and Leah hanging out on the boardwalk