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...