oh, my.
....overwhelmed.
i think i've started to associate my blog with ireland..with all that happened that which seems so close yet so far away from this moment. this moment, this moment which has me in our new apartment, sitting on the fourth floor of a highrise, looking out on the seminary's lovely little campus. this moment, which is coming not long after the moment i experienced today when someone looked at me and said "we have an offer for you" and hired me to work for a non-profit. this moment, which has me looking at my husband, my apartment, my new life and thinking "God is so good. God is fo faithful."
and what's beautiful to me, is that i was saying the exact same thing in ireland, and it was just as true there as it is here. our lives have changed in almost every way, yet He, our Essential, remains. and that is why He is good, why He is faithful - because He remains center while all else revolves. blessed be the name of the Lord.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
onward.
in approximately 12 hours (yes, 3am irish time), jared and i will be waking up and headed to the cork airport for our 6am flight. 23 hours later (yes, 3am irish time) and 3 flights later, we'll arrive in houston.
...excuse me, summer, where do you think you're going?
and not just summer, but what happened to the two years of anticipation to come here?
jared graduated from college.
we got engaged.
we got married.
i graduated college.
we worked full time jobs.
we got on a plane.
oh yeah.
it is time to go home, we can feel it. but how is it possible that august is just hours away?
we quit our jobs.
we put all our stuff in storage.
we celebrated our one year anniversary.
we got on a plane.
we spent two weeks with our hosts.
the team came and went.
we spent two more weeks with our hosts.
we're getting on a plane.
ohhh, yeah. that's how it's posible.
we'll miss ireland dearly, but the next stage of our life is knocking at the door and its just about time to invite it in for coffee.
what a sweet summer we have had. words will never be able to capture all we have learned, seen, heard, realized, discovered, and enjoyed. life is sweet when Jesus is leading.
i often wondered how the end of the summer would feel. would i be devestated to leave? would i be counting down the seconds with anticipation? i am thrilled to say that it is neither. the summer could not have been more wonderful, more full. yet, i have grown immeasurably more confident that the Lord gives and takes away in His own timing, and He is also the Giver of all good things. so, when we walk with Him, we can be content to leave the old and happy to walk into the new. it doesn't mean it isn't hard, it doesn't mean newness doesn't breed a bit of nervousness, but it does mean that we are free to be excited and joyful as we walk with God because we are assured of Who He is.
off we go.
...excuse me, summer, where do you think you're going?
and not just summer, but what happened to the two years of anticipation to come here?
jared graduated from college.
we got engaged.
we got married.
i graduated college.
we worked full time jobs.
we got on a plane.
oh yeah.
it is time to go home, we can feel it. but how is it possible that august is just hours away?
we quit our jobs.
we put all our stuff in storage.
we celebrated our one year anniversary.
we got on a plane.
we spent two weeks with our hosts.
the team came and went.
we spent two more weeks with our hosts.
we're getting on a plane.
ohhh, yeah. that's how it's posible.
we'll miss ireland dearly, but the next stage of our life is knocking at the door and its just about time to invite it in for coffee.
what a sweet summer we have had. words will never be able to capture all we have learned, seen, heard, realized, discovered, and enjoyed. life is sweet when Jesus is leading.
i often wondered how the end of the summer would feel. would i be devestated to leave? would i be counting down the seconds with anticipation? i am thrilled to say that it is neither. the summer could not have been more wonderful, more full. yet, i have grown immeasurably more confident that the Lord gives and takes away in His own timing, and He is also the Giver of all good things. so, when we walk with Him, we can be content to leave the old and happy to walk into the new. it doesn't mean it isn't hard, it doesn't mean newness doesn't breed a bit of nervousness, but it does mean that we are free to be excited and joyful as we walk with God because we are assured of Who He is.
off we go.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
spaces.
sometimes blank spaces are a little intimidating.
yet, sometimes filled spaces are a little intimidating too.
i feel like our life is filled, somehow, with both of these right now.
today, its a rainy day in youghal and we have little to no plans as ernie and nancy are heading out for the day. at some point, we'll be making copies of fliers for the soccer camp next week, but other than that...the day is ours. blank spaces.
yesterday, we spent the day barbecuing with folks from the midleton church, one of the daughter churches of the cork church (the original church plant in the area), of which youghal baptist is a granddaughter church. we had a joyful day, and i even got to spend time with two of my girls from my quiet time group at camp. then, we joined kate, emma, and their mom, debbie, for a night of watching irish musicians and dancers - it was absolutely splendid. such a "cultural experience." filled spaces.
during our last week here, a northern irish team coming down to put on a soccer camp will be staying with us (well, the 8 guys will...2 girls are staying with jessie) so we'll be busy feeding them, getting to know them, and sharing our house with them. we fly out the same morning that they do. filled spaces.
when we get home...i don't even know what to say about getting home. so many empty spaces, so many filled spaces. catching up with friends, family, and supporters - filled spaces. moving - filled spaces. job hunting and getting ready for school - empty, unknown, exciting, daunting spaces.
He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. - Psalm 18:19
perhaps God rejoices with us, should we choose to rejoice, in the empty spaces of our life...
Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. - John 16:24
ah, filled spaces.
so, my heart says, no matter how planned, how scheduled, how understandable, how attainable the "spaces" in my life may be - I will rejoice! God has gone before me, He comes with me, He follows close behind me...He is in every space of my life. May He continue penetrating further and further in to every corner and detail.
yet, sometimes filled spaces are a little intimidating too.
i feel like our life is filled, somehow, with both of these right now.
today, its a rainy day in youghal and we have little to no plans as ernie and nancy are heading out for the day. at some point, we'll be making copies of fliers for the soccer camp next week, but other than that...the day is ours. blank spaces.
yesterday, we spent the day barbecuing with folks from the midleton church, one of the daughter churches of the cork church (the original church plant in the area), of which youghal baptist is a granddaughter church. we had a joyful day, and i even got to spend time with two of my girls from my quiet time group at camp. then, we joined kate, emma, and their mom, debbie, for a night of watching irish musicians and dancers - it was absolutely splendid. such a "cultural experience." filled spaces.
during our last week here, a northern irish team coming down to put on a soccer camp will be staying with us (well, the 8 guys will...2 girls are staying with jessie) so we'll be busy feeding them, getting to know them, and sharing our house with them. we fly out the same morning that they do. filled spaces.
when we get home...i don't even know what to say about getting home. so many empty spaces, so many filled spaces. catching up with friends, family, and supporters - filled spaces. moving - filled spaces. job hunting and getting ready for school - empty, unknown, exciting, daunting spaces.
He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. - Psalm 18:19
perhaps God rejoices with us, should we choose to rejoice, in the empty spaces of our life...
Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. - John 16:24
ah, filled spaces.
so, my heart says, no matter how planned, how scheduled, how understandable, how attainable the "spaces" in my life may be - I will rejoice! God has gone before me, He comes with me, He follows close behind me...He is in every space of my life. May He continue penetrating further and further in to every corner and detail.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
the heart of life.
seeing as i've been away from the blogopshere for about two weeks, i don't think at this point i'll attempt to give a day by day account. i will say that the ten days the team all had together after camps were over were a precious blessing from the Lord. we grew even deeper in our friendships and our knowledge of Jesus as we distributed magazines, led a Sunday morning service, and helped with other random upcomings. our hearts were unified further and it was a joy to bring that unity into other situations as we spent time with families and teens in the area. "they'll know us by our love"...i sure do know those team members love Jesus by their love for others.
as far as specifics, by the time the team left we had handed out 5500 magazines! we are only 500 magazines short of our goal (due only to weather, not lack of persistence!) and, should the skies smile on us tomorrow, we'll be finishing those up with kate (one of our dear friends here) as well as luke, one of the teens in town.
last sunday, we conducted the church service at youghal baptist. mervyn interviewed the team regarding their time here, chris/haley/i led worship, ashley read scripture, and jared preached. allow me to just brag on my husband for a moment. he absolutely blew me away. now, by blew me away i don't mean "performed well," "had a perfect three point sermon" (which neither of us would call perfect anyway), or "was so charismatic and charming we nearly forgot where we were." rather, i mean he studied the Word for hours on end the week before, articulated clearly, and so obviously listened to the Spirit lead. i was so blessed by him that day and we continue to pray that others in the congregation were as well. in case you're curious, he spoke on great faith using the examples of the centurion with the sick servant and samaritan woman with the demon possessed daughter, who are the only two examples in matthew of people Jesus said had great faith. oh to be as transformed as they were, how lovely to know we can be!
sunday afternoon, we had a church bbq here at the tromsness' filled with delicious food, kickball, and conversation. we also got to visit with a couple from the Logos Hope ("A cutting-edge example of international cooperation and cultural understanding, this growing fleet has been sailing the world since 1970, housing at any one time over 600 unpaid volunteers from around 70 countries! These crewmembers have each given several months or even years of their lives to serve on board, promoting world-wide education, cooperation, aid relief, social awareness and a personal relationship with God, in the ports and countries to which they travel."), a ship with an incredible bookstore (which we splurged at due to the ridiculously low prices) and a huge heart for the gospel which was docked in Cork for a few weeks. we had visited it the previous day with the team and several friends from camp whom we met for pizza, ice cream, shopping, and shipping. it was wonderful to meet others with a heart for missions who were following the Lord in such a specific way.
monday, we got to visit the blarney stone with the team - such fun - then eat dinner with a few families and other friends from camp. we have been blown away by the hospitality and openness here, if anything rubs off on us, i hope its that! we then had some time just with the team for their last night which was such a blessing. we rode with them to the airport at 5am the following morning and were sad to see them go, but excited to know that the Lord has such wonderful plans for each of our lives and it will be a joy to see where he leads each of us.
we've spent the last few days communing with friends and getting to rest a bit as we recover from social overload the past month. we're still around a lot of people all the time but jared and i will actually be getting monday all to ourselves which is a huge deal - we haven't had a day together since june 14th and only had lunch alone together once while the team was here. we wouldn't trade a minute of our time with any of them, or with a single irish person, but our marriage is definitely knocking at the door of our hearts asking for our attention, so, its time to grant it! praise God for giving us the blessing of time, perserverance, patience, whatever it may be, exactly when we need it. our hearts rejoice as we learn to rely on Him more and more each day.
<3
as far as specifics, by the time the team left we had handed out 5500 magazines! we are only 500 magazines short of our goal (due only to weather, not lack of persistence!) and, should the skies smile on us tomorrow, we'll be finishing those up with kate (one of our dear friends here) as well as luke, one of the teens in town.
last sunday, we conducted the church service at youghal baptist. mervyn interviewed the team regarding their time here, chris/haley/i led worship, ashley read scripture, and jared preached. allow me to just brag on my husband for a moment. he absolutely blew me away. now, by blew me away i don't mean "performed well," "had a perfect three point sermon" (which neither of us would call perfect anyway), or "was so charismatic and charming we nearly forgot where we were." rather, i mean he studied the Word for hours on end the week before, articulated clearly, and so obviously listened to the Spirit lead. i was so blessed by him that day and we continue to pray that others in the congregation were as well. in case you're curious, he spoke on great faith using the examples of the centurion with the sick servant and samaritan woman with the demon possessed daughter, who are the only two examples in matthew of people Jesus said had great faith. oh to be as transformed as they were, how lovely to know we can be!
sunday afternoon, we had a church bbq here at the tromsness' filled with delicious food, kickball, and conversation. we also got to visit with a couple from the Logos Hope ("A cutting-edge example of international cooperation and cultural understanding, this growing fleet has been sailing the world since 1970, housing at any one time over 600 unpaid volunteers from around 70 countries! These crewmembers have each given several months or even years of their lives to serve on board, promoting world-wide education, cooperation, aid relief, social awareness and a personal relationship with God, in the ports and countries to which they travel."), a ship with an incredible bookstore (which we splurged at due to the ridiculously low prices) and a huge heart for the gospel which was docked in Cork for a few weeks. we had visited it the previous day with the team and several friends from camp whom we met for pizza, ice cream, shopping, and shipping. it was wonderful to meet others with a heart for missions who were following the Lord in such a specific way.
monday, we got to visit the blarney stone with the team - such fun - then eat dinner with a few families and other friends from camp. we have been blown away by the hospitality and openness here, if anything rubs off on us, i hope its that! we then had some time just with the team for their last night which was such a blessing. we rode with them to the airport at 5am the following morning and were sad to see them go, but excited to know that the Lord has such wonderful plans for each of our lives and it will be a joy to see where he leads each of us.
we've spent the last few days communing with friends and getting to rest a bit as we recover from social overload the past month. we're still around a lot of people all the time but jared and i will actually be getting monday all to ourselves which is a huge deal - we haven't had a day together since june 14th and only had lunch alone together once while the team was here. we wouldn't trade a minute of our time with any of them, or with a single irish person, but our marriage is definitely knocking at the door of our hearts asking for our attention, so, its time to grant it! praise God for giving us the blessing of time, perserverance, patience, whatever it may be, exactly when we need it. our hearts rejoice as we learn to rely on Him more and more each day.
<3
Monday, July 6, 2009
finally filling you in.
eeesh. there's a lot to blog about. i keep putting it off because i don't know where to begin, but all that does is add another day to the blogging deficit. so, here i go!
last thursday night (as in ten days ago), jared, ashley, and i headed up to camp to help the rest of the team and their camp officers put on their texas night! we had the best time. we had a rotation of six activities set up - teaching the kids to lasso, a silly string shoot out, barrel racing using horses made out of pool floats (noodles), a pinata, pictures with cowboy hats and lassos, and teaching them how to line dance! ashley and i were the dance teachers and oh my goodness did we have fun. the kids loved it (we weren't so sure if they would) and all came back at the end to do it together! the irish are very easy going, we couldn't have had a better group of kids.
over the weekend, we got ready for the team to come home (made them a ridiculous "we missed you" banner and tacos), and enjoyed having our little family back together for a while. we watched blood diamond (more on that in a future post - whoa.), played uno, and stayed up late talking about relationships, church, theology...all the good stuff :). while those conversations can tend to be frustrating and create dissension, with this team it did exactly the opposite. everybody listened, valued, and encouraged what others had to say. we had such a great time learning from one another. we are so blessed.
after church on sunday, jared, ashley and i headed off to camp! where to even begin with camp? well, in a nutshell, i was assigned to the kitchen while jared and ashley were on the activity team, which turned out to be extremely essential to camp as it rained constantly and we played game after game after game inside the barn. they did an incredibly job coming up with activities that were so fun the kids didn't even notice the rain. working in the kitchen was great - i assisted two other ladies, sinead and olive, who i knew from last time and were wonderful to work with. ashley and jared had a wonderful time playing soccer, basketball, ping pong, and whatever else the kids were up for.
mervyn scott, the local missionary we worked on the magazines with, was our camp speaker and he absolutely brought down the house. he started with luke 24 when the men are walking on the road to emmaus and are met by the resurrected Jesus. Jesus proceeds to tell them all about himself, starting with Moses and the prophets, so mervyn decided to walk us through some of the things he may have told them. he took us through prophecies and articulated the gospel with unbelievable clarity. he also wrote our quiet time (small group) notes which delved further into evidence of the reality of Christ, the necessity of Scripture, and what a life with Christ looks like. the kids were truly taken to a new place this week and it was glorious to watch. two girls in ashley's small group came to saving faith in Jesus this week (hallelujah!) and the five boys in jared's group as well as the four girls in mine each articulated a clear understanding of the gospel which they claimed they had believed at an earlier time. the Lord is good and it was a joy to watch him at work. on thursday, our other team members came to help us put on our texas night and ashley and i again had a great time teaching line dancing - we were absolutely exhausted and sore after dancing for two solid hours but the kids loved it and came back at the end yet again. the week before, haley and john 0'sullivan (their camp director) sang "jackson" by johnny cash and june carter, and at our camp haley and jared sang it together. they did such a great job! all in all, it was a wonderful week, and while we were ready to return home to a house with real walls (we slept in tents), daily showers (the leaders got to shower twice during the week, the campers only once), and a few moments to ourselves, we wouldn't trade the week at camp for anything - God moved very mightily and we met incredible people, both officers and campers.
saturday when we returned home, the other team made a big welcome home sign for us and delicious chocolate chip cookies! we watched movies and caught up, then on sunday we headed to church (still pretty exhausted) and had a day off full of apples to apples bible version (not so sure about that...), movies, and more catching up. today, the half of the team who went to camp first headed off to cork city to meet up with folks from their camp. nancy dropped jared and i off in town so we could have a little bit of time alone together which was wonderful. we had lunch then walked back home and ashley went running on the beach! we'll see what happens next...
last thursday night (as in ten days ago), jared, ashley, and i headed up to camp to help the rest of the team and their camp officers put on their texas night! we had the best time. we had a rotation of six activities set up - teaching the kids to lasso, a silly string shoot out, barrel racing using horses made out of pool floats (noodles), a pinata, pictures with cowboy hats and lassos, and teaching them how to line dance! ashley and i were the dance teachers and oh my goodness did we have fun. the kids loved it (we weren't so sure if they would) and all came back at the end to do it together! the irish are very easy going, we couldn't have had a better group of kids.
over the weekend, we got ready for the team to come home (made them a ridiculous "we missed you" banner and tacos), and enjoyed having our little family back together for a while. we watched blood diamond (more on that in a future post - whoa.), played uno, and stayed up late talking about relationships, church, theology...all the good stuff :). while those conversations can tend to be frustrating and create dissension, with this team it did exactly the opposite. everybody listened, valued, and encouraged what others had to say. we had such a great time learning from one another. we are so blessed.
after church on sunday, jared, ashley and i headed off to camp! where to even begin with camp? well, in a nutshell, i was assigned to the kitchen while jared and ashley were on the activity team, which turned out to be extremely essential to camp as it rained constantly and we played game after game after game inside the barn. they did an incredibly job coming up with activities that were so fun the kids didn't even notice the rain. working in the kitchen was great - i assisted two other ladies, sinead and olive, who i knew from last time and were wonderful to work with. ashley and jared had a wonderful time playing soccer, basketball, ping pong, and whatever else the kids were up for.
mervyn scott, the local missionary we worked on the magazines with, was our camp speaker and he absolutely brought down the house. he started with luke 24 when the men are walking on the road to emmaus and are met by the resurrected Jesus. Jesus proceeds to tell them all about himself, starting with Moses and the prophets, so mervyn decided to walk us through some of the things he may have told them. he took us through prophecies and articulated the gospel with unbelievable clarity. he also wrote our quiet time (small group) notes which delved further into evidence of the reality of Christ, the necessity of Scripture, and what a life with Christ looks like. the kids were truly taken to a new place this week and it was glorious to watch. two girls in ashley's small group came to saving faith in Jesus this week (hallelujah!) and the five boys in jared's group as well as the four girls in mine each articulated a clear understanding of the gospel which they claimed they had believed at an earlier time. the Lord is good and it was a joy to watch him at work. on thursday, our other team members came to help us put on our texas night and ashley and i again had a great time teaching line dancing - we were absolutely exhausted and sore after dancing for two solid hours but the kids loved it and came back at the end yet again. the week before, haley and john 0'sullivan (their camp director) sang "jackson" by johnny cash and june carter, and at our camp haley and jared sang it together. they did such a great job! all in all, it was a wonderful week, and while we were ready to return home to a house with real walls (we slept in tents), daily showers (the leaders got to shower twice during the week, the campers only once), and a few moments to ourselves, we wouldn't trade the week at camp for anything - God moved very mightily and we met incredible people, both officers and campers.
saturday when we returned home, the other team made a big welcome home sign for us and delicious chocolate chip cookies! we watched movies and caught up, then on sunday we headed to church (still pretty exhausted) and had a day off full of apples to apples bible version (not so sure about that...), movies, and more catching up. today, the half of the team who went to camp first headed off to cork city to meet up with folks from their camp. nancy dropped jared and i off in town so we could have a little bit of time alone together which was wonderful. we had lunch then walked back home and ashley went running on the beach! we'll see what happens next...
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