6%

A recent poll from Christianity Today asks: On which continent does your church seem to focus its missions?

The results?

Europe 6%

Asia/Australia 25%

Africa 37%

North America 20%

South America/Antarctica 11%

Europe's Past is Today's Hope

From Christianity Today:

When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, much successor speculation focused on the global South, where the Roman Catholic Church continues to grow. By elevating a cardinal from Africa or South America, Rome could have highlighted a success story. Instead, the church reached into the heart of secular Europe for Pope Benedict XVI from Germany. His selection sent a clear message: Rome will not give up on Europe without a fight.

The magnitude of the challenge can be found in the Czech Republic. During the 1990s, church affiliation in the country of 10 million dropped from 4.5 million to 3.3 million. Following decades of communist indoctrination, only half of Czech citizens even believe in God. So Pope Benedict XVI faced a skeptical audience when he visited the Czech Republic in late September. Yet that may have been just the audience he was looking for to deliver his message of Christian hope: Nothing and no one but Jesus Christ can fulfill the deepest human longings.

Continue reading this article...

New Family Photo

And the punctuality award goes to...

Our baby boy, Asher Jared, who was born on his due date, 24 August, at 6.15 am.

One week and counting...

Today marks the beginning of the last week (supposedly) of Karen's pregnancy - week 39. We are anxiously waiting the arrival of this little - or not so little - boy! Karen is sore and tired and ready to be done, so please keep her and the baby in your prayers. To help us out during this stressful and soon-to-be very busy time, Karen's mom is flying in on Wednesday for 3 weeks. The kids are thrilled to have Granny come back and spend some quality time with them. We know it'll be a difficult transition for both of them, so you could also pray for Jack & Ella, as well.

Because of the pregnancy and close proximity to the due date, we were unable to attend GEM's annual conference this year. We were so sad to miss out on this crucial time of fellowship, renewal, and spiritual challenges, though we know it was for a good reason. However, we did get to spend a good deal of time with GEM's new president, Henry, and his wife Celia, while they took a detour through Dublin for a few days. We work for a great organization! It's an honour to work alongside and learn from so many wise, dedicated, and fun people.

In other news, we are looking forward to the start of a new school year and all that entails. Jackson will be entering Senior Infants (kinda like Kindergarten Part 2) and he cannot wait to get back! We feel so blessed that he's thrived so well at school. He really seems to enjoy learning! Matt will begin working with a youth club in North County Dublin this Autumn and Karen will be switching her ministry role from part-time graphic and web designer to full-time Mummy (speaking of which, check out my last assignment and latest website for the EAI: http://cslewislecture.ie). Lots of changes ahead, but all very exciting...

As always, thanks for your prayers! These last few months have not been without some significant challenges, so our gratefulness for you and your support has grown exponentially!

Photos & such

Here are just a few images from our last few weeks...

Karen leading a session on spiritual gifts for a summer youth internship

Matt, Henry (the president of GEM) and various other people on a "tech break" during our hike through Glendalough.

Jackson, Ella & Moia (fellow little GEM-k) taking a break from hiking to pose

Matt & new friend Dale (visiting from the US to help with Swords kids club) at the Swords Church picnic

Family News

This week Jackson has enjoyed going to Kids Club (VBS) in Swords, about a 1/2 hour south of us. He really seems to thrive on group activities, Bible stories and loud singing! Whilst Jackson is preoccupied, we've been busy at home trying to potty train Ella. It's slow-going, but she seems to understand the concept. It's always a very beautiful moment when she sits on the potty, looks at us lovingly, and says, "I'm so proud of you, Mommy."

In baby news, I had a sonogram this past weekend to see exactly how big this child is and if there are any problems. Praise God that everything looks good, the baby is only a tad big and shouldn't cause me too many problems down the home stretch (less than 5 weeks to go!), and it was confirmed we are indeed expecting a BOY! Jackson is over the moon to be having a baby brother, Ella didn't really seem to care either way, and Matt is looking into the future and preparing for the day when three rambunctious children beat him up on a daily basis.

I'm starting to wind down some of my more specific ministry duties. Please pray that God would provide my replacements to help with the EAI websites and church bulletin/power point duties. Though I love working and keeping busy helping in several different areas, I think I am looking forward to full-time mom work. 

Next week is stacking up to be another busy week as the president of our organization (along with several members of his family) visits Dublin. We're looking forward to joining him and our team here for some spiritual mapping/prayer walking in Dublin, as well as visiting some cultural/historical sites. 

I'm realizing now as I write this that I should probably put together another prayer update before the baby comes... there have been some really exciting developments in relationships we're building here and opportunities to get more involved in the life and well-being of our community, as well as some encouraging responses to our financial support situation. Definitely things to share and offer up praise for!

So stay tuned... until then, time for my late-morning nap. :)

the fam, on Gormanston Beach

Serve the City

After a week of chaos and some wicked flu illness, we have a busy week ahead of us. Matt is going to be taking part in a project called Serve the City. He'll be traveling down to Blackrock to help on some service projects for a local secondary school. I'll be manning the home front up north, with a brief break on Wednesday when we both go to Malahide to share about spiritual gifts with a group of teens who are taking part in a youth internship. We're really looking forward to a week of different types of ministry and meeting new people. 

We would appreciate your prayers especially for our health as we continue to recover from the flu (sounds lame, I know, but this was one heckuva flu bug!), and for our time spent with the youth. We anticipate loads of questions, some of which we may not be able to answer straight away, so pray for God's wisdom to lead us as we share with them.

For more info on Serve The City, visit here.

Head Wounds

So we had some other excitement this week, besides the wedding. Jackson got his first concussion, the result of standing up under some playground equipment and hitting his head hard. He came home from the playground complaining of some dizziness and drowsiness, but as the afternoon progressed seemed to be feeling a bit better. But after dinner he appeared to be overly confused, drowsy and forgetful, and then he started vomiting.

After a couple of phone calls with the after-hours doctor, Matt took him into Accident & Emergency (our version here of the ER) to be checked out. Two hospitals, a few docs, and a lot more vomit later, it was confirmed that Jackson did indeed have a concussion. He was kept in hospital overnight for observation, being awoken every two hours to check his vitals and responses. By noon the next day (24 hours after the injury), he was nearly completely back to normal, running around the children's ward and asking for a McDonalds milkshake. He was released by 2pm with just some simple "life after head injury" instructions.

I don't think we fully realized how sick he was until he was back to his old self. I'm just so thankful for good doctors, gentle nurses, and Matt who stayed with Jackson all night, sleeping on a recliner. I'm thankful for friends who came and prayed with me or sent me emails with prayers and encouragement. I would easily say that Jackson had over 100 people praying for him Wednesday night! You know who you are and we are so grateful to have you by our side, every step we take along this new and sometimes frightful path. You help sustain us and keep us from freaking out, letting us know we're not alone.  

I know lots of kids get concussions (my nephews, for instance, to name just two!), but this was a first for us on so many levels. Being 33 weeks pregnant, dealing with wedding jet-lag, navigating healthcare in a new country, and knowing it's your child who's sick... ugh, it's been a long few days. But today I feel fairly confident that the four of us passed this little test with flying colours! Soon, it'll be my turn to be hospitalized. We'll let you know how that goes! ;-)

One Wedding and a Concussion

After a year of living in Ireland, we have experienced two more firsts! Our first wedding and our first concussion. Going chronologically, we'll start with the wedding:

On Tuesday morning we headed up into Northern Ireland for a wedding of a good friend of ours, Tim, who is a youth pastor in Swords. It's been so great to get to know him this past year as Matt's been able to work with him and the youth several times, and of course the frequent coffee outings and dinner invites. 

We're mostly used to church weddings in the US, with smallish receptions that end in the early evening. But here we were treated to a relaxed and lovely small church wedding (with amazing worship, by the way), an afternoon eating mini sandwiches and drinking tea at a gorgeous country estate, and then an evening reception at a beautiful old hotel with a full dinner, desert, dancing, and even some pizza. :) It was really a wonderful event and we were so honoured to be able to share the day with many of our new friends here!

Stay tuned for the concussion...