Opa and Oma came to town

We recently had some very special visitors to Cork. John and Ria Burghard are not only friends of ours, but they will also be grandparents to our grandchildren. That's a complicated way of saying that they are our son-in-law Desmond's parents.

We had a great time showing them around our part of Ireland. We visited a cute little village, Cobh. It was the last place where the Titanic took on passengers before sinking. They have a great little museum there and we all enjoyed going through it.

We had great weather while they were here so we also took them to the village of Kinsale and to Blarney Castle.

 

And of course John had to get a proper Irish cap while he was here - Johhny O'Burghard???

 

 

The Burghard's have always been so gracious to us and our children when we've been with them in Holland and it was so nice to be able to return the hospitality.

Radio Time

We got to do something a little different today. A local Christian radio station had us in to give our testimonies and talk a little bit about the differences between living in Cork, America and Lithuania. It was fun, but a little nervous. I was focusing on trying not to say "um" and "like" a million times, so I think I babbled a bit (okay, more than a bit!)

Me in the studio, I got a picture of Keith, but only on Instagram.

One of the interesting things that they asked us to do was to bring in a couple of songs that meant something to us. At first I thought that would be difficult to narrow it down. I've been a Christian now for more than 27 years and I've had a lot of favorite songs over the years, but 2 really stuck out for me - and fortunately we still had both of them on CD's

The first song that I chose was "When God Ran" by Benny Hester. I originally had this song on a cassette tape and I wore that thing out because I played it so many times. I remember crying the first time I heard the lyrics because it put into words exactly how I felt when I came back to Jesus.

Here's the words -

Almighty God
The Great I Am
Immovable Rock,
Omnipotent powerful

Awesome Lord
Victorious Warrior
Commanding King of Kings
Mighty Conquerer

And the only time
The only time I ever saw Him run

Was when He ran to me
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
Said "My son's come home again"
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"

It caught me by surprise when God ran

The day I left home
I knew I'd broken His heart
I wondered then
If things could ever be the same

Then one night
I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road
Ahead I could see

It's the only time
The only time I ever saw Him run

When He ran to me
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
Said "My son's come home again"
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"

It caught me by surprise
It brought me to my knees
When God ran

I saw Him run to me
And then I ran to Him

(Instrumental)

Holy One, Righteous Judge
He turned my way
Now I know He's been waiting
For this day

And then He ran to me
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
Said "My son's come home again"
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
I felt His love for me and then He

Ran to me
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
Said "My son's come home again"
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice
He said Son, He said Son, My Son
Do you know I still love you
Oh He ran to me
When God ran

The music is very '80's, but the lyrics are great!

The other song I picked was from the band DownHere, it's called "Little Is Much" and it has encouraged me so many times, I've lost count. Here's the words -

What is the measure of a life well lived
If all I can offer seems too small to give
This is a song for the weaker, the poorer
And so-called failures

Little is much when God's in it
And no one can fathom the plans He holds
Little is much when God's in it
He changes the world with the seeds we sow
Little is much, little is much

Who feels tired and under-qualified
Who feels deserted, and hung out to dry
This is a song for the broken, the beat-up
And so-called losers

Consider a Kingdom in the smallest seed
Consider that giants fall to stones and slings
Consider a child in a manger
Consider the story isn't over
What can be done with what you still have

So, how about you? Do you know these songs? and what songs would you pick if you had to?

Resolutions

Can I tell you a secret? Well, I guess if I tell you it won't be a secret anymore, but here it is; I really like New Year's resolutions. So many people mock them or complain about them, but I love the idea of making a fresh start and commitment. I know it sounds kind of dorky, but that's me.


I have a few resolutions for 2013 (beyond my usual ones of eating healthier and exercising more!)

1> Memorize the book of Philippians

A few years ago I began to be bothered by how few scriptures I could recite from memory. I had read a book about Christians in China and their passion for the Word of God so inspired me. So I began to memorize verses. I can't even begin to explain how much it has helped me. Philippians consists of 104 verses so if you memorize 2 verses each week you can learn the entire book in one year.

2> Learn to play the mandolin

Last year for Christmas my husband bought me a mandolin. I love country music and thought this would be fun. Well, one year later all I have to show for it is a very short left hand manicure, semi-callused fingertips and the ability to play a few chords and a couple of tunes. I want to commit to practicing and really learning to play this year.

3> Learn to speak Dutch

We are expecting our first grandchild in the spring! Our daughter Carly and her husband Desmond live in the Netherlands so this baby will obviously grow up speaking Dutch. Carly has promised that she will teach her children English, but I'd like to be able to understand what the little ones are saying! We have a computer program that we've started with, and so far I've learned to say such useful phrases as "the clown has blue hair." Hopefully it will get better as it goes along, but if my grandkids say that about me, I'll be onto them ;)

How about you, any resolutions for the new year?

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!