TIME FLIES!

Back in Dublin!
And what a wonderful feeling it is. No more bed bugs or shower issues.
The team trip is quickly coming to an end unfortunately. Team leader Tim, or, in Jordan's case "papa Tim" has already headed home on Friday morning. We all miss him dearly.

Already we've continued delivering magaizines from when we first began the trip in the beginning of May. Lots of walking. The weather here has been spectacular. Apparently it's unusual that it gets this warm at this time of the year. Compared to our weather in both Newcastle West and Tramor, it's been really nice here.

The church is having a retreat this weekend for the long weekend. Many of the church members are here enjoying the fellowship and warm weather. We've (as in the team) have been helping out with setup for meals and cleanup and such. Helping out in any way we can. Our meetings or "sessions" have been grand. Ron has been leading the meetings in a devotion type setting about the book of Acts. By devotion, I mean that everyone is listening but can feel free to speak thoughts on certain things. It's a really great way to get involved and all bounce off each others' thoughts.

So far it feels like this trip has been going way too fast. But I guess that's why they say "time flies when you're having fun"

Trin and Stef.

Monday May 30th

Today we distributed magazines and invitations to the gospel meeting in the morning. For the afternoon we went out on the doors which seemed a bit daunting at first because we haven't done it for a few days now and most on the team still feel a bit inesperienced (we could use some prayer for that- that God will give us boldness and the words to say to get good conversations going). A lot of us had quite a few discouraging interatctins with people who say "no thanks, we're catlic and we're happy with what we have, bye." or who challenge us and ask what we think we're doing showing up at their doors. But the neat thing is that there were some very open doors that we got along the way too :]

Some people who had great conversations and heard the gospel were Louise, Amy, Claire, 2 lesbien girls, Carl, Mary, and a handful of others. There were quite a few people who said that they would come to the gospel meeting on Sunday night. Carl is 30 has 6 months left to live and has decided he doesn't want God and will take the consiquences but his heart was touched and David said that we would pray for him. Mary had her 2 young children and dispite the distractions, listened very well for a good while and received some tracts and a CD "the uniqueness of Christianity." Louise also had a young girl with her and was against religion and a bit negetive at first but was greatly impacted by the gospel and hearing Heidi's testamony and talked for a long time. The two lesbien girls were very strong in their view of religion and God but were greatly challenged and could see the truth of what Heidi and Katie were saying about the Bible and by the end of the conversation promised that they would check out the books of John and Romans to see if they were right or wrong about the Bible.

Tim and Trinity's conversation with Claire would be the most encouraging of the whole day. As they first began talking they were invited in from the rain to have some tea and they stayed for at least two hours explaining the gospel. Tim says, "If it could be a scale of 0-5, 0 never hearing the gospel and 5 getting saved Claire would be a 4.9 as she listened intently for two hours. She said she wanted to get close to God and she wondered how she could get close to God and they went into the whole process of how she could know God and receive salvation."


It is exciting to see everyone learn about working as a team for evangelism. Over all, it was an encouraging day because there were some who heard the gospel and were responsive to it's truth. We would ask for continued prayers for strength. Each tough conversation and each good one leaves us a bit warn out.

Sunday May 29

Heidi here- During Friday and Saturday's street evangelism there were three teenage girls who were very interested who were in a large group of kids who Trinity and I talked with. Their names are Shavan and Haylee and another who's name we forgot. I also spoke with three Muslim gentlemen and there was one who was very accepting and interested and he could see my genuine heart and he said he appreciated hearing about the gospel. I'd like it if you would pray for these people who had open ears to the gospel.

On Sunday the 29 Tim gave the message and the team was able to sing some special music for the assembly's morning church meeting. It was wonderful to meet more of the believers in the church and it was great to be an encouragement to them as a small assembly.
Later in the afternoon we went out and handed out some last minute invitations to the meeting and a few people wound up coming with us right on the spot. For the meeting our "tnt choir" sang Light of the World and Amazing Grace and Tim gave a powerful gospel message. There was a group of younger boys who were lined up in the front row. They got uncomfortable and left halfway through the message but Jordan felt God's leading that he should go after them. He jumped up and caught them outside the hotel where we were meeting and explained to them what Tim was getting at in his message. He says he's not sure how well they listened to him but he shared the gospel clearly.

Others who heard the gospel clearly and stayed back for at least an hour talking with us was an older Irish man named Michael, a single mom Eleanor and her two boys, an old bachelor named Ceiron, and a Bosnian guy named Jonathan. All had great conversations but the best change in demeanor was Eleanor who was very apprehensive at first and began to understand as our conversation went on. I was really able to share my faith with her.

Friday May 27

The sun is shining, the town square is packed with people and the paint and brushes are ready. It’s a perfect day for open air preaching in Waterford. This was the day we woke up to on the 28th. It seemed that God had prepared a perfect day to go out and share the good news of His son with the Irish people, and that’s what we did. As a team we made our way down into the town square where people were spending their afternoons shopping and sitting in the sun. We began to set up our sketch board while we did our best to avoid the strange looks that people were giving us as they walked by. While Tim began preparing his sketch board message, we went into the streets and began handing out material and speaking to anyone who would lend us an ear. Then the time came to watch messages from both Tim and Ernie as they shared the gospel using paint and paper to speak of the eternal hope we have in Christ. Before long, many young people had gathered to both listen and mock us. This didn’t bother us too much however because it created some very good discussions. “How can we know God is real when we can’t see him?!” One teenager demanded loudly. “Do you believe the wind is real?” someone on the team responded, “You can’t see the wind, only the effects of it!” The young teenager had to stop and think about this answer. The team member continued: “We feel the effects of God through our lives, even though we don’t see Him!” This began an extremely positive discussion at the end of which, 5 bibles were given away! Connections were also made through facebook and email. Overall it was a very uplifting and positive experience and God was quite clearly with us.

Team bonding has been extremely important. We know that if we are not unified, we can’t do the work of the Lord properly. This is why it has been wonderful to have a team that not only works well together but enjoys each other’s company as well. One example of this was yesterday when we were listening to Irish music. In very North American fashion, we began doing our best Irish jigs. Most of us looked like marionettes flopping limply on a string but some weren’t that bad. The best of us was Ernie, who looked like a much older version of Michael Flatley. It was a very fun night.

-Jordan

On the Road Again....

It's time to move on again. We wrapped up our stay at Newcastle West with two more days of kids club, delivering magazines, and witnessing door to door. We were sad to leave the church family there but are looking forward to new adventures in Waterford. Our first day in Waterford was spent delivering magazines and then witnessing downtown in the main square. We did different ministries there from handing out tracks and having conversations with people about the gospel to singing and using paint to explain the gospel to the crowds. We had many different responses from the locals. There were a few encouraging conversations, but sadly, most seemed turned off by the gospel and would run off the minute Jesus' name was mentioned in the messages. One person in the square completely rejected the literature just because it had something to do with God. Others would stay just to mock what we said or believed. I pray that those who stayed to mock, listened to what we had to say and that they would come to Christ. Please pray that the team would continue to be bold even through these kinds of responses as we are going to be in the square again tomorrow.

Also keep in your prayers the plumbing in the house we are now living in. For some reason the water is not really working as it should, and the plumber does not know why.

Thank you to all the people at home who are praying and following the blog at home. We greatly appreciate everything you all do!

-Stefanie

Welcome Heidi.

This morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day. We all met in the living room at the cheery hour of 8:45 am. Ernie shared his testimony, and Art led a devotional on John chapter 4. After that we distributed more 4U magazines to Dromcolligher and stopped by the remains of a nearby castle and a local Donkey Sanctuary. When we returned back to the house we cooked lunch and welcomed Heidi. We are so thankful that she arrived safely in Ireland, and now our team is finally complete. After lunch some started preparing for our second day of children's club, while others prepared to do door to door ministry. On the door to door time we encountered many different responses . Some were not open at all, while others were really interested in what we had to say. One person Claire in particular was really interested and wanted us to come back. While half the team did the doors the other half were busy doing children's club which went very well. The team was very encouraged as there were quite a few more kids who came today. It was great to be able to present the gospel to the children and to see how much they enjoyed the songs and the Bible lesson. Then to finish off the evening we all went to Burnett's for a lovely dinner.

Prayer Requests:
Please pray for Claire, the woman we met today who was really open to the gospel.
Also pray for a last successful day doing children's club tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers and support!