Ireland Trip

A group from our church traveled to Ireland last week on a missions trip, and it was one of the best times I've ever had. Our group of 16 flew to Dublin and spent six days in that region, getting familiar with Irish culture, observing a local church in action, and sharing the Gospel with people on the streets and more specifically, students at Trinity College. A good friend of ours, Jeff Cox, joined us and served as The Speaker to our group, teaching us many things out of Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Joshua, helped us define the true meaning of missions, and encouraged us to identify the giants that we allow to defeat us and slay them.

The group spent the afternoons at Trinity College in Dublin, walking up to passersby and witnessing to them, using an evangelistic tool, the Good Test. At the end of the trip, 39 people came to know the Lord Jesus Christ! We knew that God was the reason for the success and were humbled by his goodness. The hardest part was leaving those who got saved behind. Since most of them were from Dublin, it was difficult for us to know of a Bible-believing church that was close enough for them to attend. We're praying that those souls will find fellowship with other believers and grow in the Word . . .we were shown this week that nothing is too hard for God!

I may more closely detail the trip soon, the jet lag was much harder to deal with upon coming home than it was getting there. Reality hits you fast and you have to jump back into your normal life just as if you were never gone . . . yet you're not the same person you were before you left. My mind seems to still be in Ireland and concerned with the things that happened there. If you have the chance to go on a trip like this, do what you can to make it a reality.
The Upper Lake at Glendalough. We had a quite a hike to get here, but the countryside was gorgeous. I'm sure in the summer it is even better, with more green.
Shallow note: I never wear hats, but I found one I like, and it helped my hair on the drizzly, rainy days.
This was my favorite view. We stood on the edge of this ledge and looked out over Guinness Lake (it sometimes gets a dark brown color, just like the beer that is produced in Dublin). Braveheart was filmed in this area also, which made Scotland peeved, I'm sure.
A cute little house in Bray, where we went to church on Easter Sunday. The Irish don't waste concrete on long driveways, as most of them were just big enough to fit their compact cars on.

Here's Team Ireland, goofing off at Trinity College.