So this past week we have been here in Dublin, Ireland. There are five different squads here and it has been CRAZY!!!!!! The week has been filled with preaching and teaching, praise and worship and team time with other squads. Need less to say God is awesome.
At the begining of the week God hit me with something. I was walking to my tent and it was getting dark out and I was looking at the scenery and all of the sudden I was overwhelmed with my own love for the Lord. As if to ask me “Eric, how much do you love me?” “I love you so much God I can’t even begin to put it into words. I mean I love you a lot God. Really. Like a lot. I love you Jesus.” Then it was as if He hit me with my own love for Him and said “No, I know how much you love me. This is how much you love me and I see it inside of you.” and then like a ton of bricks it hit me. Awesome. I love you Jesus!!!!!!!
It was an awesome moment. Then the other day me and some of the guys went out for dinner. So, Robby (our old sqaud leader), Tyler, Caleb, Jordan and myself went for dinner and before that we walked around Dublin and got to see St. Patrick’s cathedral. Interesting side note that I found out, most people have heard of or celibrated St. Patrick’s day. Well, St. Patrick was a missionary from Ireland who went to places like Asia and Africa to spread the gospel when he was alive. He funded his missionary works through making beer. You might have heard of it, Guinness. So we were all at dinner enjoying each others company when I was hit with the the fact that “I will never be here again”.
In that, I won’t be in Ireland with 200 some odd different missionaries nor with this group of individuals like this ever again. I felt EXTREMELY blesssed in that moment, not to say that I have felt that before on the race but it really hit tme in that moment. Then yesterday we had our debrief for Africa, God was there with us in that time together and there were somethings broken off of people in the team, myself included.
Then last night was really cool. Several of us went into Dublin and at one point Tyler (from team Seven) and I decided to just go for a walk around town. Oddly enough before we left, I was doing my laundry and said if it dry’s in time I would go. It did and I said to them “It must be a devine appointment”. So me and Tyler are walking around and started talking about the different people we were seeing and things going on. Talking about how do you aproach someone in a bar to talk to them about Jesus, and what about all the poor people along the sidewalk?
Well, at one point this woman stopped us asking for change so that she might be able to buy something to eat. So, we just asked her if we could get her something to eat. We got to talk to her about God and feed her some food and give her some money to get a place to stay for the night. I tell you about her, not to make I or Tyler look good, but in that God had in fact made a devine appointment that night. One between I and Tyler and another with the both of us and that woman, whose name is Melisa by the way.
This week has truly been a blessing, in my moment with God with in the first couple of nights, to going out to eat with the guys, seeing things being broken off in our debrief, to having a devine appointment with Tyler and Melisa; it all leaves me feeling very blessed and very lucky to be here. To be a little cliche and maybe even a litle corny it feels like finding a four leaf clover. Thank you all for your prayers and continued support. As we head into these last 3 months I am still $1200 shy of being fully supported. Please if you are able to please donate so that I can continue to meet people like Melisa and do the work God has called me to do.
I have a prayer request for some close friends of mine, the Gunterman’s as one of thier addopted children McKenna has gone to be with the Lord and another close family of friends the Castetter’s as thier mother/grandmother has gone to be with the Lord. Please lift up these two families in this time. Thank you all and God bless.
