These
past several weeks have been packed! We have held Encounter Days nearly every
day of the week. Needless to say it has been exhausting, but it has also given
us incredible opportunities to get to know even more of the wonderful youth
here in Ireland. We have had some of our most beautiful moments in these last
few weeks and sharing these with one another has brought us closer as a team;
and those moments range from spending endless hours in the van to hearing about
how one of the kids really felt like their life was changed after encountering
Jesus through our team.
Although
we get so much out of Encounter Days ourselves, there are times when we just
need to let loose and get our crazy out! And, rest assured, we have had plenty
of opportunities for that. Each week we set aside one day to spend
together as a team to just have the craic, and we have done some stellar things.
One day we climbed the tallest cliffs in Europe. When it is put like
that, it sounds pretty impressive but we really drove up most of the way and
only hiked a little. But what was impressive was the view (well, what we could
see of it due to the fog) and the sound of the waves crashing at the bottom of
the cliffs, along with the wind nearly pushing you over! It was just awesome.
It is hard to describe it any other way.
Another weekend, we went to a beach
and grilled hot dogs together. The beach was gorgeous and the sand was firm so
we were able to play a bit of football. We had to be creative though since all
we had was a soccer ball. The day was quite an adventure. We ended up on a
different beach then we had planned and once we got there and tried to light
the coals for the hot dogs, we found that it was much easier said than done.
Speaking of hot dogs, did you know that hot dogs do not exist in Ireland as
they do in the States? There is nothing in the store called a “hot dog” so
instead we bought the sausages that looked most like a hot dog. Adventures are
the best kind of fun.
On a different occasion, we decided to skip the outdoors
and headed for a roller disco. If you want to hear about funny things we have
done, that was hilarious. There were plenty of falls and attempts at roller
derby-ing, conga lines and some pretty funny “special moves” (which consisted
of sliding around on the floor of the rink and spinning around).
So,
all in all we have had a beautiful balance in our lives. It has been such a joy
for each of us to learn more about one another and learn more about ourselves
in this New Year. The Lord has already blessed us so much in just this month,
and we cannot wait to see what He has in store for us as we make our way to the
end of our NET year. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we keep you
in ours!
God bless!
With lots of love,
Road Team Jesus
