Being Turned Inside Out

I know I haven't written in awhile. To be honest, I haven't done a lot of adventuring during that time. What has been happening has been much more personal. God has been confronting me with not only the way I view Him and the ways that He works, but He has also been confronting me with the way I view myself, and how that reflects back upon Him. These are hard lessons to learn. If a person has grown up a Christian, they have looked at what has happened in their life, and the course on which their life has gone thus far, and they have drawn conclusions from this about how God works and what God wants to do with them. It is, for instance, way easier to "believe" that God is untamable, like Aslan, than to see the effects of the Spirit of God doing things that do not make sense to you. Your box of "Who God Is" and "What God Does" gets broken. Suddenly, God doesn't fit into the mold anymore. Suddenly, the Spirit of God seems a stranger. Who is this Spirit, and why is he working in a way that He hasn't before in my life? If He's not acting like I thought He always would, should I still trust Him?

That is a sampling of some of the questions that went through my head and heart a few weeks ago, and I would be lying if I said the issue has gone away. The temptation is to just say "yes" or "no," and then move on in that direction. But I don't want to do that. I want to carefully examine and consider what I am seeing. I want to test whether these things are of God. And if they are, that means I have some changing to do. If they're not, I still have some changing to do. Because you cannot see and acknowledge such things, and then act like they are not true; you have to respond. Otherwise, you don't grow, and what was the point of that experience anyway? So I want to not just discount or accept new principles and experience, but to broaden my understanding of God, and at the same time deepen my trust in Him.

Whether or not I agree with everything that I see, or that comes to mind, I believe it is my responsibility what I do with it as a possibility--how I handle it, how I respond to it, how I let it mold my views and affect my life. It is with this mentality that I have struggled through questions of just how wild the Holy Spirit is, what I can trust that I know for certain about God, and what lies the enemy has told me or conclusions I have drawn about myself upon which I have based my entire way of thinking. In the past three or four weeks, I have constantly been falling apart and being put back together--not a state conducive to accurate and fruitful communication to others, but certainly a necessary state of metamorphosis.

I came here intending to lose myself in the culture. I am indeed losing myself, but it is not the culture here that I find changing me. God has seen what I have done to myself in the name of chasing after His glory and being pleasing in His sight. He has seen to the real core of issues that I once dug up in my limited understanding. I tried to fix things according to what the Bible said, and according to what people told me what they saw of me. I tried to blend in with culture at home. But that is not what God wanted for me. Perhaps that is not what He ever intended.

If I have prayer requests, they are these: To be open to the full depth of God's love, not frightened of how overpowering it is, or its grip on me; to be positively responsive to it, as He picks up things in my heart that I would rather destroy or let collect dust on a shelf than even look at (let alone deal with). That my spirit would line up with my body, rather than feel trapped in it. And that my physical body (and my emotions and spirit, I suppose) would hold up under the strain of early mornings and long days of focus. (My body has already given out periodically over the last couple weeks. It seems to be doing better now; I can only hope and pray that continues.)

We have two weeks until our Outreach Phase begins. The first 16 days of our 2-month Outreach will be what we are calling the "Border Walk." This involves us walking the entire 200-mile border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, crisscrossing between the two countries so that we spend each night in a different city in the alternate country. (Remember that although it's all on the island of Ireland, as we walk this line we ARE technically crossing an international border [even though passports will not be an issue], and all the Irish know it. So please pray against prejudices, especially for our two Northern Irish teammates as we go repeatedly into the Republic.) The Border Walk is actually a prayer walk, praying for reconciliation, and we will be carrying a large wooden cross with us as we walk and pray. Word is the smallest distance we will travel in one day is 8 miles, and the largest distance is 22 miles. As most of us are out of shape, and have tennis shoes that are not ideal for such long stretches of walking, the distance we are covering on foot seems rather formidable. Please pray for strength (physical, emotional, and spiritual), that even in our weakness we will be able to love on each other and on others, and that as we walk God will show us what we need to pray for and put people in our path who are hungry for the change that only God can bring.

Organizations, Bible Schools, Friars, & Horses...& Snails

Here I am, a week after our midterm outreach weeks, finally done with my book report! At last I can update, and there are so many things to say! As that could be rather lengthy, I will try to keep it comparatively brief.

For those of us who went to Dublin for a week, we have universally agreed that if we wanted to sum up the outreach in one sentence, we would say, "We met a lot of people." That seems so generic, but that is really what we did for the entire time. We did help out with a youth group at the Presbyterian church in Lucan on Monday, helping set up a game for the kids, and then telling a little about ourselves and where we were from, and sharing a Bible verse that meant a lot to us and why. That was particularly cool, because we were told the kids were from both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds, which is close to our heart of reconciliation between the two groups. But the rest of the week was geared toward connecting with people from different churches and ministries.

We met people who had already gotten their unusual missions up and running, like a man who had started a coffee shop called Third Space as a way to provide a space for people to hang out comfortably, and a bridge between high-rise office buildings and a rough-and-tumble neighborhood. The heart of the coffee shop is Christian, yet they function as a secular business, and the people in the community have accepted it as a safe place to call their own, even pitching in money to buy patio furniture. (It's really quite remarkable.) And then we met people who had grand ideas for unique ministry, like a pastor whose church owns a nearby building that he wants to turn into a place of art ministry, including a dance school. We ran into Amnesty International representatives on the street, raising awareness to combat FGM, and we met with a representative of ACET who works with people and their families who have HIV. We visited the Irish Bible Institute, and they ended up introducing us to Tear Fund (which was in the same building), which teaches poor people in Africa a trade (so they can work to feed themselves) instead of just feeding them. We met a representative from a ministry that is telling street kids about Jesus and taking them under their wing, as well as starting family camps to be more intentional about ministering to families. And we met Phil Kingsley, a member of GEM, an old friend of my parents, a teacher at the Bible Institute, and someone I had been in contact with about Ireland before I joined YWAM.

There were a couple days, as well, that we helped around the Lucan Centre itself. The Centre is getting all its ducks in a row (so to speak) so it can house retreats, and we wanted to do what we could to help. Mostly that involved reorganizing and data entry.

As you can see, our exposure to different types of ministries in Dublin (and Lucan) was rather broad. And at the Lucan Centre alone, we met Irish, South African, and American staff. So, we experienced lots of diversity.

Then we drove back up to Rostrevor (about 3 hours?), had one day to sleep, do laundry, and repack, and we headed back down to the Republic (this time with our entire DTS, including the people who had gone up to Belfast instead of Dublin) to Limerick, which was even further south than Dublin.

Limerick, I think, was probably my favorite experience thus far, in the entire DTS experience. I concluded that it was, in fact, exactly the sort of thing that I came here to Ireland to do. You see, unlike the official "Midterm Outreach" week before it, the week we were in Limerick we actually had lectures, but the lecture each day was taught by a different one of the friars. Because we were, in fact, at Saint Patrick's Friary in the neighborhood of Moyross.

Now, if you have ever heard the Irish talk about Limerick, they all seem to know exactly where it is, and they all seem to know something about it that you don't if you have never been there. It seems to be an Irish culture marker of some sort, because it is far enough south and away from Dublin to have its own culture, but you can detect in people's tone that there is something there that they have found less than exemplary.

What I found about Limerick, is that it is quite black and quite white. That is to say, if you drive downtown, as we had to every day to get to and from the empty three-story flat where we rolled out our sleeping bags, you will see dozens of quaint or expensive-looking shops, and if that was all that you saw, the impression you might get would be of a much cleaner, extraordinarily tamer New Orleans. That is to say, the three- and four-story buildings are all connected and all of almost the same style, but are painted differently, and the shops vary colorfully from one another, and you (as a tourist) feel compelled to check out each one, lest you miss something unique. But the closer you get to Moyross, the more spread out things become, with wide open green fields in between, and you start seeing random rows of flats clustered together with horses tethered to the grass in between. You might occasionally see a person driving a horse-drawn carriage in a field, or a teenage boy riding his horse bareback down the paved street, with cars lined up behind him. There is, of course, also the polar opposite end of the city, with farmland and woods rolling over the hills and down to the River Shannon, the long grasses dotted with sheep and some horses--absolutely breathtaking.

So then, you definitely have the working class or the rich, and the poor. White and black (and I don't mean that racially).

The city government (or the City Council, as the Irish would call them--Council for short) has painted Moyross black. Looking at the gang activity and the shootings and the druggies and the stray dogs and the illegally-tethered horses and ten violent deaths in the vicinity, the Council (which owns most of the flats there) would rather just evict people and spread them to different areas, knock down the houses, and let a freeway run through. There is already only one road into Moyross, and one additional footpath from a neighboring hood separated by what must be acres and acres of grass, in an effort to protect the surrounding areas. Into the heart of this moved the Franciscan friars. Yes, I mean the guys in the long brown/gray robes with the rope belts and the wooden beads swung across their hips. Having taken vows of poverty and chastity, they moved into one flat the Council freely allowed them to stay in (which was actually three made into one), and turned another flat into a youth center for the kids of Moyross. The impact their mere presence has had on the neighborhood is astounding. Older kids began to rethink their lives. Younger kids had a place to hang out without getting in trouble. All of the above had someone to look up to, and they (and the adults as well) had someone to trust.

I must say that never in my entire life have I seen anyone serve the way these four men do. It has changed my view of servanthood under Christ forever. Because servitude is not a task or a burden for these men, or even a way of life; it is who they are. And to be served by such men is a very humbling and heart-searching experience--especially that moment when you realize they are giving you all these good things, but everything they have has been given to them, and for at least some of it they may have had to beg (their own words, though not flaunted).

Going to Limerick, we (from YWAM) were much like little children trotting at the heels of the friars, marveling at all the doors that opened up before us just because we were with the friars, whom everybody knew and loved and invited in. We could say we did yard work at their hermitage, or we weeded their back garden, or we staffed at the youth center, or we helped make dinner. But really we just joined them for things, I think. They treated us like co-laborers, and we treated them with the respect of people we know have a lot to teach us about life in general, let alone reverence for God. One could argue certain theological points, of course, such as Mary, if one was feeling particularly argumentative. But when confronted with their servants' hearts, I think, such things are rendered irrelevant, and all theological arguments are silenced.

What I enjoyed most, I think, was getting to know Irish people closer to our age (as a group), and through them being exposed to Irish culture. Drying dishes with them, walking the streets of Moyross with them, hearing them talk about their neighborhood and their experiences, meeting their moms, trying their seawater-boiled snails, getting my accent corrected (apparently you drop the "h" in "th"), and begging them to sort out for us the muddled accents of the younger kids at the youth center. I really wish we had gotten to spend more time with them, because I wanted to get to know them better, and because these were the kinds of things I wanted to ditch from my culture and learn about theirs.

When we returned to the YWAM base in Rostrevor, many people expected us to be tired, and I'm sure some of us were. But coming back from Dublin, and then from Limerick, I found myself energized, revitalized, and dreading a return to "normal" life. Arriving back from Limerick, instead of being happy to be home, a longing for the people back in Limerick settled into my heart. I missed them, I realized. They had sunk into my heart, and I now felt less connected to the people on-base than I did to the people in Limerick. I was ready to go out again. Although no fan of sleeping on an air mattress with my head propped against the foot of a couch, it was worth being away, and somehow I preferred that.

What has happened to me, that school is so difficult for me to get along with, and outreach is so palatable? This is a process that predates YWAM for me, I think. It's part of why I walked away from community college. It's that moment when you realize that what is excellent for everybody else, is not excellent for you. Maybe some people don't have that moment. But for me, it just keeps getting confirmed over and over again.

Welcome to Lucan

Today is Day 2 of midterm outreach! We left Rostrevor at 8:30am yesterday, and crammed awkwardly into a van with all our luggage and food packing us in like sardines (and my feet on the armrest between the front seats, since there was nowhere else to put them). We drove for a couple hours, rocking out to music, and arrived at the Lucan Centre still in the morning...at which point the clouds decided to downpour. Norman, our host, have us a tour of the Centre, after which we were elated to discover that we had the rest of the day to relax. Coming off of a crazy week, and having to get up early on a Saturday morning (our one day to usually sleep in), a day of relaxation was just what we needed before jumping into a new week with both feet. And naturally, after we discovered that laying on our beds was much akin to laying on clouds, we all gravitated toward naptime. In the evening, we spent some time meandering around the town of Lucan, which ended in McDonalds when it got dark (since that was one of the only places that was open).

This morning, we went to a nearby Presbyterian church, and got to talk with people after, and them came back to the Centre for a tasty barbeque. Later, we will go on a prayer walk around Lucan. Tomorrow, our week begins in earnest.

It is a privilege to be in another place that has a history of Christians reaching out to the local community, and has a vision for reconciliation, just as An Cuan used to be the Christian Renewal Centre all through the Troubles. The Lucan Centre used to be the Lucan Youth Centre. It's hard not to feel the history, and the potential. They have great expectations for what the Lord will do through this place. It is an honor to be here during the changing of the tides--both in An Cuan (the YWAM base), and now in Lucan Centre. I look forward to seeing what the Lord will do next, who He will raise up, and when.

In the meantime, the Lord continues to prepare me for whatever ministry He has for me. I feel much like a leaf caught in the wind of the Spirit, as He blows me along, on a sure gust between one prepared place and the next. Please continue to pray that this week He will not only keep our group, our hosts, and those we meet and minister to safe from the enemy, but that the Lord will continue to assure us of our identity in Him, and that He will show us our individual gifts and help us to walk in them even as He knits us together as a group. In this week we may be stretched in many areas, stepping into or being confronted with ideas or ministries that we have never really considered or experienced before. Please pray that wherever we walk, the Lord will Himself shed Light and refreshment, and that unique, exquisite fragrance of Christ that we have been so enthralled by, and that we and everyone around us will feel His presence and see Him high and lifted up.

Freedom Week

It's starting to sink in for all of us that we have been here at the YWAM base in Northern Ireland for a month. Since we talk about this as lecture week four--meaning we're on our fourth DTS speaker--it seems like so short a time that we've been here. But when I read through my journal assignment from last week, what I was learning then felt so long ago. As I mentioned to a couple staff here, by the time I go back to the States I will probably feel I have aged 10 years, and you all back home will have to remind me that it has only been 5 months.

This week is called "Freedom Week," and it is special because we have four speakers (instead of one) from a church in London (rather than from YWAM). So far they started with our identity (who God designed each of us individually to be), and worked their way up to spiritual warfare (the lies of the enemy, strongholds, the soul-body-spirit makeup, things we hold onto in our hearts that have unknowingly affected us deeply and how Satan uses those things as footholds). Although there have been a few points I have disagreed on (mostly in regards to universal healing, and to proclaiming things into existence), much of this week has been review for me because I am no stranger to spiritual warfare.  Twice this week, time was set aside for our speakers to pray with us, with a ratio of one speaker and a couple base staff to one DTS student, about the issues of God's unique design in us and about strongholds in our lives. Both times I went into the prayer sessions unsure of what to expect, and therefore a bit uneasy, but the Lord worked both times, and I felt freer because of it.

In-country midterm outreach is in a couple weeks. The team is split in two, between Belfast and Dublin. I will be going to Dublin. I went to Dublin for a day trip last weekend, as you may have noticed from my Facebook posts, but that was a tourist trip with two fellow DTS-mates. This midterm trip will be something of a missionary cocktail for me: a sampling of several different types of missions that we will be exposed to and trying them on for size to see which (if any) fit me. Please pray that the Lord will show me what is and is not for me (for the long-run), and that He will put specific people in place as connections for me, and that the Lord will knit our team together in unity even now so that the enemy will have no opportunity to tear it asunder.

As for the actual Outreach Phase of our DTS, we will be walking the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (which I am extremely excited about), then flying to Albania for two weeks, and then on to the Czech Republic for three weeks. I am particularly excited about the work we will be doing praying for people in the Red Light district in Prague, as that is something I have been secretly interested in trying for some time now. The Border Walk, which will be something of a prayer walk for reconciliation in Ireland, made the newspaper last time YWAM did it. It is about a 200-mile trek, so please pray for fitness, refreshment, and renewed strength, as well as that the Lord would bring to mind what specifically needs to be prayed for in each area we venture through. Outreach Phase does not begin until July, but I am sure that will creep up on us, as time is already starting to speed along. Thankfully, we will not need any new visas for our outreach countries, or any additional vaccinations.

I know some of you have been praying for me with regards to sleep. Thank you for your prayers! God is answering! He is granting me refuge from the nightmares. Please continue to pray, as I am sure Satan will try to find other avenues of attack as we draw closer to our midterm outreach.

One main theme that God continues to reiterate is His love for me. In light of the "Smile: Jesus loves you" stickers of childhood, this seems so elementary, so obvious, so cheesy. It's become a catchphrase. And, as a catchphrase, it has lost its potency. So we, as Christians, tend to turn in angst to the cross, to school ourselves into submission with the depressing death of Christ as an example of love. And that it is. But we forget that love does not leave us there, and we forget that God does more than that to love us. He could have stopped with the cross. Heck, He could have stopped before the cross! But He chose to do more. He chooses to intervene in our lives today. And in light of Easter, I think it's time we realized that we have a RISEN Christ, and a Jesus who is ALIVE can CONTINUE to love us ACTIVELY in ways that the world around us cannot attain to. The passion of the Christ is not just that Jesus died, or even that He rose; it's that THE STORY IS NOT OVER! It's that His passion is eternal, and lives on, and is not bound by our doubt and our self-deprecation and everything people have said and done to us. We forget that God is BIGGER than all of this, and that in rising from the dead to continue on eternally, He has proven it...And He continues to prove it to us every day. We just ignore Him most of the time. But what if we didn't? What would life be like then...?

Life, and life more abundantly: Shall we walk in it?

The Lecture Heart

And here we come to the close of our third week of lectures--our fourth week of DTS.

You're probably all wondering what "lectures" means. I mean, sure, someone is obviously lecturing...but about what? I could rattle off a list of themes, I suppose, as every week is intended to have one primary theme. But the reality is that we are wrestling with God's Truth--not just theologically, but wrestling with the power of it. What if God is calling us to great and awesome things? What was God's original design for the world and, if that was different, what does that make God's salvation plan? Why are we so set on leaning toward Jesus either being God or Man, but wrestle with Him being fully both? All these things wrap up into our identity, both as Christians and as a group. As I'm writing this to you right now, many of you might see this as lofty deliberation. You don't realize you have questions and internal conflicts, until someone asks you if you believe we can raise people from the dead...and then you're taken aback and suddenly have to really think about whether this is a faith issue and where the power to do so would come from (and why). Theoretical principles to you, maybe...but here we are face to face with being on a mission field that may look and function very differently from what we have grown up believing from sight. Tonight we may get a glimpse of what that mission field may look like.

Having said this, I feel it is important to tell you that while I came here in search of a calling (which has definitely been confirmed in my heart), I also (unknowingly) came here to be transformed in a very different manner than I expected. Since God took 14 years to send me here, I figured that was all preparation time--mostly for me, but maybe some of that was also God preparing the place for me to step into and raising up the people to join with. But I am quickly learning that God isn't done turning me upside down and inside out, flipping me around on the inside. He didn't pause to send me here; in many ways, He may have sent me here both to grow my faith (the fulfillment of a 14-year promise) and because it is here that He can grow me in ways that He set aside for the perfect time, which is now.

Lecture Week 2

After a week and a half of lectures and chores, it is hard to keep track of how long we have been on-base. I have begun to understand what "Discipleship Training School" means: missionary training. If Bible college deals with the intellectual knowledge of God--the foundations, and building principles upon them--then DTS is the missionary testing ground where idealism is broken, applied, and remade anew. That being said, the Lord has seized lectures as the opportunity to deal with deep heart issues. Last week's lectures were on our identity (in Christ). This week's lectures are on the father heart of God. But these topics blur together, much as the abstract ideas of the attributes of God blur together when the theology is explained. It is impossible not to see one in light of the other.

Chores around the base keep us busy for a bulk of the time. We have lectures for several hours a day, and worship or intercessory prayer (for people and/or for nations). We have devotions every morning, which begin corporately, soon we split off on our own for one-on-one time with God. Much as I am not a morning person, I find myself grateful that the time was set aside ahead of time, because it would be quite a challenge to do so otherwise, considering how full our days are. Outreach and small group are each once a week. Monday nights the base hosts Harbour, a sort of community night with worship and a relatively short service.

Thursday nights are a DTS "family night," on which we do something fun as a DTS. Last week--our first family night--involved visiting a local monastery (which was surprisingly modern) run by five Catholic monks. One monk answered our questions, and we sat in on an evening service. I have never been comfortable in or around Catholic churches, cathedrals, or minsters, and so I expected to feel just as spiritually cold as around one of the aforementioned buildings. What I did not expect was a tangible deep reverence for God (which we in the Protestant churches sorely lack), beautiful a cappella male singing voices, and the heavy presence of God thick in the air. I would not have thought to look for the Spirit of God there--would have thought He would need to be invited--and yet there He was, in greater measure than I have ever felt before in a church. It blew me away. It was also kind of cool that since they were Benedictine monks, they actually stood up whenever the Trinity was mentioned. Not-so-cool was the lineup before a painting of Mary holding baby Jesus, so that everyone could get sprinkled with holy water. I tried really hard not to feel like I was going to get struck with a baby rattle. Shows my ignorance.

Saturdays have been free days that, so far, have opened up the world to us. Our Northern Irish teammates, from Banbridge, have invited the rest of us in the DTS to join them for events that we would never have known about otherwise. The weekend before last, that involved attending the college-age group called Vibe, which met near Armagh. (I'm hoping to go there again this weekend.) Last weekend, we went up to Belfast for a little bit of mall exploration, and then to an international-style buffet restaurant called Cosmos, before heading to a worship concert hosted by a church.

Grace, me, & Renee (DTS)

Nashed (DTS) & Milad (DTS staff)

Linda & Lauren (DTS)

Renee, Grace, & Malari (DTS)

James & Jen (siblings)

The walk from where we parked to the mall was my first introduction to the Shankill--the area of Belfast where the troubles were at their worst. The high walls surrounding apartments, houses, and flats still have massive spikes atop them. It's hard not to feel the history of the city through the spiritual climate, even just driving into Belfast from outside.

On the bright side (literally) we actually got SUN yesterday! A cloud rolled in extremely fast (which was pretty cool to watch moving so fast across the water, but I'm pretty sure the fishing boat didn't appreciate it, as they ended up stuck in front of the base for a day), and of course today it was foggy and it's raining right now. The tides are really weird here. This area of ocean (or inlet) is called Carlingford Lough. The water is extremely shallow in front of the base, but comes up pretty far looking deceptively deep...and then recedes to ridiculously far out, to the point where you wonder if you could walk halfway across the channel to the Republic. The ground when it recedes is littered with what must be millions of mussel and clam shells, many whole as well as broken.

The water in Carlingford Lough (shore of Rostrevor) was super high! Beautiful day :) But don't go in; you'll freeze! You can see the cloud rolling in on the right, obscuring the mountain on the Republic side near the opening to the bay.

Orientation, Time Changes, & Pubs, Oh My!

This week was orientation week--in other words, "Info Dump." This was the week we were informed of policies and house rules/inner workings, signed contracts, and made our debut at events as the "new DTS." We also received our first assignments in the classroom, and received extensive introductions to topics like hearing God's voice, intercessory prayer, dependence upon God for finances, and conflict resolution.

We started in on mealtime chores, went on tours of the house, and went on a scavenger hunt around Rostrevor (on which we had waaaay too much fun taking pictures of us doing things that were not required).

An Cuan, the YWAM Rostrevor Base

Today we all told our testimonies--DTS students and staff alike. Although nerve-wracking for all of us, it was amazing to hear all that God had done to bring us each individually to where we are now--both in our relationship with Him, and to our physical location at YWAM Rostrevor. God has brought together a very colorful group of individuals in this season, to His glory, and I look forward to seeing the tapestry that He will weave through this time.

It has been a very full and informative week, which has left little free time (except in the evenings, when we are tired from the day and want to do little else than lounge around socializing and drinking tea, take showers, or sleep). We have all been adjusting from jet lag, which we finally figured out has been especially difficult because of multiple time changes; we "sprang ahead" with the time change in the States, then lost an entire day to international travel, lost 7 hours upon arrival (since the U.K. is currently 7 hours ahead of California), and then found out the U.K. has not yet hit Daylight Savings and will be "springing ahead" within the next couple weeks--meaning yet another time change. Needless to say, we're all looking forward to this weekend, both for free time and for sleep.

"Free time" does not, however, mean that we are left with nothing to do. Most of us still have an assignment to complete this particular weekend, and we all have to come together to sort out meals on weekends in general (as we just learned). But there is plenty to do corporately outside the base as well. Pub ministry takes place on weekends. Our Irish teammates have connections to other ministries, as well as friends to connect with. And some staff members open up their homes for movie and game nights. The local restaurants and ice cream shop also stay open until late at night, as people are out late for the pubs.

Most American Christians, I think, would hear "pub ministry" and cringe. They think of a Christian sitting at a bar, fighting the temptation to conform and get drunk with people, as they try to evangelize the the unbelievers around them, and wonder how valid of a witness that is. (Or at least, I would, because I've heard of too many people falling.) But pub culture here in Ireland is very different from American bar atmosphere. The legal drinking age is lower, the overall attendance age is very mixed, and the music doesn't start until 10pm and goes into the early hours of the morning. When I say "music," I mean live performance...and when I say "live performance," I don't just mean a band; I mean there may be one hired musician, who gets paid, but anyone else is free to join in--either with their voice, or with an instrument they brought. And there are times when the entire pub will quiet so a single person can sing--a person who may or may not be an accomplished musician or a seasoned patron. Never have I seen such a music-based culture, so rooted around creativity and performance. This creativity permeates the YWAM base, and propels its residents outward into the community to share their gifts effectively for Jesus, whether in worship halls or pub settings; the versatility is truly amazing.

The crazy part is how well recognized the YWAM base is in the community. The townspeople are aware that new students sweep in and out every few months, and they are aware that we stay at the historical Christian Renewal Center, which is so famous for its work during the Troubles. They have seen the community work of previous DTSes. They have come to Open Mike Nights, Community Fairs, and Monday night Harbour services at the base. Please pray that this outstanding witness would continue.

Please also pray that, as we all get ready to enter into our first "real" week as a DTS, we would grow together, that we would be refreshed, and that we would be able to hit the ground running.

For me personally, please pray for my Jesus time and alone time, as I am not yet sure what that should look like here. Please also pray that God would direct me as I seek out both Him and those places and things that He has shown me and continues to show me, and that He would keep tight hold of my heart for the duration of my time here (and beyond). Another continued prayer of mine is that God would continue to cement into me the reality of where I am and what He is doing with me here.

Thank you for your continued prayers and little electronic notes of support! I appreciate them. :)