Life has changed a lot since my last blog….let me get you
all up to date. We finished up our last day of ministry in the Dominican
Republic on the 26th of August. In my last blog I shared a little
more about our last skit we did there and then we said our goodbyes to the
children God had brought into our lives during our time there and to the other
friendships we had made. These were hard goodbyes, I love so many of those
kids, our friend Diana and the friendships with our translators who worked with
us everyday and shared their hearts with us as well. I will never forget those
relationships and will continue to pray blessings and love over those people.
At the same time though we had a lot to do to get packed up and clean the house
that we were staying in for the entire month, and we had to leave the next
day…so the time for sadness didn’t really hit until later.
We got some good rest and got motivated the next day. We
were leaving on Saturday at 3 a.m. so Friday I pretty much decided to just pack
and clean all day and then not go to sleep at all. I got a chance to skype with
my family and be a part of my Grandparents 50th Anniversary party
that night which was so fun! Happy Anniversary Grandpa and Grandma
Vanderschoot!! What an example of love they have been to myself and my family
over the years. I told them they still look like youngsters who are just fell
in love, because they do. So
Congratulations on 50 beautiful years of marriage (a little late). But it was
really fun to get to talk to them, be a part of the party, and sit at the
“table” with everybody.
Anyway, we then left at 3am for the airport in the DR. Drove
3 hours and were supposed to leave at 9 am but go delayed until 11:30 in the
DR. A lot of us had made plans to have people pick us up in Florida and spend
some time with them and run some much needed errands, so this delay kinda
messed up some plans a little. But thankfully, I still got to see some dear
family friends that I really wanted to see after a long time. Melissa,
Nicholas, and Zachary, it was so great to see you guys! Thank you so much for
running around with me for that short hour and helping me get all my stuff
together. I am so appreciative and thankful I got to see your sweet faces after
such a long time. What a blessing that time was for me. The only people I got
to see in the U.S. for the year, and I’m honored it was you. (Todd I wish I
could have seen you too! Sorry for the confusion the day before.)
I received a nice
package from my family there too and some other necessities before I left the
states once and for all. Thanks for all the work you put into that package
family!
The “long layover” we were supposed to have, flew by once I
got through security, got a starbucks and then packed up all my carry ons that
I wasn’t supposed to have. I definitely need to downsize all the stuff I
brought with me after this month or I am in trouble. We took off around 6 pm
from Florida and were on our way to the Awakening in Ireland!!! We were so
excited it was hard to sleep or really focus on anything, so that was a little
bit of a rough flight for some of us. But none of that mattered cause I was so
excited. After pretty much no sleep and 24 or more hours later we arrived in
Dublin!
The Awakening is a conference that Adventures in Missions
holds for all World Racers on the field and any alumni and family that wants to
come. It’s about 4 days long with amazing speakers and awesome worship! It was
much needed for me even after the first two months…it was just a great way to
start the race for our squad. One of the squads was just finishing up and
others were in months 4, and 8 so it was neat to see how God was working in
their lives and be encouraged by them and their walks.
All 5 squads that were there in attendance camped out at a beautiful green campground. And then we would walk to the hotel where
the conference was held each day. We had some nice free time to explore the
town we were in and take the bus into downtown Dublin. It was a great 4 days of
growth, learning, and encouragement. I will be posting more about what God
taught me in the days to come, but it might be too much for this blog so I’m
going to collect my thoughts and put them in another blog to share.
After our few days of being Awakened at the Awakening, my
squad had another 3-4 days of debrief. Debriefs happen every 2-3 months I
think. This is when our squad leaders and coaches all get together with the
whole squad for group talks and then each team meets individually with all of
them.
During debrief we found out that my team (City Lights) and
team Green Light would be spending the rest of the month in Galway, Ireland.
So that is where we are now! We are camping in our tents for most of the month
in a beautiful spot right on the coast. I love the spot where we live and enjoy
being able to call my tent home this month. It rains a lot here so we fall
asleep to big rainstorms hitting our tents each night, but it adds a little
more excitement to our lives. Haha as if we don’t have enough : )
The past few weeks we have been trained on working in the
culture of Ireland, evangelism training/evangelism, passing out worship cd’s to 10,000
homes around Galway, pub ministry, and community service. Our first few days of training were great and very
valuable to me as we go out into the streets of a culture that seems similar to
America but is really unique in its culture and heritage, and needs. We really talked a lot about dying to ourselves and what people think of us as we go talk to them, and just understanding the real need that people have for Jesus here. There was also a worship team from Nashville that was here doing ministry with the church we are working with. Their music was on the cd’s we passed out and they hosted a worship conference last weekend, that we enjoyed and helped out with. This was so encouraging for the Church in Galway and great worship for our two teams also.
Just wanted to give an update on what the past month has looked like a little bit…fun stories to come to the blog soon. Thank you for your prayers and support. Love you all!
Also wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my Best Friends!! Janelle, Happy 23rd Birthday!! And Sarah, Happy 24th Birthday!!! Love you girls and I know this year is going to be amazing for both of you amazing women of God. He has so much in store for you this year, I can already see it in your lives 🙂 Thanks for your friendship that never ends! Cheers to 15 years of friendship (or more?)
