Well Impact Ireland 2009 will be over tomorrow. I Cannot believe that! It just seems like yesterday Ludie was leaving for Cork to get on the OM Ship Logos Hope. I know the team is tired as well as the families from the non-stop schedule. It has been so worth it though!
The Ship:
The month started out with the ship coming in to Cork. Ludie and the Ireland team went on the ship to help out on deck 4 where the bookstore is. (You can see more about the ship in earlier posts). They talked with people, gave them info about what was going on in Ireland through OM Ireland and shared the Gospel via tracts, conversations or both. Several people made decisions to follow Christ. One in particular is a cool story about a man Ludie met that was our age. He was homeless and an alcoholic. When Ludie first saw him sitting in the cafe area of the ship, he looked like he did not want anyone to come talk to him. So Ludie went to talk to him. :) Ludie asked him how he liked the ship, etc. Then the man just looked straight at Ludie and said, "I have not had anything to do with the Lord in so long!" and just began to weep. Ludie talked with him and found out he was an alchoholic and was homeless. He had a 2 year old daughter that he was going to see that week. Ludie shared the hope that comes only through Christ with the man. Then asked if the man had a Bible. So Ludie invited to take him to the bookstore to buy him one. He also bought some gift books for the man to take to his daughter. While in the bookstore, Ludie noticed that the man was interested in the Narnia books. He had seen the movie twice. Ludie asked him if he knew what the movie was about. Then Ludie explained the correlation between Aslan and Christ, sin and the Turkish delights, the substitutionary sacrifice of Aslan for Edmond, and how the land changed from winter to springtime when Aslan came back to life and how our lives change when Christ comes into our lives. Then the Gospel that Ludie previously shared started making sense to him. They then sat there and prayed together and the man accepted Christ as His personal Lord and Savior. That is just one of many stories. Over 11,000 tract were given out on the ship!
Evangelism Training:
Ludie did evangelism training on the ship and taught the teams that came in for Impact Ireland, as well as other people how to share the Gospel (based on Way of the Master series).
Impact Ireland:
People from all over the world come to share the Gospel throughout Ireland. The teams came to Cork and received training on the ship and then the teams were went out to work with local churches doing kids clubs, working with the Big Red Bus, community clean up and projects as well as a cross team carrying the cross from Cork to Rahara, Co. Roscommon. There are too many stories to be told but a couple just have to be told.
Cross Team:
The team was stopped by many people on the way to Rahara from Cork. People wanted to know what they were doing and why. They gave out hundreds of tracts, talked with people, prayed with people, stopped in and had tea with people and shared the Gospel with people. One person in particular was Shane in Limerick. While stopping for a meal at Supermac's (like McDonald's), Shane approached Mike Mullins on the team and asked him for money to buy food. Shane was young and homeless. Mike asked him how old he was. He had just turned 20 two days prior. Mike asked him how he celebrated his birthday. Shane responded that honestly he stood on the bridge in Limerick thinking about committing suicide. Shand had had a hard life. His father died when he was seven. He was abused my his mother's boyfriend and at 15 became a heroine addict and had been on his own for quite a while. He felt that no one loved him and no one would even miss him if he was gone. Right then, Mike said to him, you know we have carried this cross all the way from Cork just to tell you that God loves you. Mike shared the Gospel with Shane. Shane prayed to receive Christ in his heart. Mike bought him a meal and then some to celebrate. Then Shane counted his money. What was he doing? He was making sure he had enough money to call his mom and tell her he loved her. A team member saw him the next day and recognized him and said hello. The change in him was evident.
Ludie walked the last 40 miles with the cross team. The cross team covered over 150 miles! (Beautiful are the feet that share the Gospel). Ludie has some cool stories to tell just of the last part of the journey.
Kids Club and the Big Red Bus:
One team in particular did Kids Clubs in one of the housing estates (neighborhoods). The Big Red Bus (double decker red bus used as a mobile VBS) came and parked in front of one of the houses. In God, there are no coincidences. The house the bus parked in front of (unbeknown to the team) was a house where a little boy had been sexually molested by someone in the neighborhood. He stopped talking, and would not come out of his house. When the bus pulled up he told his mom and ran out of the house before she knew it. She was a Muslim, single mom with several children. The team was able to share the Gospel and the love of Christ with this woman and the son. They even went to visit her when they were not doing kids club.
Blessed by being a blessing:
It is amazing how when you serve the Lord, you end up being the one feeling as though you were served. One of the team members that came to help had had a hard life. Not knowing the stress that this person had been under and then to be away in a foreign land proved enough to put this person way past their comfort zone. What was great to see, was how a person that came to serve, and then God took care of them and grew them so much on the trip. As I said before, nothing happens by coincidence when you are working with Sovereign God. This person was on a team where the pastor and wife were from their native country so they could talk plainly in their own language. They had had experience in dealing with the things this person was facing and were able to provide a safe place for this person to learn more about and rest in God's love. What a great and loving God we serve.
To finish the week, Ludie has taken on the position as Ministry Coordinator as well as retaining his current responsibilities as Immersion team leader. This just means he is the point person for the ministry activities for OM Ireland on the Core Leadership Team. It is a natural fit based on the experiences God has given him over the years in management in the secular world, and I am so excited to see God working in and through him.
He would be embarrassed about how I have talked so much about him but God's hand is on us and is really working through him. Someone emailed me today and told me how proud they were of our accomplishments while here in Ireland. Let me be quick to say, that if it were up to us, we would have royally messed things up by now, but it is God that is working! I praise him for it.
There is a hunger here for hope. An openness that I hear is unprecedented. We are blessed to be here at such a time as this.
Thank you to those that have prayed for us while Ludie has been away. This has truly been a blessed time and I know it is because of the prayers that were lifted up for us.
