We're back in Dublin now. While we arrived late last night, our luggage didn't make it here until this afternoon. After our plane from Prague was delayed we had all of about 10 minutes from gate to gate for our connection in Frankfurt. That included having to wait in line for a security check while the Lufthansa agents held the plane for us.
The past three days at the Europe Worship Link conference were some of the richest we've had to date. All-in-all there were about 28 individuals from across Europe and from very divergent backgrounds and musical styles who gathered together to explore worship. We had some who work almost exclusively with hymns, including the professor of worship studies from London Theological Seminary. We had others who have used only contemporary music and are very expressive in their worship.
The most incredible aspect of the entire time together was the unity. We were all there because we love to worship and love to do what we can to facilitate worship within the church in each of our particular spheres. I never once heard anything that came close to resembling even a disagreement between any of those attending. There was only mutual encouragement, respect, and admiration.
We all came away with not only new acquaintances, colleagues or "connections", but new friends committed to one another in prayer and support.
The other great thing is that the theme wasn't "The Latest Greatest Thing in Worship" -- it was "The Word of God in Worship". In these days when the emphasis in worship is more weighted toward the spirit over truth, it was refreshing to be with worship leaders and trainers who value the application of truth as the foundation of our expressions of worship.
Apr 22, 2007
Apr 18, 2007
Czech it out!
We made it to Prague yesterday and took the bullet train to Ostrava today. We're here in Malenovice (Mal-in-o-veet-seh) in the heart of the mountains of Moravia meeting with Europe Worship Link. It's somewhat of a convocation of "worship people" from across the continent. We have met individuals from France, Latvia, Croatia, Holland, Ukraine, US, Ireland, England, and a couple of more I can't recall at the moment.
These next few days should be very interesting and challenging. We've also been asked to lead worship on Saturday morning. That holds interesting challenges in itself -- selecting songs that will easily cross cultural and language boundaries yet be heartfelt and significant.
Travel through the Czech Republic proved to be a bit of work, but it was a lot of fun as well. Fortunately there are many Czechs who know Anglicky (English) and many of the signs within Prague have English. Once outside the city, however, it got to be a bit dicey. But here we are, thanks to the diligence of our non-English speaking taxi driver who was sent to find us at the train station and get us to our hotel.
It was quite a ride. I noticed at one moment in an area marked with a speed limit of 70 km/h we were creeping along at 140. That's like 90 in a 45 in the States.
It's been a long day, so I guess I'll make my way up to our room for the night.
Later...
These next few days should be very interesting and challenging. We've also been asked to lead worship on Saturday morning. That holds interesting challenges in itself -- selecting songs that will easily cross cultural and language boundaries yet be heartfelt and significant.
Travel through the Czech Republic proved to be a bit of work, but it was a lot of fun as well. Fortunately there are many Czechs who know Anglicky (English) and many of the signs within Prague have English. Once outside the city, however, it got to be a bit dicey. But here we are, thanks to the diligence of our non-English speaking taxi driver who was sent to find us at the train station and get us to our hotel.
It was quite a ride. I noticed at one moment in an area marked with a speed limit of 70 km/h we were creeping along at 140. That's like 90 in a 45 in the States.
It's been a long day, so I guess I'll make my way up to our room for the night.
Later...
Apr 15, 2007
A Good Weekend
Yesterday we moved to Phil and Cheryl Kingsley's house since we were never able to get on line at the flat in Rathmines. We will stay here for the remainder of the month when we're in Dublin.
Phil left today for meetings in Germany and Cheryl flew to the US last week, so we have the house to ourselves for a few days. It's good to stay here. We are saving a lot of money and Phil and Cheryl are very sensitive to our need for time to ourselves, which is the main reason we had booked the flat.
Now on to our weekend happenings.
Yesterday we met with Alex and Linda Gason, whom we have known for a couple of years now. They are the youth leaders at City Gates in Cabinteely. We were expecting to simpy get caught up with friends and find out if there was anything we could do to help them in their minsitry. What we didn't expect was to find out about their plans to join with Operation Mobilisation (OM) Ireland as missionaries to theirhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif own land. In an interesting twist, we found ourselves giving advice to an Irish couple as to how to raise support and minister to their own countrymen.
Today, we were in Clondalkin at New Life Community Church.
Their youth band was leading worship this morning and then we met with them over lunch and through the afternoon, discussing worship leading and spending time in a practicum. It's a challenge when you're working with a talented group of musicians that only need a little encouragement and not a lot of direction. They were very good and did a nice job leading worship. It's also a challenge working with youth in particular, as you don't get a lot of feedback. You wonder if you are getting anywhere and if they are enjoying the workshop at all. The answer came in the form of a question, when we asked them if they had anything that they wanted to ask us. The first question was, "Will you be coming back?" What a wonderful thing to hear. They like us - they really like us!
We're looking forward to working with them more in the future and Michael and Trish Carroll, who are the main worship leaders and at whose house we were meeting made it clear that they want us to return in the future.
Tomorrow we'll be in the city centre for a meeting and then spend some time preparing for our time in the Czech Republic. We've been asked to lead a set of worship while we're there, so we are looking forward to that.
I have no idea what our Internet access will be like while we are there, so if you don't hear from us for a while, you'll know why.
Phil left today for meetings in Germany and Cheryl flew to the US last week, so we have the house to ourselves for a few days. It's good to stay here. We are saving a lot of money and Phil and Cheryl are very sensitive to our need for time to ourselves, which is the main reason we had booked the flat.
Now on to our weekend happenings.
Yesterday we met with Alex and Linda Gason, whom we have known for a couple of years now. They are the youth leaders at City Gates in Cabinteely. We were expecting to simpy get caught up with friends and find out if there was anything we could do to help them in their minsitry. What we didn't expect was to find out about their plans to join with Operation Mobilisation (OM) Ireland as missionaries to theirhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif own land. In an interesting twist, we found ourselves giving advice to an Irish couple as to how to raise support and minister to their own countrymen.Today, we were in Clondalkin at New Life Community Church.
Their youth band was leading worship this morning and then we met with them over lunch and through the afternoon, discussing worship leading and spending time in a practicum. It's a challenge when you're working with a talented group of musicians that only need a little encouragement and not a lot of direction. They were very good and did a nice job leading worship. It's also a challenge working with youth in particular, as you don't get a lot of feedback. You wonder if you are getting anywhere and if they are enjoying the workshop at all. The answer came in the form of a question, when we asked them if they had anything that they wanted to ask us. The first question was, "Will you be coming back?" What a wonderful thing to hear. They like us - they really like us!We're looking forward to working with them more in the future and Michael and Trish Carroll, who are the main worship leaders and at whose house we were meeting made it clear that they want us to return in the future.
Tomorrow we'll be in the city centre for a meeting and then spend some time preparing for our time in the Czech Republic. We've been asked to lead a set of worship while we're there, so we are looking forward to that.
I have no idea what our Internet access will be like while we are there, so if you don't hear from us for a while, you'll know why.
Apr 12, 2007
More Somewhat Tolerable Weather
So the weather is still remarkable here in Dublin. Quite sunny and high temperatures around 70F. We had family with us over the course of the last week or so and so now it's going to be difficult to convince them that, yes, the weather in Ireland is usually dreadful and completely unpredictable. No really -- it is!
Easter morning we hauled our family to Trinity Church in the city centre for a nice celebration. We were somewhat of celebrity status -- first, because there were 9 of us from Oklahoma, Florida and Hungary -- second because Beth and I were introduced to the congregation as ones who are bringing a group of volunteers from the States to work on Trinity's renovation project later in the fall.
The flat we have rented for most of the month is very nice, in a good location, quiet. It has everything we need -- except for the one thing that was the selling point for us. We were told that wireless broadband was available. Well it is. Just not in our apartment. We're thinking that we will need to get out of our lease and move as we really need consistent Internet and not have to rely upon driving to the mall to find a hotspot like I'm using right now, or duck into one of the hundreds of Internet cafés, which are usually quite sketchy.
Also, we were told that there was parking available, which I took to mean free, off-street, secure, private parking. Well, it's free if you time it right to get one of four spaces across the street, or find a spot along another street about a block away. Off-street, secure and private, it's not.
Work is going well. We've made contact with a number of people in the Dublin area and have begun meeting with them. I think it will probably get more and more busy as the month progresses.
We'll be in Dublin until next Tuesday, meeting with several people with whom we have been or hope to be working. Sunday we will attend New Life Church in Clondalkin on the west side of Dublin and then conduct a workshop with that morning's worship team in the afternoon.
Tuesday we fly to Prague with a friend who leads worship at Swords Baptist north of Dublin, and will be in the Czech Republic for the rest of the week attending a conference of Europe Worship Link in Malenovice, near Ostrava. We will be meeting with other worship leaders and trainers from across Europe to strengthen and grow a network of such people to more effectively do what we do in this post-Christian culture. We will be able to connect with some of our GEM colleagues working in other countries while we are there.
Hopefully I'll be able to be more consistent with the blog from now on once we get moved to where we can be online.
'til then...
Easter morning we hauled our family to Trinity Church in the city centre for a nice celebration. We were somewhat of celebrity status -- first, because there were 9 of us from Oklahoma, Florida and Hungary -- second because Beth and I were introduced to the congregation as ones who are bringing a group of volunteers from the States to work on Trinity's renovation project later in the fall.The flat we have rented for most of the month is very nice, in a good location, quiet. It has everything we need -- except for the one thing that was the selling point for us. We were told that wireless broadband was available. Well it is. Just not in our apartment. We're thinking that we will need to get out of our lease and move as we really need consistent Internet and not have to rely upon driving to the mall to find a hotspot like I'm using right now, or duck into one of the hundreds of Internet cafés, which are usually quite sketchy.
Also, we were told that there was parking available, which I took to mean free, off-street, secure, private parking. Well, it's free if you time it right to get one of four spaces across the street, or find a spot along another street about a block away. Off-street, secure and private, it's not.
Work is going well. We've made contact with a number of people in the Dublin area and have begun meeting with them. I think it will probably get more and more busy as the month progresses.
We'll be in Dublin until next Tuesday, meeting with several people with whom we have been or hope to be working. Sunday we will attend New Life Church in Clondalkin on the west side of Dublin and then conduct a workshop with that morning's worship team in the afternoon.
Tuesday we fly to Prague with a friend who leads worship at Swords Baptist north of Dublin, and will be in the Czech Republic for the rest of the week attending a conference of Europe Worship Link in Malenovice, near Ostrava. We will be meeting with other worship leaders and trainers from across Europe to strengthen and grow a network of such people to more effectively do what we do in this post-Christian culture. We will be able to connect with some of our GEM colleagues working in other countries while we are there.
Hopefully I'll be able to be more consistent with the blog from now on once we get moved to where we can be online.
'til then...
Apr 6, 2007
Easter In Dublin
We have now been in Dublin a few days and the jet lag seems to be subsiding. Tomorrow is Easter (duh) and we are planning to go to Trinity Church. Hopefully all of my family will go with us. We are having somewhat of a family reunion here in Dublin with my (Gary's) sister's family from Oklahoma and brother's family from Budapest.
Walking around the city the last couple of days, I have been thinking about something that some missionary friends of ours told us they do when speaking to a group of North Americans to illuminate them on the spiritual plight in Europe.
Say you're in a room with 100 Americans. In the US, depending upon the poll taken, roughly 1 in 3 are Bible-believing Christians. So you have 33 of the 100 stand and tell them that their task is to go and speak to 2 others about their faith. Somewhat daunting, but manageable. This is meant to display what we as believers are up against if all of us were sharing our faith regularly.
Now, you tell them all to sit and have one person stand. That person's task is to go and speak to each and every one of the other 99 in the room about their faith. This is what Irish believers are up against. The actual figures show that less than 1% of the population of Ireland are Bible-believing Christians -- and that number has increased dramatically in the past 30 years that GEM has been working here (not to imply that they are the only or even main cause of the increase). You can read more about this here.
One of the main focuses in our job as GEM missionaries is to help equip the Irish to reach their land with the Gospel. Much, much work to be done.
So back to the streets of Dublin. As I stood there watching all the people from all nationalities scurrying past, I couldn't help but be somewhat overwhelmed at the realization that maybe one person in every 150 that passed by has a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The whole purpose in celebrating this weekend is because of the greatest single event in history -- the God of the Universe coming to earth in the form of man and, as a sacrifice, making it possible for everyone who chooses to have a close, loving relationship with Him.
Yet how many are there worldwide who don't have a clue? There is still much work to be done. In the neighborhoods of America, on the streets of Dublin, in the bush of Africa. We must press forward and not allow ourselves to sink into despair of the odds that are against us. Taking up our crosses, we can operate in the assurance that if it's good news to us, it's good news for every other person around us.
Walking around the city the last couple of days, I have been thinking about something that some missionary friends of ours told us they do when speaking to a group of North Americans to illuminate them on the spiritual plight in Europe.
Say you're in a room with 100 Americans. In the US, depending upon the poll taken, roughly 1 in 3 are Bible-believing Christians. So you have 33 of the 100 stand and tell them that their task is to go and speak to 2 others about their faith. Somewhat daunting, but manageable. This is meant to display what we as believers are up against if all of us were sharing our faith regularly.
Now, you tell them all to sit and have one person stand. That person's task is to go and speak to each and every one of the other 99 in the room about their faith. This is what Irish believers are up against. The actual figures show that less than 1% of the population of Ireland are Bible-believing Christians -- and that number has increased dramatically in the past 30 years that GEM has been working here (not to imply that they are the only or even main cause of the increase). You can read more about this here.
One of the main focuses in our job as GEM missionaries is to help equip the Irish to reach their land with the Gospel. Much, much work to be done.
So back to the streets of Dublin. As I stood there watching all the people from all nationalities scurrying past, I couldn't help but be somewhat overwhelmed at the realization that maybe one person in every 150 that passed by has a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The whole purpose in celebrating this weekend is because of the greatest single event in history -- the God of the Universe coming to earth in the form of man and, as a sacrifice, making it possible for everyone who chooses to have a close, loving relationship with Him.
Yet how many are there worldwide who don't have a clue? There is still much work to be done. In the neighborhoods of America, on the streets of Dublin, in the bush of Africa. We must press forward and not allow ourselves to sink into despair of the odds that are against us. Taking up our crosses, we can operate in the assurance that if it's good news to us, it's good news for every other person around us.
Apr 4, 2007
Yeah right...
So we get into Dublin, gather our luggage and don our jackets to brace ourselves against the cold that is awaiting us. We wheel our luggage to the terminal doors, walk out and it hits us full in the face.
It's sunny and in the mid-sixties. Gorgeous by any standards -- especially Dublin's.
I know I was complaining about leaving Florida for the forbidding climes of Ireland.
I take it back with all humility.
My family (sister, her husband and two boys; brother, his girlfriend and her daughter) all arrive tomorrow for our little Easter/brother's b'day/family reunion.
We are exhausted and trying to stay awake long enough to get a good night's sleep.
Check back and we'll keep you posted as to our doings.
It's sunny and in the mid-sixties. Gorgeous by any standards -- especially Dublin's.
I know I was complaining about leaving Florida for the forbidding climes of Ireland.
I take it back with all humility.
My family (sister, her husband and two boys; brother, his girlfriend and her daughter) all arrive tomorrow for our little Easter/brother's b'day/family reunion.
We are exhausted and trying to stay awake long enough to get a good night's sleep.
Check back and we'll keep you posted as to our doings.
Apr 3, 2007
The weather report...
Gulf Breeze: 79 and scattered thunderstorms
Dublin: 51 and partly cloudy
Hmmm.
Well, looking at the positive side, I get to wear my sweaters a little more.
We're off this morning and will arrive Dublin tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned!
Dublin: 51 and partly cloudy
Hmmm.
Well, looking at the positive side, I get to wear my sweaters a little more.
We're off this morning and will arrive Dublin tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned!
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