I was about to start this with “ life has been boring lately”. But what the flip am I talking about. My life is never boring! It just has looked a little different lately. It has looked consistent. Which is what I wanted. Knowing I’ll have to leave for a bit, I wanted to spend as much time as I could in Ireland. I’ve spent a lot of time with my friend Sarah. You know her, I’ve talked about her before. She really feels like my sister. We just happened to be born in two different countries… and two years apart! Sea swims, raining days where we complain for hours, chocolate, movie nights, and a summer bucket list that isn’t even close to being finished… even though it's now mid September. That’s what I’ve been doing over the summer. And I’m not mad about it.

I didn’t do a lot this summer, but what I did do was go to David’s Tent. “What’s Davids Tent!?”, you might ask. Great question reader. David’s tent is three whole days of non-stop worship!!! What is that? 32? 48 hours? Don’t know. ANYWAY.  Yeah, it was incredible and guys guess what…. I CAMPED. Yeah, I freaking know. If you know me… or even just look at me you can see I’m not a camping girlie. But I did it and I didn’t hate it. Struggled but survived. It was honestly such a refreshing time with the Lord. There is something about pushing past that uncomfortable time where God really meets you.

For the past three years, I’ve been on a volunteer visa. This visa has been so great to me but has a max of three years. This means in order to stay in Ireland I need to apply for a new visa. The new visa I will be applying for is called a minister of religion visa. This visa will give me three years with a possible three-year extension. This visa has a weird reputation. I’ve heard from people who got it approved very easily and others who had a very hard time. This leaves me a little worried, but as of now it’s my best option!

In order to apply for this visa I need to leave Ireland. The current average time of processing for the visa is at minimum of three months. Because I’m still in Church Army training, I’ve decided that when I leave, I will spend those three-ish months in England. This enables me to be available for my training and spend my time intentionally and practically.

Being a part of Church Army means I’m a part of a community with so many members who are still early listening to and serving the Lord. I’ll spend my time away from Ireland visiting already commissioned evangelists and other centres of mission. I’m doing this so I can continue to learn and grow and also to fill my time. I definitely don’t want to be staring at a wall for three months.

Although my current visa doesn’t expire until the first week of January, my plan is to leave at the end of November or early December. This will hopefully get me back in time for a busy spring season in Sligo and ensures I’m not stuck in England for Hannah’s (my best friend) wedding.

Ya’ll, I’m nervous. I’m worried about a lot and to be honest, the thought of leaving my people here and everything I do, scares the crap out of me. So please would you pray. I will of course keep you all updated the best I can as I know.

Ok woah summer was wildly fun! As you know Young Adults and Youth Alpha aren’t on in the summer. Most of the people who come to young adults go home for the summer and obviously secondary school isn’t on in the summer. But without those things, it all somehow still felt busy. Just in a different way.

We held two kids’ clubs over the summer. One in Manorhamilton and one in Bundoran, which are both towns about 30 minutes outside of Sligo and towns we work closely with. We had a good turn out for both and had SO much fun. Although I’m always exhausted after kids work, it’s still always lovely to hear kids smiling, laughing, and singing about Jesus. This is the second year we have held kids clubs in the summer in those towns and each year gets a little bit better. We even got to see some faces from last year!

I have decided to take a break from helping with YFC’s youth group on Friday nights. BUT I did go with them and some of our own young people to MOVE. You may remember me talking about it last year. It’s a week-long summer camp for young people. This year was even better than last year. One of our young people called C, came for the first time. We also hadn’t met her before. She signed up with her sister and we got to build a wonderful bond with them both. But C was really struck by the presence of God the entire week. Just not wanting to leave the chapel after late-night worship, she fell on her face praising the Lord. One night, C hurt her knee playing volleyball. As we were waiting for the icepack to remove some of the pain, the medic asked her how she liked MOVE so far. She responded, “it’s really overwhelming”. He looked at her a little concerned. She quickly clarified, “Overwhelming in a good way. Every time we worship I see Angels in the room. There are Angels in the room”. How incredible that a 17-year-old girl was experiencing such Heavenly things.

In July we had our final training weekend as first-year Evangelists in Training. We also got the opportunity to sit and watch the Third year EIT’s get commissioned into the office of Evangelism. It was such a lovely experience seeing my friends get commissioned into their calling. I’ve officially started my second year of training! I’m actually writing this from the airport, waiting to fly back home.

Young Adults has had a slow start but we are all fully back this Tuesday!! I’m so excited to see everyone again and see what the Lord has for us in this season. We will have another retreat in October and gosh, I can only imagine how God will show up!

Youth Alpha is back this month and woah will it be crazy. Three schools, and not enough volunteers. But you know what, the young people love it and God ALWAYS moves. So we will keep doing it.

On August 7th my brother turned 30. His birthday is one of my favourite days. Every year, I have a cake and a drink and celebrate him. Thinking back over the years, so many of my friends have gone above and beyond to help me celebrate a boy they didn’t even know. All the love and support I get during that day just adds to the joy!

But this year felt different. The entire day I could. Not. Stop. Crying. I don’t know why. I have never once felt sadness on his birthday. Always joy. Maybe it’s because it’s a milestone birthday. Or maybe it’s because I pictured us as neighbours, watching each other's kids by this age. Either way, 30 felt sad and that’s ok. Greif gets easier and easier as time goes on. It really does. But that doesn’t mean it ever disappears completely. When my brother first died, I wrote him letters. I wrote them on my tumblr page for almost a year. (for you non-millennials, Tumblr was a social media platform) So in honor of 30 years old and 10 years without the best big brother ever, I’m going to write him a letter. And if you want to read it, you can. I think it might help ye understand my heart at the moment. It’s in the drop-down below this one.

Dear Malachi,

Almost ten years and ten birthdays spent without you.  Freaking sucks. I get jealous of you sometimes. I get jealous that you are free and whole and at complete peace just sitting with Jesus. Don’t worry, I do like it here on earth. I live in Ireland now. Yeah, I know, I always said I would move overseas. And I def like it here. But you know better than anyone that life can get really overwhelming. Sometimes I think about what we said. How we would never let our kids grow up without cousins like we did. Remember how we vowed to have like 8 kids each so they would be overloaded with cousins? I think about that stuff and I get overwhelmed. That’s when life feels hard. I’m a woman of my word though, so don’t worry, one way or another I’ll hold up my side of the bargain.

Since you’ve been gone, people have been so good to me. Your friends still message me with memories and moments when they think about you. I can’t even tell you how much joy it brings me to get those messages.  I feel infinitely connected to people like Chandler, Kennedy, and Tristan. Whenever I’m with them or talk to them I feel like you are there. At least a piece of you is.

I feel this burden to do things for the both of us. Like big and little things that you never got to do. Every country I visit, we visit. Every new food I try, we try. When I sea swim, we sea swim. It may seem dumb, but you motivate me to do a lot. You make me brave. You keep me brave. I know you’d roll  your eyes at all this, but its true. It’s my way of not forgetting you. Sometimes I’m afraid I will. Ten years is a long time to go without you.

I love you, Mal. And I’m really sad you aren’t here. But I’m really glad you are where you are.  I’ll write to you again soon.

Olive Juice,

Keeks