2015
I hope this new year of 2016 has started strong for all of you and as you look forward to the rest of the year you are filled with hope and expectation for what is to come.
Our 2016 started with a flood. Yes, our beautiful little town of Enniscorthy was built along the River Slaney and sometimes when it gets to raining and storming our river bursts its banks. As luck would have it, the river decided to flood this last week, when we were in a whole other country. So we arrived the day after we got back to a church whose first floor was sopping wet and required a solid day of cleaning in order to prepare for our New Year's Eve service. It was quite the welcome back to town, after soaking in the sun for 3 days in Barcelona, but we made do. We appreciate the fact that it could have been a lot worse, and was for many of the surrounding businesses, but God protected us and the damage was minimal.
So 2016 began with a bang, but I wanted to take everyone on a blog journey of what the past year of 2015 looked like for us. We often get the question: "What's it like being a missionary in Ireland?" After a full year here, there are so many ways to answer that question that I thought it would be easier to answer it by just showing you.
January
January began with a much needed visit from the Bass fam. They were our first visitors we had the chance to host and show around. We had a blast exploring Ireland together and introducing them to our church.
January was also the month James and I hit the ground running when it came to diving into daily work at the church building and taking more responsibility over our various ministries. It was a stretching month but one that allowed us to start going after the goals we had made to accomplish the vision we had for working at Alive Church.
February
In February we continued to explore Ireland, especially the areas within County Wexford. The first picture is taken from a forest that runs along the Irish sea in the seaside village of Courtown. We also learned some new Irish traditions such as Pancake Tuesday, which happens before Lent, so that you can indulge yourself before fasting.
During this time we were fasting as a church and now looking back I see the breakthroughs that were beginning to happen in Alive Church. The worship team was learning and being stretched and starting to actually form a team. The youth group was just beginning to get a taste for what community looked like and James and I had begun preaching for the first time. There were new visitors coming through our doors regularly, and church members becoming more involved.
March
March began with our first getaway trip since we arrived in Ireland to Cobh/County Cork. Cobh (pronounced Cove) is the picture above, and after having seen a good bit of Ireland, it still remains in my top 3 favorite towns in all of Ireland. It is right on a natural harbor, was the last port of call for the Titanic, and boasts the Coleman Cathedral which is sits grandly atop the town. It is just breathtakingly picturesque. We also celebrated our first St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, which was interesting to say the least, especially when you are experiencing it in little towns like ours, but it was fun and proved memorable.
April
April heralded in a new era for us here in Ireland. The visitors started arriving to occupy the Bass B&B a.k.a. our tiny guest bedroom that's approximately the size of most of your closets at home. Now this, this part of being a missionary in Ireland is by far one of my most favorite things. I love hosting people at our home and then traveling/sightseeing with them. Our first guest (that was non-family) was Drew, followed by two surprise guests Logan and Johanna. They gave me the surprise of my life by finishing their mission's stint in Uganda and showing up on our doorstep in Ireland. Y'all that is plain crazy right there. And I absolutely loved it. Here's a link to the video of my reaction on facebook Our International Surprise!!! We also got to travel down to Hook Peninsula with our Romanian friends who were living in Ireland and attending the church at the time, Alin and Ella!
April included our first Easter in Ireland. Our whole sanctuary was filled from front to back and God just moved powerfully that day in worship, kids, and in Enda's preaching. It was an incredible day to be a part of Alive Church and a testament to how much it had already grown and changed that year.
May
May started out with the most magical trip to the Aran Islands (they are islands of the west coast of Ireland, and Irish is their first language) with Logan and Johanna. That trip was special for many reasons, first of all the islands themselves are just dripping with Irish culture. Secondly, Logan and Johanna had been anchors for us in our first 6 months of being missionaries and getting to spend time with them as they ended their missionary stint was healing and encouraging for us.
May was where things started ramping up towards our summer camps, which are our biggest community outreach all year long. It was a really fun time for us to get to meet with the parents and families, signing their kids up for our camp, and kind of intimidating preparing for this great unknown outreach we had only heard legends of.
June
In June we were in full camp craziness. People were coming into sign up their kids, we were preparing things with the Beltway team coming over, and we were making all the logistical things fall into place. Simultaneously we were having a blast celebrating the graduations, test conquering, and school ending days that our youth group was experiencing. It was a super exciting and energetic time at our church, especially when it came to our youth group that month.
Scott and Rachel came to stay with us the week leading up to camp. They were the most adorable and hilarious engaged couple and we became great friends during their visit with us.
Jacob and Leanne, our bro & sis, also came to visit. It was epic. I tear up when I think about it. We saw most of London in 24 hours together. We escaped unscathed from food poisoning while eating Indian food on Brick Lane but weren't able to make it back into Ireland without being detained at the airport. You win some, you lose some.
July = Camp
So we did 3 camps in July! The first pictured at the top was taking our older teens (16-18 years old) on their first ever youth retreat. It was my favorite, other than the utter lack of sleep (totally to be expected), the spiritual growth, bonding, and break through that happened those 3 days was more than I could have dreamed for those teens.
A few days later were our two big camps, our kids and teen camps. Beltway joined us for the week, bringing their largest team ever at 40 plus people and as our pastors believed for in January it was our largest two camps ever with over 400 kids represented between all three camps.
That teen group pictured right above is incredible because after that teen camp our youth group the following August pretty much more than doubled in size. Those teens that took that leap to go from camp once a year to attending youth group every Friday night are some of the most amazing testimonies for me of what camp is all about. You wouldn't even recognize them now, they walk into church every Friday night like they've just stepped through the front door of their home.
August
August is when everything in the church takes a break and gets a reboot. And so we took note of it and did the same by going on our sabbatical to Croatia.
God really orchestrated everything about that week to refresh, recharge, and re-envision us for the next year in Ireland. James and I often get on these Croatia tangents which end with us drooling over the food we miss there and me researching plane ticket prices to try to find ones so cheap we just have to go back!
We also celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary August 11th. James went BIG, with a surprise road trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. He did well, very well. My mom and sister came to visit in early August. We got to go see County Kerry with them, known as the jewel of Ireland, and it is in every way.
September
September, was our last taste of the amazing Irish summer. It also was the start up of a new year at church. We came at it full swing, and had a special weekend at our church with teaching from Randy Boyd (from Prepare International). G-Force youth saw a ton of new faces in September as well as the start of the internship program for our college age students. Worship hit new strides with interns showing interest in worship band. We saw new families begin to plant roots in our church during this month as well. God was moving in powerful ways in and through Alive Church and it was only a taste of what was to come in the Fall.
October
The happenings at our church ramped up even more in October. We had our big outing for our youth group to Mini Pulse (a one night youth rally) and at least a third of our youth group accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior that night. We also saw our youth group swell in size and friendships around that time. We also had a Halloween extravaganza for both the families and teenagers, which was just an awesome time of fun!
I got to go see my whole family, including my sister Mackenzie, in Florida. This was a last minute trip that was basically given to me (some of our best friends footed the bill for the plane ticket) so that I could see Mackenzie during our two years here, due to her medical needs she could not travel to Ireland to see me. It was a dream come true for my 2015.
November
November continued to be busy, but a bit of homesickness began creeping in around this time. We were kinda getting sick of the whole missing out on people's lives part of being a missionary. But God knew what we needed and in came James' parents at the right time, to love on us and cook for us. We had lots of fun with them and got to go see Galway together.
We began in November to talk about where we wanted to see the church go leading into 2016 and preparing to step it up in a few different ways.
December
Christmas time is another season of outreach at Alive Church. We have lots of events to reach out to the community as well as lots of celebrating! It was a busy season, but we got to see new visitors at our church as well as intentionally bless those in our neighborhood. Then we had a last minute trip to Barcelona to visit friends there, and it was seriously the best way to end 2015. We saw the sights, soaked in the sun, and enjoyed time with friends who spur us on to greatness.
If you made it to the end of this, you must really love us! ;)
We cannot wait to share 2016 with you.