BARBEQUE.

This afternoon around 1:15 p.m. we returned home from our five day holiday in Wexford located in Ireland's southeast. We had a wonderful time and spent most of the time swimming in the indoor pool. The boys I think are part fish as they couldn't get enough of the swimming. Aislinn by the end of the week was enjoying it as well as long as she was snug in daddy's arms while in the water. Also when getting ready to head down to the pool she would say "Snowsuit on, Daddy? Snowsuit on?" Yep, she was referring to her swimsuit and for some reason unbeknownst to us she kept calling it a 'snowsuit'. Absolutely adorable I have to say. The time away was well needed and well appreciated as we regrouped as a family after a busy summer. It took some getting use to learning how to sleep 6 in a crowded room, but we managed, and the kids were great.

Yes, it is wet, very wet. It has been wet, very wet for quite some time now here in Dublin. It's been so wet that there's been extensive flooding in some areas as we've experienced record rains here lately. Thankfully our family and area has escaped the flooding thus far. Yes, I know, "It's Ireland, what do you expect?" True, but even the Irish haven't seen anything like this in years, so they say. The temperatures have cooled a bit as well as we've entered the autumn season now.

Tomorrow I'll be speaking again with the Jamestown Rd. church. I'm excited because I'm going to be speaking on something that is very dear to me - the Church, as defined and described by Jesus. We just got a text too from Aisling saying that she wants to go with us to Jamestown Rd. which is exciting! Following being with the church we'll begin to put preparations (i.e. packing) in motion for our  five day family holiday (vacation) which we'll be taking next week down to county Wexford, Ireland's "sunny south-east". All of us are really excited about the trip. The boys can hardly wait! It's been over a year since we've taken any extensive family time away so this will be good for us. Thankfully Lisa, one of our cell mates who lives close, has agreed to mind the gerbils which we've been caring for this summer for another friend. Upon our return life cranks back into gear as school begins and the weeks fill up with appointments, preparation for cell and preaching opportunities, times of discipleship, meeting with neighbors, community meetings, and more.

Once school begins we're hoping to be involved more with our local community centre to build Kingdom relationships and to be visible amongst our community hoping to earn their respect creating a willingness to listen when opportunities for the gospel arise. Andrea and I have talked about joining the Monday badminton club at the centre which we think would be fun. I think Andrea is also going to join the moms & tots group that meets on Thursdays. We also are going to try to get the boys into music lessons or maybe karate which is offered there as well. We really enjoy living in our community and want to show our support and bring as much light and hope as we can while we're here. We do have to be careful though not to over involve ourselves as we know that the 'spontaneous' hospitality that has been such an avenue for ministry this past year will continue so we want to make sure we're available for those moments too.

Speaking of badminton...the boys and I were watching some Olympic badminton today and man it was incredible!! That shuttlecock (also known as a 'birdie') was flying back and forth so fast I couldn't keep up with it! And the reflexes of the competitors? Amazing! I have to admit it got me excited and nervous about joining the badminton club this fall.

Well, I'm not sure how much internet I'll have next week while we're away on holiday so I can't promise any entries. I hope to maybe get at least one in if possible.

Thanks again so much for joining the journey and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! You mean much to us!

(Baby Kate)

    Today my beautiful bride Andrea and I celebrated 14 years of marriage! The day was great and made possible because of our dear friends Sarah and Lisa who came to mind the kids. The morning was spent enjoying breakfast out, followed by a good brisk walk by the Irish Sea, then lunch inside Clontarf Castle, a coffee at Starbucks, a bit of necessary shopping, then home to enjoy the rest of our evening with the kids. The day was great just connecting and reconnecting as husband and wife. It had been awhile since we were able to be out just the two of us. I thank God so much for Andrea. She is a marvelous wife, amazing mom to our four kids, and an incredible teammate and partner in life and ministry. I cannot imagine living this journey without her. God has truly blessed me with her by my side.

    It was so good to have a day to just be together, to just take a deep breath together. It was well needed for sure. Tomorrow though we jump back into appointments, study, and more, as I have another driving lesson, Andrea goes to SpecSavers to get adjusted for contacts, and I go hard in study and preparation for Sunday's teaching with the Jamestown Rd. church. Sometimes I find the most difficult aspect of speaking is narrowing down what passage/message to preach. It's easier in a way, at least I think it is, when you have a series and such, but the one or two-timers can be difficult to narrow down. They are for me at least.

    This past week has been a busy one with guests into our home as Sunday evening we were visited by Phil & Betty, our friends from Grace church who dropped by before they leave to enjoy a trip to be with relatives in Alaska. Monday evening Aisling dropped by for nearly three hours to catch up on life as we had not really seen her or spent time with her in a good 2-3 weeks. Again another opportunity came about to share with her the beauty and hope of a relationship with Jesus. From her comments it is clear she understands the Gospel for sure as she said, "I had never heard that Jesus was the only way to Heaven until you guys came and through my friend Jilly." God is truly at work in her life.
Last night our house was filled with nine cell mates who attended. It was great as a couple of them loaded up on leaflets that Answers in Genesis had graciously sent us. They also took a couple of The Hope dvds which share the hope of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. Andrea made the comment that these students are hungry for good resources.  So true.

    The past few days I feel we've been able to spend some good time with our kids, and boy are they growing up. Little Kate has already changed so much in just the five weeks she's been with us. Aislinn is talking so much and conversing so well. Luke and Grant are becoming young men and good helpers around the house as well as with their younger sisters. There is much to be thankful for when it comes to our children, yet our hearts get heavy at times seeing that in many ways they could be very alone in this culture when it comes to seeking to make good, right, God-honoring choices. O may the prayers for our children increase as we beg God for their protection, holiness, and a hunger for Him and His truth discovered through His Word.

    Well, the journey continues tomorrow so I'm off to grab some sleep.

    I'm grabbing a few moments to blog while Kate and Aislinn are sleeping, and Grant & Luke play with their buddies from the States, Brady & Holly Stewart, who have been with us, along with their parents, for the past eight days. Tomorrow we say goodbye to them as they head back home. I know it will be a sad day. It always is when we say goodbye to friends.

    Tomorrow will be seeing our friends off, tidying up around the house, and studying and reviewing for Sunday as I speak at Jamestown Rd. Church in Finglas, which is about 15 minutes west from where we live. This will be the fourth Sunday in a row to speak in as many churches. I will be speaking at Jamestown Rd. the following Sunday as well.  It's been good making new friends at each church as we assist Irish pastors who are away on holidays (vacation) by providing speaking support in their absence, as well as do the same for a couple churches who are currently without pastors.

    Cell will resume Tuesday evening. We'll be looking at Jesus' prayer for His friends in John 17. It will be a sad time that night also as we say goodbye to our two Brazilian friends who have become very dear to us, Weslley & Lilian (pictured below), and who have walked the journey with us this past year. We have come to truly love them. Tuesday will be their last cell night with us as they head back to Brazil. Both are followers of Jesus who came to Dublin to study English for a year with the hope of returning back to Brazil to secure a better job. In a way we feel as if the Cell will be 'sending' out two of our own Tuesday night to return to their home in hopes they will spread the fame of Jesus in their native land. I am confident Weslley and Lilian will fulfill that mission. We will miss them greatly. They are dear friends, and have become like family.


    I think I will close for now. I need to go spend some time in prayer while some moments are free. Thanks for walking this journey with us.

   

   

    Friday night was an amazing evening as we had some 35 people in our home at one point. If you knew the size of our kitchen/dining area you would understand that is quite a feat to be accomplished! Those in attendance included our family, our friends the Stewarts visiting this week from the States, our teammates the Laughlins, their son Andrew's family who is also visiting, our teammate Stephanie, our friends the Grahams stopping through on their way to London, and of course, 15 of the cell mates. The evening was filled with laughs, fun, burgers, sausages, desserts, corn hole, guys vs. girls game of Guesstures, sunshine (we don't take the for granted), new faces and familiar faces.

    The purpose for the evening was to continue to build and deepen relationships with those who have been attending the Cell study, and also to provide an opportunity for them to bring friends, which they did. Four guests who have yet to come to the study came to the barbeque which was exciting, two of whom were Brazilian, Ricardo and Fran (pictured below with our friend David Graham who visited that evening along with his wife Carol).

Today I had my fourth driving lesson. I'm still waiting for the confirmation date of when my test will be.  The lessons have been very helpful as I would have failed for sure if I had tried to take it without any lessons. With only half who take the test passing the lessons are a must. I just hope after having spent loads of time with lesson that I pass the first time.

Well, tonight is our last night with Russ & Judy, Andrea's parents as they will be leaving us tomorrow morning. We've had a brilliant time with them the nearly three weeks they have been with us. We have seen and discovered many new sites in around Ireland as well as other places since their visit. It's been soooo good for our kids to have their grandparents around to love on them and be with them. They've been so encouraging and such a help around the house as well. They are so giving, loving, and caring. We are saddened to see them leave. We're excited for the Jones grandparents to arrive sometime during the Fall.

But, as we say goodbye to Andrea's parents tomorrow morning we say hello to some friends from the States who will be arriving later in the day to stay with us for about eight days. They have two kids, a boy and a girl, both whom our kids love and spent loads of time with playing together when we lived in the States. It will be so good to be with them and see them again.

Friday the boys wrap up their summer of tennis and in the night we're having a barbeque (cookout) for the Cell. Aisling rang earlier tonight to say that she was bringing two new friends with her. Everyone's pretty excited about this, as we expect quite a few to attend. We're hoping to see many new faces as we continue to build Kingdom friendships.

Saturday will most likely be spent enjoying our friends from the States and showing them some of the sites, as well as reviewing for Sunday. Sunday I'll be preaching at Ballycullen Community Church, as they are currently without a pastor. This is also where our teammates the Laughlins and Stephanie Kozick are ministering for their orientation year.

Thanks for walking the journey...

This week has been full.

Monday was spent travelling to the other coast of Ireland to see the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and Galway. We packed all 8 of us (our 6, and Andrea's parents) into our SpaceWagon (don't try to picture it, it's painful) and made the nearly 5 hours (yep, that's right, 5 hours) journey west to the Cliffs of Moher. It's only 175 miles from our place, but we had a few stops along the way to deal with a couple puke episodes from the kids as the roads were the curviest and the most narrow any of us had ever experienced (even more narrow and curvier than in Brazil Andrea's dad had said). So combining the puke episodes with the narrow, nearly one lane, roads you can see how the five hours came to be. All in all the kids were so good, but we learned a lot from the drive that it is not for the weak in tummy by any stretch. It was quite the journey and experience as we got to see a different side, literally, of Ireland. Nine hours of our 14 hour day away were spent in the car driving on Irish roads. Nearly five hours from our home in Dublin to the Cliffs, 90 minutes from the Cliffs to Galway (40 miles), then 2 1/2 hours from Galway (120 miles) to back home. It was a long journey, but one we were glad we took.

Tuesday was mainly a day of recovery and getting some well needed errands run, one of which was getting Kate's Irish Birth Certificate so we can apply her for a U.S passport and birth certificate. The day also consisted of the boys daily summer tennis session and a third driving lesson for me. Also, Aisling and Niamh dropped over in the early afternoon for several hours to see little Kate and to be with the family. Aisling stayed for dinner. After I dropped Aisling home our newest ABWE teammate arrival, Stephanie, came over for a few hours for a chat.

Wednesday Andrea's parents headed into Dublin's city centre on their own for a bit of touring. They had a good time seeing a few of the city's sites, and while they were viewing things it allowed us to just regather ourselves as a family for several hours which her parents intentionally wanted us to do. That's why they went just the two of them into town. After they had arrived back to our place a fellow school dad, Tom, and his daughter came over to see baby Kate. That evening I called over (went over) to our neighbor Dermot to see how he was doing as he had a recent surgery. I spent an hour with he and his family hoping to be an encouragement and keep building that Kingdom friendship

Early Thursday morning Russell (Andrea's dad) and I grabbed a cab (around 5 a.m.) and left for the Dublin airport. From there we flew for an hour into Scotland's capital, Edinburgh.  The day was jam packed with viewing Edinburgh Castle along with as many of the others sites in the city that we could catch our eyes on. For me one of the highlights was being able to see the church, St. Giles Cathedral, where Scottish Reformer John Knox preached and ministered back in the 1500's. Amazingly when we showed up to the church, the daily 15 minute service had just started, so we sat, and took in a service in the very place John Knox preached. From there we walked to John Knox's house, toured a museum of his life, and then left to find the Edinburgh School of Divinity. The Divinity School was an important find for me as a 19th century preacher named Robert Murray M'Cheyne studied there. I have become quite fond of Mr. M'Cheyne and his legacy of faith and his love for God's Word (M'Cheyne was a single man who grew up in Edinburgh and pastored a church in Dundee, Scotland. He died at the age of 29, yet in such a short amount of life left such an impression for His King - Jesus. I highly recommend becoming familiar with M'Cheyne and his writings as I am confident you will find them convicting, inspiring , and challenging).

While at the School we found the New College Library which allowed us access to read the original sermons and study notes written by M'Cheyne himself. Here we read personal Bible study notes penned nearly 200 years ago from a young M'Cheyne, a man passionate for His Saviour. His passion for the Word was obvious as we discovered in one of the books that he had constructed a Bible reading plan enabling him to read the entire Bible through in 2-3 months (that's 4-6x/year)! Reading these original writings was the absolute highlight.

After an hour of reading through M'Cheyne's sermons and notes we headed back for our final stops on the hop-on/hop-off tour bus. At our final stop I headed to find 14 Dublin St. in Edinburgh, the birthplace and home of M'Cheyne. After a few pictures of the house I walked back to the park where Russell was waiting and we headed off for a bite to eat. The next few hours were spent getting back to the airport, checking in, waiting for our flight home, and returning back to Dublin. It was an amazing day, and the roundtrip flight from Dublin to Edinburgh was just $65!

(For pictures of our day in Scotland copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139859&l=dd2c6&id=877410050)

Yesterday was again another day of recovery, but later in the afternoon we headed north 17 miles to Ardgillan Castle, a beautiful place with an amazing playground on the castle grounds, all overlooking the Irish Sea. Beautiful.

Today the kids are heading two houses down for a birthday party for one of the neighborhood girls. It will also involve final study and and review for tomorrow's message that I will be preaching up in Balbriggan.

Tomorrow morning we will be ministering and worshiping with the Balbriggan church. In the evening Andrea and I are going out together as a couple (this is way overdue) for an early celebration of 14 years of marriage.

To be continued...

Today’s speaking with the Grace church I feel went very well as we shared from Psalm 96 challenging on God's Mission for His People. Next Sunday we head up to Balbriggan to do the same. Last Wednesday’s cell was a great blessing as three Brazilians attended who had not been before moving the total of students to 11 (5 who were Brazilian) present that evening, and we were missing 3-4 regular attenders as well. The gospel was shared and I truly believe the Spirit was moving in hearts.

Saturday a week ago was our West Donnycarney Area Clean-up of which I was in charge of for our road (via my new role of being the rep for our road on the Residents Committee). With bags and gloves ready to distribute God used this opportunity for me and the boys to meet several neighbors we had yet to meet who live on the western side of Belton Park Gardens. It also deepened the friendships with the neighbors on our side of the road we knew already. We also had a much better turnout for our road this year than last which was great. Because of the good turnout several positive comments and thank-yous from neighbors were shared for our willingness to lead the charge. I am certain that taking on this role for our road in the community is bringing with it the respect of our neighbors as many of them called over (dropped by) this past week to see Andrea and the baby. We also had a few school parents drop by as well.  It’s quite amazing how God is using the arrival of little Kate and being our Road Representative in the community to continue to build and strengthen Kingdom gospel-centered relationships within our circle of influence.

This coming week will be another busy week as we have a couple coffee meetings in town, a third driver’s lesson for me (in preparation for my actual test), and visits to Galway, the Cliffs, and Scotland with Andrea’s parents.  

    Andrea and baby Kate are doing so very well for which we are so thankful to God. It's been quite a busy schedule the past few days, but they've been good days for sure. Saturday morning brought the arrival of Andrea's parents who will be with us for three weeks. O how good it is to be with them and for our kids to see their grandparents. We're planning to take in some of Ireland's sights and her dad and me are planning a one day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland (he has Scottish roots) to visit the former  birthplaces, homes and churches of Scottish preachers such as John Knox and Robert Murray McShane, men whom God used to raise His flag in that land. It's so cheap to fly throughout Europe, so we saw it as an opportunity we couldn't pass up. The both of us are able to get a roundtrip ticket from Dublin to Edinburgh for $30 dollars each! Incredible! We're really glad Russ and Judy are here. We've missed them.
   
    Saturday morning also brought the Area Clean-up day in which I was in charge of for our street. Thankfully we had great weather and several neighbors on our road joined in as we cleaned the road together. It enabled me to meet and know some neighbors I had yet to meet, and even more so, to earn the all important credibility and respect so needed when it comes to showing and sharing the hope of Jesus. Near the end of the clean-up most of us were discussing that we needed to plan an end of the summer party for all of our kids, which was exciting to hear as this just provides more opportunity to knit us together as neighbors and to open up more opportunities for kindness and chats. After the clean-up several of the neighbors thanked me for the work put into the clean-up, and it was obvious that God is using this opportunity He's given me as the road representative to earn respect as a fellow neighbor and friend, and as someone who genuinely cares about 'our' community. Even some of the little neighborhood girls made little medals that they gave out to those who helped. We had a good turnout for our road and that spoke highly and reflected well on us, which ultimately reflects back onto Jesus. The goal of all of this anyway is to show in a practical way the love of Jesus, and that purpose was met I truly believe.  I'm excited to see where this leads and how God continues to use this opportunity of community and neighborhood leadership as the road rep.
   
    Today Russ, myself, Grant and Luke, headed into Grace to be with the Church this morning. It was good to be back as we had been away for a couple weeks due to baby situations. There were three new Brazilian girls there for the first time and they got chatting with Russ when they found out he was in Brazil for 40 years as a missionary. Through the conversation he invited them to the Wednesday night Cell Bible Study which they seemed really excited about. So, we plan to see them this Wednesday.

    Tomorrow involves a trip back to the Immigration Bureau as Andrea and I have to renew our annual immigration card. If you remember, when we did this last year we had all kinds of issues which involved us being in that office numerous times in one week and getting the cards on the last day possible. Needless to say it was a chaotic time yet we saw God do what only He could do through the prayers of His people as He enabled us to receive those all important nationality cards. So, here we are once again headed back in tomorrow for renewal. Our hope is that since we were given cards already we won't have any issues this time around, but as you've heard us say before....'assume nothing'. We plan to head into the Bureau sometime around 11 a.m. our time. We will keep you posted and would appreciate your fervent prayers on this issue.

    This week involves our Immigration visit (which could involve days, but hopefully not),  reviewing and studying for Wednesday Cell Bible Study, as well as for the message I'll be preaching at Grace next Sunday morning. I also have another driver's lesson scheduled in for Tuesday, the boys have tennis every weekday from 10-11 a.m., and mixed in and around it all we hope to get in some of the local sites with Andrea's parents.

    To be continued...