Happy Christmas

It's Christmas!! Oh how I love this holiday so very much! But this year it is a bit different for me. The normal Christmas for me would be going to pick out a Christmas tree with my family, probably pick up a peppermint mocha on the way home, decorating it all together, going to the Christmas Eve service, having soup with the Kenneys, singing Christmas Carols, opening up our one present on Christmas Eve and it always being pajamas, watching A Christmas Story, and finally waking up on Christmas morning, reading Luke 2 and opening presents. Family is so important to me and I am daily amazed at how much God has blessed me with the family that I have! I am so grateful that my sister will be coming to Ireland for Christmas and New Years, but I will also be spending it with a different type of family. The family of Christ. These past 9 months I have really learned what it means to be apart of the family of Christ. Once we come to put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into his kingdom! What an amazing promise that is! So this Christmas holds something new and I am so grateful for that!

"I'm thankful that the church is also portrayed as a family-the family of God- because it takes our interdependence a step beyond the use of our interrelated gifts and mere function. A family, after all, is about loving relationships." -Barbara Hughes

Still need Support!

This is going to be short and sweet and needed! It's beginning to look a lot like Winter!! I know it's just autumn but this weather is pretty much winter weather to me...which means that I am going to need to bump up the heater, get some more socks, and make sure that I am bundled all up and ready for the cold! Right now my funds are not at 100% and to make sure I get through the winter I'm going to need to get to 100%. If you are able to support me financially you can go to the website attached, but PLEASE pray!!! Pray that I will continue to trust in the Lord for his provision! I am so thankful to be doing ministry here. A few specific things that you can be praying for is the Cove that I volunteer at, that I will be able to have good conversations with people while I'm working at the bookshop, for the youth group in the church, for my financial state, and for people to hear and see the gospel!!

https://www.gifttool.com/donations/Donate?ID=1354&VER=1&LNG=EN

My Wee Appendix

So here is the story of the inflamed appendix…

I spent a whole week in Scotland helping out at a camp with Irish teenagers! In Scotland we went to a Safari Park, an amusement park, went skiing with no snow, visited Edinburgh, shopped in Glasgow, went paddleboating, and connected with some amazing teenagers. I had the most amazing week being able to share the love of Christ with these teens and having so much fun with them. On Thursday, our day in Edinburgh, I spotted a Starbucks. It was a wonderful day! It had been 5 months since I had and iced caramel macchiato and I was determined to have one that day! So before shopping, I went into a Starbucks and got my drink and even took a picture to document it! When we were about to leave I decided to get another one because I just don’t know when I will get the pleasure of having another one. One of my girls in my dorm room did the same thing and that evening we both had a stomachache. Our stomachaches went away after we had some Sprite to settle our stomachs, but we thought 2 starbucks in one day wasn’t the best idea. Well later that evening I had an uncomfortable pain in my side. I thought it was the stomachache again, but this was more of a pain then an ache (there’s a difference). That night while I was trying to go to bed I just couldn’t get comfortable and kept hoping that the pain would go away. The following day was the all day of traveling and I didn’t want to be sick while on the road and on a boat. Here’s the breakdown of our traveling, we went from Glasgow to Stranraer by bus (2 ½ hours), Stranraer to Belfast by ferry (3 hours), then Belfast to Sligo by bus (3 hours). That whole day of traveling I was sick and kept having this pain in my side. Let me tell you, once I was in Sligo I was so happy to get off of that bus and sleep!! Because of all of the traveling, I spent the night in the home of Joe and Mabel Kennedy, who are in charge of the CEF camps in Rossnowlagh and Scotland, and was going to take a bus home the next morning to go home to Westport (about a 2 hour drive). Well that night the pain got worse and I had to wake Joe and Mabel up and went to the ER. This pain was the worst pain I have ever experienced. I just wanted the pain to go away and I wanted my mom and dad there! They finally gave me pain relief and moved me to a room in the hospital. What I kept thinking was, how can this be happening while I’m in Ireland, but thankful that it didn’t happen in Scotland!! I arrived in the hospital at 6 am and then around 4pm the doctor came by and told me that I was to go into surgery in a half hour. I was shocked that it was so going to be that soon but once I knew I texted Abby to spread the word, got a phone call from my sister, cried a little, and was then wheeled down to the Theater (operating room). They call it the theater here. I had never been in surgery before and was scared and wanted to hold my parents hands so much, but the provision of God is huge and showed up in ways that amazed me. The people that came to visit each day was such a blessing to me and such an encouragement. I am so blessed to be apart of the body of Christ and to see God’s provision over my life! Once I was out of surgery I immediately asked to make sure that it was my appendix that was in a hissy fit and the doctors reassured me that it was. I ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days. Once I was out of the hospital the Mulvihill family took me into their home and can’t get rid of me. They have been so wonderful and there’s nothing like having my own nurse here in the house. The lovely Emer took out my 7 stitches on Monday night and I feel great! The Lord continues to find ways to make me slow down and find rest in Him. At the beginning of this fiasco I was very annoyed that this was happening, but I have now found that I need to continue to find rest in Christ and to ultimately abide in Him! So there it is, my long appendix story!

Day off DIY!

Alright, just to be honest, I recently found out what DIY stands for! I had been looking at so many DIY projects and I got inspired! Today is my day off so I want to be a bit creative. I had a wonderful weekend; I worked in the shop that our Church owns, then I helped at the Youth Cafe and yesterday I was able to teach the kids at Church about Jesus and Nicodemus! And to top it off, I went for a lovely walk to Westport House with some lovely ladies and their kids yesterday. So today I covered a couple of notebooks with some fabric that I got for dirt cheap. The owner of this fabric shop allowed me to go through all of his scrap material and then he let me take some of the discontinued sample material!! I'll be visiting that store more often! All I did was just glue the fabric over some cheap school notebooks. This is the outcome of this fun and easy project!

Irish Traffic Lights

Idols

I was told to burn my Bible the other day when I was doing door-to-door work. I have never had anyone tell me to burn my Bible. This woman wouldn’t hear what we were saying when we started to talk about Mary. She said that Mary was always a virgin, and that she never bore children after Jesus. Which is false! So we told here that even in her Catholic Bible, it says that Mary had sons and daughters (Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 6:3). We explained that Mary was a woman who honored Christ and was faithful, but should not be put higher than Christ. This has just been a little insight into how the Catholic Church has a stronghold on so many people here. My eyes are continuing to be opened daily to idolatry and the deceitfulness that these people are under. But then it has also brought me to think about idolatry all around, and not just with physical statues (such as Mary, Buddha, etc…) but that other things can disguise themselves as idols. I find that even the internet, money, relationships, media, celebrities, and so many other things, can be idols that we put above the Lord. This is not a new thought, but I feel that by me being here I now understand how serious it is. The Lord wants us to put Him first as our number one priority. I fear that when we fill other areas of our life that do not glorify God then we will loose sight of His plan and will fall into being deceived as well, even by our own self. The Lord is Mighty and has a perfect plan for our lives, why wouldn’t I put Him first, why wouldn’t He always be on the forefront of my mind. He loves me and is faithful!

That is a picture of the Shrine at this place called Knock, the same town where the woman told me to burn my Bible.

Hi Ya!

Hi ya, is how the Irish say hello. I am finally here in Ireland! I still can’t believe that I am here sometimes. There are so many emotions that come with moving away and starting a new adventure. Saying goodbye to all of my loving friends and my family was a very difficult thing for me. But I was blessed with an amazing send off at my goodbye party and an amazing book full of encouraging letters. I felt so much joy and love when I was being prayed over. I love the family of God! Now that I am here and away from home, I have been missing my normal and comfortable life in California. While I was journaling one night, I realized that God wants us to be out of our comfort zones. He wants us to take leaps and go for it, with Him leading the whole thing. So that is what I am doing. Surrendering everything to Him and finding my strength, home, love, and wisdom all from Him.

 

Calvary Mission in Westport is where I will be serving at for these next 2 years. Yesterday was my first Sunday there and after the service was over, they surprised me with a cake that said, “Welcome to Ireland Nikki.” It was so sweet and thoughtful! They are making me feel so welcomed and loved! I am truly excited to see what God has planned for these next 2 years. I know there will be hard times, but Christ will use all things!! 

 

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4

Bittersweet

I have some very exciting news! This past week I finally got my plane ticket that's headed for Ireland! I will be leaving March 23rd. Once I heard the date, my stomach immediately dropped. I have a whirlwind of emotions. And of course the day after I found out the date that I am leaving, Melissa Brosch spoke in the High School group on how we need to express our emotions better to God, so I was really able to get in touch with those emotions, and let them all out! I feel so excited and anxious to get there and start this new journey, but I also feel nervous for what's to come and pretty sad for the amazing relationships that are in my life that are about to change. I have received so much encouragement from everyone and I am very grateful. The Lord's timing is perfect and I need to continue to trust fully in Him. This is very hard for me to do right now, so please, please, please pray for me in this. 

Thanks for reading this snip-it :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I am not much of a writer, or blogger at that, but I have decided to start this blog so that I can keep in touch with everyone while I am preparing for ministry in Ireland and to update all of my loved ones while I am away.

This March I am planning on leaving for two years to Ireland! I will be partnering in ministry with Larry and Kathy Dunne, a missionary family on Ireland's west coast in a town called County Mayo. I will be joining the Dunnes in their various roles of ministry at a local church called Calvary Mission. My main focus will be to assist them with their door-to-door ministry, bible study, bookstore, children's ministry and youth ministry! I was able to work with the youth group at Calvary Church of Santa Ana for the past 5 years and have loved every second of it! Now I have the amazing opportunity to work with youth over in Ireland.

In 2006 I went to Ireland on a mission trip through my home church and fell in love with the country. Through my interaction with the people in Ireland I saw firsthand the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church and its idolatry of the Virgin Mary. The mission of the Dunnes through Calvary Mission is to share the gospel and the truth of Jesus Christ.

As the body of Christ we have the privilege to uplift, encourage and speak truth to our brothers and sisters. Because I am a very relational person, I know that I am going to need all the support I can get! First and foremost, I would like to ask you to join me in this ministry by praying for what God is going to do in Ireland. I want His name to be proclaimed! Second, I need support financially while I am on the mission field. I need to raise $1000 up front and $2175 per month for 24 months. If you are able and would like to support me financially, please go to this website that is linked straight to my Missions Agency, Global Outreach Missions, and make sure to type my name in the box provided on the website.

Lastly, there are a few specific things that I hope you could pray for me:
-That I would adjust easily and quickly during this huge transition in my life.
-The people that I meet - that I would have connections and develop relationships that share the good news of Christ!
-Loneliness-pray against this distraction and ask that God would provide me with a deep peace knowing He is with me, also pray that He would provide me with fun, great people to have as friends.
-A teachable heart for the Irish culture - that God will give me insight and understanding to their values and way of life.
-Trust in God- that He will provide for me in all my needs, particularly for the needed finances.
-Daily reminders of my need and dependence on Christ.

I will continue to keep you all posted, I don't think all of them will be this long, but I promise to write! Thank you so much!

Link to GOM online giving  http://www.missiongo.org/Giving.html