Please forgive the absolute chaos that is this update. It matches the state of me. Okay where to begin… OH right… I HAD A BIRTHDAY! If you know me, you know I love my birthday. I just love any birthday, but especially mine! Here’s the thing though, I had been rounding up my age for the past 4 months. I’ve been saying “28, 28, yeah I’m 28”. So, when it came to it, I felt like I was turning 29! This is a lovely lesson not to round up your age. There’s no need to age myself! Anyway, I took a small little journey over to visit a special someone in England. We ended up making our way up to Edinbrugh which WOW, so pretty. Something that’s been on my bucket list for ages has been making a bag at Islander. They are brand that makes bags, wallets, scarves, etc. using Harris tweed. They have a workshop where you can go in and construct your own bag! It was sooo fun and the best birthday present!

For all my Americans who don’t know much about Anglicanism or church houses, the Church of Ireland owns a bunch of houses. These houses are usually quite close to the Church and are sometimes called rectory, vicarage, parsonage, church house, something like that. WELL, I was offered to live in one of them!! The house is in a trust that allows it to be rented out so certain people, including missionaries. AND I’M A MISSIONARY. So, with all that said… I’ve moved!

As soon as I got back from the UK, I started packing up and slowly moved my stuff over to the Church Cottage in Rosses Point. It’s about a ten min drive from town (where I was living before). It’s steps from the ocean and has a whole garden! Don’t get me wrong, I loved living in town but sometimes the noise and carrying a load of groceries up 4 flights of stairs gets to you. My mom came for a visit shortly after I moved in which helped so much! That gem of a woman helped me get everything organised and build furniture. She also brought me a million packs of corn tortillas which I’ll be eating for the rest of my life. Also to all my non-American people who say that we have corn tortillas… you’re wrong.

The past 6 weeks I’ve been taking jiving lessons with some of the ladies from ReCentre. The best way I can describe jiving is like two stepping with turns and such… but to Irish country music. It’s honestly such a good time! I’ve loved it and can’t wait to take my newfound skills out on a weekend night. Someone bring me to Nashville!

Typically, I really enjoy writing these newsletters. But I’ve been putting this one off for a while. Not because I don’t want to write, but because I try to share the joys of life in ministry and how beautiful life can be. And I just haven’t been experiencing the fulness of that beauty recently. Not that anything specific has happened. Maybe it’s what feels like constant grey skies and rain, or maybe it’s burn out. Maybe it’s both. Honestly, it might be seasonal depression. Now I don’t want anyone to worry, but I do want to be honest. I’m just tired. Which reminded me of the woman at the well. Jesus was sitting at Jacob’s well. Scripture tells us “He was tired by His journey”. The Samaritan woman came, mid-day, to gather water. Jesus says immediately tells the woman to get Him a drink of water. Something in that struck me. He does not begin the ministry to that woman with His divinity, he begins it with his humanity. He is tired. THE GOD MAN WAS TIRED. And he was thirsty. I was listening to a podcast by Preston and Jackie Hill Perry. Something Jackie said was that we don’t like to do ministry in our humanity. To be human is to be weak and fragile. We want to do ministry as strong people. We want to be whole and filled and all the things and then do ministry. But I think that’s the point. I am human. And Jesus shows us his neediness. God literally humbled himself to a man. And who am I to inflate myself to a deity like strength in order to minister. But the truth is, I am not strong enough. I am not smart enough. I am not wise enough. I need God. I need His sustaining power. Jesus knew this. He sits down at the well, tired and thirsty and knows His Father is His sustaining power. Then in His tired and thirsty state he ministers to a woman coming shamefully to the well in the middle of the day.

With all that said, I know I can’t pour from an empty cup. But I’m not empty. I am just a wee bit tired. And my humanity is sitting a little heavy on my chest. But I promise I’m drawing from the sustaining power of God.

Gosh okay I’m going to wiz through this part because holy business.

Lots of Alphas! Like you probably already know, my life is consumed by youth Alpha but I kind of love it. We’ve finished with Alpha in the Mercy and had a brilliant Holy Spirit day! The girls loved the prayer spaces and engaged with it in such a beautiful way. Our feedback forms had a group of girls asking to help lead Alpha next year. ARE YOU KIDDING. Come on God! We are still trucking along with Alpha in the other two schools and praying for wild encounters in their HS days.

Young Adults is THRIVING. The room is so full on a Tuesday I don’t know where to put everyone. We are taking a wee two week break right now as its Easter holidays still but, will be back at it next week. We will be working through some hard questions that some of the young adults posed. I’m really excited to do this because God isn’t afraid of our questions or our doubts. We also have started meeting on Saturday mornings for YA house church! So far so good! It’s a time for us to go deeper and worship.

It was Holy Week not too long ago and as you know I work with Spring to Life, the semi ecumenical group of churches that work together for outreach during Holy Week. (I say semi ecumenical not to offend. The Catholics aren’t involved in this group which I believe is leaving out a big denomination.). We held many events over the week! Science and faith talk, womens breakfast, kids clubs, youth litter pick and young adult mix and mingle. It was a busy but good week. I met with a girl toward the end of holy week who is considering moving to the west of Ireland to do ministry. She said she loves that the churches in Sligo are fighting to see the lost saved, not fighting for the lost to come to their denomination. This was so encouraging to hear. I sometimes get blinded by the struggles in working collaboratively that forget that we do have the same goal in mind.

I’ve had two more residential training weekends with Church Army since we spoke last. If you remember I couldn’t go to the one in January as my visa still hadn’t arrived. We had another training weekend in March and wow was it lovely. It’s so different learning in person with my cohort rather than just listening in through my computer. We went over atonement theory and how to apply atonement theory in our specific context. Might be boring to you but I flipping loved it! I also received my results from my last assignment, and I did way better than I thought I would! If you remember I was so scared for the academic part of my training, but it turns out I love that part the most!

The next coming months will be busy as youth alpha comes to a close for the year and summer activities begin. Youth and kids camps will dominate the diary, I know it.