The hardest part so far for me, other than leaving my loved ones, was the jet lag.  We left JFK around 8 at night and got in at 4:30am.  Then we had to wait in the airport until around 7 for the other squad to arrive and get on the bus.  Once we got to the site, we hit the ground running.  AIM had set up a “race” of sorts to keep up awake and see the Dublin sites.  Coupled with being sick, and being completely emotionally spent, the jet lag was killer.  That day was a rough one for me, and my teammates as well.  A friend on my squad, Heather Dodge,  took some hilarious pictures of all us falling victim to jetlag.  I include them here for your enjoyment.

This week we camped about 10 miles outside of Dublin, for training camp.  We had a squad leaders, coaches, and AIM staff come and help prepare us for the next 11 months.  I really enjoyed out worship time, I love being with 100 other people worshipping the Lord.  The staff really taught us the importance of listening to the Lord at all times.  We began putting that in to practice, each day asking the Lord to speak to us, and teaching us to respond in faith and obedience.  Honestly, I was a little uncomfortable with this exercise to begin with.  The Lord has spoken to me before, but never really on demand.   I had trouble feeling like we were requiring something of God, or coming at people with agendas.  But the Lord taught me through this week that he really is always speaking.  He wants us to ask all the time what he is saying to us, and what he is saying to other people.  We began to get comfortable listing to the Lord and speaking what he was saying to each other.  We spoke words of life and encouragement over each other.  I felt like it was true Christian community.  So often in our lives, there are very few sources of pure love and encouragement.  I could see how this practice began breaking down some heavy walls in other people’s lives.  Then AIM threw me a curve ball.

They said it was time to take it to the streets.  Each team was to go out on the city streets and Ask the Lord what his will for them in that moment is.  They said sometimes God gives words, pictures, or places.  The whole point is just for our team to go out and listen to the Lord, if he leads us in conversation, great, if not, great.  As missionaries, and as Christians in general, we need to get into the practice of listening to what God is saying, even when we go about our daily lives.

My team didn’t feel any particular leading that day, so we walked through the streets and prayed for houses and people as we walked by them.  Even though we did not have any tangible interaction, I know that we were doing the Lords will and that we were listening to him.  The guys were so open to following God, they ended up in a pub with a bunch of young Irishmen, singing bar songs and speaking to them about our trip.  Tim and Joel planted seeds, even in that interaction, and that really excites me.

We are now on a bus headed up to Coleraine, Northern Ireland.  We will be working with the Causeway Vineyard church.  4 of our 6 teams will be at the same place, so I am very interested to see what we will be doing.  We’ll be here for 2 weeks, and then fly out to Romania, for only the Lord knows what.

I cannot express how much all the comments and love on my last post means to me.  Ya’ll touch me from thousands of miles away.  I am so blessed so have so many dear and precious readers and supporters.  I hope that ya’ll can hear my heart from halfway across the world as I say I love you so much and I miss you tons.  While this experience is going to be great, I can’t help but think that the only thing to make it better would be to have my loved ones here with me.  I am so blessed by each one of you, and I cannot wait to return to you in a year.

I hope that everyone is doing well, feel free to hit the “Contact Me” link and shoot me an email.  I love to hear how life in the states is.  I also want to encourage us all to go out of our way today to listen for the Lord’s voice.  He is speaking, let’s try to listen and obey.  I believe he has awesome things for us in store in Ireland, and for everyone back at home as well.  I love you all so much!

All in all, Training Camp was a wonderful experience, one in which my love for God was refreshed, lifelong friendships were formed, and personal rights were laid down.  And all of this in only 10 short days.  I can only imagine what God has in store for us in the next 11 months!!  May we all continue to unite together and begin preparing the way of ministry through prayer for each of the countries.  Many places are still experiencing political unrest and lack of food and water.  Will you join me in praying that God will go before us and prepare the hearts of the people to receive his wonderful message?