I (Seth) had a conversation with my flu last night. It went something like this…
Say Sickness,
Why waste both our time?
My body’s strong –
I’ll fight you off, it won’t take long
Say Mortal,
Why delay your doom?
Your strength will end –
But I will come, and come again
Say Sickness,
Still, your triumph’s lost,
For I’ve a Friend,
Whose Life will write Beginning on your end
…I’m thankful for Easter, and how it won me the third stanza!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
St. Patrick was truly an amazing individual, and the story of his life can still teach us today. How? Here’s a great article that can show you, written by Munster Bible College lecturer and church historian, Dr. Michael Haykin.
Last Saturday, while we were at a planning meeting for an upcoming youth camp and hosting a youth club at our house, 100,000 people were marching in Dublin to support Ireland’s 8th amendment to the constitution. The 8th amendment specifically protects the life of unborn children, but there is currently a push by the government to repeal it and legislate for abortion. A repeal would have to be approved by the public, so a referendum is going to be held, most likely on May 25th. The polls still say the ‘repeal’ side is ahead, but the gap is closing and there are encouraging signs that it may be possible for Ireland to keep it’s unborn children protected.
It never snows in Ireland. Well, pretty much never. And even when it does, it’s always the tiniest bit of snow you can imagine – you’re lucky if it covers the windscreen on the car enough for you can get a couple of snowballs from it.
But not this time. This time is different. This is proper snow.
Evidently, we’re getting a blast of Siberian air due to a disruption in the polar vortex – and meteorologists love fancy words. The result is: a blizzard the likes of which hasn’t hit Ireland since 1982. The whole country is covered in snow. The children all got three days – three whole days! – off school. One snow day is amazing, but three!?
The shops sold out of bread and milk, the whole country basically closed for business, and everyone is out building snowmen. It’s amazing! The best snowman we had ever built in all our years in Ireland was about six inches high and we had to use raisins for the eyes. Well, not today. Not today.
Munster Bible College lecturer Ted Cabal gives a brief answer:
Last night we hosted the first weekly Bible study at our new home! We had a good group from the area, and a great discussion around God’s word. What a privilege!
We found out last week that Rebekah needs glasses because of an astigmatism. So that’s it – we’re 5 for 5 now!
The Bible says that Heaven will be filled with people from every nation, and our local church in Ireland is a little taste of that – yesterday everyone put a dot on a world map on the place they were born, and this was the result:
This week Seth will be live-streaming for Munster Bible College’s Apologetics module. This module is historic, because it marks the first time we have repeated one of our courses. We run on a three year repeating cycle, so this is the beginning of our second time through. Even with our first batch of graduates gone, the class is still well attended, and we’re looking forward to a great week! Here’s a photo from a public lecture we held last night:
This week Seth got to attend a preacher’s conference with church leaders from all over Ireland. It was encouraging just to be together, but also very helpful to work together on helping each other handle the word of God faithfully. What a privilege!
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