WARNING: THIS BLOG IS LONG BECAUSE IRELAND IS AMAZING AND GOD IS EVEN MORE AMAZING, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
What can I say about Ireland? There are hardly words! I learned and experienced so much, God showed up in amazing ways, teaching and refreshing me all at once. Perhaps I should go through a countdown of all of my favorites that happened this month. Yes, I think that will definitely help my brain, it’s not a very fast one.
Okay, here we go!
Green- Perhaps you are among the skeptical crowd when it comes to how green Ireland is, I know I was. But I am here to tell you today that yes, in fact it is greener than you could ever imagine! I thought Photoshop was the only way to get that kind of green.
Accents/Vocab- Oh my word, not only do these people speak English, but they speak it with style! I loved listening to them, especially the kids! Most of the time I had to really concentrate to understand what they were saying. And you definitely don’t get through a conversation without the word “wee” coming up. “it’s just around the wee corner there”; “Would you like a wee cup of tea?”; “It will just take a wee time”. Another phrase I really like was “What’s the crack?” This is their way of saying “what’s up?” or “what’s going on?” And you could respond with “The crack is ninety”; and some people say “It’s good crack!” when referring to something. It’s a weird phrase I know, and no one seems to know where it came from either, it’s just good crack:)
Hutch – So Hutch was a man we never expected in Ireland. One of the worries about going to Ireland was how expensive it is there, and our budget is very low so we would have to be really smart about buying food. Little did we know God sent an angel to us in the form of a man named Hutch. He was not a rich man, but God had blessed him and he was always looking to bless others. He used his own money and collected some from other people and just provided so much for us! He bought all 53 of us pizza twice; he took us all out for lunch, he had an amazing BBQ for us THREE times! And when he could he would take some people different places to show us different sights. We were never in want with Hutch around. He even took my iPod to get it fixed when I cracked my screen yet again. Yep. He was awesome and he has taught us all so much about what true generosity looks like.
Pet Tigers- So apparently it is legal to have exotic animals as pets, such as tigers. Never in all my mind would I have thought I would have been able to see tigers in Northern Ireland. Some people who went to the church had two as pets and we got to go see them, they had a white girl and an orange boy. Yeah. It was crazy cool. He would pet them and everything, they loved him and his wife.
Hope & Gloria- This was where I did a lot of my ministry for the month. It was a vintage emporium, NOT a charity shop. They were very adamant about that haha it’s one the coolest vintage shops I’ve been in. Everything about it was so creative and unique and the vision of the shop was so God centered. They use all their resources as much as possible to help people succeed in what they want to do for their lives and splurge out creativity. They had designers there, giving them space to work and have classes for sewing. They also had a space for counseling to go on and for a history teacher who quit to become an artist. They even gave most of their profits to charities. I did a lot of different things there, set up displays, praying over the shop, jewelry making, working the floor and putting on a tea party at the end of the month. We had a whole tea table set up for people with beautiful china and little finger cakes and juice. It was a place where people could sit and rest while we served them for free. The appreciation from people was amazing! They absolutely loved it. I loved working in a place making such a difference in a creative way.
Vineyard Church – This is the church we worked with the whole time, and talk about a church of God, they were unbelievable. Their mission was to reach the lost, plain and simple this is what God has called them to do. The very essence of the church was ministry to reach the lost, if the ministry stopped so would the church, that’s how much it was their identity. They are also very careful to not be weird about anything haha because let’s face it we Christains are a bunch of weirdoes. They have a food bank, a warehouse of clothes for people who needed them, a bridge program designed to reaching out to teens, prayer on the streets, celebrate recovery for addicts, and so much others stuff I don’t even know about. One of the coolest ministries I think is where they take children out on the streets to pray for people, they absolutely love it because kids know God can do anything and when the kids pray, He does.
Encounter & Healing on the Streets – These are two of my favorite ministries I got to be a part of this month. Encounter was one where we first prayed for people God would have us pray for that day and then we would go out and pray for people we felt lead to. In my group one of the girls wrote down things like blue jeans and shirt, car, leg and james/john. Well on our way to town we walked by this shop and a man in all blue got out of his car and went in. The woman immediately knew that was the man, but she was so nervous so I pulled her into the shop to talk to him. So she went up to him and told him she felt lead to pray for him and showed him all she had written down earlier and it turns out his name was John and he had a bad leg. Wow. So she prayed over his leg and he was just so extremely grateful and accepting. That was just my favorite part of that day:)
Healing on the streets is another ministry of prayer. Every Saturday no matter the weather, people from the church come out in the town center to pray for people. It’s an extremely gentle approach and as ‘non-weird’ as possible. They simple have a sign that says healing and chairs in a line, and we have little papers we hand out about it. And basically people come and we have them sit down and we just spend time praying for them about anything. It was so humbling and peaceful praying for people in the middle of this bustling town. It’s new and different for me and at times just scary, but God’s the one who is in control not me, and all I need to do is say no to fear and God will do great things through me. And I’m sure you’re wondering the obvious question, did I see healing. Well I will answer your question with another question; do you believe God when He says He can do anything? And He is the same God now as He was and always will be? So often I have put God in this box and I don’t realize it until He shows up and blows it wide open. He did that a lot this month I’ve just about run out of boxes.
Marathon- So for some crazy reason I got it in my head that I really wanted to run a marathon in one of the countries. Well I found a couple other crazies on my team who wanted to do it too! Lauren and Christa as well as one of our squad leaders Dan. So we ran our little hearts out to get ready for a marathon at the end of this month. We were going to run an official marathon, but it was so expensive and all of us still have money to raise to be fully funded. So we decided to design our own marathon and ask people to sponsor us. We figured out a route were we ran down the coast of Ireland. I know for a fact I will never again run anywhere as beautiful as that coast line. It was so hard to keep running and not stop to take in the view. Not to mention God provided us with a clear day at the perfect temperature, which in Ireland happens almost never. We also could not have done it without the support of our squadmates who met us on the route to refill us with drinks and snacks to get us the rest of the way. The Holy Spirit was literally feeding me energy the whole time. When we ran around the corner towards the finish and ran through the paper chain line, holding hands with people cheering, I have never been so happy and proud of my amazing friends who helped me finish.
I realized that a big reason why I decided to run a marathon was so much more than I thought. It was a lot of the reason why I came on the World Race in the first place. I want to be pushed and challenged in different ways and have only God that I can depend on. So I can now officially say that I have ran a full marathon in 5 hours and 10 minutes in the most beautiful place I have ever seen, Ireland.
The Hole Tattoo shop – This was definitely one of my favorite places in the whole city! I went in for the first time with one of my squadmates to get our noses pierced, just feeling spontaneous, and it was then that I met Ricky. He was the owner of the shop and one of the most awesome people I have met. First I noticed all the Jesus around the shop and asked him about it, that’s just not a norm in tattoo shops. He didn’t say much about it just that God’s just been there for him. And when we were done he gave us each a hug, and not just a dumb hug, but a real one that he actually meant. After we left I just couldn’t stop thinking about the shop and how much I just really liked it in there. So I decided to go back and see if I could help out in anyway. He said yeah I could definitely come. I got to be in the shop that whole last week, working some and just talking and hanging out. His daughter works there as well doing hair and there was one more tattoo artist. We just got to talk a lot about God and how he got through some crazy times in his life, he was such a real genuine person and that’s what I liked most about him. At the end of the week him and his daughter also gave me 100pounds which equals to about $150! I was blown away by them and I will never forget them.
Praise de Lerd – Yes that is how we Irish say praise the Lord, and praise Him indeed! God taught me so much this month it was almost every day I was learning or experiencing revolutionary things! One of the biggest things I’ve learned would be the authority we as Christians have in the name of Jesus. We are literally carrying the light and power of God in us. Another thing is the good gifts God wants to give us. We should never be afraid to ask God for anything, he loves and cares for us so much more then we know. If I was feeling afraid to ask for more of Him or for other things it would be like a father who already has all these gifts for his daughter, but she’s too afraid to ask for it, she’s going to miss out on the wonders that is God. He would never want you to be afraid to ask him for anything. God also gave me a huge refreshment this month, more love and more zeal for Him and life. I am learning to seek Him in every moment and realize that He has me here at this moment for a purpose and it’s my job to listen to Him to know what it is.
God has literally blown my mind this month and I know this is just the start. I can only imagine what it is He has prepared for me in India!
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” -Acts 4:23-31
