Hello friends,
The last week has been filled with....everything!
The first few days of last week were spent sleeping and being awake at rather strange times, but we adjusted within 3 or 4 days and got in some good movies during our hours of sleeplessness (including Sleepless in Seattle, ironically enough). We stay up later here than we do at home for the most part because the sun doesn't really go completely down till around 10pm, so our bodies are still a little deceived. Fortunately, we get to sleep a tad later than we did while we were working in College Station :).
A large motivation behind this trip (specifically for Jared and me) has been a desire to see what the life of a missionary in a European, specifically Irish, context really looks like. So far, we've discovered quite a bit! Since we've been here, a young missionary couple has had a baby, a friend's grandmother has passed away, we've helped conduct interviews for a radio station position, made thousands (literally) of lecture note copies for Summer Bible Week, read some wonderful books, ate some great food, missed our friends and family, watched rain fall out the window every day, experienced an average of 60 degree weather, and a good bit more.
Most days we wake up with a vague idea of what the following hours will bring, which is a stark contrast to the 8-5 lives we were living before we came here. It has been an adjustment and continues to be (not to mention that we'll be jumping into an entirely new schedule different from either of the two previous when we move to Dallas), but we are grateful that God (and our hosts) are patient, and that we have the opportunity to see that an American schedule is not the only way of life and that what is done here is not wrong, it is simply different. And if we're talking preference...I think we may fit in a bit more with the mentality here than we do in the States :). We'll see what happens!
Love you all and would love to hear from you. Let me know if you'd like to be added to our prayer email list!