We're home now. Good ol' HOT Florida. Dang it's hot.
So Thursday, the 7th, we had lunch in Dublin with a young man, Daragh Hoey. Daragh plays electric guitar at Trinity and is also in a band that is working on getting wider recognition - Star Turtle. They are already popular in the Dublin area and look forward to seeing what the future holds.
We had a great time with Daragh. One of the things that we have found very beneficial are those Irish who are willing to help us understand the Irish mindset -- the dos and don'ts; the ins and outs.
Friday we spent the day looking around the city at areas that we may be interested in living (when we eventually move there) before heading up to Swords, north of Dublin for dinner with Rory and Mindy McDonald. Rory is one of the key worship leaders at Swords Baptist and Mindy is an American who went to Ireland as a missionary and ended up marrying an Irishman. After taking a nice, unplanned tour of the entire village (I should have listened to my wife), we found ourselves at the McDonald's where we enjoyed the meal and the conversation and spent a little time talking through our plans for the worship workshop the next day.
Saturday, we held the aforementioned workshop at a school that Swords Baptist uses for it's Sunday services. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or so Worship Team members and others who were able to be with us. We had the hall from 10 am to 4 pm and expected that we wouldn't use up the whole 6 hours. When we finished, I looked at my watch and it was 3:55. What a wonderful group of people and what great conversations we had regarding worship and worship leading. We hope to be back there in January to do a vocal workshop, some keyboard instruction and maybe some other intensive training.
Sunday morning we attended St. Mark's Church in the heart of Dublin. St. Mark's is one of the largest and most influential evangelical churches in Ireland. They had a great worship team and solid teaching. You may be familiar with Maire (Moya) Brennan. She and her husband are key people at St. Mark's and she happens to be Enya's sister and a successful recording artist in her own right.
Sunday afternoon we packed and then went over to Phil and Cheryl's to debrief, say goodbye and talk a bit about our next trip, which will probably be in January. They were very encouraged with our trip and very encouraging regarding the future.
All-in-all it was a very successful trip. While it was a lot of work, leading worship in Hungary was a great joy and blessing. Spending time with my brother, Judit and Vivi was awesome. The events we held in Ireland came off without a hitch - and those for whom we did them want more of the same. The meetings we had with various individuals were exciting and opened up many more opportunities for the future.
So far, for our January trip, we could easily have 3 major events and already have plans to meet with several individuals with whom we were unable to meet this trip.
Check back here often, as I will be sharing some highlights and reflections on this trip with greater details of our adventure.
Sep 18, 2006
Sep 6, 2006
Ireland, cont.
I haven't kept up on a daily basis with this blog and there is so much to tell that I will never get caught up. So...
I'm going to give a quick overview of our time here so far and include a few pictures as well.
Beginning Sunday, the 27th of August:
We attended two churches -- Trinity (www.trinity.ie) in the morning and Core (www.corechurch.ie) in the evening. We met a few people that we plan to get together with later to talk about worship and how we might be able to assist them in our ministry.
We had an interesting meeting Monday morning meeting with other missionaries. We were there to meet and talk with the board members of Church Planting Resources, a group of missionaries from various organizations formed to strategize and share resources for the purpose of building the church in Ireland.
I finally got my insulin Wednesday morning. Fortunately it wasn't critical that we leave for the west of Ireland Tuesday.
We had hoped to connect with some people in the Galway area while were traveling, but that never happened due to various circumstances. We did have some good days of sightseeing and getting familiar with that area of the country.
Saturday we had a great time in Shannon leading a worship workshop with the worship band of Jamzone, a youth ministry lead by Elton Goode of Shannon Evangelical Church. It's kids like this that are the future of the church in Ireland.
Saturday evening we drove to Cork and stayed in a really awful Bed and Breakfast. I'll try and relate this saga at a later date.
Sunday morning we were at Grace Fellowship. Monday, we met with Michael O'Donovan, the worship leader at Grace and had a really encouraging conversation. We are planning to do a worship workshop with his worship team next time we come to Ireland (maybe January).
Although it didn't work out to meet with him, we spoke with Laurence Graham, the pastor of Cork Methodist about meeting with him and one of his key musicians who has a heart to see contemporary worship in their church. We will also look to doing this when we return.
Tuesday morning we met with Michael Neglia, pastor of Calvary Chapel Cork , his wife Rachel and their worship leader, Niamh (pronounced Neeve). It was the beginning of a long term relationship and we plan to meet up again on our next visit and perhaps pull together a workshop for several worship leaders in the area.
Tuesday night we were back in Dublin and had a great time of playing and worshipping with several guys who are traditional Irish musicians and a part of a new church plant. We also had good conversation about leading worship and arranging music, etc.
Today we are meeting with one of the worship team members from Trinity, so I guess I'd better close for now.
Cheers...
I'm going to give a quick overview of our time here so far and include a few pictures as well.
Beginning Sunday, the 27th of August:
We attended two churches -- Trinity (www.trinity.ie) in the morning and Core (www.corechurch.ie) in the evening. We met a few people that we plan to get together with later to talk about worship and how we might be able to assist them in our ministry.
We had an interesting meeting Monday morning meeting with other missionaries. We were there to meet and talk with the board members of Church Planting Resources, a group of missionaries from various organizations formed to strategize and share resources for the purpose of building the church in Ireland.
I finally got my insulin Wednesday morning. Fortunately it wasn't critical that we leave for the west of Ireland Tuesday.
We had hoped to connect with some people in the Galway area while were traveling, but that never happened due to various circumstances. We did have some good days of sightseeing and getting familiar with that area of the country.
Saturday we had a great time in Shannon leading a worship workshop with the worship band of Jamzone, a youth ministry lead by Elton Goode of Shannon Evangelical Church. It's kids like this that are the future of the church in Ireland.
Saturday evening we drove to Cork and stayed in a really awful Bed and Breakfast. I'll try and relate this saga at a later date.
Sunday morning we were at Grace Fellowship. Monday, we met with Michael O'Donovan, the worship leader at Grace and had a really encouraging conversation. We are planning to do a worship workshop with his worship team next time we come to Ireland (maybe January).
Although it didn't work out to meet with him, we spoke with Laurence Graham, the pastor of Cork Methodist about meeting with him and one of his key musicians who has a heart to see contemporary worship in their church. We will also look to doing this when we return.
Tuesday morning we met with Michael Neglia, pastor of Calvary Chapel Cork , his wife Rachel and their worship leader, Niamh (pronounced Neeve). It was the beginning of a long term relationship and we plan to meet up again on our next visit and perhaps pull together a workshop for several worship leaders in the area.
Tuesday night we were back in Dublin and had a great time of playing and worshipping with several guys who are traditional Irish musicians and a part of a new church plant. We also had good conversation about leading worship and arranging music, etc.
Today we are meeting with one of the worship team members from Trinity, so I guess I'd better close for now.
Cheers...
Aug 30, 2006
Ireland - Week 1a
I realize it's been a week since I've blogged.
Sorry.
Here's the first installment of a recap of what we've been up to since last Thursday.
We arrived in Dublin Thursday night, got our luggage in good order, picked up our rental car and made our way to Phil and Cheryl Kingsley's house. Phil is GEM's field director for Ireland and their house is in Shankill in the south of County Dublin. To get there from the airport in the north of the county, we drove through the city since it was late and the traffic was light.
While we were in Budapest, I realized that I had left one vial of insulin in the minibar of our hotel room in Sopron. It was hopeless trying to retrieve it and we decided to wait until we got to Dublin to deal with it. I had enough insulin to last me a while, so it was not an emergency situation.
Friday morning we hung out and caught up with Phil and Cheryl. In the afternoon, we made our way to Dundrum, on the south side of Dublin, where there is a shopping center (mall) that opened just about a year-and-a-half ago. We went to a pharmacy there and told them our situation. We were told that I need to have a prescription from an Irish doctor, but that they carried the type of insulin I needed and could get it in the form that I required by the next morning. There was a doc-in-a-box on the next level just above the pharmacy, so we made our way up there. It was 3:30 and the clinic was going to reopen at 5, so I made an appointment for 5:15.
After we ate I saw the doctor. He asked me into his office, I told him my story and he wrote me a prescription. I saw the pharmacist and gave her my prescription, getting the assurance that they would have it for me in the morning. Once we left Dundrum, we drove around the south end of the county looking at housing areas in which we might possibly be interested in living once we move to Dublin.
Saturday morning we went once again to Dundrum Town Centre and was told by the pharmacist that their regular supplier didn't have what I needed, but that they would check with their other supplier Monday morning and have the insulin there no later than Tuesday morning.
Our plan was to leave Tuesday morning to go to the West of Ireland, so we explained that we really needed to be sure that it would be there as they were promising.
Saturday afternoon Beth and I met with John Yoder and Andy Sloane at the Kingsley's. John is an expatriate American who leads worship and Andy is a member of the youth group, but plays on the regular worship team at City Gates, a church in Cabinteely near Shankill where we have ministered in worship several times previously. We spent some time just chatting about worship and their experiences, joys, frustrations, etc. Then we shared songs with one another and each of us came away with some new songs and new perspectives.
John happened to mention that a friend of his and fellow worship leader at Core Church in the City Centre was moving to Australia and getting rid of most of his equipment, including a good keyboard. Ray McCarthy is his name. We had been considering purchasing some portable sound equipment and a keyboard that we could leave in Ireland for our travels there and then for our eventual move, so that we didn't have to haul such items back and forth from the States. So after calling Ray, we went to his house and checked out the keyboard. We're not yet sure if we will buy it, but we did hit it off with Ray and his wife, Helen and ended up sitting around their kitchen table sharing stories for some time.
Sunday, we attended two churches and had two very different experiences. More on this to come.
And the insulin saga continues...
Sorry.
Here's the first installment of a recap of what we've been up to since last Thursday.
We arrived in Dublin Thursday night, got our luggage in good order, picked up our rental car and made our way to Phil and Cheryl Kingsley's house. Phil is GEM's field director for Ireland and their house is in Shankill in the south of County Dublin. To get there from the airport in the north of the county, we drove through the city since it was late and the traffic was light.
While we were in Budapest, I realized that I had left one vial of insulin in the minibar of our hotel room in Sopron. It was hopeless trying to retrieve it and we decided to wait until we got to Dublin to deal with it. I had enough insulin to last me a while, so it was not an emergency situation.
Friday morning we hung out and caught up with Phil and Cheryl. In the afternoon, we made our way to Dundrum, on the south side of Dublin, where there is a shopping center (mall) that opened just about a year-and-a-half ago. We went to a pharmacy there and told them our situation. We were told that I need to have a prescription from an Irish doctor, but that they carried the type of insulin I needed and could get it in the form that I required by the next morning. There was a doc-in-a-box on the next level just above the pharmacy, so we made our way up there. It was 3:30 and the clinic was going to reopen at 5, so I made an appointment for 5:15.
After we ate I saw the doctor. He asked me into his office, I told him my story and he wrote me a prescription. I saw the pharmacist and gave her my prescription, getting the assurance that they would have it for me in the morning. Once we left Dundrum, we drove around the south end of the county looking at housing areas in which we might possibly be interested in living once we move to Dublin.
Saturday morning we went once again to Dundrum Town Centre and was told by the pharmacist that their regular supplier didn't have what I needed, but that they would check with their other supplier Monday morning and have the insulin there no later than Tuesday morning.
Our plan was to leave Tuesday morning to go to the West of Ireland, so we explained that we really needed to be sure that it would be there as they were promising.
Saturday afternoon Beth and I met with John Yoder and Andy Sloane at the Kingsley's. John is an expatriate American who leads worship and Andy is a member of the youth group, but plays on the regular worship team at City Gates, a church in Cabinteely near Shankill where we have ministered in worship several times previously. We spent some time just chatting about worship and their experiences, joys, frustrations, etc. Then we shared songs with one another and each of us came away with some new songs and new perspectives.
John happened to mention that a friend of his and fellow worship leader at Core Church in the City Centre was moving to Australia and getting rid of most of his equipment, including a good keyboard. Ray McCarthy is his name. We had been considering purchasing some portable sound equipment and a keyboard that we could leave in Ireland for our travels there and then for our eventual move, so that we didn't have to haul such items back and forth from the States. So after calling Ray, we went to his house and checked out the keyboard. We're not yet sure if we will buy it, but we did hit it off with Ray and his wife, Helen and ended up sitting around their kitchen table sharing stories for some time.
Sunday, we attended two churches and had two very different experiences. More on this to come.
And the insulin saga continues...
Aug 23, 2006
Loving Budapest
Just a quick note about Sunday's tragic thunderstorm. The news is saying that there were four confirmed dead and 500 admitted to local hospitals. Many of the injuries were due to roof tiles blowing off buildings. I don't know what the wind speeds were, but I would guess they were in excess of 60 mph at times. The raindrops were definitely painful as they hit us. Apparently authorities knew the storm was coming some time before the fireworks event. Of course those in the government are blaming one another for the way in which the evening was handled.
On the lighter side, we are really enjoying Budapest. We traveled up river a ways the other day and enjoyed some historic buildings and villages. Budapest is a beautiful city. Today, Beth, Molly and I will be exploring on our own, as Dennis and Judit left this morning for business in Rome. This will be a real test of our Hungarian as we do some shopping.
Tomorrow, Molly flies home and will move into the dorm on Saturday and begin classes Monday. Beth and I fly to Dublin later in the day. We are really looking forward to our time in Ireland, seeing old friends and meeting new ones; engaging in ministry and planning future trips.
Molly is ready to be home. Beth and I are ready for some more time abroad. I guess that works out well, as we are not yet half way through our trip.
Photo and video updates are forthcoming. We haven't been able to upload from our computer while here in Budapest, but we will have that capability once we get to Dublin.
On the lighter side, we are really enjoying Budapest. We traveled up river a ways the other day and enjoyed some historic buildings and villages. Budapest is a beautiful city. Today, Beth, Molly and I will be exploring on our own, as Dennis and Judit left this morning for business in Rome. This will be a real test of our Hungarian as we do some shopping.
Tomorrow, Molly flies home and will move into the dorm on Saturday and begin classes Monday. Beth and I fly to Dublin later in the day. We are really looking forward to our time in Ireland, seeing old friends and meeting new ones; engaging in ministry and planning future trips.
Molly is ready to be home. Beth and I are ready for some more time abroad. I guess that works out well, as we are not yet half way through our trip.
Photo and video updates are forthcoming. We haven't been able to upload from our computer while here in Budapest, but we will have that capability once we get to Dublin.
Aug 21, 2006
A story to tell our grandkids...
Last evening was one of those experiences that you never forget.
It was a beautiful St. Stephen's Day in Budapest. With the summmer sun shining, we made our way to the city center to Horizont Mozi, an old cinema that has been converted into a very comfortable space for Calvary Chapel Budapest to meet. Great worship and rich teaching. Pastor Greg Opean teaches in English, and as he teaches it is translated into Hungarian.
After church we had lunch at Dennis' flat and then headed back into the city on public transport to take in the festivities along the banks of the Danube, including a Red Bull airplane race over the river. If you've ever heard of the "Blue Danube Waltz" by Strauss, this may come as a shock to you and I'm sorry...
The Danube is not blue. It's muddy brown. Always has been. Always will be.
From what I understand, it was a joke that Strauss named it "Blue".
For the evening fireworks show, which is shot from two bridges over the Danube and from nearby Gelart Hill, the bridges are closed to both motor and foot traffic. We needed to get to the other side. BTW - if you never knew this -- Budapest is one city formed from two. Buda is on the West side of the river and Pest one the East. We were in Buda, heading for Pest.
Once in the city center on the Pest side of the river, we found a nice little Italian restaurant called Replay Cafe. This is apparently a chain, kind of like we have in the states with TGI Friday's or Olive Garden.
Then we headed back to the riverfront to stake out a spot from which to watch the fireworks. We found a place on the Metro rail tracks at about 8 pm. The fireworks were slated to begin at 9 and go until 9:30. The crowd continued to grow until by 9 about 1 million people were lining either side of the Danube.
As I was shooting video of the castle on the Buda side of the river, I noticed lightning behind the Castle. The Castle sits atop a hill that extends north to the bend in the river and south to Gelart hill. The lightning became more numerous and I got some really great footage.
The fireworks began with a bang (Ha) right at 9:00 and we immediately become enthralled. At 9:10 the rain started lightly falling and I thought, "Oh this may not be so bad." HA!
At 9:15 I looked across at the Castle to see it becoming enshrouded in heavy rain, giving it an earie, ghostly appearance. I turned to say, "Look how cool the Castle looks," turned back toward the river and WHAM -- the rain and wind hit us full force. Shrieks went up from the crown around us and people began to huddle together in their own little groups. When the intensity increased, there were more shrieks.
It soon became apparent that this was no small rain storm. The crowd turned from the river and began to surge back in to the city streets. There was a metal rail fence about 12 feet behind where we had been standing. It took us about 3 or 4 minutes to get to that fence, which we had to climb over to get out of rail right-of-way and towards the Marriott Hotel, where friends of Dennis were staying.
Beth's glasses were worthless in the driving rain and her vision is very poor without them, so for all intents and purpose, she was blind. By this time, we were soaked through to the skin and with each wave of rain came more shrieks from the crowd around us. People were pressing in on every side, scrambling to escape the storm. Then we were pelted with either sleet or small hail and the crowd once again screamed.
Once we got over the fence, we joined the river of people streaming away from the waterfront. All the while the fireworks were still going off. The Marriott was a mere 50 yards away, but we had to go across the flow of people to get to it. We formed a human chain and made our way through the masses.
Earlier in the day, the hotel had placed a fence around its property to keep the crowd out. By now the fence had several breaches and people were streaming into the restaurant. On the terrace outside the hotel, broken plates and glasses were crunching under our feet. It was actually a humurous site to see people, who had just moments bfore had been enjoying a quiet dinner, now watching as hoards of dripping wet people made there way through the restaurant.
In the lobby, the floors were puddled and the hotel staff was scrambling to control the crowd. We could still hear the fireworks exploding and looked to see a live broadcast of the them on the TV in the bar.
We were safe.
It didn't take long for the hotel to send out housekeeping staff with towels and sheets to hand out to their uninvited guests. There was announcement over the loud speaker in broken English which went something like, "We are having an emergency situation. Please to stay on the hotel until the thunderstorm ends. And please be a little quieter."
We hung out at the hotel in the room where Dennis' friends were staying for awhile and after finding out that traffic was not moving at all out of the city, we decided to walk to the metro (subway). We took two trains and a bus and ended up in the Dennis' neighborhood. From there we walked home.
The fireworks stared at 9.
We arrived home at midnight.
God's protection was with us. We found out later that 2 people were killed when a tree fell on them at the riverfront and two are missing from two boats that collided on the river.
Now it's warm and cozy and looks like another beautiful day.
It was a beautiful St. Stephen's Day in Budapest. With the summmer sun shining, we made our way to the city center to Horizont Mozi, an old cinema that has been converted into a very comfortable space for Calvary Chapel Budapest to meet. Great worship and rich teaching. Pastor Greg Opean teaches in English, and as he teaches it is translated into Hungarian.
After church we had lunch at Dennis' flat and then headed back into the city on public transport to take in the festivities along the banks of the Danube, including a Red Bull airplane race over the river. If you've ever heard of the "Blue Danube Waltz" by Strauss, this may come as a shock to you and I'm sorry...
The Danube is not blue. It's muddy brown. Always has been. Always will be.
From what I understand, it was a joke that Strauss named it "Blue".
For the evening fireworks show, which is shot from two bridges over the Danube and from nearby Gelart Hill, the bridges are closed to both motor and foot traffic. We needed to get to the other side. BTW - if you never knew this -- Budapest is one city formed from two. Buda is on the West side of the river and Pest one the East. We were in Buda, heading for Pest.
Once in the city center on the Pest side of the river, we found a nice little Italian restaurant called Replay Cafe. This is apparently a chain, kind of like we have in the states with TGI Friday's or Olive Garden.
Then we headed back to the riverfront to stake out a spot from which to watch the fireworks. We found a place on the Metro rail tracks at about 8 pm. The fireworks were slated to begin at 9 and go until 9:30. The crowd continued to grow until by 9 about 1 million people were lining either side of the Danube.
As I was shooting video of the castle on the Buda side of the river, I noticed lightning behind the Castle. The Castle sits atop a hill that extends north to the bend in the river and south to Gelart hill. The lightning became more numerous and I got some really great footage.
The fireworks began with a bang (Ha) right at 9:00 and we immediately become enthralled. At 9:10 the rain started lightly falling and I thought, "Oh this may not be so bad." HA!
At 9:15 I looked across at the Castle to see it becoming enshrouded in heavy rain, giving it an earie, ghostly appearance. I turned to say, "Look how cool the Castle looks," turned back toward the river and WHAM -- the rain and wind hit us full force. Shrieks went up from the crown around us and people began to huddle together in their own little groups. When the intensity increased, there were more shrieks.
It soon became apparent that this was no small rain storm. The crowd turned from the river and began to surge back in to the city streets. There was a metal rail fence about 12 feet behind where we had been standing. It took us about 3 or 4 minutes to get to that fence, which we had to climb over to get out of rail right-of-way and towards the Marriott Hotel, where friends of Dennis were staying.
Beth's glasses were worthless in the driving rain and her vision is very poor without them, so for all intents and purpose, she was blind. By this time, we were soaked through to the skin and with each wave of rain came more shrieks from the crowd around us. People were pressing in on every side, scrambling to escape the storm. Then we were pelted with either sleet or small hail and the crowd once again screamed.
Once we got over the fence, we joined the river of people streaming away from the waterfront. All the while the fireworks were still going off. The Marriott was a mere 50 yards away, but we had to go across the flow of people to get to it. We formed a human chain and made our way through the masses.
Earlier in the day, the hotel had placed a fence around its property to keep the crowd out. By now the fence had several breaches and people were streaming into the restaurant. On the terrace outside the hotel, broken plates and glasses were crunching under our feet. It was actually a humurous site to see people, who had just moments bfore had been enjoying a quiet dinner, now watching as hoards of dripping wet people made there way through the restaurant.
In the lobby, the floors were puddled and the hotel staff was scrambling to control the crowd. We could still hear the fireworks exploding and looked to see a live broadcast of the them on the TV in the bar.
We were safe.
It didn't take long for the hotel to send out housekeeping staff with towels and sheets to hand out to their uninvited guests. There was announcement over the loud speaker in broken English which went something like, "We are having an emergency situation. Please to stay on the hotel until the thunderstorm ends. And please be a little quieter."
We hung out at the hotel in the room where Dennis' friends were staying for awhile and after finding out that traffic was not moving at all out of the city, we decided to walk to the metro (subway). We took two trains and a bus and ended up in the Dennis' neighborhood. From there we walked home.
The fireworks stared at 9.
We arrived home at midnight.
God's protection was with us. We found out later that 2 people were killed when a tree fell on them at the riverfront and two are missing from two boats that collided on the river.
Now it's warm and cozy and looks like another beautiful day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)