So much has happened since my last post that I'm not even sure where to begin. God is so good and I am incredibly blessed in my life here in Delvin. We have been incredibly busy with ministry the last month which has been tiring but wonderful. We have been running multiple youth groups and weekly jam sessions. We've been visiting the schools in the surrounding area and we've started a youth mass. We've also been meeting with a group of parents and adults that are the future of youth ministry here in Delvin.
Our youth groups have been going really well lately. We have our last night on the old testament this week before our Christmas party next week with our senior youth group. My favorite night so far in this series on the old testament was definitely last week. The time period in the old testament we were looking at was the point just after King Solomon when the Israelites faced great persecution and exile from the world leaders around them and their own leaders. We have found that when presenting these sessions on the Old Testament it works best if we find a main theme we can present instead of just trying to give the history. So last week we focused on that idea of feeling separated from God and yet trusting in God's faithfulness in all areas of our lives. To present this we used Psalm 23 and the Footprints prayer to help apply this idea to our own lives. It was a more serious night and it was really wonderful. I believe the youth got a lot out of the night. We had a time for the youth to come to one of us and have some time for one-on-one prayer and most of them were too shy to go but they still had a powerful time of prayer I believe because many of them had tears in their eyes during that time. One young man did come forward to pray with Tim, my co-leader, and said it was really powerful for him. The most amazing part about this young man coming forward is he's not even Catholic. This young man and his sister have been coming to our youth group despite the fact that they are protestant and when asked if they could only keep one after school activity which would it be they answered they would keep our youth group. When our team heard that we were all so excited because often in ministry it can be hard to know if we are making a difference but that was confirmation for us that we are in fact making a difference. God is doing such amazing things here in Delvin and I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of it.
Now that we are more established and our house is set up a little more we've started to invite different families over to enjoy a meal with us. Just this last Friday we had a family over for dinner that is very involved with our ministry. The daughter is in our senior youth group and has been a reader for us for our youth mass. The mother is part of the parents group that wants to help keep ministry going after we leave. There are also 3 other children in the family and 2 of them came as well. It was wonderful to have them over for dinner and just sit back and enjoy some good craic (an Irish way of saying having fun). We cooked a ham and it was the first time any of us had ever cooked a big ham. It went surprisingly well. No one got food poisoning or anything like that so we called it a success. After dinner the family invited over to their house to watch the Late Late Toy Show. The Late Late Toy Show is a huge deal here in Ireland. Every Friday night the Late Late Show is on which is like a late night news broadcast that focuses on politics and other news but once a year they have the Late Late Toy Show. This once a year extravaganza is kind of like Oprah's Favorite Things for those of you who know that but it is all about toys for Christmas. The host has children come on and test all the toys and then give their opinions. They also have young people come on and sing and dance as well. It is really fun and the kids are incredibly cute. We had so much fun going over to their house and watching the show and having the opportunity to experience a big part of Irish culture.
Our team is definitely trying to take every opportunity to see as much of Ireland as possible. On Saturday we went to Galway for the day which was wonderful! Galway is a really cool beautiful city. Because it is getting close to Christmas the Christmas markets were all open and we had a blast exploring those and other parts of the city. We all did some Christmas shopping which included claddagh rings for Ben, Becca and Tim. The only person without one on our team now is Marie. We also rode a carousel and went down to the banks of the river to see the fastest moving river in Europe. While we were there there was a march for a woman named Savita who died a few weeks ago and is now at the forefront of the battle that rages in Ireland over abortion. We are here in Ireland in a critical time in Ireland's history. The government is currently debating legislating or abortion here in Ireland. Up to this point abortion has been illegal in this country but groups are now working to legalize abortion in Ireland. We did not participate in the march as we do not want to abortion legalized but it shows just how big of a deal it is here in Ireland right now. Any and all prayers you all can send this way to prevent the legalizing of abortion here in Ireland would be greatly appreciated.
We also went to the Hill of Tara about a week ago which was wonderful. It is a beautiful and historic place in Irish history. From the top of the hill you can stand where kings for thousands of years sat and you can also see a quarter of the country. We were lucky it was a nice clear day so we could see so much of the country. My favorite part about this site is this really cool old book shop right next to the gift shop. Its a tiny room with hundreds of books dating over 200 years old We had a lot of fun exploring that old book shop and trying to find the oldest book we could. The oldest book we discovered was written in 1780.
We are getting very excited for Christmas break. I know I am getting so excited for my mom and brother to get here so we can explore Ireland and London for almost 2 weeks. I pray that you all have a blessed and happy Christmas season.
God Bless and Happy Christmas!
Amy
