We'll call this the catch-up blog :)

Slainte! (Cheers)

Hey welcome to the first official blog of a Jesus hobo in ireland! 

Well let me start off by saying, if you are anywhere but Ireland and reading this, I miss you. Thats not to say I'm not having the time of my life here because I am, but I do miss you all. 

This is the catch up blog so that you guys are kind of up to speed on what I've been up to. This blog will probably be more factual and business-y, but I'm hoping the next blogs are more funny and anecdotal. No promises though :)  I have officially been here in Ireland for 12 weeks or so. We've been on the road for 6 of those weeks. I guess I should start from the beginning. 

I flew out of Dallas on the 11th and arrived in Dublin Airport on the 12th of August. I then took a 3 hour bus ride with 3 other Netters to a town called Derry, in Northern Ireland. When we were being picked up from the bus stop all of us Americans walked around to the wrong side of the car where there is no door, because we were so used to the way things were in America. We could NOT figure out how to get into that van to save our lives. In our defense we did have some serious jet lag and we were all exhausted, but still it was pretty hilarious.

For Training I spent 6 weeks with our Net staff. Shane and Shanelle Bennett from NET Australia were with us for the first 2 weeks, until teams were announced. When teams were announced I was asked to be the Female leader for the Road Team. Training-wise we spent the first week in a very intense retreat setting, we had a great time and grew a lot even in the first week. From that point on we kept moving forward learning different skills and things we would need for our ministry!

Team announcements were a lot of fun! I was put on a team with 10 people, 6 girls and 4 boys. We have 6 from USA, 2 from Canada, 1 from Trinidad and Tobago, and 1 from Ireland. Let me tell you, there is no logical way that this situation should work, but Jesus has really annointed our team and we literally act like brothers and sisters after only 3 months of knowing each other. Each and everyone of my teammates has something really amazing and beautiful about them, and I am so blessed to be with each and everyone of them.

Finally after 6 weeks of craziness and getting to know each other and learning things like how to not embarrass ourselves when speaking to irish kids, (apparently they call pants, trousers, and they call underwear, pants... you can only imagine the slightly awkward situations we have found ourselves)  we were put out onto the road. Literally. We had one retreat about an hour away from our home office in Balleybofey, in a town called Letterkenny, and then we picked up and travelled all the way down to the bottom of ireland to a town called Kenmare, Co. Kerry. It was one of the most beautiful places in Ireland that I have been to so far. The picture below is actually the view from the backyard of the guesthouse we were staying at in Kenmare.

Since then we have been working, doing about 4 or 5 retreats a week, all around Ireland. On average we stay in the same place about 3 days but no longer than a week. I think we have done about 20 or so retreats so far, and let me tell you, God is working in Ireland. These people are HUNGRY for Jesus and are just waiting for someone to tell them about it. I am so so blessed that God chose me to do that!

There is something special about giving total control to God. I would suggest everyone try it. I have never been more materially poor, but I have also never been more spiritually rich than I am right now.

PTL!! (Praise the Lord)