First (Out of Country) Adventure of the Year 2012: IRELAND

     One of my dreams for the past 5 years has been to go to Ireland. I am so in love with this country I don't even know what to do with myself when I hear an Irish accent or watch an Irish movie or learn something new about Ireland or anything, literally, ANYTHING that has to do with the GORGEOUS Emerald Isle. I don't really remember when Ireland initially got put in my heart, I think it's always been there, but God really started showing me the significance of it in my life a couple years ago. I have always been fascinated by Irish culture and the Celts, but never before has it, or any country for that matter, been on my heart so heavily that whenever I start even praying on that subject I start bawling my eyes out. I can only say that God has put this incredible love in my heart for this country and the people in it. God has also just implanted it in my heart. Anything that has to do with Ireland pertaining to me, I KNOW if God is telling me yes or no about that certain subject. Normally, this is something that is kind of hard for me to discern, or not so much that it is hard, but I normally need a lot of signs to show me that God is saying yes. It really is amazing.

     God has put it on my heart to do my DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland, for sure. I know that I know that I know that this is what God wants me to do. I know that I am supposed to do it right when I get out of high school. It is going to Cambodia and India for it's outreach phase (as well as doing ministry in Ireland, itself) mainly because it is a Compassion and Justice DTS or C-DTS. This type of DTS focuses on ministering to those who are living in injustice such as Human Trafficking or Poverty. Here's the page with their info on it: http://www.ywamireland.org The fact that our outreach is going to be in Cambodia is just absolutely amazing to me because it is THE country that has been on my radar for Human Trafficking, especially after I saw a crazy documentary called Nefarious: Merchant of Souls this year that is about Human Trafficking. Here's the website for the documentary: http://nefariousdocumentary.com/ The C-DTS is going to be about $10,000 for 6 months of schooling in ministry. This number includes Airfare, spending money, and the cost of the C-DTS itself. If you would like to donate to this please let me know. You can e-mail me at Illuminatetheworld@hotmail.com. I will officially start raising support for this next year! :)

     I have also made some friends in Ireland that I absolutely love.  2 years ago, I decided to check out this pen-pal website called http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/. I was so excited that I asked probably around 40 people from a bunch of different countries if I could be their pen-pal and out of ALLLLL those people, only one got back to me and is still my friend now. He's Irish, and he is now a really good friend. I've had some very interesting conversations with him and have learned a lot about Ireland and it's culture just by talking to him. I also ended up becoming friends with one of his friends on Facebook as well, so now I have TWO Irish friends who are awesome! God has been so faithful with this, though. He's so good. 

     So, on that note, I have been WAITING for 5 years for God to give me the Okay to go to Ireland. I've had little opportunities over the years, but I've always felt like God was just like, "Nope, not yet." Then this year, my mom randomly becomes friend with this Christian Irish lady on Facebook names Angie (she's amazing), and I just HAD to message her. So I messaged her on Facebook and was like, "Hey, I'm in love with your country, and I plan on doing a DTS in Rostrevor, and becoming a full-time missionary there." She replied back kinda like "Cool" which is totally understandable. Some crazy American girl spouting off about how much she loves a country she's never been to, yeah, I get it. :P Then, a couple of months ago, I messaged her again and asked her if she knew of a Christian family or couple that I could stay with in Ireland if I wanted to come, and she was like "You could stay with me..." Uhm... I pretty much freaked out. Then I was like... okay, God. I really need You to help me find work so I can work for the plane ticket, which was about $800. So, I went around asking a whole bunch of people if they had any work for me, and no one responded. So I was like, "Okay, God I really need you to provide work or show me that I'm not supposed to go, but I feel like I'm supposed to go... so... help me get the money I need and fast, because the ticket prices are going to go UP!" Exactly two days later, a friend of ours' that used to live in California, who now lives in Texas, messaged me on Facebook and said that her husband was going on a business trip, so she needed help with watching her kids (twin boys two years old, a four year old girl, and an eight year old girl.). Then she said something that made my heart pound, she said she would pay for my flight to Texas and that she needed me for eight days and that she would pay me $100 a day. EXACTLY what I needed  for my plane ticket. I FREAKED, I mean FREAKED out, in the middle of my kitchen screaming "I'M GOING TO IRELAND!!! FINALLY! I'M GOING TO IRELAND!!!!" It was a profound moment for me... so I went there, worked, and it was amazing. The lady ended up giving me $100 more than I needed for my ticket, and I had a blast with her kids. It was such a God- ordained thing. One thing that happened while I was there was that the lady I was working for is very prophetic, and she gave me a word about how the Native Americans and the Irish are connected (long, long story), she said, "When the roots of Ireland are healed, the fruit will be with the Native Americans." I have no idea what this means, but I know that it DEFINITELY means something.
     So, my mom would not let me travel alone, so we decided that it would be awesome if my mom's mom (Grammy) could come to.This would be Grammy's first time out of the country, and she had always longed to go to Ireland, like me. Also, my Grammy is very much into genealogy (which I find quite fascinating, as well.), and we have a HUGE amount of Irish in us, on both my dad's side, and my mom's. We have a missing link though, the link that actually shows who in our family was actually FROM Ireland, we haven't been able to track it back to Ireland, yet. Grammy and I are hoping that we will be able to find something that we can research while we're in Ireland. Here's the awesome thing, so we were able to find a flight that does not conflict with my school schedule whatsoever, I get to meet my Irish friends when we go there, the lady we're staying with lives in the countryside, and I'm going during Spring Break (March 28th-April 8th). I cannot WAIT to see what God does! I just hope that I don't break down crying when I get into the Dublin Airport because that is a very real possibility. If I can barely contain myself when I just pray for them..... oh boy. I am so excited for this adventure! I will try to blog while I am there to keep everyone updated! :)

Some prayer points:

• Please pray against spiritual warfare, we've already experienced some with the tickets, but everything is good now. 
• Please pray that the money will come in for me to get my passport renewed, because I still need to do that and it is $110.
• Please pray that this trip would go safely and that God would just pour out His love and purpose for these people on me and on my Grammy. 
• Please pray that we would just have amazing encounters with the people there and that we would have opportunities to evangelize and to just build good relationships. 

Thanks! You guys are awesome! :) :) :)