Taking Care of Business

Hello folks, Autumn has arrived, the leaves are starting to turn already here in Ireland; the nights and mornings hold a crisp chill to them. There's still been many days in September where the sun shines down and the flowers are still magnificent; it's a beautiful time of the year to live here. I know for most of you Texans autumn is on display all around you at every store and on every pinterest board, but it hasn't felt like it quite yet. Well, I'll try to send some cooler weather your way but enjoy your Texas version of autumn for us, I even hear via facebook posts that our sports teams are doing us proud at the moment! Praise God!

Time For A Testimony

I have a testimony for you that has been burning on my heart to share, it's a testimony that illustrates a much bigger testimony of what the Lord has shown us since we've moved to Ireland. A few months back we were at the home of one of our spiritual moms here. We were getting ready to leave and she stopped me and said, "Molly I felt like God wanted me to tell you that if you take care of his business, he'll take care of yours." Taking care of God's business is the sum total of what we do as Jesus followers on this earth, I mean it's the whole point of the great commission. As a missionary with little to no lines between ministry and home life, doing God's business is at the forefront of your mind 24/7, it's not something that's easy to ignore. Since I was given that word God has illustrated it for me time and time again here in Ireland, through our finances, relationships, and ministry breakthroughs. Recently though, he illustrated it in a way that left me in complete awe of how good he is!

A few weeks ago I was walking and talking with Jesus. It was one of those days where homesickness had crept up and punched me in the gut out of nowhere. I was lonely, mopey, and sitting at home that evening wasn't cutting it for me. So I got up and walked around for a little bit, ran into people I know (because living in Enniscorthy, a town of 10,000, it happens all the time). I was lamenting to God about how I missed people, specifically my people, the people that are our best friends/lifers/brothers and sisters. We have lots of friends here in Ireland, we have our Irish family, but very few people our age that are going after God with us. As I was walking I noticed this girl walking towards me, I had never seen her before, but she looked right around my age. Right then I told God "I want her to be my friend." I kept walking, thought nothing of it, other than I was not only incredibly homesick and lonely that day, I was losing my mind as well.

Fast forward a few days and it's a Sunday, I'm standing at the front doors, and lo and behold that same girl walks into our church. The girl that I saw on the street, that I had asked God for, it took me a moment to recognize her but sure enough it was her. Now you have to understand we have a few visitors each Sunday at our church but none I've ever seen between the ages of 20-25 years old, so this was unexpected in and of itself. I ended up finding out her name, that she was here for a temporary job placement from Germany and she was exactly my age. She was looking for a church to attend because she had grown up in the church, was following after God, and wanted a church home during her time here.  As we hung out for the next few weeks she revealed that she had asked God when she came over to give her someone to hang out with, and that for her meeting James and I was an answer to that prayer. I, after getting to know her, shared my side of the story with her and we were just both amazed at how God works things out for his children.

It was a simple but beautiful reminder for me of that word I'd been given months ago, "you take care of my business Molly, and I'll take care of yours." Your greatest needs and seemingly weirdest requests, I'm on it, I've got it covered. Here's the cool thing no matter who you are, no matter what your day job looks like, he's there doing the same thing for you. He does it for all his kids, he's a good Father like that.

My Miraculous Mackenzie

Back at the beginning of 2015 I wrote in a post that a big prayer request for me was that my whole family would be able to come to Ireland to see us. As you know my mom and sister, Marissa, got to come in the summer. My Dad gets to come over this winter. Which left Mackenzie, as many of you know Kenzie has pretty severe special needs including uncontrolled epilepsy and some crazy mood swings that come as a result of the medication she is on. So I prayed and prayed and it wasn't at all looking like Kenzie was going to be able to make an international trip to see me. This past year of James and I being gone has been especially hard on her. We get notes and texts from her outlining, "how she is proud of us for obeying God but we need to come back to Texas NOW."

A month or two ago my mom told me that Mackenzie was getting a birthday trip to Orlando, Florida to see Hope and Winter, the two dolphins from Dolphin Tale, one of her favorite movies. I talked to James about it and we began praying about if it would be a chance to see Kenzie during our two years here. We prayed for awhile, submitted it to our pastors, and finally came to an agreement for me to go see her. The plane ticket was a good chunk of money for us but we bought it in faith that it was what God was calling us to. Again, God who takes care of my business, provided. This past week we found out that my plane ticket had been completely covered! So in October I'm flying to Orlando to surprise Kenzie for her 22nd birthday (so if you see her don't say anything)!!!

Sabbin' in Croatia

James reminded me as I was writing this that we hadn't shared the beauty of our sabbatical. Our sabbatical really was a week we had set aside to get away, de-stress, and get envisioned for our next year. First off, God once again provided beautifully for every single detail of it. From the drop dead gorgeous place we stayed, to the loveliest of hosts, to catching all of our flights, to providing financially, everything about this sabbatical was a powerful testament to our Jehovah Jireh.

Kozlovic was a beautiful winery right down the hill from where we were staying. It also happened to be one of the best wineries in all of Istria (which is the primary wine growing region of Croatia). Their vineyards were gorgeous and the people were so kind. 

Groznjan, the most beautiful little village on top of a mountain. There's a music school there during the summer so as you walked around you could hear instruments being played from every open window. They also had some of the best pizza ever. We ate pizza everyday for lunch during our sabbatical. 

The little village we stayed in Croatia was called Momjan, it's located right near the border of Slovenia in the far western portion of the Istrian region.  

At one of the restaurants in our town, there were two pet pigs that lived in a barrel. Everybody knew them and loved them in the town and they were right there to see as you walked up to the restaurant! The view from our terrace, overlooking Momjan.

Praying in the Harvest

One thing that James and I would specifically love prayer for this month is for salvations in our church. We are in a 4 part series on what the gospel is in our youth group. We've had many new visitors to our youth group this year, and the kids are really leaning into it. Today James will be preaching on the cross and offering them a chance to receive salvation, so if you could partner with us in praying for them to really get it, and for those ready to receive it to step out and faith and do so. We'd truly appreciate it!

Thank you all for how you completely walked with us in this mission here in Ireland at Alive Church, it's because of you and by the grace of God that we are able to do what we came here to do!

The One Year-iversary

We're Baaaaaaaack

Hey everyone,

Exactly one year ago yesterday, Molly and I arrived in Ireland for the very first time. We smelled like a smorgasbord of airport food, stale airplane air, stress, and the American dream. We made it to Enniscorthy and promptly collapsed in a heap on the floor of our apartment. And thus, this Irish season of our lives began.

Looking back now, I really cannot help but feel humbled. As many of you know, this past year was not a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination (what is a cake walk anyway?). Pride, bitterness, loneliness, confusion, impatience, and fear all became our daily enemies, along with a heavy dose of cultural acclimation. YET, God gave us the Church, the warmest community/family of believers that we could have asked for here in Alive Church. He provided continually through prayers and finances sent to us from across the Atlantic Ocean. He has abundantly refreshed us when we feel exhausted, and has begun to show us what we were put on this world to do. What more could we ask for? Thank you so much for your continued support, lets see what God does this next year!

Also, I apologize for the lack of blogging this past month. August was a crazy month for us. Early in the month we went to a Children's Ministry conference put on by Gateway Church and then a week later we flew away to Croatia for our Sabbatical. Both of those were so refreshing in so many ways, and we can't wait to share more about the Sabbatical. But sadly, we will probably wait till it is cold and rainy here in Ireland to reminisce about the sunny beaches in Croatia (so you'll only have to be patient for a few more weeks, mom).

Now that we are all rested up from our Sabbatical, we have jumped straight into the swing of things with new vision for this next year. So in celebration of our 1 year Irish anniversary (year-iversary?), I'm going to share with y'all one of my favorite things to happen in Alive Church since we returned to Enniscorthy.

The 1st Worship Night

Back in February I felt like God wanted to break out in a new way. My desire for Alive Church has always been to build and grow a worshiping community, but in February a more specific idea came to mind. What if we gathered people in the church to meet in someone's home, and we took a few hours just to meet with God together, the only agenda being to each connect personally with Him and submit our lives, families, jobs, and church to Him? What if we started to take worship out of the church building on a regular basis? What if we took worship out of our "Sunday service" schedule and dedicated an evening to seek Jesus for as long as it takes to encounter Him? What if we worshiped Jesus, not to get us in the mood for the message, but just because He is worth everything we have?

Our head pastors loved the idea so we got to work planning the event. So many months later, on the last weekend of August we had our first Alive Church Worship Night, and it was incredible. About 30-40 people from our church squeezed into a living room to break bread, pray, and worship Jesus together. The Holy Spirit came in power, prayers were answered, laughter filled the room, tears were shed, and a new season began in Alive Church.

Let me explain why this was such a pivotal moment for our church. Only a year ago Alive Church started having organized live worship for the Sunday service. No one in our church has ever received any training/teaching on worship outside of how they see it modeled by other Christians in the church, and most were raised in the Catholic church. So while a worship pastor providing exhortation/shepherding during worship is quite commonplace in American churches, they had never seen anything like that before. Can you imagine that? A church, redeemed and in love with Jesus, with limited understanding/access to connect with Him through worship. It's like a 10 year-old child who was never taught how to read or write struggling to pen a letter to their father to tell him how much they love him. Heart-breaking.

All of that to say, one of my biggest burdens and delights this past year has been to shepherd this church into deeper worship with their Father. Week after week we read scripture, explained why we worship, the character of God, and so much more. How did the church respond? They grew exponentially, falling head over heels in love with God! Why? Because we were created to worship, it is the most natural thing on earth for us to do. So after a year of shepherding, we put on the church's first ever worship night. Can you imagine how excited everyone was? Can you imagine the sweetness of the worship that night? Can you imagine how my mind was blown by the faithfulness of God? It was incredible!

And the most exciting thing? Our church loved it so much we will be doing another worship night in about a month.

Praise God. Get excited for this next year everybody.

Irish Miracles

Hey everyone, We just want to give you a quick update on our lives here before we leave for our sabbatical.

Irish Residents

About a month ago we asked you to be praying for our approval to be Irish residents. Just to clarify, this allows James and I to legally serve in Alive Church for another year.

And let me just tell you, this process is harder than we thought it would be. We met with our immigration officer a few weeks ago, one of the loveliest Irish men I've ever met, who told us that he had a couple in recently who had been waiting for 3 years to get their residency. He wasn't trying to be discouraging, he was really just bracing us for the reality that the Irish government doesn't always move at the pace we would hope.

Then a week ago we were skyping our missions pastor, Josiah, and were telling him our predicament with our residency and asking for prayer. We also talked about what we would do if we did not get approved before we left for our sabbatical. In his usual Josiah way, he said he'd be praying and that visas are always difficult. He did not seem worried in the least. Josiah, if you know him at all, is one of the most solid, unshakeable people I think I've ever met, which pairs well with James and I who rest slightly on the dramatic side of life.

Literally, the next morning I came out of the bathroom and James sits me down to tell me he has some news. I was bracing for the worst but had no idea it had anything to do with residency. When he told me we had gotten our permission to remain as residents, I flipped out, as anyone would who just found out they are going to be a legal resident of the country they are living in and get to go on their much anticipated sabbatical. We are now officially Irish residents and get to fulfill our 2 year commitment here, legally.

We want to thank you so much for praying into this with us. It is a miracle that it came through so quickly. I know that you partnering with us in praying for it made that miracle happen, exactly when it needed to happen, and we are so grateful!

Sabbatical

So next week we get this awesome opportunity to go on a sabbatical which will mark the halfway point in our 2 year commitment here at Alive Church. We are going to Croatia which will make it our first time to travel to mainland Europe. We are really excited for this sabbatical, we literally can't go a day without talking about it. Here are a few things you could be praying for our sabbatical:

• For everything travel wise to go smoothly, especially our flights since we are taking multiple flights to get to Croatia.
• For this sabbatical to be exactly what we need to go into this 2nd year strong, envisioned, and filled up.
• For it to be sunny and warm the entire time we are there. This Texas girl misses the sun and the heat and most days feels like a cold and very pale version of herself.

This Breathtaking Country

Last but not least I wanted to share some pictures from our recent trip to the west coast of Ireland in County Kerry. My mom and sister came to visit and we took a quick roadtrip over to Killarney and the Ring of Dingle to see Ireland's beloved west coast. It surpassed all that I could have dreamed or imagined. There are moments living here when I'm not sure if I'm on earth or seeing glimpses of heaven and the west coast did that for me countless times.

Inch Beach on the Ring of Dingle. My favorite beach on the west coast now. We took a pony trap ride to see a waterfall in Killarney National Park. Our pony trap driver was Robert. He had been doing it for 50 years. He told us about his long lost love and why he never married, his favorite pony named Sally O'Brien, and even sang us some traditional Irish songs and Elvis Presley of course. Meeting Robert was my mom's favorite part of her entire Ireland trip. She was smitten. Muckross House in Killarney National Park with my momma and Marissa.

Small beach along the Ring of Dingle. This view was out of this world.  Ring of Dingle, I don't know if the Atlantic Ocean has ever looked prettier. 

James and I also celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Tuesday this week. He, being the awesome husband he is, surprised me with a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Belfast is a fabulous city with a lot of history and culture, including the Titanic Museum. He had the entire day planned out for us and it rivaled any of the date days you see on The Bachelor!

In Due Season

After The Walking In Between

{About two months ago I wrote a blog post called The Walking In Between, and in it I mentioned that I was really struggling with not seeing the fruit and change that I had imagined here in Enniscorthy. This blog post is most definitely a testimony and follow up to where I was then. So before you keep reading, it may help if you go back and read that one if you haven't already.}

The Principle of Sowing & Reaping

6 months ago my parents sent me the book "The Blessed Life" by Robert Morris. Since I grew up in Gateway Church I had heard Pastor Robert preach the principles of biblical giving many times. This time reading it through the principle that stuck out the most to me was the principle of sowing and reaping. It's a principle sprinkled throughout the bible from start to finish, and one that applies to every area of our lives. As a missionary here in Enniscorthy with Alive Church it was a principle that was becoming more obvious to me than I had ever known before. I found myself pouring into the church day after day but I wasn't seeing much growth from it. I wasn't seeing people saved left and right. I wasn't seeing large numbers of people joining the church. People would come up to us and say "you know you may not see the fruit of all you're doing while your here in Ireland." While that statement is true, let me just tell you now that it is not the most encouraging thing to hear when your the one plowing the fields.

One morning in particular I was just feeling discouraged about it all and the Lord led me to this verse, a verse very clearly about the principle of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:9,

"And do not grow weary in doing good. For in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Youth Retreat

Here's where the story gets good. That due season for me began about 3 weeks ago when we had our first ever youth retreat with the 16-18 year old teens in our youth group. I came into that retreat with a heart full of expectancy to see God move in their lives. He showed up, big time. So many of the things that we had been discipling and teaching for the past 10 months at youth, clicked. Many of them listened and heard God speak to them personally for the first time or in a way they hadn't experienced before. They grew in community with each other. They would just start encouraging each other during small group time and free time. We had an absolute blast swimming in the Irish sea, eating s'mores, and playing cards. I left that camp knowing that the 10 kids we came with were leaving changed.

SuperKids, Teen Camp & Beltway Park Baptist Church

Then Beltway came, which if you don't know Beltway is our sending church back home in Abilene, Texas. They come each year to help put on a kid's and teen camp with our church as a community outreach. Again, I had incredible expectations for this camp. James, I, and the whole church had been praying into this camp for the past 6 months. God came through once again in HUGE ways.

• Monday, 5 people, from our church were baptized in the Irish sea while it was pouring rain and the sand was blowing across the beach. It was a pretty crazy baptism scene.
• Wednesday night, Sherrie Saltzgaber, came and preached on our identity in Christ and the Holy Spirit showed up and encountered people in mighty ways. That night I watched as one of my closest friends who had come with the Beltway team led a young girl to Christ. Her father had been saved a few months before. I watched as teens and kids I've been ministering to the past 10 months encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time and every day since I've been amazed at the change I see them.
• Thursday, Diane Monteith, our incredible administrator began counting up the kids and students we had attending the camps for the week. We found out we had over 400 kids between all 3 camps, which happened to be the number our pastors heard from the Lord back in January when they were praying into the year.
• Friday, in bible story, the kids learned about the prodigal son and heard the gospel message taught and many of them were saved.
• Our Teen Camp was the biggest and best yet. There were 64 teenagers that attended and there was more spiritual breakthrough in small group discussion and the teachings than we had had ever seen before. We even had 5 new kids show up this Friday night at G-force (our youth service) that had attended Teen Camp.

On top of all of that, James and I were just ministered to and loved on by our Beltway family in ways that our hearts just needed. We had so many incredible prophetic words spoken over us, and people praying for us. We were filled to overflow by the end of it and were utterly exhausted.

It was a sweet answer to prayer. I remember just sitting down in a chair on Wednesday night, sobbing, as I watched a few dear friends being prayed over. I was talking to someone about all the emotion I was feeling at that time and they said "it's just the breakthrough you had been needing to see and you're finally seeing it." That was exactly it and my heart was exploding with the beauty of finally getting to see the harvest in due season.

For all of you who have been praying for us and prayed for camp, thank you! For every person that came with the Beltway team that reads this, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for giving of your time, energy, and finances to come and invest in our church and community. The seeds you sowed and the harvest you brought in during your time here will not be forgotten. Every little thing you did this week, every sacrifice you made to be here, was seen by Father God and the impact of it will resound for eternity.

Major Prayer Need

One more thing we could really use your prayer on. We need you to be praying that our immigration paperwork goes through and we get our stamp to stay here for another year in the next 3 weeks. It would take a miracle for that to happen seeing that we have been working on this for the past 9 months to no avail, but that's okay because miracles are what my God specializes in so we are believing it is going to happen!

Here are some pictures from our camps! Enjoy!

Detained!

Hello everyone! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement over the past several weeks. Life has been very hectic, yet quite fulfilling lately, and it is only going to get more so with the Beltway team coming in less than three weeks! So here is a story and a few updates I want to share with y'all.

Dublin Airport

A few weeks ago Molly and I were returning from a 24-hour whirlwind trip to explore London with our visiting best friends, Leanne and Jacob. On the flight back from London we were all so exhausted we promptly fell asleep, and woke up, as most of us do, having the overwhelming urge to relieve ourselves. "No biggie," I told myself, "We'll find a place before we leave the Dublin airport for Enniscorthy."

How wrong I was.

One of the things Molly and I had been praying about prior to the trip was for the customs process back into Ireland to go smoothly. Our immigration officer in Enniscorthy had assured us that since our Residency was in process in Dublin, we would be allowed to travel wherever, as long as we returned to Ireland. As we proceeded through the Non-EU Resident queue we said a quick prayer and got out our paperwork. I was hoping for a quick smile/nod/stamp so I could excuse myself to the loo.

Sadly, as our Customs officer informed us, we were in fact travelling illegally and should never have left the Republic of Ireland while our Residency was in process. After hearing this, my face quickly turned red (a very Irish reaction) not out of anger at the customs officer (because he was doing his job well), but simply out of disappointment, realizing that our immigration officer in Enniscorthy had ill informed us. It was an awkward moment. So we handed him all of our bank statements, along with letters from Alive Church and the Irish government, and were taken back to their holding cell while the officer went through our papers. Not surprisingly, we also had to give up our cellphones with no way to contact Jacob or Leanne. Getting detained is the worst.

The Holding Cell

Lets be real guys. What picture comes to mind when you read the words "holding cell"? A dark smelly room under the airport? Strong iron bars to hold the international fugitives? A man playing a harmonica in the back corner, while other inmates do push-ups? Sadly, our holding cell was less theatrical and more awkward. Essentially it was a glass partitioned room just to the side of the Customs queue. Everyone who was welcomed into the Republic of Ireland got to parade past us, getting to observe the criminals serving their time like animals in a zoo. Only when they walked past the holding cell that day they got to see two Americans praying hard, all the while desperately trying to hold their bladders at bay. Our fellow inmate was not amused.

About 10 minutes in, I asked our inmate (a man of indecipherable nationality) how long he had been waiting. When he turned to me, I noticed that his left eye was blind with a scar above and below the socket, which only escalated whatever fears I had at that moment. He muttered, in a clearly indignant tone, "Two hours. This is madness". Looking back, I think I must have been really freaked out because I forgot to say, "This is Sparta". Coulda, shoulda, woulda.  So what else could we do? We resolved to pray and not imagine waterfalls, rivers, brooks, or anything related to water. I should have brought a book.

It was a long, long hour.

Sweet Relief

I was pacing the cell when our Customs officer returned. He led us into a back room where he was going to deliver the verdict, when I asked him if we could use the restroom first. I am nothing if not a man of priorities. Unfortunately we were ushered into the bathrooms at random and Molly's turned out to be a nasty prison bathroom while mine was only used by the airport staff.

With our internal torture relieved, the officer then gave us the news and we left Dublin, arriving exactly on time for G-Force, our youth service. God provided guys! Not only are we legally allowed to travel wherever for the next two months if we need to, the customs officer also gave us information to send our residency papers directly to the head of the department, expediting the whole process! So we will find out soon what they decide. Molly and I were talking about it afterwards, and we both agree the whole 'getting detained adventure' was worth it if it means getting our Residency faster. All that to say, please be praying for favor with the Irish government and that we will be allowed to stay here doing what we do in the church!

Summer Camp is Coming Up!

Please be praying for the Alive Church summer camp that is coming up in about 2 &1/2 weeks. Beltway brings a team over every summer to put on a week-long camp for the city of Enniscorthy. Each year more and more kids attend and last year over 350 kids came to camp! For the last few months everyone in Alive Church has been praying and preparing for this week, and we expect it to be our biggest camp yet. Molly will be working with the children that week, and I will be working with the teens. Please pray for safe travels for the Beltway team, for more kids to receive Jesus Christ as their savior, and for new families to get involved in Alive Church as a result.

Also, for the first time ever in Alive Church, we are doing a Youth retreat the weekend before Summer Camp starts. Geoffrey Turner himself is going to be heading up the retreat, so you know it is going to be ridiculous. Pray for the youth to bond together, for their identity in Jesus Christ to be solidified, for healing to take place in their life, and for a passion for Jesus to be rekindled in their hearts.

Again, thank you guys so much. You are all amazing.

PS. Here are some pictures from London.