beloved brethren.

where to even begin...

the last few days have been full of people, food, tea, coffee, magazines, pictures, driving, and ever so much more. ever since the team got here, our energy level has multiplied a hundred times over and it seems our activities have too, which is the perfect combination! they are an indescribable joy to have with us. daily, i think of verses such as Philippians 4:1 in which Paul refers to his fellow brethren as "longed for," "beloved," "his joy," and "crown" as our team members encourage, serve, bless, and strengthen us, the community in Youghal, teens in the area, and our hosts. they seek to engage with others without dominating the moment and truly listen and respond to what is said to them. we adore them.

as far as this week, as i mentioned in my last post the team arrived on tuesday (after 3/4 of them went to the wrong houston airport and barely made it to their flight - go ahead and give me a heart attack why don't you?) full of exhaustion (sort of...), hunger, smiles, and that undying energy. they ate some dinner, moved into their rooms, and decided their next move would be to talk us into going on a five mile walk into town and back. talk about fun! we had the greatest time enjoying one another, the scenery, and almost being demolished by more than one vehicle and/or dog.

on wednesday, patrick and chris worked on getting the 4You magazines (www.4you.ie) we'll be distributing throughout the community ready, Haley hung out with some teenage girls we've gotten to know, and Jared, Ashley, Ernie, Nancy and I headed into Cork to do some last minute shopping for camp. we found cowboy hats for both the guys and girls for the western night we'll be putting on at camp, as well as rope for a lasso, and silly string shooting guns for the shoot out. yeehaw. then, ash, jared and i hopped on a bus and rode to a town called bandon where we had dinner at a family named the jeffers' house and met with fellow officers for our camp and planned about 4230 games.

thursday, we had a day at home that we kicked off with a morning devotional led by Ernie, and some beautiful tunes led by Haley and Jared. then, we worked through all our fun games and such for camp and tried to figure out how to lasso with extremely thin rope. really, we were trying to figure out how to lasso at all. apparently we are not very texan (don't tell). that afternoon, the guys worked on more magazines while ashley and i started making pinatas, which has been especially fun for me as i also made them the first summer i came here for mexican night at camp. we told nancy that texas is close enough to mexico for us to do pinatas at our western/texan night again this year - ha. afterwards, nancy and i headed to the grocery store so that we could get stocked up for this week - she, ernie, pat, chris, and haley have all headed off to the first week of camp so ash, jared, and i are fending for ourselves. we're quite sad that we'll be apart for 2 weeks from the other half of our team (we'll leave sunday the 28th for our week), but we absolutely can't wait to see what God does in these two weeks. on thursday night, we headed out to the farm where camp is held and started cleaning up and getting everything ready. it was so fun for me to watch everyone experience the initial "are you seriously trying to tell me we have camp here?!" thought and then see it slowly transform into "oh, wow, this really could work." while at the clean-up, aaron and emma bateman, two little kids whose grandparents own the farm where we have camp, fell absolutely in love with haley and ashley! so precious. after we cleaned up for a while, we were invited over to the bateman's house for tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) and to walk around in their beautiful gardens. it was absolutely lovely. they have three peacocks, by the way.

well, its midnight here and we're off to distribute magazines in the morning so i think i'll call it a night. hopefully tomorrow i'll have a few minutes to at least get caught up as far as what we've been doing each day. cheers!

they're here!!

and, if you can't tell, its been glorious so far. we love them. they wanted to go on a five mile walk when they got here. they're basically superhuman.

the team is coming the team is coming!

just a few hours from now we'll be staring at the faces of our lovely, exhausted, completely unaware of what time it really is team members. hullabaloo.

here are a few pictures of our time so far. don't get too excited, we do promise they'll get better in the next few weeks!

this is the neighbor's house and the incredible view behind it. when we looked out the window of the airplane as we landed, the view was spectacular patches of different shades of green, much like the sections you see here. beautiful! today is an absolutely gorgeous day, 65 degrees and sunny (please don't hate me texans), the perfect day for the team to arrive!




we decided to take advantage of this lovely day by, drumroll please, doing laundry! they have a dryer but its very expensive to run so we've been doing our best to do laundry on sunny, dry days. i've gotta be honest - if i ever live somewhere that it would be feasible, i'd be totally into line drying my clothes. also i found out that i have a kitchen gadget that will enable me to make my own baby food someday. hippieeee.





well, the computer has decided it would rather not upload any more pictures right now, so we'll just keep you in anticipation. leaving to get the team in twenty minutes!

in other news.

i just came across a website that has some delightful, healthy recipes, and, what's even better, an entire section on cooking for 2! glory. i'm excited about our little home awaiting us in dallas and tonight is the perfect night to find some tasty treats to fill it up with. any favorite recipes are welcome!

lovely tonight.

(title credit goes to joshua radin who you need to listen to if you don't already.)

This afternoon and evening, Ernie and Nancy are out and Jared and I having a stay at "home" date/day off before the team comes tomorrow! Right now, Jared is playing Joshua Radin on the guitar (hence the blog title and the fact that words like "ecstasy" and "bliss" are breezing through my mind) and I'm, well, I'm blogging. We are so thrilled to have a day together and at the same time absolutely can't wait to see our team tomorrow. I can't believe its already time for them to come, this trip is going to fly by. We're doing our best to soak it up and remember the things we've seen, heard, and learned already. Its funny, I remember last time I came I told Nancy I wished I had written down everything she told me because we spent hours talking about marriage (it was 2 months or so before Jared and I got engaged), life, family, Jesus, scripture, being in the world and not of it, and so much more. She smiled and told me that if God was faithful enough to let me hear wisdom, He would be faithful to bring it to mind at the right time. Of course, He has, continues to, and will again.

Yesterday, we went to church in the morning and then Jessie (one of the other missionaries), and the Lewis family (the newer missionaries who just had a baby - Seth, Jessica, Daniel, and the new baby David) came for "dinner." Dinner, evidently, refers to the fact that its the biggest meal of the day, not the time of day it is served. So, they came for dinner at lunch time. We had a wonderful time with them and enjoyed hearing more about what they are in doing in the community, as well as getting to know Jessica's Mom who is here from Virginia helping with the baby. Then, last night we got to talk to the Perrys on skype for a while and then my little sister, Olivia for a few minutes! It was so great to get to talk to family and actually see them - it makes a big difference.

In other news, apparently Dr. Murano is no longer the president of A&M. Gotta love adult drama.

Love you guys dearly, off to hang out with the hub!