Record entries in one day!

Just note that I added 3 posts today. I did them separately by subjects in case you did not have time to read one long one you could pick and chose what you want to read. Enjoy!

Learning to Knit in Ireland

I went to my first Ladie's Bible Study at our church fellowship. I was the only one there with kids this time. (I pray that we are not a disruption). This is my first time going because Ruthie's nap schedule has changed, allowing me more flexibility in the morning time. The group gets together at 10:30 am. Well the posted time is 10:30 am but because we are in Ireland and things are more flexible here, as I was getting ready to leave at 11 am from the church because no one was there, everyone walks in. Note to self: I will do errands first next time and then come at 11 am. Mary, who is the neatest and one of my most favorite people in Ireland makes the tea and brings in the cart with biscuits (she is in the second picture). We hang out a bit and chat. Then the ladies pull out the knitting supplies. While the ladies knit, Carol reads to us. Each week she is reading a chapter from Elizabeth George's A Woman After God's Own Heart. I am so excited because I love that book. Jeannine Kennedy lead our Sunday School class in that study over six years ago. It was a life changing book for me and I am sure will be so again as I will glean probably different parts that I missed before.

I love hearing Carol read. (the lady in the top picture) I told her I could just tape her and send home the tape and have people listening to it over and over again just to hear her accent. The ladies are teaching me how to knit. They tried today but I was so brain dead I could not wrap my head around it. We are doing baby hats and it was a pattern they were doing instead of a standard stitch (that is my excuse and I am sticking to it), so next week they are going to just teach me the standard stitch and then let me do a scarf. I am so excited about learning to knit in Ireland. How cool is that for bragging rights?

It is amazing to get to know these women and their lives and how God has worked in their lives. It reminds me of what Pastor Bobby from Lifesong Las Vegas said one time: When you grow up in the Bible Belt in America, everyone knows the standard answers but when you have Christ work in your life in a place like Las Vegas, where the answers are not standard, the power of a changed life through a personal relationship with Christ is undeniable. The stories I have learned and more I cannot wait to learn and someday tell you are amazing!!!!

Maternity care in Ireland

I cannot remember if I mentioned it in a previous post but am too tired to look, I can barely focus on the screen right now, BUT our new neighbors are Dax and Sarah Bryant, OM Ireland team members from Las Vegas. Well Sarah is the 2nd of the 4 of us pregnant OM'ers on the team to have a baby. She has had so many contractions that I am just glad for her sake the baby is finally here. I always joke that I think that God's way of not letting us not be scared about what we are about to go through is by allowing us to be so miserable by the 9th month we could care less if the baby came out of our nose! Well we finally got the call at 2:52 am Friday night. Sarah was in labor and so Ludie went to their house to watch the boys. Sarah and Dax left the house at 3 am to go to the hospital. The hospital is 40 minutes away, but they made it in 30! (Go Dax!). Then we got a text at 4;25 te baby had been born at 4:05 am! ....25 minutes after they got to the hospital. I am telling this only because I am so amazed. The husbands can be in the hospital during delivery but they cannot stay the night and have to come during visitor hours after the baby is born. At 6 am, Ludie came back in. I ran to the door asking who was watching the boys, he said that Dax was home. (The fastest hospital trip ever!!!!) I think that should go in some Guiness book of world records.

For the Americans reading this there are many similarities and differences in having a baby in Ireland. I am sure I can tell you more when I have our baby, Lord willing, only 5 more weeks of baking time to go. Let me start off by saying we are GRATEFUL for the health care in Ireland and because of the pro-activeness in the beginning of this pregnancy of the medical professionals, I was able to receive the diagnosis and hormones needed to sustain this pregnancy, all praise to God!

First of all, there is no "pelvic exams" until you are in labor unless there is something wrong that needs to be checked and even then they may not do a pelvic exam. Ultrasounds are at every hospital visit, but it is a quick check. (Here is the baby, here is the heartbeat.) You rotate every other check with your General Practitioner and the hospital. At the hospital the Ob's check you out but the nurse midwives are the ones that deliver the babies, and if there is complications, the pediatrician comes in. Afterwards, the baby is well checked on and you can get checked if you need to or suspect any problems.

For your first child you can stay in the hospital with a normal delivery up to 5 days, for additional children only up to 3 but can leave within 24 hours if you so choose and are okay, as well as the baby.

The nurses wipe the baby off when it is born but it is up to you to give it a bath and fully clean the baby. It is also highly recommended that alcohol swabs are not used on the umbilical cord area, nothing is to be used. You do get tea and biscuits (cookies) for a snack in the evening (yeah!).

I have started showing some signs that this pregnancy is getting closer to the due date. I cannot be up for too long periods of time because of my varicose veins. Ouch! I feel so sorry for the kids because I don't feel like they are getting all the attention I would love to shower them with, but they are doing well and are playing well together.

Ireland Immersion Team is Here

The Ireland Immersion team has arrived! This is what the FBCW people would call the GAP students, students that have come over here for a college school year term to be Immersed in to the Irish culture. Their time here starts off in classes taught by local pastors and lay people as well as OM staff. Some classes include hermeneutics (how to study the Bible), History of Ireland and the church, Review of the entire Bible, etc. I taught the history of the church from the time of the Apostles to the rule of Constantine (a Roman emperor that converted to Christianity. They are even taking classes on Time Management, and going through the "Way of the Master" evangelism training course. The classes are so exciting I want to sit in on them all. The students are also taking field trips. One that they took that I would like to go on is Clonmacnoise where they learned about the history of Christianity in Ireland. (I wish one day the single people on the team could babysit the kids and let the married couples go on these tours that the wives miss out on so that we can learn all this too-just an idea. It's hard going to places like that with kids and still get the info in.). :)

The history from the Apostles to Constantine talked about what the early church was like during the times of the beginnings of the church. Heresies that the church battled at that time and persecution during that time. Then how did the church change as a result of the Roman emperor converting to Christianity and persecution stopping. What was good and bad about this. My favorite part was the activity we did where the students listed out the heresies and what was believed and then looked up Scripture individually and together to discuss why that was a heresy and what the truth of the Bible was. Oh I learned so much and loved teaching that class. I don't know if the students liked it but I got a lot out of it.

I am so impressed with this group of students. They are deep thinkers and are not afraid to ask the hard questions and are excited to learn. There are 3 S. Koreans, a German, a Sweed and 5 Americans on the team.

You can keep up with the Immersion team via Facebook. Just type in Immersion Ireland. PS if you are wondering, this is what God put on our hearts to come over and do in Ireland. He has also expanded that too, but this is the original "plan" that we knew of.

Summer 2009

So much has happened this summer I don't know where to start! I cannot believe that the last post was a month ago! This summer has been great in many ways. Last week we had some family time which was WONDERFUL!!!! Ludie and the entire OM team has been going going going really since May but it has been non-stop, something everyday since the beginning of July. That is good! That is what we are here for, well not for being busy but for working hard at what God has called us to do. Above is the picture of the 12 cups of blackberries Griffin and Ludie picked (and the bushes are not even full yet, they are getting there, those were just the first pick of the "crop". They are wild blackberries that grow on the side of the road. The plum tree in our yard is full and Ludie and Griffin just filled up one of those big bowls with plums. I feel like Bubba Gump: "We gonna be havin some plum tart, plum muffins, plum jelly...". (and I love it!)

This summer Griffin got to participate in Art Camp offered at the church we attend. He loved it! He is into hip hop dancing and each day got to do dance, drama, crafts and music. The theme was Joshua and the battle of Jericho. You can see him in the picture of their end of week drama of Joshua. He was one of the guards. It is amazing to come to a place and expect to work with others, but to benefit from the work that is done in your own family is such a blessing.










Griffin and Ruthie also got to participate for the first time with the Big Red Bus. She loved the puppet shows and he loved the games. She even learned the dance moves to a song that we Have to listen to and dance to daily per her request. She has really started talking a lot and as you can see her hair has really started to thicken and grow. I can almost put it in a ponytail.








Ludie walked up to us while we were at the Big Red Bus and I just teared up at the thought of having our whole family here working with and enjoying the bus. You'll see a picture I took from the upstairs of the bus of Ludie sharing the Gospel with a group outside the bus.











During our family time we spent some of it working around the house. I can keep the house running but there is a huge difference when the man of the house is here handling things. Can I get an Amen!? There are just some things a woman can't do-or doesn't want to do. :) He gets the hard stuff.

We also got an opportunity to go to the Dublin Zoo. We took the train there which was fun for us all. It cost less to ride the train than it did to drive there. We also enjoyed just playing with the kids, and the kids enjoyed not being strapped into car seats. We had to walk from the train station, through Phoenix Park (beautiful flowers!), to the zoo. What an adventure for us all. We ended the day with supper that we picked up and ate on the train ride back. Ludie taught me what a Doner Kebab is. I am hooked!

















We also went to the opposite coast to Galway via train (our favorite way to travel now!). We spent the day in Salt Hill at the aquarium where we got to pet sting rays, dog fish, and hold starfish. And like every trip we have made to an aquarium since I have known and been married to Ludie, Ludie made me scream in the middle of it by picking up a dog fish out of the tank. At least I did not splash anyone this time. We walked back to the train station. A storm came up for a couple minutes while we were walking, and it felt like being a on a roller coaster while it was raining. We had to duck behind a stone wall to stay dry from the rain going sideways. After it passed though we saw the biggest and brightest rainbow we've ever seen. I learned that I cannot walk fast anywhere for a length of time as I start to have hard contractions.



































The last day of our family time we went to pick up the newest member of our family. His name is Hunter. He is an English Spaniel mix (we think with Greyhound). We found him via the internet for an offer free to a good home from a man that was moving from the country to the city. He is fully house-trained and lets you know when he needs to go outside and he is great with the kids. He took off today into the neighbors yard. He jumped the stone wall and proceeded for 30 minutes to chase the sparrows while I kept yelling for him to come here! Then finally I said "sit". And he did! Well okay then, now I know how to get him. However when he is chasing the birds there is no way to catch him. I think he's faster than a horse! The neighbors scared him half to death when he scared them, and he won't be running towards their house anytime soon. He had been hanging around the house well when we took him out so I thought I would take the leash off, and off he went! Down the lane and straight into their house. They did not know him yet but can you imagine a dog as big as a greyhound running into your house full speed?









We have only 8 weeks left to go in the pregnancy (after this weekend). We are working on getting ready for the baby to come. I am excited and cannot imagine what it will be like when he or she finally gets here. We have a couple girls names picked out but are still having trouble with boys names. No telling though! You'll just have to wait until it comes to find out. (PS We don't know whether it is a boy or a girl).

Oh...and one bit of exciting news is that fellow OM'ers Dax and Sarah are our next door neighbors! We love it. Pray for them though, they have to put up with us. :)

What a week!

I have always wanted the hang out house and now we have it. It has been a prayer of mine that our kids friends would want to be at our house and that we would have the hang out house. Well, it turns out that God has answered our prayers. In the one mile radius around our house, the only boys that are close to Griffin's age are right within our "village" as they call it. When we moved here there seemed to be no children around so we would go to the playground by the marina and play there. It turns out that our neighbor's grandson visits most days out of the week and our other neighbor's son comes and stays a couple days out of the week. They have a blast together. On a rainy day this week I was overwhelmed with the amount of dust and cobwebs that collect around here. I get tired very easily so I have to watch how much I do (however I regret that my thighs are showing the effects-oh well. I will have to start walking after the baby is born). So anyway, I was praying that God would just send someone to clean my house or give me ideas of how to get it done. The dust on the baseboards look like they could just get up and walk away. Well, Kevin that is over almost everyday loves to hoover (vaccuum), so I asked him if he would hoover the baseboards on half the house, and then Griffin wanted to wipe the baseboards on the other half of the house. I paid them for doing this. It is not a big house but it sure helped my back!!! Ruthie even pitched in by putting the dishes away. She loves to dust and put dishes away. She even puts her dirty diapers (nappies) in the trash can (rubbish bin). I usually do homeschool while she naps so cleaning is done while she is awake, but it is like trying to work harder and faster cleaning and putting stuff away than she can undo what has been done.


. Because of my laziness on matching socks, when they are dry I just stick them in a bag. Well our family ran out of socks so we had a stock matching contest. Both participants got candy but the winner with the most pairs got extra gummies.

Ludie had a couple days off this week. He has been working (as well as the rest of the OM team) day and night for at least the past 3 weeks. It has been so good to have him home. I hugged him so much, he asked "what did you do?". The first day he just chilled and spent special time with the kids. Griffin has been eating it up. They made a pallette and watched Clone Wars and fought with light sabers. He also put up a post for the hammock we gave him for Father's Day. I think Griffin is more excited than anything!


Dax and Sarah Bryant from Las Vegas are joining the OM team on Monday. They are flying out Sunday with a 7 hour lay over in Chicago. She is 7 1/2 months pregnant and they have a 2 year old and 4 year old. I am so excited about them coming. I think just to be able to help someone else and make their transition easier based on the things I have learned or mistakes that I have learned from.

Anyway, there was a car donated to OM for them to use so we went to Kilkenny today to pick it up. We made a family outing out of it and went to Kilkenny Castle. We had a picnic, rolled down hills, played on the playground, climbed trees and toured the castle, oh and had some ice cream of course!!! Mmmm! It was such a great day! I love my family! The last picture is one of my favorite house on the way to Kilkenny. It has a thatch roof. It was not a good place to stop and take a picture so I had to do a drive by shot.





The last thing to mention was what happened in the middle of the week. I don't really know how to put this in a blog without just seeming like something in passing, because it is all but that. This week our friend and Sunday School Class member from FBCW passed away. At the age of 42 he died in his sleep of a massive heart attack. My heart just aches for Teresa and the kids. Please keep them in your prayers. I am so thankful and praise God that there is no doubt that Todd is in the presence of Jesus Christ. He dressed up as Elvis at a Sunday School Class fundraiser to help us raise funds to come to serve with OM in Ireland. My disc that has that picture is in storage back home. If anyone has a picture, please send it to me and I will post it. Todd and Teresa were and are some of our favorite people in our Sunday School class. We always sat right in front of them and joined on the same Sunday. Todd loved racing and had a prized Home Depot racing helmet that he willingly gave up for a abused children's Christian charity. That is just the kind of guy he was. He was always laid back with a smile on his face and you just felt comfortable around him. We are blessed to have known him.

Impact Ireland

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.