Bleary eyed and frazzled tailed...

We arrived back in Dublin this evening. It's been a long 6 days since we left last Thursday on our wild tour of Ireland. We never had really good access to the Internet.

It was a wonderful trip and we made lots of good friends -- lots of great craic (pronounced "crack", means good, fun conversation and fellowship). It looks as if our April trip is going to be just as busy if not more so. Many are interested in having us do workshops, including those for whom we have already done workshops. I guess they just can't get enough of our clever banter.

We also saw some of the most beautiful landscapes we have seen to this point.

I'm really tired. I'll start recapping our trip tomorrow, and try to get some pictures uploaded. We have an appointment tomorrow morning in the City Centre and then another out in the suburbs west in the late afternoon. Better get some sleep.

Good night...

More wind and rain

The weather picked up a bit today with drizzly rain most of the day and the winds increasing again this evening.

We had a good visit over lunch with Ray and Rebbecca Clancy, who started Calvary Galway 7 years ago. They graciously squeezed us in, as they were preparing for a conference tonight and tomorrow and this morning had a meeting with a pastor from the Calvary Bible College in Vajta, Hungary, who is here for the conference.

I think they came expecting us to be one of many who come through Ireland wanting to do ministry and contacting various churches looking for a partnership. Once we were able to share with them what we are doing and the approach we have to ministry, they relaxed and we had a good meeting of the minds. We continue to learn new things with each person we meet. They talked to us about doing some events with them in the future, maybe one in April.

As the afternoon wore on, we drove out west of Galway City into an area where Irish is the predominant language. There are several of these areas around Ireland, known as Gaeltacht. It's strange to be driving along and suddenly notice that there aren't any road signs in English. It was a beautiful drive, although it wasn't good for taking many pictures as the weather was very poor.

Tomorrow we will drive up through County Sligo and on into County Donegal and take in some sights before we end up at our hosts' house in Glencolmchille. We're hoping that we may encounter some snow, but I'm not sure that will happen.

Til then...

This is Limerick, so it must be...

It's getting to the point where we are remembering what day it is by where we find ourselves.

Today we drove from Dublin to Limerick in very gusty wind and rain squalls. Exciting! At one point they had to shut down the Dublin Airport as the winds were 60 mph with gusts to near 100 mph. Seriously, now!

After a short diversion (that's what the Irish call a detour) through Maynooth to pick up a keyboard case, we arrived in Limerick just before 2:00 and met with Kevin Fitzgibbon, the pastor of Abundant Life Church, an Assembly of God. We had a really good time getting to know Kevin and getting the tour of the facility they moved into in April. Exciting to see what God is doing there.

Then it was north to Galway and our B&B. Not bad -- not great. At least they have this computer so that we can do a little email and blogging. Sorry, pictures will have to come later.

Tomorrow we will meet with Ray Clancy of Calvary Chapel Galway and then spend the day in and around the city. Saturday we make our way even further north to Glencolmcille, which is west of Donegal City, right on the Atlantic Coast. We've heard that this is really wild country. Nearby there is a mountain, Sliabh Liag (Sleeve League) that rises right from the sea that I have long wanted to see.

Better call it quits for now. More to come...

Cork, now past...

I guess I have a bit of catching up to do.

We're back at Phil and Cheryl's now after a very busy weekend in Cork. If you read our October 4 entry about our contrasting B&B's in Cork, I must now add another chapter.

Michael O'Donovan, worship leader at Grace Fellowship, got us in contact with Martin (excuse me, "Maatin") and Mary Dunn who look after Maranatha House, a Bed & Breakfast in Blarney, when the owners, Doug and Olwen Venn are away, which they are for January. It is a wonderful manse, built in the mid 1800's. We were the personal guests of the Dunns and the only guests in the house, as it is closed during this time of the year. We were given the Honeymoon Suite, which interestingly has two king-sized beds. I asked if that was in case the newlyweds had a row. What gracious and thoughtful hosts. Plus we felt quite safe with the Venn's two dogs, Samson (the largest German Shepherd that I have ever seen) and Jenny (a black lab-like creature) there to guard us.

So now, a quick rundown of the weekend...

We drove to Cork Saturday morning arriving just after noon. We were to meet with Niamh Varian-Barry, the worship leader for Calvary Chapel Cork, after she finished playing for a wedding (violin). The wedding started later and lasted longer than she anticipated, so Beth and I spent time making the music shop circuit looking for a keyboard stand, speaker stands and a keyboard case, which we had failed to find in Dublin due to everyone being sold out after the holidays. No luck here either.

We were just heading to a cafe to get a bite when Niamh called and was on her way to meet us. A short time later she showed up at the cafe and we made our way to Calvary Chapel which has rented out a few rooms in an office building in the City Centre where Claire (we never learned her last name) was waiting for us. Claire and Niamh have been working together on music and seem to have really found a connection which they are finding very exciting.

The next couple of hours were passed talking about worship and sharing our individual experiences in worship leading. Our desire in meetings such as this is that we might be an encouragement to worship leaders who sometimes feel as if they are out there on their own.

Sunday morning we attended worship service at Calvary. Mike Neglia, the pastor and his wife Rachel and son Eoin, were away. Standing in for Mike was a pastor from south of Cork.

After grabbing some lunch in the City Centre, we headed out to Blarney, north of the city and had just enough time to get our equipment and drive to the Methodist Church in Douglas on the south edge of Cork. We had planned to borrow Niamh's keyboard stand and were short on time, so she conscripted a friend to bring it to us at the church.

Beth and I met with the pastor, Laurence Graham (who we had met in 2003), Paul, who assists him, and their organist Diane. This church congregation, which has been established in Cork for literally hundreds of years, is on the cusp of venturing into the incorporation of contemporary worship into their services and blend it with the traditional. Our conversation with them centered around the vision they have for this change and the frustrations that have arisen in the beginning phases of implementation. We didn't have a lot of ideas that they hadn't already thought of or explored, but after hearing where they are and from where they have come, we were able to encourage them and help them to see that indeed progress has been made and for them to understand that our timing isn't always God's timing for things. We are excited to see what the next couple of years brings.

That evening, we led a night of worship for a small group of church members who gather once-a-month with Pastor Laurence to spend time together in worship.

Monday, we met a local pastor for lunch and gained some new insights and a new viewpoint about our ministry. It's important that we see our ministry through the eyes of others to help us hone our approach and think through all aspects of the ministry in a foreign culture. Of course, we will make our faux pas, but the more we can minimize those, the better.

Monday night, then we were at Grace with Michael O'Donovan and members of the worship team for a 3-hour workshop. We had a great time with this group. One can quickly see that they have great chemistry and camaraderie. They were very fun, but gave serious, well thought-out answers to the questions that were posed. It's exciting to be leading a meeting like this and see on the faces of those attending that you are connecting with them and that they are being challenged to think about some aspect of leading worship in a new way.

We've been invited back to Grace to do several more workshops and we look forward to continuing the relationship we have begun. We'll be back there in April most likely.

And finally, today we stopped to visit Seamus ("Shame-us") and Jenny O'Callaghan in Carlow on our way back to Dublin. Seamus pastors Carlow Christian Community and Jenny is their key worship leader. Beth and I were able to encourage Jenny in her keyboard playing and gave her a bit of a lesson, showing her some new techniques to expand her skills. We spoke with Seamus about coordinating a worship workshop with churches in Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and other towns in the southeast.

I'm tired and have several emails to get out, so I'll cut this short (ha) and close for now.

Stay tuned...

A quick note

It's Sunday morning in Cork. We'll be at Calvary Chapel this morning and the Methodist Church tonight.

We're at an Internet cafe, as we don't have access at our B&B (which is wonderful otherwise, so I'll keep this brief and give a full update later.

There was frost on the ground this morning, but it's sunny.

Check back soon.