The last weekend

Saturday and Sunday we had plans to be in Swords, which is just north of Dublin. Swords Baptist Church was having us do a vocal workshop for their worship team. They had decided, after the general worship workshop we did for them in September, that they wanted us to return and do one focused on vocals. So that's what we did. For 6 hours.

We had anticipated the workshop lasting about 4 hours, but in the end it was better to have the extended time, as we were able to work more with them singing on microphones and deal with issues regarding singing in ensemble with others, etc.

Saturday night we were wrecked, but fortunately didn't have to drive all the way back to Shankill (the Kingsleys' house) as we were staying with Rory and Mindy McDonald. Rory is the main worship coordinator for SBC and he and Mindy have become good friends of ours. It was so nice to be able to stay with someone that just let us veg and fall asleep in front of the TV. We really needed that.

Sunday morning, we were given the opportunity to lead worship at SBC. You never know what kind of situation you're getting yourself into when you are asked to lead worship at a church that you have never attended. However, this particular fellowship was a true joy to lead in worship. It only took a small amount of time before they got past the unfamiliarity of strange worship leaders (no derogatory comments please) and really engaged in worship.

One particularly moving moment was during a time that Beth and I were playing softly while people were sharing scriptures and prayers. Rory stood up and began singing a psalm to what we were playing. It was definitely one of those moments where the Holy Spirit was in control and it was so moving and powerful.

After service, we went to Jesse and Joyce Northcutt's for dinner. They are part of the GEM team and are in leadership at SBC. We had a great time with them and their family sitting around the table sharing stories and laughing together.

Then it was back to the Kingsleys' to pack our things and prepare to return home.

Monday's travels were basically uneventful. It was so good to see Molly waiting for us at the airport in Pensacola. She and her boyfriend William got us home and then Molly hung out for a while.

We slept 13 hours and woke up late the next morning. I am so used to being up before 7 AM that it was strange having half the day gone by the time we awoke Tuesday morning.

All-in-all this was our best trip so far. Never boring, for sure. Met some very interesting people, got a lot of encouragement, but most importantly, found God using us in many different ways in the lives of those with whom we were working. We are finding that our ministry is something that many feel is important and needed in the life of the Irish church.

This is exemplified in the following response we got from our evaluation that we send via email to those who have participated in our workshops:

Q - Did you find this workshop to be what you expected? Please explain.

A - I'd never been to anything like this before anyway, so really I didn't know what to expect to begin with...so I can't really say.The one thing I was afraid of was that the workshop would involve a lot of "musician speak" that would go over my head, discussing octaves or something! But I'm happy to say it wasn't like that at all and I found it perfectly easy to follow.

Q - What did you find most beneficial in this workshop?

A - I found it very easy to understand, and the advice you gave was very reasonable and easy to see the value of. Your experience in the area was very obvious, and I was glad that your advice had a nice balance between putting the focus on God's spirit working through you and also the more practical elements, perhaps, or worship music, such as musical competency, sound quality, etc.

Q - What did you find was of little or no value and why?

A - I think I can honestly say there was nothing I found of little or no value about the workshop...

Q - What else would you like to say about your experience Monday night?

A - Just that I think it was great! I don't think I have any criticisms, constructive or otherwise, about it, and it was a real encouragement and a learning experience for me, so thank you both and I look forward to seeing you again!!!


So now we have a mere 7 weeks to prepare for our next trip. We have 8 or 9 churches that want us to do a workshop for them. We will obviously not be able to accomplish all them in this next trip, so I guess we'll just have to keep going back. Bummer. No, not really. We love it.

Next time: this doppelganger existence.

Trinity

In my November 4 post I spoke about Trinity Church in Dublin and their acquisition of the historic Trinity Church building in the heart of the city.

Friday morning we met Simon Thomas, who has been a part of the leadership at Trinity for many years, at the 1839 building on Gardiner Street. We were there so that Simon could show us the state of the building and the plans that have been laid to renovate it and restore it to it's original purpose -- to be a center for worship and ministry.

So why were we honored with this inside look? Let me explain it this way; major renovation work by a major contractor is slated to take place this spring and summer. Once they have finished, Trinity will be bringing in teams of volunteers (mostly from North America) to do plaster work, finish carpentry, trim out the plumbing and electrical, paint, clean up, etc.

When we heard about this plan on our visit this past September, Beth and I thought it would be great to bring a team over from the U.S. to help out in this endeavor. So that's what we're doing. We'll be helping to coordinate a team from our church going over in late September of this year.

Simon had found out about this and when he heard we were in Dublin, he jumped at the chance to give us the pre-construction tour. I may also be acting in an advisory role regarding the audio systems and acoustics in the main hall.

The Gardiner St. building is in amazing shape considering its age. There is no evidence of water damage or any sort of structural problems whatsoever. It's also a very large building with much potential to be used in many different ways. Yet another step in reclaiming the City Centre for God.

You may be thinking that this may not be the best way to serve on a short-term missions trip, given that there won't be any coordinated efforts to share the Gospel or do direct ministry. But that's where you're wrong! I saw a clever saying today. Something to the effect of:

"It's fun to harvest, but someone has to plow."

That's what this team will be doing -- enabling those at Trinity to have not only a good, solid building to keep them out of the weather, but a place that can have a substantial influence on the spiritual life of inner city Dublin.

We now had only two more days in Ireland on this trip. Things should be winding down, huh?

Don't bet on it!

TBC...

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.

Back in Dublin

Wednesday morning was bright and fair, albeit cold, as we walked to the Shankill DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) station a few blocks from the Kingsleys' house. We were to meet Gwenda Johnson in the City Centre at Connolly Station.

The 45-minute ride into the city takes you along the coast with great views of the Irish Sea and the heads (high peninsulas) jutting into it. Arriving just a few minutes ahead of Gwenda we loitered about the station (strictly prohibited according to the signs all around) until she showed up. We walked from there to the National Gallery of Art which has a nice café.

We first met Gwenda in September when we attended Trinity Church Central on a Sunday morning when she was leading worship. Over lattés, Gwenda filled us in on how her role as the worship coordinator for Trinity Network's three fellowships is changing and about the people that she sees as the ones to whom to pass the baton. She gave us great insight into the specific needs of each of the worship teams and how we might be able to help them through workshops and personal training/mentoring. She also helped us gain insights into the whole "worship scene" in Dublin from her perspective.

Side note: One thing that really bugs me is the fact that we tend to get so engrossed in our meetings that I totally forget to take any pictures of those we're meeting with. There are a few times this trip that I remembered, but I need to be more consistent. I will endeavor to improve in this area. Promise.

When we left Gwenda, we stopped in our favorite bookstore, Greene's, just around the corner, then sought out some midday sustenance.

Back in Shankill we did some email and made phone calls until it was time to head out to the west side of the city -- Clondalkin to be exact -- where we were meeting another couple who are worship leaders at New Life Community Church. Michael and Trish Carroll oversee several worship teams at this fellowship of about 100. They have been extremely blessed with musicians and work hard to utilize all who they feel are qualified to help lead worship.

Dealing with divergent styles and approaches to worship leading, they feel that it would be beneficial to have us do some workshops for their church. Sounds like this could be a very interesting experience.

Michael and Trish are really great people. We enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to working with them on subsequent visits.

We had hoped to meet with another American missionary couple who work at an Assemblies of God Bible College in Bray, south of Dublin, but our schedules just didn't coincide this trip. Maybe next time.

Over the past two weeks, we had numerous people telling us about an American guy who we should contact. At first we didn't put much stock in the suggestion, as he is a youth leader and it didn't sound as if he really needed a ministry such as ours. However, after maybe the 4th person mentioned his name, we thought we should contact him. So we did the next morning. Boy were we glad we did.

A better day

Tuesday, January 24:

After an early breakfast and a "farewell" to our host, it was back along the coast road toward the Giant's Causeway. We could now see what we had missed the night before in the dark. I know you keep hearing me say this, but this area is yet another uniquely beautiful part of Ireland.

We had decided -- well I had decided -- that we(I) wanted to see Dunluce Castle. This is a fantastic ruins just a few miles from the Giant's Causeway that I had long desired to visit. We both enjoyed exploring the grounds and a few snow flurries to boot.

After Dunluce, it was on to the Causeway. Much to our relief, the shuttle bus to the bottom was running by the time we arrived. We spent maybe half an hour crawling around the rock formations and taking photos and then returned to the visitors' center to grab a cup of tea for the road.

When we got to Balymena, we called William Olphert, who pastors Harvest, a small fellowship that is styled after the Calvary Chapel model. He and his wife, Rebbecca served us lunch at their house and we spent a couple of hours with them. Our time with the Olpherts was very enjoyable and William will be a good contact with other worship leaders in the North.

Once we left Balymena we drove through the heart of Belfast. Interesting city. It was much more appealing than we both thought it would be. I'm not sure what we had in mind, but found it rather attractive.

The drive to Dublin wasn't a lot of fun. We got a little lost on the south side of Belfast looking for somewhere to eat and ended up at a Subway. It drizzled most of the way and a good portion of the route was narrow, winding roads with heavey traffic. That combined with worn windshield wipers made for a tiring bit of driving.

We got back to the Kingleys' house and collapsed for the rest of the evening, or what was left of it.

So now we had to decide how late we could sleep and ensure that we would make it to our appointment in the City Centre the next morning. This meeting was with a person that would turn out to be one of our most significant contacts yet.