another week in Ireland

Tuesday June 9, 2009

 

Assembly day! We got up extra early to make it to the school, which was about a 30 min walk. It went well. The kids that were acting out the lesson were early to practice as well. It was brilliant! We only intended for them to silently act out the raising of Lazarus as Caleb narrated it during his lesson, but to our surprise they had turned it into a whole production with lines from the Scriptures and all. They were fantastic! Martha had her lines down for sure. They all enjoyed it. David was there to introduce us, and the kids were really excited to see the Americans (we got lots of high fives that day as we walked by them arriving and leaving). I led worship, and we taught them “waves of mercy, waves of grace” with the hand actions and all. Side note: apparently the proper thing to say in Ireland is “actions” not “motions”. I was informed to say hand actions instead of motions but no one told me why. So the kids had a good craic when I said that Suzanne and Emily would be teaching the “hand motions...I mean actions” to the song. What I actually told them was they would be teaching them the “hand poops”  to the song. Go me.

 

So other than that we got them jumping up and down by the end of the song and then they settled down for the skit, preceded by Caleb’s lesson, Matthew’s prayer, another song led by me, and the Dean’s speech. It had some rough spots which we thoroughly enjoyed watching later because Ande recorded the whole thing, but overall it wasn’t too bad.

 

After Assembly we headed to the church for Toddler group and I got to watch over the coloring table to make sure none of the kids ate the crayons. One girl tried several times. She started getting sneaky and trying to smuggle them off when I wasn’t looking but I caught her before she could get a decent chunk off of it. Another kid ran off with the entire tin of crayons so I had to run across the room after him. They’re sneaky little buggers these toddlers!

 

After lunch we walked back to the church to do some yard work. It was a beautiful day! Cool and breezy with just enough sun. So we pulled weeds. Woot! It was fun we will be doing more if that this summer to provide some extra hands to keep the church looking nice and the gardens well manicured.

 

Caleb and I rocked another dinner that night, making banana pancakes and listening to Jack Johnson. We seem to have a music theme to each dinner which makes it more fun. I cooked up the pancakes while Caleb worked on the eggs and bacon, or rashers here, and I cut up the fruit salad. Yum!

 

That night we had our girl sleepover at the church. It went so well! We had fun playing games and hanging out, and we had everyone write a question on a piece of paper and drop it into a box in the middle of the circle, and Emily, Suzy, Heather and I would answer them. God really opened up some hearts here and we were able to answer their questions from a Christian perspective. Some of these girls aren’t Christians, and a few of them are but need someone to disciple them and help them grow closer amidst a pressing crowd of nonbelievers. They really opened up that night and God gave us words for them. I really had to rely on him for the answers they needed, and I realized just how much my life experiences allowed me to connect with these girls who are struggling with the same temptations and situations that I experienced. What an amazing God! He is doing immeasurably more than we can imagine!

 

Wednesday June 10, 2009

 

Started the day with team devotional, followed by our staff meeting at the church. Got things rolling with the weekly schedule and some things sorted with who on our team will be doing what this week. We’ve divided our days into thirds to help keep track of what we have going on each day a little better. It also makes planning time to walk to where we need to be easier. Ande has also begun rotating one of us out of a third of the day a couple days a week to keep us from running ourselves ragged. I was rotated out of the middle third today which meant I missed the Keep Kilkenny Clean litter pickup. The rest of the team went and apparently there was an article about it in the paper which meant good publicity for the church. I hope God uses that for good. Emily and Suzanne got the evening third off and the rest of us went to the Midweek Bible study at the church. We very much appreciated the breaks because we were exhausted from the sleepover Tuesday night.

 

We ended the day with our “Symposium”, as Matthew has named it, which is funny because there are girls, which goes against what a symposium would be. This is our weekly vent/breakdown meeting to recollect ourselves as a team and figure out where everyone is and how they’re doing. It went well despite our exhaustion and no one is at each others throats yet, but I can definitely say that we are entering into a storming stage of our summer team-wise. Everyone is tired and the masks are coming off to reveal the true person underneath, and as a result things that were looked over and tolerable are beginning to rub people the wrong way.

 

Thursday June 11, 2009

 

Morning devotional again. We’ve begun going through an article on the gospel, which basically breaks it down in detail. It will help us in being able to articulate it better to people we meet. There are so many things within Christianity, which have become words which are commonly used, but never fully articulated. So as a result we freeze when asked what it is because the truth is that we don’t really know, and it becomes difficult to even articulate the basic idea behind it. I’m glad we’re going through this in our group devotional time.

 

It was a much more relaxing day today. I felt like we could pick our heads up for a breath. The morning we spent hanging out and tossing around different things we had found in our Bible readings, and just talking, while Caleb and Matthew prepared their lesson for the Rock Bible study. The lesson was on Jesus cleansing the temple, which went very well. Some new faces were there as they’ve been finishing exams. Discussion was slow at the start but once it got going it was good, and they were able to apply it to the Rock and how they could use it to spread the gospel to the teens that came. The series we are doing is one shocking stories about Jesus, and trying to reveal parts of his character that they don’t ever hear about.

 

Then we got the evening off. Yay! So we were able to rest for a bit.

 

Friday June 12, 2009

 

Staff meeting again, and in the afternoon we went with Tom to do more door to door evangelism. He took the rest of the team one by one, while Caleb and I went together in a different part of the neighborhood. It’s more like an apartment complex, but they’re essentially townhomes. Anyway, the nerves went away after the third door and we got into a groove. People are very friendly for the most part, and there were a lot of people who kindly said they weren’t interested, but we did have a few good conversations with some people about the gospel. Matthew and Suzanne went together while Emily was with Tom, and they got invited into someone’s house, which was a big deal. Apparently he had been thinking about it for a couple years and had a lot of questions about Jesus and asked if everyone was welcome at our church or if he would be looked at strangely if he decided to come.

 

That night we went to the Rock for the first time. It was a smaller crowd then they normally have, but it was fun. They have a great thing going there and such a great opportunity to witness to the teens in Kilkenny. The fact that they are coming to hang out instead of go out drinking is a big deal, which means God is already at work. It will be fun to be a part of it this summer.

 

Saturday June 13, 2009

 

Started the day off with the prayer meeting. Ande led it because David is out of town for a couple days due to some meetings, as well as visiting family up north because his uncle passed away. He said that most of his family are not believers, so we are praying for him, and hope that God will use this as a way for David to turn some of his family toward the Lord.

 

We had coffee with the ladies again at this great café. Great coffee and warm scones with fresh jam and cream. Brilliant!

 

Keep Kilkenny Clean was today again, and we start each day by determining what the point items will be. This round it was one point for a mars bar wrapper, and one point per item of clothing. I found two mars bars wrappers, a shirt, a glove, and a dead cat and dead bird which didn’t count for points but definitely went up there with most interesting find of the day. It was a good sweep and a feeling of accomplishment. Tomorrow we have church and lunch and then Dee is taking us to Wicklow!