Another Day, Another New Face

Thursday morning I thought I would call several other contacts that we hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet on this trip. One that I was able to connect with and actually make plans to see was Greg Fromholz. We had first heard his name two weeks previous, when Tim Jarvis mentioned that we should try to get in contact with him. Since then several others had also mentioned him. I had been given his phone number, so I called.

Greg told me that usually he would have to have about a week's lead time to plan to get together, but it just happened that he could meet with us for about an hour that afternoon.

After a quick bite of lunch, we drove to the City Centre and parked at St. Stephen's Green shopping center a couple of blocks from our appointed meeting place. We had passed Café en Siene numerous times and never taken notice of it. There are so many little cafés and coffeehouses that we easily missed it.

This, however was one place that deserved our notice. Plush, romantic, gorgeous -- just a few descriptives that can be applied, although none of them completely capture what Café en Siene is. As we waited just inside the door, we were surrounded by statuary, tapestries, antique furniture and luxuriously upholstered seating, along with a gentle ease among those seated about.

Greg showed up a couple of minutes later and we found a quiet table and ordered coffee and tea.

I suppose Greg is somewhere in his early to mid 30's, good looking with spiky hair and a youthful air about him. We each shared our stories about our ministries and how we got into them.

He moved to Ireland 14 years ago with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and has been involved with youth work since. He is married with kids. Through the work that he had been doing and the name he had made for himself (or, shall we say, that God made for him), Greg is now employed by the Church of Ireland (Anglican), reports directly to the Archbishop of Ireland, and has been given great freedom in reaching the youth culture of Ireland with the Gospel. His ministry is called 3Rock and he has a staff of 8 working under him.

Meeting someone that is such a visionary (Mike Mullins being another such person) is always an inspiration. But not only was it enjoyable and challenging to talk with Greg, we soon realized that there could be opportunities to work with him and his ministry -- and he could be a great resource to us and our ministry.

First, he knows the worship leaders of a large church in Dublin for whom we had no contact before and has been around the whole worship scene in Dublin for a number of years. He is also personal friends with Eoin Heaslip, Tim Hughes, Matt Redman and others. This is the kind of relationship that not only may have immediate impact on our ministry, but great potential for the future.

While we were in the City, I got a call from Simon Thomas, who is overseeing the renovation project at Trinity Church. He wanted us to meet him at the "new" building the next day to give us a tour. "Why?" you ask.

I'd better wait and tell you in my next post.