April's Adventures

So lets be real. I've been ruminating on a blog for the past several weeks, and was planning on publishing that one this week until my brilliant wife reminded me that you guys have no idea how this past month has gone for us! So here is a brand new piece of work detailing the joy that has been the month of April. Rest assured the other simmering blog will reach a boil in my head soon enough and I will publish it. So here we are. We have slept in this morning, I have now had two cups of coffee, I kindled a fire in the hearth, and our dinner is now in the slow cooker. Happy Saturday everyone. Let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns).

Easter Sunday at Alive Church

Travel backwards through time with me to April 5, 2015. This was a day that I had been looking forward to, honestly, for a whole year. It was around Easter last year that Molly and I confirmed that we would indeed be moving to Ireland for two years to be a part of Alive Church, and we began corresponding with Enda and Angela Long (the head pastors). Needless to say this Easter Sunday was a healthy dose of reflecting back on the past year and looking forward to the vision of growth that God is calling Alive Church towards.

This Sunday our church was packed! We had over 70 people in our sanctuary and had to add two additional rows for seating. The worship band was loud and the worship of the Body of Christ was even louder. Children went to Sunday school class to find all of the burdens they had laid on the cross the previous week covered in gold glitter as Christ bore and conquered sin and death. The gospel was proclaimed through teaching and community; it was a day of heartfelt celebration.

Even more encouraging are the subtle changes within the people of the church. Though over 70 people in attendance is awesome, it is even more incredible that we usually have 50-60 people on any given week. It might not seem huge to you, but in stark contrast to last year, people are beginning to take ownership of Alive Church; people are beginning to pour their lives regularly into what God is doing here. Everyone can feel the shift in the atmosphere. Once the Church fosters a culture of family, the family cannot help but grow. It is what we all long for, and it is why the Church is so vital for believers and unbelievers alike. So get ready Enniscorthy, change is coming.

The Dream Conference

The next day we jumped into an Ireland-wide conference put on by the AGI (Assemblies of God in Ireland). Now, though Molly was raised for several years in the Assemblies of God, I grew up in a Methodist church and up until college had never attended another denominational tradition. All this to say I was, and am, impressed by the AGI specifically because they may be the best organized, most united, most expansive and the most spiritually alive group of churches in all of Ireland. And if that is not enough, the conference was open to any and all denominations who want to see the gospel spread in Ireland. So basically all of the major churches and pastors in the Republic of Ireland were worshipping God together, rubbing elbows, meeting up for coffee, encouraging one another, and building up the Body of Christ in Ireland up in love under one roof. All of the pastors knew each other, and the brotherly love was contagious. And our church was the only one from Enniscorthy, or even Wexford Co. for all I know. My mind was blown that I got to be apart of this. Here was the global church at the largest scale I had ever seen.

To be honest, I'm still reeling.

We spent time with other youth pastors, songwriters, and worship pastors during the week and though it was exhausting we left each day refreshed. Probably the coolest thing during the conference for Molly and I was that we started to understand the Irish culture in a new way. Have you ever had a moment, during coffee with a friend perhaps, where they said something and all of a sudden you realized how they thought, their real motivations, and you felt like you actually saw them for the first time? That was how it felt for us. The people we met and the preaching we heard helped the identity and potential of the Irish people to click in our minds. All in all we had an amazing time and I hope we get to go next year.

Ps. The Youth Pulse events each night were unbelievable to say the least. Imagine the Energizer bunny drinking Redbull singing "Uptown Funk".

Don't believe me? Just watch.

The Bass B&B (Welcome, Expected and Unexpected Guests)

As many of you know, April was the inaugural month of a season lasting till August, where we will have a continuous stream of guests staying with us in our home. Molly and I have both been excited and anxious to make our apartment as hospitable as possible while maintaining a level of sanity. So last week our first guest, Drew Dixon, arrived in Dublin. I could say so much about this amazing man, but I'll sum it up in this way: anytime I spend with Drew is a time that I will leave feeling refreshed. Honestly, he was probably the best first guest we could ever hope for in Ireland because he is so patient, relaxed, kind, and easy-going in his nature. We had a blast having him here and took time to explore Ireland with him: Glendalough, Hook's Head, Dublin, Vinegar Hill, and a few other places.

However, later in the week, Molly and I were both surprised in the best way possible. On Friday night, getting home from G-Force around 10pm, we parked the car and went upstairs. We had run all the games and Drew had been the guest speaker that night, so we were all on the verge of exhaustion. I had just hung up my coat when the doorbell rings. To be fair, Molly had her suspicions, but I was completely unaware and thought it was one of our neighbors at the door. I trudged down the stairs and opened the door to find Logan and Johanna Cole! WHAT?!?! I was at a loss for words and Molly unleashed a banshee scream that would cause a T-Rex to poop his pants (Logan recorded it and it's on Facebook, you're welcome).

For those of you who don't know, Logan and Johanna Cole are the first missionaries to be sent out by Beltway Park Baptist Church (Molly and I being the second). We were all in Beltway College Park together (including Drew), and we had been skyping the Coles regularly as a kind of missionary accountability. Logan and Johanna have an incredible anointing on their lives to plant, establish, disciple, and grow churches. So, it turns out that Logan and Johanna finished their year in Uganda to celebrate their anniversary by travelling Europe, including stopping by in Ireland. Literally Drew, Enda and Angela, and the whole Beltway staff knew they were coming to surprise us, but we had no idea.

So what can I say in the face of such incredible blessing? Thank you guys. It means so much to be running alongside each of you, seeing the kingdom of God come to earth.

To tie all of this in, Molly has a verse that we both feel best describes April for us.

"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered." - Proverbs 11:25

After months of pouring out, April was an awesome month of being refreshed and revived. Really, thank you for praying, partnering with us financially, and taking time to love on us.

To 3 Of Our Biggest Supporters (Stephen, Kenzie & Marissa)

In honor of national sibling day I wanted to give a special shout out to our brother and sisters who have made this journey to Ireland so much better!

Stephen, I remember the day we told you, mom and dad about how we wanted to go to Ireland. You weren't phased by the announcement but you knew mom might need extra support during the craziness so you just quietly stood up behind her. It's such a perfect example of who you are. In everything we say and do you are there; steadfast, wise, and supportive. God knows we need that!

P.S. Thank you for falling in love with Ireland when you came to visit. From the Irish scenery to the bakeries, it was so fun to witness how you enjoyed it all.

Oh my dearest Kenzer Wenzer! You have this magical ability to make us feel like we haven't left at all. To you Ireland isn't that far away. So while we're away you just keep making up songs for us to hear, waving frantically at us on Skype, asking when we're getting pregnant and calling us no matter the time difference. Thank you for reminding us that distance really isn't that big of a deal when you are family.

Rissa Roo, your encouragement, the truth you speak in love, and sharing your Abilenian life with us has made this transition to Ireland so much easier. Through you we see the fruit of a spiritual legacy we left behind in Abilene and it gives us hope on the days that we don't see the harvest here in Ireland. Thanks for the hope and joy you provide us! You spur us onto greater things.

There are a lot of things we're proud to be known by in our life but by far one of our favorites is being known as Stephen, Kenzie, and Marissa's brother and sister. We love you and we're so proud of you!

Our Irish Life

St. Patrick's Day

Our St. Patrick's Day (or St. Paddy's day as advertised here in Enniscorthy, Ireland) was a blast! We didn't make it up to Dublin which in Ireland is the mecca of all things St. Patrick's Day but we did manage to fit in two town's celebrations, Wexford Town and Enniscorthy. Both towns held their own St. Patrick's Day parade which included...

Concrete trucks and construction equipment from local businesses,

Classic tiny European cars waving their Irish flags,

And interesting floats like this one from one of our favorite cafe's in Enniscorthy.

There were bag pipes, boy scouts, and the local sports clubs in between but both towns ended with a bang when they brought out the tractors. It was fitting since we live in the midst of farming country here in south east Ireland.

We also ate green things! James tried to get a green crepe but they were out of the hearty crepe fillings he loves so he ate a burger with me.

We did manage to snag some green whipped ice cream (whipped ice cream is what they call soft-serve). After James ate the chocolate stick and raspberry sauce off his he handed it to me stating "it's not sweet enough." That statement describes my husband's love of sugar and dessert perfectly, for him there's such a thing as not sweet enough ice cream.

Also, not to break anyone's heart or expectations but green beer is not a thing here in the non-touristy part of Ireland where we live. We did have green water at one of the restaurants we visited though. It wasn't half bad just disturbing to look at.

In Other Life News

My husband the ninja with the green noodle you see here taught an awesome word on worship this past Friday. Man, it was good!!! At the beginning he told our youth to take notes explaining the benefits of having them to look back on after you've heard something. I was taking notes on his sermon it was so good, and one of our youth beside me literally transcribed his every word on her phone.

Saturday James went busking for the first time. A busker is what the Irish call street performers. We have a new friend who is a busker and James wanted to try it out to see what it was all about. His plan was to just watch and kind of play along with him but after an hour or two he was doing it all by himself. It was awesome to watch! I absolutely love getting to see my husband step outside of his comfort zone and playing on the streets in front of perfect strangers is a big step.

It is finally Springtime here in Ireland! You can tell it's Spring in Ireland a few ways... first of all, out of nowhere, flowers start blooming like crazy especially daffodils. Then the temperature starts getting up into the low 50's and you can actually change from your heavy winter coat into your lighter rain jacket. It's amazing and all so new to born and bred Texans.

This Irish life is a beautiful thing. We see the Lord continually changing our hearts into missionaries who like farmers are willing to sow the seed here, water it faithfully, and wait patiently for the harvest.  We get to call the church here our Irish family, because that's what they are to us!

Best of all we get to see the word that was prophetically given to James a year ago come to life here in Ireland in front of our very eyes,

"For as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations." Isaiah 62:11

Re-calculating

Stop, drop, and ....

There are specific times in my life that God has made me stop and breathe, whether I wanted to or not. These significant moments stick out in my often hazy memory, like the focus of a camera on a single water droplet making its way down the windshield. Somehow time seems to slow down; my emotions and thoughts come into a clarity both sweet and painful. Here I am given the opportunity to periscope out of the ocean and see more clearly where I am going. For me these moments can occur in the aftershock of huge life events (like a death in the family or a dear friend's wedding) and also in the occasional reminder from God that a break is needed. The latter usually comes in the form of Molly thoroughly exploring getaways on Groupon for a several days straight.

Did I say exploring? I meant to say "extensively investigating and comprehensively dissecting".

Anyhow, I am beginning to think that this need to periodically take stock of our trajectory is something God has hardwired into our DNA. Sabbaths teach us to rest and trust God on a weekly basis, vacations help us remember how to play, and sabbaticals/conferences/church camps remove distractions so we can go significantly deeper in our relationship with God in more concentrated doses. Its as if in this marathon of life, where the majority of the race is one step after the other, we have to occasionally look around at the scenery. Like Google Maps on your Iphone, when the signal is lost Siri will rudely interrupt your road-trip: "RECALCULATING."

I think I have now reached a point, 6 months into this cross-cultural mission experience, where God is making me take a step back and re-evaluate my plans, re-calculate my route on this Ireland journey. Let me be clear, ministry is going very well and we are not planning on leaving Ireland early. We are just getting re-envisioned.

So we left on our first getaway to travel to Cork for a few days. Two twenty-somethings seeking new scenery, new perspective, and everything in between. We stayed in a hotel right off of the harbor of Cobh (pronounced COVE), which is the 2nd largest natural harbor in the world and was the last port of call for the Titanic. We kissed the Blarney stone, saw 30 seconds of snow, ate in an Old English market, shopped in downtown Cork, and hiked on the cliffs of Ballycotton.

Long story short, we really needed this and we had a blast. Just like I hoped, I am already inspired with new ideas for our work at Alive Church. And as good as it is to dream about my daily work, it was even better to get to refocus on my relationship with God and with my spouse in a brand new place. After all, those are the highest priorities in life, right?

As far as those new ministry ideas go, I'll be sharing more of them in our next updates.

Wait there's more!

Many of you may have noticed some pictures floating around Facebook about a new series that we started for the month of February for the youth. This is significant because we were trying out a new style of format for our youth group for the first time. Our church leaders were incredible and gave us their blessing to run with it. The series was on relationships: friends, family, dating, and marriage. All in all the series went really well, with the youth opening up and asking questions each week! Thank you so much for your prayers, God did some amazing things this last month.

Messages in a bottle

And to the people who took time out of their days to listen to Jesus and encourage us in a letter, IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED TO HEAR (or read). It blows our minds how community can reach across the ocean in such a tangible way. Every ounce of love that you have poured into us, is being pressed down, shaken together, and is running over into the people of Ireland. We cherish these letters and will keep re-reading them when we need encouragement from our brothers and sisters. Really. Thank you.

How My Heart Changed For The Church

This week news poured into all of our media outlets regarding the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded by ISIS. Now Christians being persecuted, killed, and beheaded isn't something new to me or to any of us who follow Jesus. Martyrdom is very much a part of our history, our Bible, and in our lifetime it's not something that has become extinct. So while this was not new to me at all, their deaths hit me in a way that I had never experienced prior to moving to Ireland as a missionary. I never met those men, their families, or their local churches. I never passed them on the street. I never even visited their region of the world. However for the first time the heaviness and pain of the Church hit me, as 21 of our own had their lives brutally taken from them. It was the Church that had been hit, and even though it was a part of the Church I had never stepped foot into, it is something that influences my mission here in little Enniscorthy, Ireland thousands of miles away.

Since I've stepped foot here in Ireland, one realization has been washing over me again and again becoming one of my biggest regrets; I have not always cared about the Church, in its entirety. Prior to coming to Ireland I only cared about the parts of the Church I saw. What I saw was the church whose doors I entered every Sunday and served in throughout the week. I saw  the other hundred or so churches going after the same thing in our town of Abilene and realized they too were the Church. I saw the churches my husband and I grew up in and knew they were a part of the Church. I saw other churches in the United States of America radically pursuing Jesus and loving the people that were in their community. They too joined with my church, the Abilenien churches, and the Texas churches all to form what I thought was the whole Church in my head.

But you see, prior to coming to Ireland at the age of 23 years old I had never SEEN churches in another part of the world. I had heard about them, listened to missionaries passionately speak about them, heck, I even gave to them. But I did not see the Church with my eyes and my heart, until about 5 months ago when the Holy Spirit revealed to me the Church globally. Now I am meeting people who come from countries all over the world where the Church is increasing and the Kingdom is coming to earth. My heart is expanding to want to see the Church grow in this nation of Ireland and in the continent of Europe in a way that makes me want to burst with expectation every single time I stop and think about it. Sometimes I just want to break down and weep every time I look at the Church because I finally see it for what it is; the bride of Christ, this colorful, cross-cultural family, the joy that was set before him when he endured the cross.

And it just clicked in my spirit "Jesus I get it now, in a whole new way, your church is breathtakingly beautiful."

I felt like he responded, "Molly that's why I got you to go, to see if for yourself." That's why I said to "GO, and make disciples of ALL nations, I knew you would need to see it."

All my life I have been told by men and women I respect greatly, "That you just need to go on a international mission trip and you'll get it." Just go. But I let so many excuses get in the way in my short 23 years of life, until God just picked them off one by one and sent me to another country for 2 years (go figure). I truly believe now with all my heart that those men and women were absolutely speaking truth.

Christians, if we don't have a heart for the Church in its' entirety, we aren't going to love, serve, and pour into the Church as God intends. Jesus died for the Church because he saw the Church as it truly is and loved it. In the same way, those 21 men gave their lives for Christ and his Church because they prized God's mission as worth everything they had. While you and I may never face being martyred for the cause of Christ, we do have a choice each day whether we will die to ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow him or not.

How do I get a heart for the Church globally?

For those of you who haven't ever been on a international mission trip, I think 2015 is your year! WOOHOO!!!!!! Many churches are right now beginning preparations for Summer mission trips. I challenge you to prayerfully consider joining in on one of those trips. If you attend Beltway Park Baptist Church, Josiah Boyd, our amazing missions pastor would love to talk with you more about going on an international mission trip. Consider going. Really pray into it and obey whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to do. One last piece of advice, get ready. Your heart might just explode when you see the Church for the first time. It's so very beautiful.