Camp Life

I am now back in Westport from 3 weeks of kids camps. What an amazing time I have had and what wonderful people I have met. God is doing so much around Ireland. The first two camps that I was involved in was in Rossnowlagh, Co. Donegal. The first week I had girls between the ages of 8-11, the second week the girls in my dorm were 12-14, and this past week in Athlone I had girls between the ages of 9-13. The sun was so bright and hot the very first week of camp. I actually had to put on sunscreen!!! During that week I had the opportunity in telling the missionary lesson each night to the campers. The story was on a girl named Ti-fam who lived in Haiti with her family and whose father was the voo-doo witch doctor in the town. Each night the story was left on a cliff hanger and by the end of the week the whole family had come to faith in Jesus Christ. There was one day that the whole camp goes into Donegal town, and while we were in some shops, the kids noticed that there were these voodoo dolls that were being sold. It's so sad that these dolls are becoming popular, but at the same time, the kids in the camp were saying how wrong it was. The story of Ti-fam was becoming more real to them.

The second week of camp was another blessing to me. There were a few girls in my dorm who were really questioning what it means to be a Christian and how they can be a Christian. One of the leaders shared their testimony and he shared that 10% of our Christian life is asking Christ to come in and take over our life (prayer of commitment/and what a huge part that is!), and 90% is living and doing life for Christ. I pray that these girls will truly walk with God all the days of their lives and that they will bear much fruit. Another reason why I thoroughly enjoyed this week was because of the leaders that were there. It was such a great week of fellowship, fun and laughter! And one of the best things that us leaders did was play American Football!! Even though I got bruised up, it was well worth it!

The first two weeks were with an organization called CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship). I worked with them last year doing the same camps and doing one in Scotland. The last camp was with an organization called BCM (Bible Centered Mission).

BCM camp was located in a placed called Castledaly (in the midlands of Ireland). I was a bit nervous about doing this camp because I only knew one person who was in charge of the camp, but again, God showed His provision and plan for having me there. The girls in my dorm didn't really mesh well at the beginning of the week. I kept asking for prayer in that area at the leader meetings, and then on the second to last night we played a game in our quiet time and that brought them together and then the last day was such a lovely day. There was laughter and no one was feeling left out and these girls were finally talking about the things that they had learned this past week. One girl shared that sometimes she feels lonely and alone, but from the Bible lessons, she now knows that God is always with her and she can just go to Him.

We did this exercise during one of the lessons last week, where we had to write a song like Miriam's song after the crossing of the Red Sea. One line that the students made up was, "With your right hand you made the heavens and the earth and you hold me." I just love that contrast. That God who made the galaxies and earth with his strong hand, He also holds us and cares for us. I will hold onto that truth forever!

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." Psalm 23:1-2

Spray paint and service

I am a disgrace!! I have not written one new post for the year 2011. It is time to end that!

Service!

We, as a youth group at the church, have just done our first service project. The local Play School (pre-school) in the town needed some spiffing up. The kids didn't have any hop-scotch or snakes and ladders on the cement outside in the playground, so we went over there and painted away! The woman who is in charge of the play school is not a believer and this has been a great way to build a relationship with her and for the students in the youth group to do some service. I believe that when we begin to serve we take the focus off of ourselves and onto Christ. This is what I hope the students will learn and begin to love.

I must say, we had a lot of fun spray painting the playground!

This is just the beginning of many projects I hope.

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