The weather today was freezing! When I say freezing, I mean literally freezing! It was in the 30s (Fahrenheit) today, complete with rain, sleet, and hailstones...after almost an entire week of sunshine, cloudless skies, and 60-65 degree (Fahrenheit) weather. Although we needed the rain, this was quite a shock for us Dubliners. Needless to say, I pulled out my warmest cardigan and my winter boots today. Darn...so much for "Spring has sprung". I'm still hopeful for some warmer weather!
So in my last post I promised I'd talk about the youth group day away, the adorable baby I've been babysitting recently, and what God has been teaching me lately.
First things first, the youth group day away. :) As you may know, I've been working with the "Senior Group" in the youth programme here in the Community of Nazareth. The Senior Group is made up of 22 kids ages 13-15. For the past two months we've been doing Life in the Spirit Seminars with them. The Life in the Spirit Seminars are a set of 7 talks about having a relationship with Christ and living more by the power of the Holy Spirit. I got to give the first talk and the sixth talk. The first talk was about God's perfect plan for our lives and how sin pulls us away from that perfect plan. The only way to stay on track with the plan that God has for our lives is to have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. The next few talks went into more detail about the Holy Spirit and His gifts that are offered to us. The fifth talk was where we prayed over the kids to receive baptism in the Holy Spirit. For this we took them away for the day to a house near Wexford. The house is owned by an older couple in community, and they let a lot of community people/families use it occasionally. We left in the morning and spent the afternoon there with the kids. There was time for them to hang out with one another, and we even took a walk down to the beach because the weather was exceptionally nice. We also had a good time of praise and prayer for more of the Holy Spirit, and I think that went really well. Here are some pictures from the day in Wexford. Don't be fooled by the beach pictures---it really wasn't that warm out! It doesn't take much to get an Irish person into the Sea. :)
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| The beautiful beach :) |
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| Some of the girls at the beach |
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| The hill we came down to get to the beach |
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| Crazy kids getting in to the cold Irish Sea! |
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| Daniel and Tiarnan |
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| Kevin |
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| I painted rocks for everyone in the Senior Group :) |
So after the day away we finished out the Life in the Spirit Seminars with talks 6 and 7, and like I said I got to give the sixth talk. I talked about how to stay connected to Christ by having a relationship with Him. I shared tips from some things I've done and learned in the past, and I was overall pleased by the response from the group.
About the adorable baby I've been babysitting lately...there's a family in community that needs extra help lately due to a medical situation, so Chrissy and I have been taking turns watching their baby for a couple hours in the afternoons. He's around 4 months old (I think), and he's got such chubby cheeks and a gorgeous toothless smile. I really love babies, so I have been greatly enjoying spending time with him. Plus I know it's a great help to the family. Win-win! :)
If you love babies as much as I do, or if you're just plain curious, here's a picture of the beautiful baby! I just love it when he smiles. :)
This past weekend I went away with Chrissy and her Young Adult group (just the girls) to the same house that we took the Senior Group to. Instead of doing just a day away though, we did an overnight with the YA girls. I was a bit nervous coming up to the weekend because I don't usually spend much time with this group of girls, so I don't know many of them too well. The time I spent with them went very well though, I thought. I got to play a little bit of music for a short prayer time before my talk, and then I talked to the girls briefly about the subject of edification (supporting one another as sisters in Christ; building each other up). I think this is a really important topic for girls this age (16-17). Actually, it's important at every age for women. We always need reminders to be loving toward one another...in our thoughts, words, and actions. It can be difficult when pride and jealousy get in the way, but when we really love one another it creates great friendships and a good support system. That's what I was talking to the girls about, and then we did a little activity where I had them draw a name of one of the girls in the room and they had to edify that particular girl. I passed out colored paper and Sharpies and the girls spent about 10-15 minutes writing nice things about their sister in Christ. When they finished and gave their finished products to their sisters, it was great to hear all the "Awwww"s. :) The rest of the overnight went really well. We had a generous amount of time to just relax and enjoy one another's company, and of course some of the girls dipped into the Irish Sea, despite the very cold and windy weather. Only in Ireland...
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| This is how Irish people dress at the beach... |
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| Me and Chrissy, my fellow GAPper. Don't make fun of my hood...I was warm! |
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| The Sea was a gorgeous shade of blue! |
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| Some adorable lambs we saw on the way back from the beach :) |
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God has been showing me lately that if I don't make Him the #1 priority in my life...the #1 priority in EACH DAY, that day will just not go very well. Simple as that. The time that I spend talking with Jesus and reading His word is always so great and uplifting...I feel joyful and peaceful and satisfied with life. But if I let a day go by without more than a "Hey Jesus" or a "Thanks for what You did today", I often feel empty and disappointed with life and with myself. I need to spend a good amount of time just being in His presence...having a conversation with Him...studying His word and identifying how it applies to my life. What I have a hard time understanding is this: if the time I spend with God is so wonderful, why do I crave other earthly things so much? Why don't I hunger and thirst for more time with God? That's so frustrating to me. Maybe I'll understand it more if I grow deeper in my relationship with Him? I don't know.
My parents are arriving in just 9 days, and I can hardly wait to see them! They'll be staying in a house nearly opposite mine, so we'll be neighbors for a little while. :) We'll be spending a weekend in Dublin, and then traveling to the West of Ireland for some sightseeing there. After that they'll come back and spend one more weekend in Dublin before heading back home. Expect to see quite a few photos from their visit!
I hope you all are enjoying April so far and that you have a blessed Holy Week and a wonderful Easter! Thanks for reading such a long blog post!!
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