Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Wednesday at 5:00 AM Time to Go Home
Hello from Jeff:
IT is 5:00 AM-and we are leaving in 30 minutes to catch the bus to the Airport. Everyone is well and we will see you soon.
Carol Agate is coordinating with parents who want to come to the airport-feel free to meet us. We get in at 6:35 PM on American airlines Flight AA 4159 from Chicago.
See ya soon.
Jeff.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Monday Monday -Good to Me
Hello from Jeff.
Today we painted yet another room with 13 foot ceilings. We split into two groups. One took a half day off to see the rest of the city. There is a hop on and hop off bus that loops the city constantly. The tickets are good for 24 hours so half the team went in the afternoon and the other half will use the same tickets tomorrow morning.
This evening was the launch of the festival- the first performer was------[warning-moms may need a hanky for the following]-----Jordan. She had an informal audition and they loved her. So, the artists asked her to start off the show. She did great, and sang for 15 minutes. Followed by three professinonal acts.
By the way, we have loads of added pictures, but they take all night to load and then at the last minute there is an error code--so I am setting up another album to run. There are still about 300 more pictures to add from my camera, and hundreds from the kids' cameras. We may have to just make them available on a dvd when we get home, but I will continue to try to add some.
Tonight we also had a great bible study focusing on our relationship with Christ. The kids all have homework assignments to journal their thoughts. Dawn Zeta and I will be meeting one on one with them tommorrow afternoon. Please be praying that they can grow in their faith and honestly think about their beliefs. I have to tell you that I have seen some of the kids grow a lot on this trip. It has been very gratifying.
Tonight was very special as the kids sat around and enjoyed each others company at the arts festival.
By the way-the church service has been posted to the web. I am not getting it on my mac here, but maybe you can listen. The link appears to be: www.rte.ie/radio1/religion/1202777.html
Let me know if anyone figures this out.
Goodnight folks, and thanks for letting me take your kids to Ireland,
Jeff
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Sunday - Spectacular!
What another amazing day in Dublin! Hi everyone, this is Dawn. It's my turn to post, and I can't wait to tell you about our spectacular day.
We walked over to Abbey Church this morning at 9:45 a.m. for a practice run through of the worship service. This morning's service was broadcast live over RTE international radio and Alan Boal, the pastor, was very excited we were here. Their congregation is too small to sing loudly enough for the microphones to pick up the words very well and they weren't familiar with the praise song, "Arise, Arise My Soul Arise." The gentleman from the RTE radio station, who continued to refer to us as "The Yanks", kept telling us that we needed to sing louder. As 10:45 a.m. and the start of the service drew near, we all quieted down and waited in silence for the "we are on the air" signal. I quietly prayed that we would be able to minister to perhaps a shut-in or someone who was elderly or ill through our worship broadcast. Alan had a beautiful service, clearly spelling out what a mess this world has become and although we deserve God's condemnation, Jesus has given us His wonderful grace that we don't deserve. After the final prayer, we all waited in silence again until the "we're off the air" signal. It was amazing to think that God's plan might be to use Alan, this church, this congregation, and our mission team as his vehicle to reach and bring to Him even one of the millions of people who could listen to this broadcast. The RTE guy said that he thought this worship service was the best put together service he has ever seen - and we also sang great! It was spectacular!
Alan also stated that this broadcast will be available for the next 10 days on the web. I'm not sure exactly how to get to that broadcast, but the Abbey church website is http://web.mac.com/abbeychurch might have the link if you are interested in hearing our beautiful voices :).
After church we walked back to Harvey's Guest House and got ready to head into town (I think we've walked at least 100 miles so far!). Jeff found a traditional Irish Pub called The Box House where we all enjoyed huge portions of authentic Irish food. It was spectacular!
The Box House Pub was close to the Temple Bar area where on Sundays a bustling crowd of people enjoy pubs, shops and random musicians who set up on any street corner and perform for passersby. We had taken our guitar along, and Jordan Agate had the privilege of playing and singing outside of one of the pubs. It was so cool to see people just stop and listen to her sing (Carol - she really should go into this as a profession - she was Great!!!). People threw euros into her open guitar case and we were able to hand out post card size announcements about more musical performances that were planned at the Abbey Arts Festival that starts tomorrow at the church. There already are or shortly will be lots of pictures of Jordan on this blog. To be able to watch Jordan perform and tell folks about the christian arts festival. . . it was simply spectacular!
After we packed up the guitar, Jeff told us we had to go to some library! We all thought . . . REALLY? But once we got there he told us that it wasn't just any library, it was the Chester Beatty museum library and that it displayed 22,000 rare and precious manuscripts, books and paintings. Sir Alfred Chester Beatty's collection is considered among the most impressive collections of its kinds in the world. He took us to the second floor and in a dimly lit room, we were actually able to stand there and look at a small piece of papyrus that had a portion of John's gospel written on it that dated back to 150 A.D! I just stood there amazed - it was truly spectacular!
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. we are all gathering with Alan, his wife, Ruth, and the summer interns to hold a prayer meeting for the Arts Festival which starts tomorrow. We have a lot of work ahead of us as we transform this huge room we've just cleaned up and painted into an art exhibit and cafe area (which we can't do until the African and Romanian churches are done using the church for their services today). Tomorrow we will be passing out more of the post card invitations to come to the festival and hopefully will get to do some more street ministry.
Well, it's half six as the Dubliners say, meaning it's 6:30 p.m. I'd better get ready for the prayer meeting. For all the moms at home, everyone is doing just fine.
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Dawn
We walked over to Abbey Church this morning at 9:45 a.m. for a practice run through of the worship service. This morning's service was broadcast live over RTE international radio and Alan Boal, the pastor, was very excited we were here. Their congregation is too small to sing loudly enough for the microphones to pick up the words very well and they weren't familiar with the praise song, "Arise, Arise My Soul Arise." The gentleman from the RTE radio station, who continued to refer to us as "The Yanks", kept telling us that we needed to sing louder. As 10:45 a.m. and the start of the service drew near, we all quieted down and waited in silence for the "we are on the air" signal. I quietly prayed that we would be able to minister to perhaps a shut-in or someone who was elderly or ill through our worship broadcast. Alan had a beautiful service, clearly spelling out what a mess this world has become and although we deserve God's condemnation, Jesus has given us His wonderful grace that we don't deserve. After the final prayer, we all waited in silence again until the "we're off the air" signal. It was amazing to think that God's plan might be to use Alan, this church, this congregation, and our mission team as his vehicle to reach and bring to Him even one of the millions of people who could listen to this broadcast. The RTE guy said that he thought this worship service was the best put together service he has ever seen - and we also sang great! It was spectacular!
Alan also stated that this broadcast will be available for the next 10 days on the web. I'm not sure exactly how to get to that broadcast, but the Abbey church website is http://web.mac.com/abbeychurch might have the link if you are interested in hearing our beautiful voices :).
After church we walked back to Harvey's Guest House and got ready to head into town (I think we've walked at least 100 miles so far!). Jeff found a traditional Irish Pub called The Box House where we all enjoyed huge portions of authentic Irish food. It was spectacular!
The Box House Pub was close to the Temple Bar area where on Sundays a bustling crowd of people enjoy pubs, shops and random musicians who set up on any street corner and perform for passersby. We had taken our guitar along, and Jordan Agate had the privilege of playing and singing outside of one of the pubs. It was so cool to see people just stop and listen to her sing (Carol - she really should go into this as a profession - she was Great!!!). People threw euros into her open guitar case and we were able to hand out post card size announcements about more musical performances that were planned at the Abbey Arts Festival that starts tomorrow at the church. There already are or shortly will be lots of pictures of Jordan on this blog. To be able to watch Jordan perform and tell folks about the christian arts festival. . . it was simply spectacular!
After we packed up the guitar, Jeff told us we had to go to some library! We all thought . . . REALLY? But once we got there he told us that it wasn't just any library, it was the Chester Beatty museum library and that it displayed 22,000 rare and precious manuscripts, books and paintings. Sir Alfred Chester Beatty's collection is considered among the most impressive collections of its kinds in the world. He took us to the second floor and in a dimly lit room, we were actually able to stand there and look at a small piece of papyrus that had a portion of John's gospel written on it that dated back to 150 A.D! I just stood there amazed - it was truly spectacular!
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. we are all gathering with Alan, his wife, Ruth, and the summer interns to hold a prayer meeting for the Arts Festival which starts tomorrow. We have a lot of work ahead of us as we transform this huge room we've just cleaned up and painted into an art exhibit and cafe area (which we can't do until the African and Romanian churches are done using the church for their services today). Tomorrow we will be passing out more of the post card invitations to come to the festival and hopefully will get to do some more street ministry.
Well, it's half six as the Dubliners say, meaning it's 6:30 p.m. I'd better get ready for the prayer meeting. For all the moms at home, everyone is doing just fine.
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Dawn
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Friday and Saturday
On Friday we left the house at 5:30 AM to go to Galway by train. We had a great day. Please look through the pictures for a good review of the day.
We had planned on taking the 8:00 train back to Dublin, but at around 4:30 we found out that the 8:00 train "don't run any more"-uh oh. We had to get the bus driver to motor back and let us off with about 4 minutes to spare to catch the 6:05 bus back home. Because of that, we had very little time actually in Galway, but all day out in the countryside. The most spectacular setting being the cliffs of muran.
We got to Dublin at 10:30. Bob "volunteered" to accompany the ladies back to the B&B and I took the rest of the kids into the Temple Bar area for some food. Aywhere else is long closed down at that hour. The only place open and serving was the Bad A** [donkey] Cafe. They let us in one minute before closing and insisted that the kitchen was open for us.
We had a great meal. Please see the last two pictures to see Steves Bad A** Burger and my Posh Burger with Goat Cheese (probably only need to experience that once per trip).
Today we are finishing up and getting ready for the broadcast tommorrow.
See ya later.
Jeff
We had planned on taking the 8:00 train back to Dublin, but at around 4:30 we found out that the 8:00 train "don't run any more"-uh oh. We had to get the bus driver to motor back and let us off with about 4 minutes to spare to catch the 6:05 bus back home. Because of that, we had very little time actually in Galway, but all day out in the countryside. The most spectacular setting being the cliffs of muran.
We got to Dublin at 10:30. Bob "volunteered" to accompany the ladies back to the B&B and I took the rest of the kids into the Temple Bar area for some food. Aywhere else is long closed down at that hour. The only place open and serving was the Bad A** [donkey] Cafe. They let us in one minute before closing and insisted that the kitchen was open for us.
We had a great meal. Please see the last two pictures to see Steves Bad A** Burger and my Posh Burger with Goat Cheese (probably only need to experience that once per trip).
Today we are finishing up and getting ready for the broadcast tommorrow.
See ya later.
Jeff
P.S.
Mom Witter-I keep trying to get pictures of your daughter, but she is illusive. I snuck some tonight at dinner- and will add them to the album.
Jeff
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