many conversations recently. many thoughts, many ideas, many moments.

perhaps one of the most exciting moments has been the one on Saturday in which i bought my plane ticket to see sista hillary in nyc! "i can't wait" has rarely been so very true. july 14th, here i come.

more wonderful moments: i recently read surprised by hope by n.t. wright and there is still so much whispering, weaving, wandering about in my mind it that i find myself not entirely sure how to begin articulating my thoughts. so i'll give myself a bit more time and instead share some more well-prepared notions of others i've come across recently...each of these ideas and many more are shaping my thought life at the moment...

• Ending human trafficking is not idealistic or naive. It is audacious. And it is people of audacity who change the world. - Rob Morris, President and Co-Founder of Love146.
  
• Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the redemption is complete. Then don’t worry anymore about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ has said, in essence, “Pray for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints of God, and pray for all men. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
  
• I believe that if we take justice, beauty and evangelism in terms of the anticipation of God's eventual setting to rights of the whole world, we will find that they dovetail together and in fact that they are all part of the same larger whole, which is the message of hope and new life that comes with the good news of Jesus' resurrection. - N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

mmm, mmm good.

girlified.

i thought the blog could use a little face lift. i'm hoping that the same theory of buying new clothes and therefore wanting to dress up more often will apply here. new look, new posts. we'll see...

what we're doing these days.

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!