The Dutch Invasion

In July we had the awesome privilege of hosting a huge team from Holland. 45 people came from Zwolle for 5 days and were joined by 12 from Schiedam at the end of the week. They were such an amazing help to us. We hit the streets every day; witnessing, preaching, doing concerts and dramas, anything to draw a crowd and present the gospel. The team was great, working hard in the unusual-for -Ireland sunshine and heat.

I was a little busy while they were here, so I didn't take that many photos. If you'd like to see some really nice photos, please visit http://lighthousefotografie.blogspot.ie/ This is the blog of Janny Beimer. She's an amazing photographer.

Here's some of the shots I did manage to take during the week........


organizing 45 people and their luggage at the airport takes a little time

                    We had to hire a bus to get everyone around.

 





                                            Like father.....

 



........like son!

 



                                                           Dramas drew good crowds.

                  One of the best things was that so many people got to be witnessed to one-on-one.

                                                                        Preaching!

 

We rented a local café for a concert one night.

 

We also had a concert at the community center where we have our services.

 

 

We had some great services with Pastor Johan Houtman and Etienne DeSain preaching. It was so cool to see the hall packed to overflowing and all the people on the team made impact through the prayer meeting, song service, praise and the altar call. They were great examples to our people.

 

 

On the last day we took the Schiedam folks to do a little sight-seeing. We went to the beautiful village of Kinsale. It was the first day of "Irish weather", but we managed somehow.

 



We had such a good time with the teams and really appreciate all their help. God did great things and we have new people coming to the church as a direct result of their labors! Thank you!!!

Such a nice birthday gift!

My birthday is July 4th. It's a great day to be born. As a kid I thought that all the festivities were for me! Who else got parades, picnics and fireworks for their birthday? I thought that I was pretty special!

But when you live in a country other than America, the 4th of July is just another day on the calendar. After 12 years I'm used to it. But this year I got a special treat for my birthday - I got to go to Holland to see some special people!

I did find a bit of 4th of July patriotism at the airport

Jason had just turned 2 months on the 3rd. It was amazing to see how much he'd grown and changed. He is such a love, always smiling and cooing. He's a real snuggly, cuddly baby too, and this Nana couldn't get enough of him.

 

Of course I had to share him with Grandpa too.

 

 



Yes, Grandpa was talking to him about guitars!

 



We had such a great time with Carly, Desmond and Jason. Carly made me an awesome birthday cake, we hit the sales and scored - (Yay for great deals and shopping with my own personal shopper!)

and we just had such a great time being with them - they're awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to reminisce about Keith's birthday last year. That's the day we found out that Carly was pregnant! They told Keith in classic style, giving him a gift wrapped baby book and letting him figure it out.

 







It's hard to believe that was almost a year ago already!

 

We had another reason for being in Holland. Keith was asked to preach a marriage retreat in Amersfoort. It was such a fun time. I love those things, the atmosphere is always so great, and I'm a big fan of anything that strengthens and supports marriages!

 



 

It was such a treat to be able to spend my birthday with family and to be able to see everyone in Amersfoort. (Thanks Marlies and Martin!)



June went by too quickly....

I know that it probably makes me sound old, but it really does feel like time is speeding up. It's halfway through the month of July and I'm just now thinking about writing about June. I heard someone explain it once that time really does speed up as you get older because it's all proportional to how long you've lived. To a 5 year old, one year is one fifth of their life, to a ten year old it's one tenth, but to me, it's just one forty-something-ith, so of course it's shorter and goes by much faster.

Anyways, in June we had a wonderful impact team from Breda, Holland come to Cork for a few days. We put them to work Saturday. It was hot and sunny and the streets were packed. They did music and drama and preached on the streets. Many people stopped to find out what it was all about and were witnessed to and several prayed right there to be born again!

 

 

Then it was time to head back to the house for a quick barbecue before the movie that night. Breda people really do love their food!

 

 



At the movie that night and in the services on Sunday we saw visitors come and people get saved! Some of the people from the team also did some special music for us - it was a real treat!

 

 

We really are thankful for all their help, patience and good attitude (despite late nights, hot sun, bus accidents, airport evacuations, and pouring rain - I won't show you pictures of those!) I'll just show one more picture of our cheerful team! Thank you all so much for coming!