The Re-naming of Ruins

Hey beloved friends and family! Today I want to do something a little different by starting with the update and then finishing with a few of the things I have been learning about as a result. So here we go!

FRREEEEEEEDDDOOOOOOOOMMMMMM

(Just for fun, try reading it like you're William Wallace, straight out of Braveheart. Bonus points if you yell it out loud.)

Back during Spring Break in March, we were so blessed to have a team visit from Beltway Park Baptist Church to host a conference for Alive Church for the whole week. The theme of the week was "Freedom" and the guest speakers talked about how to experience freedom from sin, healing of past wounds, forgiveness, the father heart of God, and so many more topics. During the week the team met individually with members in the church to counsel them, pray with them, and work through what God wanted to do in their lives. It really was such an incredible and life-giving week. People were saved, set free, and healed in a way that spurred them on in their spiritual walk with Christ.

Really I cannot understate how amazing that week was. One of my favorite moments was when we met up with the team to worship and pray over Enniscorthy IN THE TOWN SQUARE. Even though my hands nearly froze off, I will always remember the joy I felt, welcoming in God's presence over our little Irish town to literally change the atmosphere. For Molly and I, the whole week was one huge breath of fresh air. As a missionary it is always so comforting to hear people talk in your own accent, know the people you know, but it is even more refreshing to meet people for the first time who you instantly connect with because their hearts long for God to do the same things you long for. Molly and I were prayed for so many times, encouraged, and mentored in just one short week. Beltway team, you were the whole package, THANK YOU GUYS.

1916 Easter Rising Centennial

The other big event was the remembrance celebration of the 1916 Easter Rising that took place in multiple cities all across Ireland. Major celebrations were held on Easter Monday in Dublin, Enniscorthy and a few other towns. There were reenactments, speeches, tons of food trucks, and more people than I have ever seen in our little Irish town. Just take a look.

There is a lot that I could say about the 1916 Rising, but instead I'm going to post a link to Enda Long's Easter Sunday sermon where he explains what the 1916 Rising meant for the Irish people then and what it means for the Irish nation 100 years later.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J9MqejZPVM[/embed]

Can a town have an identity?

Coming out of that week of freedom and the 1916 Rising in Enniscorthy there are a lot of things I have been reflecting on. One of these things came up as Molly and I were praying together after work a few weeks ago. A couple times each week, Molly and I take time after work to pray while walking around and through Enniscorthy. Usually as we pray anything and everything is fair game: our marriage, families back home, friends, Alive Church, strangers of Enniscorthy, anything really. There's nothing super-spiritual or mysterious about it, just us talking and listening to our Father God.

So as we were walking I felt like God was telling me to pray for Enniscorthy, the town itself. Since I had no idea what to pray for, I turned the question back to God, "Ok, what do you want me to pray for Enniscorthy? What do you think about Enniscorthy?"

The answer I got was pretty shocking: "I made Enniscorthy to be a city of life."

City of ... what?

After living in Enniscorthy for over a year and a half, I can say that I have a pretty good (still incomplete) idea about what Irish people think about the town of Enniscorthy. Enniscorthy itself resides in Wexford county, which is known throughout Ireland as "the sunny southeast", and also has another nickname among Irish churches and pastors: "the graveyard for churches". Wexford county is one of the toughest places for the gospel to take root and for churches to actually grow. Go anywhere else in Ireland and there are many well-known healthy churches in every county, but Alive Church in Enniscorthy is one of the only churches known by pastors outside of Wexford. It is almost as if we represent all of Wexford. Now when we get to Enniscorthy the demographics look pretty bleak as well; in all of Ireland, Enniscorthy ranks in the top 5 for both unemployment and suicide.

I think there is something written into our DNA that says there is a meaning behind what you name something. The truth of the matter is that we often see a name as the indicator of the person or thing's true identity. Sometimes I wonder if we were to ask an Enniscorthian to describe their town in a word, if we were to ask them to rename their town, what kind of words would we hear? "City of Life" feels kind of out of place right? We would expect to hear something more like "boring", "dead end", "small town to escape as soon as you graduate", "it is not what it used to be", "stuck in a rut", or  "nothing good can come from here". These sure seem to be the names most people believe and operate under in the town.

You see, I think that just like people can have identity problems, so can nations, cultures, and even cities. Just like you and I will often take on names that other people or situations have given us, assuming that they are our identity, we can do the same thing with our cities, schools, and families. We then live our day to day lives frustrated because we are trying to live out an assumed identity, when we were created to live out of another name entirely. And just like the answer for "Who am I?" can only be found in relationship with Jesus, so to our cities can only be redeemed when a new identity from heaven begins to be spoken over them. We need someone to rename us, our families, and our cities. We need a new identity and a new way to live.

The new name

So here is what I have been thinking. Just as we are in the naming business, I believe that God is in the renaming business. But God's renaming is both a brand new name AND a re-establishing of the identity that was lost in the fall.

Now that I am hearing God proclaiming "City of Life" over Enniscorthy, I'm beginning to partner with God's vision and pray into that identity as well. The more that I pray and dwell on it, the more I see it ring true in the town. Here are two ways that I'm seeing this new identity flesh itself out. Feel free to pray into these with me:

1. Honestly, I was hoping "Enniscorthy" translated into Irish would mean City of Life, but sadly it doesn't. The direct translation of "Inis Corthaidh" is Island of Corthaidh (which is weird because there are no islands around here). However, running through the center of Enniscorthy is the River Slaney. Translated into Irish "Abhainn na Slaine" literally means River of health, wholeness, and healing. Just like we see a river running into and out of Enniscorthy, this city of life is both receiving healing/wholeness and then giving healing/wholeness to the world. God has made Enniscorthy to be a refreshing, healing, and life-giving place that receives life from God and releases life to everyone around it. 
2. The motto of Wexford county is "Exemplar Hiberniae" which translates to An Example for Ireland. Even written down in a basic motto for the county I think we see God's plan for Enniscorthy. Throughout history Enniscorthy has been a part of the major revolutions in Irish culture. You could almost say, where Enniscorthy goes, so goes the rest of the nation of Ireland. The key to any cultural revolution in Ireland has involved Enniscorthy, and Enniscorthy will set the example for another spiritual revival in Ireland. 

Thanks everyone! I promise the next update won't be sooooo long!

When You're A Missionary Who Needs Your Mom

Hi folks, I hope everyone is having a wonderful week, and I hope you Texans aren't taking for granted your lovely spring-like weather. I say that only because it snowed here in Ireland this week. Right about when I was getting done with it being winter, Ireland threw that chilly reminder in our face. So enjoy it, soak up the sun, smell the flowers, cry your eyes out with allergies, and appreciate an early spring in Texas.

This past week was not our week to say the least. If any of you have worked or volunteered at a summer camp you all know that every cabin has at least one camper where it is just not their week. They are usually the same campers who are also terribly homesick. I remember the summer I worked at Camp John Marc, and one week I was buddied up with the youngest boy's cabin (so we're talking 6 and 7 year old boys). This one kid in the group was crying from day one; I mean for every event, every night, every meal he was miserable and wanted to call home. Finally, we get to the big cook out, where they get to sit around a campfire, help cook the meal, and sing songs under the stars. It was at this point that this kid's face slowly turned from a tearful grimace to a smile for the first time all week. And after 5 minutes of that smile lighting up his face, a big ole nasty bumblebee decided to sting him on the arm, and all hope of giving him a happy memorable week at camp was lost.

I tell you that story to say, James and I were the homesick kids at camp this week. We felt really done in and were ready to call home to our moms too many times to count. It all started off great with one of our best friends Marcus coming into town, delivering magical packages of goodies from America, lots of encouraging notes from friends, and stories of what we've missed (he's our friend who thrives on story telling). We were going to start this week with a quick trip over to London together, and it just seemed like it was going to be the best week ever!!!

Trouble started brewing on Sunday, James and I were having one of those days in marriage, the not so good kind. We put on the face of "there is definitely stuff going on below the surface here, but we have a friend staying with us right now and we probably shouldn't unload at this moment." James' stomach had been giving him trouble for the past week, feeling kind of queasy off and on, but we headed off to London on Monday with hopes for his stomach to feel better and to see as much as possible of the city. Thankfully we did, we took the Metro to Big Bend, Westminster Abbey, Harrod's, the West End, and Piccadilly Circus. It was marvelous and so much fun, but the downside was James did his own personal tour of the bathrooms at each of those locations around London (if you get my drift). Tuesday morning, James woke up with a sore stomach, and I woke up feeling like my body was on fire. We found a thermometer and lo and behold I was running a fever. Marcus, who had been planning and excited for this trip to London was a champ. We canceled the rest of our Tuesday plans and dragged our tired, sore, sick bodies and caught the bus to the airport.

We made it back home Tuesday and slept it off, we have an amazing group of intercessors/prayer warriors who started praying for healing for us. I wanted to call our moms, I wanted somebody taking care of the both of us, but I still had hope for a quick recovery and no doctor's visit (we hadn't been to the doctors since we arrived in Ireland). We worked all day Wednesday catching up at the church and Marcus again, being the incredibly faithful friend he is, spent a second day of working and helping us out at the church.

We finished Wednesday with the hope of going to eat one final dinner together when we walked down the stairs to go and James slipped, sprained his ankle, and couldn't walk on it. That moment was when I was ready to throw in the towel, call it quits, just like my sweet little camper when he got stung by the bee. I went to bed with thoughts of how I could send James home to America for his mom to take care of him or how I could sound desperate enough on the phone so that one of our moms would drop everything and get on a plane right then to take care of us. I was finished.

So we ended Marcus' visit, not with a day in Dublin, like we had originally planned, but with our first visit to the doctor in Ireland and re-cooping at home with I Love Lucy marathons.

It really wasn't our week. But I did learn a few things from it

1. You can be an adult in your mid 20's, living in another country as a missionary, and still need to call your mom. That's perfectly acceptable.
2. When you are at your lowest is when God sometimes does the most. Friday night of this week happened to be the largest turn out to our youth group we have seen since we arrived. We had 29 youth, 5 interns/small group leaders, and 5 adult volunteers (including us). Even when I am at my lowest, God is still bringing in the harvest.
3. And "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) I'm thankful that James and I continue to be the humble recipients of this kind of love. Thank you Marcus for loving us so well at every turn this week.

So far this week, we are continuing to nurse a really bruised and sprained foot, a continually sore and upset stomach, and the remnants of a cold that doesn't want to vacate the premises. Prayers for continued healing and rest would be greatly appreciated. Also, this week, Alive Church is hosting it's first conference ever. Sherrie Saltzgaber, an incredible Freedom pastor from Beltway Park Baptist Church, is bringing over a team of 14 people to put on this conference and minister freedom to the local churches. We could use your prayers for open hearts and new levels of freedom for every person that attends this weekend.

Thanks for sticking with us friends and family! We love you and appreciate you! Here's some pics from before our crazy week commenced...

Let's Get to Work

Howdy folks, First, I want to thank y'all for bearing with us this last month. We had no intention of going MIA, but that just how it happens sometimes. So here we are, lets get down to business!

Building with the Beltway team

In January, Beltway sent a team of eight men to travel to Enniscorthy and upgrade our church building. They had one week, three major projects on the agenda, and they got to WORK. This week was really fun for me because I just got to jump in with them and help out any way I could as one of the guys. These are incredible men and I was so blessed just to get to work beside them. Honestly, I was blown away. They built a whole new soundbooth, a new stage backdrop, and reconstructed our attic space. Here are a few pictures.

Lifegroups

One of the reasons that February has been such an amazing month is because Alive Church has officially started their first in-home lifegroups EVER. I cannot emphasize how big of a step this is for the church; never before have they done any kind of small-group community-building event that met in someone's home on a regular basis. So to start off, our church has organized into two primary lifegroups, one based in the town and one based in the countryside, both of which will eventually grow in to many others.  Molly and I have the joy of leading the town lifegroup, and it has been so encouraging. We are going on our fourth week of meeting together, and it has already grown from 2 people the first two weeks to now around 10 adults and teenagers!

Please pray with us for mature and consistent lifegroup members who want to grow and will sacrifice their comfortable schedule to see God's kingdom come to earth in Enniscorthy.

Look, Mom, I'm on stage!

Three weeks ago I had the honor of preaching, for the first time in my life, on a Sunday morning. Truth be told, I have been "preaching" and teaching our youth group for a year now, as well as leading midweek services and bible studies, but preaching the Word for the church is a wholly different mountain to traverse. I got to work closely with and learn from Enda Long, the head pastor, who decided for my first time it would be best not to write the sermon, but to focus on getting the message deep inside of me and delivering it in a clear and encouraging way (and I completely agree with him). All in all, I really enjoyed the experience and I could not imagine a better place to begin growing in this particular ministry than here at Alive Church. Before and after the service the church I have come to see as my dear family embraced me and offered words of encouragement, joy, and constructive criticism (which I definitely need). The plan is for me to preach at least a couple more times at Alive Church before our time is up here, so please pray for my growth in this area of ministry. So here's the sermon, feel free to check it out.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOWYbMozhbo[/embed]

We're into the fourth quarter now

I thought about providing a link to "The Final Countdown" by Europe, but if you're like me, you're already humming the tune in your head from reading the song title. Here we are, guys! We have about six months left of our mission here in Ireland, which if I'm honest, brings a lot of conflicting emotions and thoughts to greet us each and every morning. Our goals in the months we have left are to be even more invested in Alive Church and the people we have come to love here, continue setting up the church to be in a healthier place than when we first arrived, and continue to raise up leaders within the church. Simultaneously, we are also to begin praying about where God is leading us after Ireland, where we will live, what we want to do, etc. And balancing between the future and the present is hard.

In closing, please be praying for us in this final season of being missionaries to Alive Church. God has done so much in the past year and a half here in Enniscorthy, and we are so excited to join in on what He's going to do in the next several months. Pray that we will be able to BOTH pray into our future after Ireland AND be fully focused on pouring ourselves out in Alive Church. Pray with us against worry, anxiety, and fear about the impending future. Just as we are fasting a few things for lent, I fully intend for one of them to be 'worrying about the future', who's with me? Pray for leaders to be raised up, and for a new season of growth and committed members at Alive Church. Lets see lives changed and comfort zones shattered!

Restoration

Hey Friends and Family, Ya'll have been on my heart and mind often these past two weeks. I seriously cannot thank you enough for all you do to make our mission here possible, from giving, to praying, to skyping us, to visiting my family when my sister was in the hospital. You are incredible. James and I know we are blessed to have each of you in our lives. Thank you for all you do for us and the people here at Alive Church in Ireland.

Kenzie's Hospital Stay

This past week my sister, Mackenzie, who has special needs including epilepsy, began experiencing just a burst of uncontrolled seizure activity. She was pretty much having a seizure every 10-15 minutes, causing her to not be able to sleep. When they tried her usual round of emergency medications to stop her seizures they didn't work this time. This resulted in her ending up in the hospital with a lot of medical staff, along with my parents, trying to figure out what to do next.

James and I were finding out about this pretty much as it was happening. For our family, these moments of Kenzie's seizures getting out of control aren't uncommon but also aren't something we relish, especially when it lands her in the hospital. I had started off pretty calm, cool and collected about the whole thing, even once I had heard she was in the hospital. But after the neurologists tried a new medicine and it failed to work on Monday I was starting to get a little more desperate.

On Tuesday, I texted a few close friends back home to let them know about the situation and they immediately jumped in to pray, take care of my family for us, and visit them. When worry and fear started to grab hold about not being present with our family, they became our hands and feet for us, doing what we wanted to be doing at the time but could not do. By the end of Tuesday another new drug had been introduced and yet the seizures had continued to persist, and this was pretty much new territory. In the past, for the most part once Kenzie was in the hospital they were able to get the seizures under control after a few hours and it had been 48 hours at that point.

& the goodness of God

During this James and I were both praying like crazy and asked a few women who are gifted in intercessory here at our church to be praying with us. It was Wednesday, things hadn't really begun to look up and I was just talking to God about this and all of a sudden there was this line from a worship song I had sung a lot back in college being sung over me. It wasn't something that I remembered all of a sudden, it wasn't a song I had in my heart even, but I literally felt like the gap between Heaven and Earth had gotten a little bit thinner and I could feel God singing it over me.

The line was "you bring restoration to my soul."

Restoration, it happened to be the word he had spoken over my 2016 since the start of January. When I was reading the bible, doing a bible study, or praying it was the word I kept coming back to. Little did I know at the time, that a few short weeks into January He would be singing it over me at a time my soul needed some restoration and reassurance, but He knew. It was Zephaniah 3:17 in live action,

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

Thursday morning I woke up and got a call first thing from one of our Irish mommas here. She told me they had been praying for Kenzie and she woke up feeling like today there would be improvement. And that's exactly what happened, they had introduced a new drug into her system later on Wednesday night and it began working giving her a full 5 hours of sleep uninterrupted by seizures for the first time in days.

Kenzie was released from the hospital on Thursday, has continued to have no seizures since then, and every one has caught up on much needed sleep. It was nothing short of a miraculous turn around.

Just a friendly reminder

I say all of that to fill you in on how Kenzie is doing and everything that happened. More importantly though I wanted to remind you of a God who is here among us, living inside of us. He adores you and he is in the details, working things for good, even when you can't see it yet.  He is a God who when things get bad, doesn't back off, hide, or go away but is right there in the midst of it all calming our fears and singing over us. He's a good God, whether your 2016 has started off a little shaky or has been nice and steady, he is good. You can trust him with this year, he won't let you down.

New Modern Day Video!

In other news, one of the organizations we work with as missionaries, Modern Day, has begun compiling video resources for missionaries preparing to go on the mission field. The videos are done by missionaries currently doing ministry and they are incredible. We had the honor of getting to create one of the videos. So here's the video!

Modern Day Resources

[embed]https://vimeo.com/150738492[/embed]

2015

Happy New Year everyone,

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.