Summer, Sweet Summer

Those are some of the beautiful flowers in Mount Usher Gardens in Wicklow, where I went with a woman named Justine, from the community here, and her 4 boys.  It wasn't the greatest weather, but for Ireland it wasn't bad, considering it only sprinkled on us for a total of about 10 minutes.  We had a great time walking around and enjoying the natural beauty of the park.  A lot of the pretty flowers had already gone away for the summer, but I was thrilled to get the pictures that I did.  :)  Thanks Justine for yet another wonderful outing!  :)

The "mini-camp" that I ran for the younger groups in the youth programme a couple weeks ago went really well!  For three afternoons I did some activities with the 7-9ish year olds and they loved it!  I got a lot of help from some of the older kids in the youth programme as well, so that was extremely helpful!  Check out some of the pictures:

Playing some games outside with the kids

The kids were hard at work on the posters we were making
for On Holiday 3 coming up in Belgium!
Well...most of them...

The kids had a great time over the 3 days and I loved spending time with them.  I didn't get to work with this age group much during my GAP year, so it was nice to get to know some of the kids.





The next event in July was the young adult camp in Avoca.  There were a total of 36 of us that went, and we spent a week studying the book of Philippians and just having fun together.  The theme of the week was joy, and I felt SO filled with joy throughout the course of the week.  We had some really great discussions in small groups, some wonderful self-reflection times, and really great worship times every morning and evening (okay...I'm a bit biased because I was on the worship team...but I actually heard from the youth that they enjoyed the worship times!).  We had a couple of really good speakers too.  One of them, Damian, was so very inspiring to me!  The love of Jesus was practically jumping out of his skin.  Everything about him...his smile, his positive attitude, the way he carried himself...was just all Jesus.  When he finished sharing some really powerful personal stories with us, I just sat there...stunned.  It was like someone had just knocked the wind out of me.  I honestly couldn't move, or even really speak.  I just sat there and tears started coming to my eyes.  Tears and a big fat smile.  I was so overwhelmed by the incredible joy of Jesus Christ.  It felt like the scripture verse about the "cup overflowing" (Psalm 23) was actually happening with my heart.  That's the best way I can describe it.  It was like the Lord was just pouring joy upon joy into my little heart and it was overflowing!  Mmmm...I really loved that feeling.  Another thing I enjoyed about the young adult camp was working with Hugh, the young adult group leader.  We ended up getting along really well, despite the fact that his personality is quite different than mine.  It was a good learning experience for me...I went through an entire week without worrying about "what's happening next?" or "what's happening tomorrow?".  Sure I asked those questions, but I didn't ever feel worried about them.  You might be thinking, "What kind of camp doesn't have a schedule?"  The simple answer:  a camp run by Hugh.  You might also be thinking, "Well...isn't that kind of unproductive?"  The answer:  nope!  We kind of went with the flow of how things were going with the young adults...how they were responding to the talks, how the small group discussions were going, what they needed to hear, etc.  This was a completely new approach to me, but it worked really well!  Plus it pushed me out of my comfort zone quite a bit, which is what a GAP year is all about.  :)  Another highlight of camp was the cooking.  I loved it when my service team was on for cooking the meals.  One night we had planned to make spaghetti bolognese, but when Hugh and I were in Tesco buying some of the food, the Mexican section caught my eye.  Living in Ireland you don't get much Mexican food...and I forgot how much I really like it...and crave it.  When I saw the Mexican food section in Tesco, all I could think of was enchiladas.  I've made them for the Mahonys a couple times before and they were a pretty big hit.  Hugh seemed to think it was a good idea for camp...plus it was something different.  So into the trolley went the enchilada sauce, the tortillas, and the refried beans.  Oh yes!  :)  The enchiladas that my team made that night were a HUGE hit among the young adults.  Everyone was talking about how good they were and I couldn't help but feel proud of myself for making them (and directing my team helping me in the kitchen).  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them, but I guess I was just too excited.  Enjoy the other pictures from camp though!  :)

This is Densmore Lodge, where we stayed

The beautiful view from the lodge!

Me with some of the young adults

All the crazy young adults diving into the ice cold water!

Me talking to Hugh about something...

Small group time!

The week at camp was full of all kinds of crazy activities...a mud slide, a swing over one of the dirtiest, smelliest rivers, a game involving people being covered with flour and eggs, a slack line (like a tightrope), and much more.  Although it probably goes without saying, I didn't participate in any of these things...except the slack line.  But NOT when they stretched it across the pool!  That was a bit too much for me.  I enjoyed watching everyone be crazy though...that was fun in its own way.  :)

The day after we got back from camp we had a Community BBQ, which was really nice.  It was nice to see everyone from camp in fresh, clean clothes!  The weather was perfect for it too...not too hot, not too cold.  And no rain!  :)  Here are a few pictures, photo credit to Caoimhe!  :)

Me with some friends Lidia and Stephen, and
my host siblings Paul and Ellen! :)

Me with Anthony, one of the Clarke twins

With some of the girls from Community/camp...
Naomi, Almu, and Ciara

Me with Cathy.  Love her!

Everyone kept saying Almu and I looked alike...
I don't really see it though.  Maybe the hair?

Me with one of the cutest babies ever...John Paul,
my friend Pat's baby

Now that I'm back from camp and preparing to leave for Belgium on Friday, I'm battling some kind of nasty cold/hay fever/sinus thing.  Yuck!  I'm trying to be as productive as I can while still getting plenty of sleep and staying hydrated...but it's not easy.  All I want to do is sleep!  Please keep me in your prayers that I get everything done before I leave for Belgium, and also that I feel better!

I'll be in Belgium for two weeks...the first of which is a week of Bible study, training, and formation with other 17-25 year olds from all over Europe.  I'm leading a morning meditation for the first morning (Saturday), so if you could please say a prayer for me that that goes well I'd really appreciate it!  I'm also leading a women's small group that week, so please pray for a fruitful group and that we all get along well.  :)  The second week in Belgium is called On Holiday, where I'll basically be on vacation with families from all over Europe (and a few randomers from the States!).  I have a few roles during this, including leading a cottage of five 17-25 year old women, but mostly I'll be "on holiday" myself.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Belgium and having fun with some of my international friends that I've met over the course of my GAP year, plus meeting some new ones!

When I get back from On Holiday I have exactly 8 days left before I go back home to Michigan.  Ahh!  How crazy is that?!  I'm starting to miss Ireland already...

BIG ADVENTURE

Jeepers, it's been a long time since I've posted anything!  Quite a lot has happened since my last post, so I'll do my best to cover everything without boring you!  Get ready for lots of pictures!  :)


My friend Amanda came to visit me from Florida on June 13th.  We stayed in Dublin for five days getting reacquainted (it had been about 5 years since I'd seen her!).  We also volunteered a bit at the Spirit Radio table at the International Eucharistic Congress (a big Catholic conference-thing).  We had a small table set up and we were basically just spreading the word about Spirit Radio to all the people there.  It was encouraging to hear so many of them say, "Oh, Spirit Radio...I listen to that station all the time!  It's great!".  Sometimes I feel like no one knows about the station and that it's not very big, but it was really encouraging to hear so much positive feedback in such a short period of time.  We also spread the news that Spirit Radio will now be broadcasting on AM station 549, which will make the station available to the rest of Ireland (not just the 5 cities we currently broadcast in!).  Spirit Radio's getting bigger and bigger and reaching more and more people!  :)

Amanda and me at Dun Laoghaire pier

At the Spirit Radio table at the Eucharistic Congress

In addition to the time we spent helping out Spirit Radio, we spent some time with a guy named Gabe who was visiting from Ann Arbor.  We toured the Jameson Distillery and got donuts at the best donut place in town.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but trust me.  Those donuts are GOOD!

At the Old Jameson Distillery with Gabe

The BEST donuts in town!  Seriously!

I wanted to take Amanda to one of my favorite nearby places:  Bray Head.  It's only about a 10 minute DART (train) journey away, and there's a beautiful seafront to walk along, as well as a mountain (Bray Head) to climb.  Amanda had the brilliant idea of taking a guitar along with us so we could sing praise songs when we got to the top of Bray Head.  There's a big cross on one part of the mountain top, so we figured that'd be the perfect place to do it.  We checked the weather before we left and it appeared to be fine...no rain in sight.  We didn't think about the fact that, well, this is Ireland...and it can rain at any moment.  Even when the skies have been blue and beautiful all day.  So up we went, anyway, climbing Bray Head.  We kept switching off who carried the guitar every 20 minutes or so because let me tell you...it's a bit difficult to climb a mountain with a guitar on your back!

It started raining as we were climbing, and it was quite cold.  Not really what we were expecting!  We made it to the top of Bray Head, but it was awfully windy and rainy up there!  We debated whether or not to stay up there and wait out the rain...and we decided we'd wait a bit.  We DID bring the guitar all the way up there!  We huddled up close to eachother and sat there shivering, waiting for the rain to die down a bit.  It eventually turned into kind of a light mist, so we decided to go ahead and play a couple of songs.  

My fingers were pretty frozen and numb, so it was a bit painful, but it was such a cool experience to be sitting up there on the top of a mountain, singing praises to our great and wonderful God.  He even blessed us (and warmed us up!) with a bit of sunshine after a few songs, and then He painted a big beautiful rainbow across the sky, which made it all worthwhile!  

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The buildings in Glasgow were pretty spectacular!
Check out that blue sky, too!  Very unusual
for Glasgow!  :)

We left the next morning for the first stop on our big traveling adventure:  Scotland.  Amanda and I absolutely loved Scotland!  We stayed with a group of girls from the Sword of the Spirit community in Glasgow (Community of the Risen Christ), and they took great care of us.  They are honestly some of the sweetest, most hospitable, funniest people I've ever met.  Sometimes the things they said weren't actually that funny...but everything in a Scottish accent sounds 10x funnier to me!  If you're Scottish and reading this, I mean that with all due respect.  I honestly LOVE your accent and wish I could sound that cool.  Anyway, Amanda and I got to hang out with some other people are age during our time there as well, which was really nice.  Here are some pictures from our time in Glasgow!

Part of the University of Glasgow

This is the DELICIOUS dinner that Christina,
the GAPper in Glasgow, made for us.  Mmm!

Me with two of our Glasgow friends, Eilidh and Dan

Christina (the GAPper in Glasgow), Miriam, and Amanda

Me with my friend Fraser at the art museum

Amanda and me soaking up the rare Glasgow sunshine!

We took a day trip to Edinburgh (pronounced "Ed-in-brah") as well, which was also very nice.  We spent a bit of time just walking around the streets, and we visited Edinburgh Castle (what we could see without having to pay!), St. Giles Cathedral, and The Scott Monument.  The Scott Monument was pretty cool...basically you pay 3 GBP and you can climb up 287 steps to the top of this big monument that overlooks the city.  It was rainy when we got to the top, but the views were still very beautiful.  It was well worth 3 GBP!  :)

My favorite street in Edinburgh.  I loved all the colors!

Edinburgh Castle

St. Giles Cathedral

One of the views from the Scott Monument

Another view from the Scott Monument....beautiful!

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The next destination on our big traveling adventure was London.  We took an overnight bus from Glasgow to London and it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had.  The seats were super uncomfortable and it was next to impossible to sleep.  I think we might have gotten a total of 1 hour of sleep during the entire 8+ hours we were on that bus.  Butttttt to make up for it, we stayed with a couple in the Sword of the Spirit Community in London (Antioch), and we slept for the first 3 hours or so that we were there.  It felt so great to finally lie in a bed!  After that we stayed busy while we were in London because there was SO much to see!  Here are a few highlights:

Westminster Abbey!

Big Ben and the Parliament buildings

The London Bridge.  It wasn't spectacular at all...just a
boring old bridge.  I only took a picture of the name
because, well..."London Bridge is falling down..."

This is Tower Bridge.  MUCH cooler than London Bridge!
We went to the exhibit inside, too!

St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was too expensive to
go inside, but the outside was cool!

The Marble Arch

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Next stop:  Paris!  I was so excited to go to Paris...I just couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower!  We took a train from London to Paris, and it was really nice...much more comfortable than the bus seats from Glasgow to London!  When we got to Paris, we had quite the scare.  Our train got into the station at around 10:15pm, and by the time we left the train station to get the Metro to our B&B, it was around 11pm, and when we got off the Metro we got SUPER lost.  To make a long story short, Amanda and I didn't have a working phone (well we did at first but we used up all my credit trying to call the B&B), so we ended up really lost and had a very difficult time finding English-speaking people to ask for help!  There were lots of tears involved, but we eventually found someone that spoke a tiny bit of English and was able to walk us all the way to our B&B!  Thank God for sending that guy as our guardian angel!  When we finally got to our room Amanda and I both hugged eachother and cried.  We were still in "freak out mode", but so glad to finally be in our rooms, safe at last.  The rest of our time in Paris was WONDERFUL.  We loved the B&B we stayed at...it felt like home!  We were very well cared for (breakfast AND dinner were included...), and we met some nice friends that were also staying there, so we ended up doing most of our sightseeing with them!  :)  Oh, and we ate crepes every day.  They were DELICIOUS!

This is our room at our B&B in Paris...
it was a tiny little thing!  Cozy though.

Notre Dame!

Inside Notre Dame was beautiful!
This is just a glimpse...

We had lunch near Notre Dame with our
new friend Helmi, from Finland!

Seeing the Louvre at night with our new friends
Kian, Quintin, and Nic

This was my favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower

These are our new friends,
Quintin, Nic, and Kian

One of the views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe!

We only went here because of the movie...
didn't go inside though!  Just being on that
street was awkward enough!  :\

Mmmm....crepes!  So delicious!

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Final stop:  Barcelona!  My first reaction upon landing in Barcelona was "Man...it's HOT!"  I continued to feel the same throughout the entire 3 days we were there.  I don't know if I ever cooled off.  After being in Dublin for so long, I forgot what heat felt like!  I was able to enjoy myself though, and we saw some pretty neat things, most of which involved Gaudi.  He's an architectural genius!  We visited Segrada Familia, which was absolutely beautiful.  I felt like I had to keep picking my jaw up off the floor.  We also went  to Park Guell, which is a big beautiful park also designed by Gaudi.  We enjoyed a fountain show one night in the center of Barcelona, and it was really cool to see!  On our last day we enjoyed an afternoon at the Botanic Gardens (not very beautiful, but we had fun anyway) and an evening on the beach.  Enjoy the pictures.  :)

This is where we stayed in Barcelona

Amanda and me at Segrada Familia...
It was breathtaking!!

A view of Segrada Familia from Park Guell

Me at Park Guell

Park Guell

The beautiful fountains in Barcelona

Super cool fountain show!

Amanda and me in front of the fountain.
Love this photo!

Amanda and me in the not-so-beautiful "Jardin Botanic"

Beauuuuutiful beach in Barcelona!

Just relaxing in the sand :)

I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to visit so many wonderful places, meet so many amazing people, and see so many beautiful things.  You better believe this trip was expensive.  I spent quite a bit of the money I earned while working so hard at Costco during college and last summer.  I don't like to think about it that way, though.  I have the rest of my life to earn money and work hard.  The experiences I had with Amanda during our big adventure were some of the best experiences of my life, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

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I am back in Dublin now, safe and sound back at my home with the Mahony family.  I am pretty much caught up on sleep, and I've just about gotten rid of the terrible cold I had while we were traveling.  I'm also back in "GAPper mode", and I've got quite a bit of work to do before I head back home on August 18th.  Here's what's coming up:

July 11-13th - Youth program "mini-camp" that I'm running

July 14-21st - Young Adult camp (I'm helping with music and a couple of sessions for this)

July 23-25th - Another youth program "mini-camp" that I'm running

July 27th-August 3rd - Kairos Summer Academy in Belgium (I'll give more info on that later)

August 3-10th - On Holiday 3 (a big vacation with all the other Sword of the Spirit communities throughout Europe)

August 18th - Coming home to Michigan!

Please keep me in your prayers for when I come back home.  I know it'll be hard to leave here and readjust to living back home, and I'm still praying about what the Lord has planned for me for when I get back.  I found out about a month ago that I did not get accepted to Eastern Michigan University's graduate program for Speech-Language Pathology.  Although I only applied to one college and this decreased my chances of getting in, this still came as quite a disappointment to me and I'm praying constantly to seek out the Lord's will for my future.

Thanks for reading such a long post!  I love you all dearly and I am looking forward to seeing you when I get home!