Ireland in a Nutshell.

Wow! What an emotional, fun, crazy month this has been. This is my first ever blog….so yea here we go!

Let’s hit on the emotional stuff first.

This is my first ever mission trip, first time being away from home this long, first ever plane ride, and first time being out of the country.

Being away from my family has been super hard. It was so bad I literally had anxiety every day since they left from training camp and I cried a lot. I just got so scared of not being with them and having to deal with things on my own. But the amazing thing is that God gave me the word ‘strength’ before I came on this trip. I thought “oh strength for the team” or “strength for others”, never had I thought God would strengthen me in an intimately personal way.

Through this experience I have had to truly and utterly rely on God’s strength because I had none without Him.

There were times where I would be so joyful and happy about where I was and then there were times where I was sobbing in one of my team member’s lap. It would happen every day, so much so that once I got over the homesickness I got anxiety about having anxiety. Crazy, right? So that has happened until 5 days ago when it just stopped. I had been praying in my head begging God to take it away but never out loud. Our amazing leaders (Emmaly and Ruth) told me that there is power in words which had never occurred to me before how powerful they are. And so I got alone with God and prayed aloud. It was so cool, I felt peace I hadn’t had all month.

So yea it has been 5 days without an anxiety attack and I am so thankful. Now God is showing me all the fruit that has come out of my struggles. There is so much to share in that but to summarize; I have been able to relate to so many people. So, yes, very emotional!

 

Fun!

To be honest it was really hard to enjoy things because of the anxiety but there were many things I could focus on. I love watching movies! We were able to watch two movies on this trip, not including the plane ride, and I really enjoyed that.

The team had a BBQ with the teens from Drimoleague and that was super fun. The food was great, we got to connect with the youth, and had an awesome worship time. Personally I loved Baltimore because of the sea side. We got to take a boat to our ministry location everyday which was awesome and I got to see a seal for the first time! The kids in Dunmanway were so hectic but interesting as well. They said the cutest things and it was amazing to see how much they absorbed.

We went to a place that took us on a ‘train ride’ (which was really some carts with tires on the bottom) and it took us around to see beautiful sights. We hung out in a town a little ways from there and shopped. Me and a few of the other girls went into this Irish tourist shop. The guy at the counter was super nice. Erin saw the guitar and commented on its beauty. He let Erin borrow the guitar and told us to sing outside his shop. So at the end we ended up singing outside this guy’s shop singing worship music and having people enjoy watching us.

It was so much fun just to be able to sing to God and strangers see the love we have for Him. This weekend we were able to be at a youth event in Cork that was a lot of fun. The worship time was amazing and they had lots of fun games to play. Now we are resting and will be going sightseeing later in the week before we leave.

Crazy!

Ok, our whole team is crazy let me just make that clear up front. We have had sooooo much laughter and growth on this trip. Everything we saw or heard we made fun of or related it back to another joke. After 10 o’clock at night things get crazy: Serina goes wild, Frozen songs are sung, Hailey shows us the ‘right’ way to wear a hoodie, and Erin makes quotes from movies hilarious. We have the best leaders ever (I think they are crazier than us) and they have helped us grow from the beginning. Our motto for this trip is ‘be free’ and that is how we do things (within reason of course). There are so many things I could share but it wouldn’t make sense without actually being in the moment.

And that is where we are at the moment. I know it is a bitter sweet moment for most of us to leave this beautiful country and come back home in 4 days. Thank you to everyone for prayers and love sent our way!