In Ireland, Summer officially begins on the first of May, and we’ve had unusually clear days and warm weather. The sun has been shining, bringing us up into the mid-teens Celsius for highs, so on a good day we break 60 Fahrenheit. We’ve even had to water the plants several times, since it hasn’t been raining regularly. May first also happened to fall on a Bank Holiday (a national holiday just for the sake of it), so we celebrated with hot dogs and s’mores over the fire pit.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
We celebrated this national holiday by going to the local parade in Youghal, which includes lots of community groups, vintage cars and tractors, and bagpipes. We hope it’s a great day for you as well!
Idols. What are they? Other gods, right? Almost no-one believes in them nowadays, right? Wrong. Idols are anything and everything that we put before God. When you are saving up to buy or getting something awesome, you could be idolising that awesome something that you’re going to get. Or you could absolutely love something that you already have, like a power tool, family, friends or money. You can idolise anything except God. To try to love God and something else would be a complete failure. Jesus said that Himself: “No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24) What he’s saying is do not attempt to serve two things at once. Choose one. Choose God if you want eternal life in heaven, true joy and wisdom. Anything else will lead to destruction, disaster, and hell, even if it looks like a good choice. The Bible condemns idols strongly. Probably the most famous condemnations are the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (Exodus 20:3-4). Many people think they are serving God, who they were made to serve and love, but they are actually serving something else. On the day of Judgement they will say “Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and preform many miracles? Then I [Jesus] will say “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:22-23) Another great many people choose money or other things when faced with the choice. Woe to them! All people who do not choose Jesus, the Saviour as their master will anguish in hell for eternity and their life will be destroyed like the foolish man’s house that was built on the sand. That’s the bad news. The good news is that everyone who chooses Jesus as their master and is faithful to Him will reign in heaven forever! Who will you choose?
David finally got his certificate of naturalisation – he’s the last Lewis to officially become an Irish citizen, even though he was the first Lewis actually born here. Needless to say, we’re all delighted!
There is a woman in our house
Who gives
And gives
And gives some more
And never thinks of asking back
And simply keeps on giving
Just where she gets her secret stores
Of strength to give
No one knows
Except her Maker she adores
And He’s a Giver, too
So give to her what she deserves
Give her praise
And as she serves
The bounties of her Maker’s gifts
Then fill your heart and overflow
And give
And give
And give
Soccer camp went extremely well this week, and after the awards ceremony last night we got to join in celebrating the wedding of a couple from church. The celebrations had a lot of Irish flavour, as you can see from this short video clip:
Wedding Dance from sdlewis on Vimeo.
When we moved to Ireland seven years ago we got a seven-seater Opel to get us around that served us very well with few complaints. This year, though, we started having some trouble that made us think we should start looking for a replacement. After a bit of looking, we found a good replacement in Dublin, and ended up buying it while we were there to drop Seth’s parents to the airport. Unfortunately, we couldn’t drive it home right away because the money had to come from America and these things take time. So we drove the Opel home… mostly. On the trip the battery light came on, followed by a procession of other lights, then loss of the power steering, then finally she just gave up. Thankfully by that time we were not too far from home, and a friend from church was able to rescue us. It also happened that he had an old car he had been trying to sell for weeks that we could use for a few days until Seth could go up and get our new (to us) car. We did get the car, and after we gave back our friend’s old car it sold in a couple of days. When God says he knows what we need before we ask, he means it!
Seth’s parents visited us this past week, and it was great to see them! It was supposed to be a normal visit, but a few days in Seth’s Dad suggested that we might be able to fit a floor in the space above the stairs in our house, effectively giving us a small extra room. One thing led to another, and by the time they left a few days later, the room was mostly built! It’s going to be a great space for an office and bookshelves, with a nice built-in desk and all. Since Seth has been using a corner of the bedroom for his office up until now, he is quite excited about the whole thing!
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