Usually the ladies from church get together on Friday mornings for coffee and Bible study, but today was different – they had a surprise baby shower for Jessica! As a result, our house is becoming more and more pink and yet our little girl-on-the-way still has no idea how many people on the outside care for her. But she will!
This past weekend there were BBQ get-togethers for inter- and senior-MCC camps (MCC = Munster Christian Camps). The BBQs are in the same location as the summer camp, which is a farmer’s field, and basically serve to get the youth excited about the summer. Plus it’s a good opportunity for friends from different areas to see each other, and for new folks to get a taste of what they will experience and learn at camp. We won’t be able to help with the summer camps this year – since we’re having a baby right before them – so it was especially nice for Seth to at least be part of the BBQ’s.
Today marks eight years since we said “I do!” in the church where Jessica grew up in Roanoke, VA. The next five years were spent in Virginia, with education and work at Daleville Baptist Church (Work? Maybe. But such a blessing!), as well as working various jobs to make ends meet and introducing Daniel to the family while we kept working towards the big move across the pond in 2009, while we were expecting David. After three years in Ireland, I think we can safely say that we are starting to get the hang of things, but perhaps the emphasis should still be on ‘starting’! In all that we’ve been through, we have certainly grown in our relationship with God and with each other, and I think it would also be safe to say that our love is stronger now than it was on our wedding day, even though we thought our hearts would burst with it then!
Seth went with a few guys from church/youth club to a trail in the Knockmealdown Mountains near here today. Spectacular stuff! It really is an amazingly beautiful country we live in. Check the gallery for a few more photos!
This weekend our church had our first-ever “Church weekend” where we all (as many of us as could make it) went to a camp centre on the other side of the county and spent the weekend together. It was great fun, with lots of laughs and good fellowship, plus we brought in a Bible teacher who really dug us in to Philippians. We’re so thankful for our church family!
Abortion is illegal in Ireland. This is great news for countless babies and mums, but there are those who would really like to see things change. Ever since Ireland joined the EU, there has been outside pressure to conform to the way things are done in the rest of Europe, and there are some very wealthy Americans who have also poured money into trying to push Ireland towards killing the unborn. Recently the first bill that would have legalized abortion (in this case only in “life of the mother” cases) came before the Dail (i.e. parliament) – but it was defeated by 109 votes to 20! Thousands of protestors came out to oppose the bill, and about 50 came out in support of it. It certainly won’t be the last attempt to make killing babies legal, but every one that fails is a victory for life in Ireland!
Today was one of the sunniest days we’ve had recently, but what made it really beautiful was watching two college girls baptized in Youghal Bay! It was great to hear Roxy and Crystal share how God has worked in their lives and watch them publicly show their trust in Him. The sunshine is great, but seeing the Son shine through them is definitely better!
Last night, I (Seth) joined the tennis club. No, I don’t know how to play. I just decided to give it a go. There are basically three reasons: 1) it’s a great way to meet more people 2) it’s good exercise 3) it looks fun.
So far so good! There were ten people playing doubles and I didn’t mess things up completely for my teammate. In fact we won almost half of our games… because my teammate was really good. Our best strategy turned out to be Seth serving and him doing everything else. Good times.
With the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic this week, this is just a thought we ought to keep in mind about the classification systems that we use. The basic idea is from a talk given by our teammate, Mervyn.
An interesting historical note is that the last stop the Titanic made was in Queenstown, Ireland (now called Cobb), which is close to where we live.
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