Wrapping up 2012

Okay, one last post to wrap up the year. December was fun. Not only did our daughter come to visit but we had an invasion from Belfast, North Ireland. Pastor Alan and Karen Taylor came down with 11 people from the church to help us. They were amazing. They made the 5 hour drive down on Friday night after everyone got out of work, so they didn't arrive until after midnight.

Seven people from the team stayed with us, and since we only have one guest room, these guys had to blow up air mattresses before they could get some sleep in our living room.

The next day we went downtown and hit the streets. The streets were packed with Christmas shoppers so it was a great time to hand out flyers, witness and do some music and testify. Three of them rapped and sang and kept quite a crowd despite the on and off rain.

 

 

 

After a busy day and a quick supper we headed to the community center where we had a Christmas concert. We were so excited to have more than 20 visitors and 5 decisions. We are so blessed to have such great friends who will sacrifice so much to see the church established here. Thank You!!!

For Christmas we drove up to Belfast to celebrate with the Taylor and Sealy families. It was a real treat as our kids are far away and we didn't have any plans in Cork. We had a lot of fun - eating, talking, and playing games. On Boxing Day we didn't go shopping (I heard that the stores were just as insane as Black Friday in the States.) We went for a great walk instead.

Chris and Angela Sealy and their family will soon be moving back to London from Dublin. We're going to miss them, but I know they'll be a great blessing to the church there!











Well, Happy New Year to all of you! I'm excited to see what 2013 will bring.

Where did I go???

Yes, I'm still here. I didn't actually go anywhere. I've just been suffering from blog-lag. What's blog- lag you ask? It's a common malady. I've seen it happen to other bloggers from time to time. Blog-lag is when you don't know what to write. So you don't. But last week a friend from far away e-mailed me and encouraged me to begin again. (Thanks Regina!) So, I've been thinking about what I want to do with this blog, and I'm inspired for the new year.

Here's a bit of an update as to what's been going on here since I last posted. Thanksgiving can be a strange holiday when you're not in the States. It's just a normal workday to everyone else. We weren't sure what to do since the kids wouldn't be with us. (Carly and Desmond are in Holland, and Brian is in Arizona.) I didn't want to miss such a special day, so we decided to host a Thanksgiving party and just invited a bunch of people that we'd met here in Cork. None of them knew each other, but it was great. They all had heard lots about the great American tradition, and we were happy to introduce them to turkey with all the trimmings, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie, and of course, the most important part, to tell them who we are thankful to! I forgot my camera until the end of the evening, but here is one shot of Keith and our guests.

The next "biggie" was a visit from Carly! She came for a quick visit - only 2 days - but it was such a treat! (thanks for sending her Des! You're definitely my favorite son-in-law!) We had a great time showing her the sights in Cork.

 

                                   Here she is at Blackrock Castle showing her baby bump!


We took her to Kinsale. It's a cute little harbour town about 30 minutes away. It was a beautiful day. While there we discovered "Desmond Castle" so we had to take some pics for her hubby.

 

posing with our Irish palm trees

 

We took a wrong turn as we were leaving Kinsale. We were trying to find a restaurant that I'd read about on-line. Our GPS (who we've nick-named Maggie) got us totally lost! But it turned out to be a great thing as we ended up on the other side of the harbor where there was the most amazing view. My photos don't do it justice at all.

I love it when a seemingly wrong turn, turns out to be the right turn! The only problem with this view was the road that you had to take to leave:

       Narrow and steep doesn't even begin to describe it! I closed my eyes most of the way down!
We've had a few other fun things going on that I'll post about later this week. Until then, I wish you a very merry Christmas! We'll be going to Belfast to spend it with friends there.

Friends

This is my friend Inge.

Yes, she is as sweet as she looks! Last summer we were having breakfast the morning after the Bible conference in Holland and we were trying to figure out when she would come to Ireland to visit me. We talked about a few different ideas but weren't sure what would work. She said that she'd work on and be in touch. The next thing I knew, she had a few other friends interested in coming too! I thought it was a great idea, but kind of doubted that it would come together. We're all Pastor's wives and have busy schedules, but I was touched that they'd thought of it.

Well, once Inge gets busy with something it really happens! Back in Cork I got an e-mail that 7 of them would come to visit! What an awesome treat!

                           
                              Inge, Margreet, Leyla, Marlies, Zwantje, Me, Gerda and Hanneke

We had such a great time. It was the first time any of us had done a "girls getaway" like this, but I don't think it will be the last. It was great therapy! We talked, shopped, ate, and laughed until we cried. I am so privileged to call these lovely ladies my friends, and so blessed that they would all come to visit me!

We went to Blarney Castle - No, none of us kissed the stone, but we did make it to the top.  

 

      

 

And so it begins...

We're open! Yay!!! Saturday we had 19 Dubliners invade our city. These awesome people gave up their Saturday and made the 3 hour drive to come and help us. What a blessing!

                                         Pastor Chris Sealey and the Blanchardstown crew.

                                                                 We fed them lunch.



And then it was time to pray!

 

 

and then hit the streets!

 

 

 

                                That night we showed a movie and had our first visitor.

            We're so thankful for all these wonderful friends who came and helped us in Cork!

Getting ready

We're so excited - only 2 more days until we open! Keith has been busy with all the details; searching for and buying equipment, designing and ordering advertising and a banner. Today our banner arrived in the mail.

We were planning on using an A-frame sidewalk sign, but the day we went to order it we heard on the radio that the Cork city council had decided to ban them. We were so glad that we hadn't wasted any money on one!

This can hang on the fence in front of the community center and will probably be more noticeable anyways.
                                       

                               
We have a pile of equipment that seems to grow with each day. You never really think about how much stuff you use - until you have to move it.

                                                             
The flyers arrived today, so we were able to go downtown and outreach! We're so looking forward to Saturday. Both of the churches in Dublin are sending teams down to help us. Please pray for good weather!

So last week we had a treat, one of my husband Keith's relatives came to town. Barbara is his mother's cousin. Her grandfather, Jeremiah O'Neil was Keith's great-grandfather.

Barbara has been coming over to Ireland for the last 45 years and she's a wealth of information. She filled us in on where all the different relatives came from and even drove us out to Kenmare where Keith's greatgrandfather was born. That cottage is in ruins and overgrown, but I did get to snap a photo of him there.

                                                                      
We then stopped to see some relatives who still live in that area - and by chance got to meet 2 of Keith's cousins who were there visiting, and get this, they live in Cork!

We had a great time seeing that part of Ireland and actually got as far west as Kerry county. I can't wait to go exploring there in the spring, it was so beautiful. The mountain roads were more than a little scary though, very curvy and narrow, with random sheep jumping about and the speed limit was
100 km (that's 60mph)!

                                                                     Kinsale Bay

                                                                      Bantry Bay

                                                                      
                                                 ....and somewhere in the mountains.

This is going to be a busy and exciting week for us. The opening for our new church, "The Potter's House Cork" will be this weekend. Please pray for us and I'm sure I'll be writing about it soon!
                   

Updates

I realized that I hadn't written for a while, but that's because we've been BUSY!

                                                     
                                                                      We got a car!  

                                  
                         Keith preached in both of the churches in Dublin. 

                                                         
and we found a building where we can start services!!!

                                                                    

                                                                            
                                                So, we'll be opening November 3rd and 4th!