Dear Inisfail (Ireland),
Green hills, white shores
You do not know how My heart burns for you
Although you've been through so many struggles
and have fought to the death, through many troubles
I hear you, I am with you
Though I may seem distant and far away
I tell you, even in those days, where you were ruled
and pushed and pulled in so many different ways
I was there, I knew you
You say, "There is no god" and you've hidden you heart
but I open it up and say "Look what's in my palm, I hold you,
I know your dreams, your desires, and I want to give them to you"
You mean everything, you're my creation
Oh, my praying people
You don't know how much I danced and sang over you
when you talked to me in Bangor, you knew how your prayers
were incense! Please, don't forget. Don't forget your first love.
I am not a god who is distant or heavy-handed with rules and regulations
I am full of grace and my blood covers your transgressions, yes,
but that blood was not just given so that I could be followed mechanically
and without true LOVE. I want to KNOW you. When that day comes,
when you'll be sitting before My throne, I want to look at you and say
with a Father's heart, "I love you, I know you, and you were faithful"
I want to look at you, and see you as one who was devoted
to seeing My Bride unified and unprejudiced against itself.
You are loved, YOU have a destiny
I have called you to be priests in a holy, pure way
that glorifies only Me. I am calling you, arise, take your place
it is pivotal and it is necessary, you have a purpose! So be free!
Love, Jesus
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Annnddd... THE LORD (Ireland blog #7)
Dublin, CA
4:15pm
First of all, just wanted to say sorry for not doing this blog for a while, but since I've gotten back home from Ireland, I've been relaxing and getting over jet lag and such and then life has just been Carazay, but good!! . SO... I shall now tell you about my experience at the YWAM Rostrevor base. So after we pent the night in the Annebrooke House Hotel, we left Mullingar with saddened, yet excited hearts (we wanted to stay in Mullingar longer because it was SO CUTE! haha!). We had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, and we both couldn't wait to get to Rostrevor. My Grammy hadn't really known exactly what I was going to be doing in Rostrevor, but once I explained it to her, she seemed almost as excited as I was! haha! So just to clarify for you all who may not know exactly what I'm going to be doing, either... this is it: I am going to be doing a 6 month school at the YWAM (Youth with A Mission) base in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland called the C-DTS (Compassion and Justice Discipleship Training School). The first 3 or so months of this school is called the "Lecture Phase". This part of the school teaches us about effective ways of ministry, biblical principles, how to engage with the Lord, intercession, and other basics to life as a missionary. After that, the next 3 or so months of this school is the "Outreach Phase". This is where we take everything that we have learned in the Lecture Phase and put into practice. After one does a DTS, they can go on staff at any YWAM base all over the world! :D
So... that all said, we arrived in Rostrevor in the afternoon on Wednesday (after a couple of interesting traffic situations). When we got there, we weren't sure which door was the right one to go in. The first door we saw looked like the entry way was under construction so we didn't think that it was the front door (it was, there was just some stuff in the entry way, lol!), so we kept walking around the building, not really sure where to go. We came to a couple of other doors, but both of them were locked. So we tried ANOTHER door, and it was open, but it lead to a kids play area. We were kinda confused, but we walked in anyways. We could hear people talking and laughing so we followed the sound, and that's where we met Kayla, Stephanie, and Caroline. They all we very accommodating and welcoming and made me feel instantly comfortable with the place! :) Kayla, lovely Kayla, was the head of hospitality so she showed us to our room, around the house, and told us how everything worked.So after we had seen everything we needed to see, we asked her where we could go buy food because there was a self-catering kitchen there, and she said we could buy it in the town which was literally like a 8 minute walk. It was so close. Before we left, I asked her if they were going to be having any group prayer or worship times while we were there (so I could get to know some people) and she said that they were having a little YWAM staff worship thing that night at 7pm. I was really stoked to hear this so I said that we would probably join them. So my Grammy and I got all settled in our room, and then we left to go buy food for our stay, while we were there for 2 days. There was a lovely park nearby, an integrated (catholic and protestant school. I'll get to that later), and super cute little town. This town was seriously one of the cutest towns I had ever seen. I immediately fell in love! We went to the Butcher's shop, the grocery store, and the Chemist (I needed chapstick). We loved the little town and were determined to walk around more the next day. So we got back to the base, put our stuff in the kitchen (which was actually their industrial kitchen, because their other kitchen that was normally used for guests had just had a pipe leak.). While we were in there, the lovely Kayla walked in and we had a conversation with her for a while, talking about the history of the base, how she ended up there, and such. One thing that I noticed on our walk through the town was that there was an "Integrated School" near the base. I didn't really know what that meant until we talked to Kayla. She was telling us about the intense animosity that most people in Northern Ireland have towards Protestants because they're Catholic and vise-versa. I was so amazed that a school that had both Protestant and Catholic children was called an integrated school. One of the things that God has weighed heavy upon my heart is His desire to see Protestants and Catholics united in Ireland to form a unified bride, and one of the things that YWAM Rostrevor feels called to focus on is this. The YWAM base used to be a Protestant-Catholic Reconciliation Center before it was given to YWAM. I didn't know this until several months AFTER I felt like God was telling me to do my DTS there and this was a total confirmation for me. I don't know what one person can do about the dissension between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, but I know that with God, all things are possible. YWAM Rostrevor has been seeing some marked difference in the Irish community in Rostrevor concerning Religious quarrels and even now Catholics are making mass open for Protestants every once in a while in Rostrevor. THAT is progress. We had a great conversation that stayed in this strain for quite a while, and then we went back to our room to eat. We kinda just hung out in our room for a while, just relaxing and taking it all in, I think we even took a nap.
Later that night, we finally went downstairs to go to the worship thing that they were having. We all hung around for a bit drinking tea (I didn't really converse with anyone, though, because I was feeling pretty shy, and so was Grammy). Once worship started, I was amazed at how "at home" I felt. There was such a familiarity with the way that they worshiped! I loved it so much! They ended up doing 2 hours of normal songs and spontaneous worship, which was totally right up my alley! It reminded me of the House of Prayer so much! After that, it was pretty late so I uploaded some pictures (as I did every night because of the massive amounts of pictures I was taking), and then went to sleep. The next day, we got up and walked around the town and the nearby park! My Grammy and I could have stayed there for HOURS we loved it so immensely! There were so many cute little shops and hotels and pubs, and the park was GORGEOUS! It was so green and widespread! :D We went to a beautiful Cathedral (or Ca-TEE-dral, as the Irish would say it), that Grammy thoroughly enjoyed, and we just took it all in. Then, at about 3pm, we went back to our room and took a nap. The whole time I had really been wanting to meet the staff at the base, but was feeling very hesitant about just going up to them and introducing myself, because I just have a hard time with being bold like that when it's just everyday life (on missions trips, it's wayyyyy different. lol!). So we boo-bopped around for a while; I uploaded more pictures and wrote my blog, Grammy read and snacked (lol!). We also did a bit of snooping around, which, despite feeling a bit awkward, I'm actually glad that we did, because I really became quite familiar with the place! haha! After that, I voiced my desire to meet other staff members to my grammy and she said that we should go do it! So, I reluctantly said okay, and we went downstairs and heard everyone talking, so we assumed that they were in a meeting or something. We stood around for a bit and then decided to sit down, kind of hoping that someone would just walk in and introduce themselves to us. Oddly, we were sitting in the dark, so when poor Kayla came into the room, we scared her pretty badly. I told her about how I wanted to meet people, but felt hesitant, and she immediately asked if I wanted her to introduce me to them. Of course I wanted her to! So she took me into the kitchen and introduced me to about 10 other staff members who were all from different places. There were actually, surprisingly, quite a few Americans, but there were also people from Scotland, Sweden, and Australia. They were all amazingly friendly and I'm so happy that I got to meet them because they're all going to be there when I go to do my DTS, so I'll know people! YAY! :D We all talked for quite a while and it was really, really fun. It was getting late, so Kayla said that we should meet for tea in the morning, and this other awesome girl named Stephanie was going to join us, too!
So we continued our conversation the next morning and it was really good! I met a new friend that morning named Michael, who is possibly going to be one of the leaders of my DTS in 2013-2014. We were all talking for quite a while when two Irish women came in, and they ended up joining our conversation. I was really moved by one of the lady's stories. She had 2 little boys and was having problems in her marriage because she "became a Christian" (switched from Catholic to Protestant). She said that she also was having a very hard time finding a job because of the economic crisis in Ireland at the moment and her line of work. She was so sweet and so humble and she started to just cry in front of us because she was so weighed down by her situation. That woman has not ceased to be on my heart and I pray for her very often. The other Irish woman that I met was very fiesty and had a lot to say. I loved listening to her because the passion that she carried for everything she was saying was astounding! It was so awesome to just listen to her tell stories. These two women further solidified my desire to minister to people in Ireland and in Rostrevor. I also got a chance to meet the Director of YWAM Ireland and his wife, which was very cool, and was one of my things on my "list" that I wanted checked off. They were absolutely lovely! That day, Grammy and I both left Rostrevor with a bittersweet feeling in our hearts. We only had one more day in Ireland. God was speaking to me a lot while I was in Rostrevor, and I feel like I got some absolute direction for my life, and what He wants me to do (which I will talk about in the next blog).
So the last person's house that we stayed at was in Oldcastle, Co. Meath in the Republic of Ireland. Oldcastle was absolutely BEAUTIFUL; it had to be the most beautiful countryside I'd seen on our whole trip. Thankfully, Angie (our lovely hostess), took us around her hometown and showed us some amazing sights. We got to see some gorgeous gardens with old church ruins. She also took us to see ruins of an old abbey which was absolutely gorgeous! That was a short visit with her, but it was really fun! The next day, we made our drive back to Dublin to return our car and say goodbye to Ireland. It was a very bittersweet moment that, for me, was much more bitter than sweet. Obviously, I was happy to be going home, but my heart ached to stay in Ireland. I feel such a connection with that beautiful, BEAUTIFUL country, and I know that it is God's heart bleeding through mine. The Lord did so much in my heart on this trip. Seeing the people, hearing the stories of their history, hearing the stories of the present, and just watching these people walk through every day life with the weight of what their ancestors had been through on their shoulders, jsut continued to intensify my resolve about what I felt like He was/is calling me to there. Relational Ministry. It's what I feel like I'm supposed to do there, and I can totally see Him preparing me for that. All the Irish people want is genuineness, love, and someone to listen. I think everyone in this world wants that. God did SOOO much in my heart, and even now, 3 months later, I'm still processing it all, but I feel like I have way more direction than before. Watching Ireland's shores disappear through the airplane window was one of the hardest things I've ever been through (I even shed a few tears), but I knew I'd be back, and be back I will.
4:15pm
First of all, just wanted to say sorry for not doing this blog for a while, but since I've gotten back home from Ireland, I've been relaxing and getting over jet lag and such and then life has just been Carazay, but good!! . SO... I shall now tell you about my experience at the YWAM Rostrevor base. So after we pent the night in the Annebrooke House Hotel, we left Mullingar with saddened, yet excited hearts (we wanted to stay in Mullingar longer because it was SO CUTE! haha!). We had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, and we both couldn't wait to get to Rostrevor. My Grammy hadn't really known exactly what I was going to be doing in Rostrevor, but once I explained it to her, she seemed almost as excited as I was! haha! So just to clarify for you all who may not know exactly what I'm going to be doing, either... this is it: I am going to be doing a 6 month school at the YWAM (Youth with A Mission) base in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland called the C-DTS (Compassion and Justice Discipleship Training School). The first 3 or so months of this school is called the "Lecture Phase". This part of the school teaches us about effective ways of ministry, biblical principles, how to engage with the Lord, intercession, and other basics to life as a missionary. After that, the next 3 or so months of this school is the "Outreach Phase". This is where we take everything that we have learned in the Lecture Phase and put into practice. After one does a DTS, they can go on staff at any YWAM base all over the world! :D
So... that all said, we arrived in Rostrevor in the afternoon on Wednesday (after a couple of interesting traffic situations). When we got there, we weren't sure which door was the right one to go in. The first door we saw looked like the entry way was under construction so we didn't think that it was the front door (it was, there was just some stuff in the entry way, lol!), so we kept walking around the building, not really sure where to go. We came to a couple of other doors, but both of them were locked. So we tried ANOTHER door, and it was open, but it lead to a kids play area. We were kinda confused, but we walked in anyways. We could hear people talking and laughing so we followed the sound, and that's where we met Kayla, Stephanie, and Caroline. They all we very accommodating and welcoming and made me feel instantly comfortable with the place! :) Kayla, lovely Kayla, was the head of hospitality so she showed us to our room, around the house, and told us how everything worked.So after we had seen everything we needed to see, we asked her where we could go buy food because there was a self-catering kitchen there, and she said we could buy it in the town which was literally like a 8 minute walk. It was so close. Before we left, I asked her if they were going to be having any group prayer or worship times while we were there (so I could get to know some people) and she said that they were having a little YWAM staff worship thing that night at 7pm. I was really stoked to hear this so I said that we would probably join them. So my Grammy and I got all settled in our room, and then we left to go buy food for our stay, while we were there for 2 days. There was a lovely park nearby, an integrated (catholic and protestant school. I'll get to that later), and super cute little town. This town was seriously one of the cutest towns I had ever seen. I immediately fell in love! We went to the Butcher's shop, the grocery store, and the Chemist (I needed chapstick). We loved the little town and were determined to walk around more the next day. So we got back to the base, put our stuff in the kitchen (which was actually their industrial kitchen, because their other kitchen that was normally used for guests had just had a pipe leak.). While we were in there, the lovely Kayla walked in and we had a conversation with her for a while, talking about the history of the base, how she ended up there, and such. One thing that I noticed on our walk through the town was that there was an "Integrated School" near the base. I didn't really know what that meant until we talked to Kayla. She was telling us about the intense animosity that most people in Northern Ireland have towards Protestants because they're Catholic and vise-versa. I was so amazed that a school that had both Protestant and Catholic children was called an integrated school. One of the things that God has weighed heavy upon my heart is His desire to see Protestants and Catholics united in Ireland to form a unified bride, and one of the things that YWAM Rostrevor feels called to focus on is this. The YWAM base used to be a Protestant-Catholic Reconciliation Center before it was given to YWAM. I didn't know this until several months AFTER I felt like God was telling me to do my DTS there and this was a total confirmation for me. I don't know what one person can do about the dissension between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, but I know that with God, all things are possible. YWAM Rostrevor has been seeing some marked difference in the Irish community in Rostrevor concerning Religious quarrels and even now Catholics are making mass open for Protestants every once in a while in Rostrevor. THAT is progress. We had a great conversation that stayed in this strain for quite a while, and then we went back to our room to eat. We kinda just hung out in our room for a while, just relaxing and taking it all in, I think we even took a nap.
Later that night, we finally went downstairs to go to the worship thing that they were having. We all hung around for a bit drinking tea (I didn't really converse with anyone, though, because I was feeling pretty shy, and so was Grammy). Once worship started, I was amazed at how "at home" I felt. There was such a familiarity with the way that they worshiped! I loved it so much! They ended up doing 2 hours of normal songs and spontaneous worship, which was totally right up my alley! It reminded me of the House of Prayer so much! After that, it was pretty late so I uploaded some pictures (as I did every night because of the massive amounts of pictures I was taking), and then went to sleep. The next day, we got up and walked around the town and the nearby park! My Grammy and I could have stayed there for HOURS we loved it so immensely! There were so many cute little shops and hotels and pubs, and the park was GORGEOUS! It was so green and widespread! :D We went to a beautiful Cathedral (or Ca-TEE-dral, as the Irish would say it), that Grammy thoroughly enjoyed, and we just took it all in. Then, at about 3pm, we went back to our room and took a nap. The whole time I had really been wanting to meet the staff at the base, but was feeling very hesitant about just going up to them and introducing myself, because I just have a hard time with being bold like that when it's just everyday life (on missions trips, it's wayyyyy different. lol!). So we boo-bopped around for a while; I uploaded more pictures and wrote my blog, Grammy read and snacked (lol!). We also did a bit of snooping around, which, despite feeling a bit awkward, I'm actually glad that we did, because I really became quite familiar with the place! haha! After that, I voiced my desire to meet other staff members to my grammy and she said that we should go do it! So, I reluctantly said okay, and we went downstairs and heard everyone talking, so we assumed that they were in a meeting or something. We stood around for a bit and then decided to sit down, kind of hoping that someone would just walk in and introduce themselves to us. Oddly, we were sitting in the dark, so when poor Kayla came into the room, we scared her pretty badly. I told her about how I wanted to meet people, but felt hesitant, and she immediately asked if I wanted her to introduce me to them. Of course I wanted her to! So she took me into the kitchen and introduced me to about 10 other staff members who were all from different places. There were actually, surprisingly, quite a few Americans, but there were also people from Scotland, Sweden, and Australia. They were all amazingly friendly and I'm so happy that I got to meet them because they're all going to be there when I go to do my DTS, so I'll know people! YAY! :D We all talked for quite a while and it was really, really fun. It was getting late, so Kayla said that we should meet for tea in the morning, and this other awesome girl named Stephanie was going to join us, too!
So we continued our conversation the next morning and it was really good! I met a new friend that morning named Michael, who is possibly going to be one of the leaders of my DTS in 2013-2014. We were all talking for quite a while when two Irish women came in, and they ended up joining our conversation. I was really moved by one of the lady's stories. She had 2 little boys and was having problems in her marriage because she "became a Christian" (switched from Catholic to Protestant). She said that she also was having a very hard time finding a job because of the economic crisis in Ireland at the moment and her line of work. She was so sweet and so humble and she started to just cry in front of us because she was so weighed down by her situation. That woman has not ceased to be on my heart and I pray for her very often. The other Irish woman that I met was very fiesty and had a lot to say. I loved listening to her because the passion that she carried for everything she was saying was astounding! It was so awesome to just listen to her tell stories. These two women further solidified my desire to minister to people in Ireland and in Rostrevor. I also got a chance to meet the Director of YWAM Ireland and his wife, which was very cool, and was one of my things on my "list" that I wanted checked off. They were absolutely lovely! That day, Grammy and I both left Rostrevor with a bittersweet feeling in our hearts. We only had one more day in Ireland. God was speaking to me a lot while I was in Rostrevor, and I feel like I got some absolute direction for my life, and what He wants me to do (which I will talk about in the next blog).
So the last person's house that we stayed at was in Oldcastle, Co. Meath in the Republic of Ireland. Oldcastle was absolutely BEAUTIFUL; it had to be the most beautiful countryside I'd seen on our whole trip. Thankfully, Angie (our lovely hostess), took us around her hometown and showed us some amazing sights. We got to see some gorgeous gardens with old church ruins. She also took us to see ruins of an old abbey which was absolutely gorgeous! That was a short visit with her, but it was really fun! The next day, we made our drive back to Dublin to return our car and say goodbye to Ireland. It was a very bittersweet moment that, for me, was much more bitter than sweet. Obviously, I was happy to be going home, but my heart ached to stay in Ireland. I feel such a connection with that beautiful, BEAUTIFUL country, and I know that it is God's heart bleeding through mine. The Lord did so much in my heart on this trip. Seeing the people, hearing the stories of their history, hearing the stories of the present, and just watching these people walk through every day life with the weight of what their ancestors had been through on their shoulders, jsut continued to intensify my resolve about what I felt like He was/is calling me to there. Relational Ministry. It's what I feel like I'm supposed to do there, and I can totally see Him preparing me for that. All the Irish people want is genuineness, love, and someone to listen. I think everyone in this world wants that. God did SOOO much in my heart, and even now, 3 months later, I'm still processing it all, but I feel like I have way more direction than before. Watching Ireland's shores disappear through the airplane window was one of the hardest things I've ever been through (I even shed a few tears), but I knew I'd be back, and be back I will.
THE END
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)