Sam

I got a phone call late last night from my sister saying that she was meeting mom and the emergency vet clinic and that Sam wasn't doing well. I had seen this coming. Our dear Sammy was 13 1/2 years old. In the past few months his arthritis had gotten pretty bad. He also was having accidents in the house. I went home in February after returning from  Ireland and was prepared that this might be the last time I saw him. As the night progressed the vet got him out of distress and discovered his stomach had slipped. It could be corrected with surgery but was no guarantee how he would recover at his age. If it went uncorrected he would die. Mom then called me to say that she had made the decision that it was time to put him down. Her and Julie got to go in and say goodbye and mom held on to him as the vet gave him the injection. It is amazingly difficult to know that a part of your family is at the end of his life. I was 13 years old when we got Sam. He was attached to me from the beginning although my dad was his favorite. When dad died Sam  grieved too. He layed on the bed and burrowed in my Dad's robe. He wandered the house looking for him for weeks. When I left to go to YWAM Sam used to talk to me on the phone (mom would put the phone up to his ear and he would growl/bark). When I bought my car, Sam got the first ride. When I would come home Sam would lay on top of me and sleep so he knew I wouldn't go anywhere without him knowing. Sam was there for most of the major milestones in my life. At 12:15 last night mom sent me the text "it's over he is gone..." and my heart sank to know my little brown and white buddy would not be around for anymore of my life's milestones.

st. padraig

happy st. patrick's day guys. here are a few more photos from ireland. We've been back for over a month and I havent updated this in a bit. I'll properly update this soon. for now here's some stuff to get you in the spirit.

Up to a few months ago I though St. Patrick's Day was just an excuse to put green food dye in beer. The history of the holiday is actually pretty cool. Check out some wikipedia research below and learn some cool stuff.

                          

St. Patrick wikipedia page

found this the other day. it's the song from Once in celtic...pretty cool

Swell Season- Gr dom Leonadh (falling)  click on link and on the download tab

coming to the end of a journey

we are now back in dublin. after a day of settling in and debriefing the team on the past 8 weeks we all take a breath exhale and realize we are indeed coming to the end of a journey. ireland has its own magic a place that is beautiful and pained and drips with history. being here implores you to know where you come from and know where you are going. That is what I hope to take home with me. We are spending two more days in dublin and then heading back on thursday. thank you all for following our goings on, praying for and supporting us during our time here. 

telling a story

Ireland is a country where story telling is as cultural as pint of guinness or a penny whistle.  While here I have been reading a book about story. It is essentially components that make a great story. You see the writer slowly going the direction of saying "if your life isn't a good story, it isn't a good life." This part really stuck out to me 

" i like slower stories these days. The simple ones. The ones that play out like art films. It's like God saying, ' write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help... A good storyteller speaks something into nothing. Where there is an absence of story, or perhaps a bad story, a good storyteller walks in and changes reality. He doesn't critique the existing, or lament his boredom, like a critic, He just tells something different and invites other people into the new story he is telling."

since being here i have found a new appreciation of storytelling and storyliving. i hope to be able to sit down with God and tell him stories and Him laugh with remembrance or smile with nostalgia or beam with pride, and Him to remind me of those stories I have long since forgotten. To know that this short span on earth wasnt wasted sitting on a couch and watching t.v. and complaining about how boring and messed up this world is.

to dublin

After spending last weekend in the Closkelt , we caught the bus down to Dublin (not without a literal crash course in driving a minibus on this side of the pond)We have been here for four days now and are staying in a suburb of the city called Malahide.  We have been doing a few mid day school programs and youth events in the evenings. It has been cool to work with the kids here and they seem to be very receptive to us. Also we have been doing a fundraiser through St. Andrews that is benefiting relief effort in Haiti. In Ireland they do not have people at the grocery store to bag your items. A local supermarket has let our team come in and bag groceries with jars for people to give a donation.We took the train into the city tuesday and spent the day seeing downtown dublin. the republic is a much different feel from the north. dublin is bigger and much more expensive, but it is cool to see a new place and get to know new people. We are only in Malahide for the week before heading down to Cork for 2 weeks. It is strange how fast this half of outreach can be. Below are some photos from the past week or so.

Darren from the bridge where the river meets the sea in Newcastle...it seems kind of ominous

morning walk in Closkelt. It was a beautiful view from the house up there. when the morning fog clears you can see the mourne mountains on the horizon

shelby at a bookstore on the trinity university campus in dublin

Palmer at the train station ( sporting a lion mane)

God Save Ireland

the past few days most of our team has been out sick. those of us who were feeling well and not wanting to be stuck in quarantine  with the ill got out of the houses and went up to see belfast castle. today we took a mural tour with one of the John Hash of YWAM Ireland. He is working on his doctorate in the theology of reconciliation at Trinity University. John showed us the different murals depicting the troubles on both the protestant and catholic side of the wall and explained quite a bit of what the mentality is here and some of the obstacles and steps to an interdependent Belfast. I know many of us learned more about reconciliation in a few short hours with John than many people will have in a lifetime....below are some of the pictures from the past few days...

happy new year belfast

we had plans to go spend the new year down in city center only to find out it had been cancelled. Earlier this month there was a riot during the tree lighting that they had to call in the military to break up. they since decided to cancel any other holiday events at the city hall. we are back at the flat and rung in the new year together. the sound of church bells and fireworks has been background noise to our conversations for the last hour... today i also took quite a few pictures...here are some of them...

             city hall...the site of where the would be new years festivities were to take place...

                                    an espresso macchiato from belfast coffee company.

                                             donegall and royal from a double decker bus

                                               the shankill (our neighborhood) from up above

the shankill graveyard is now a city park. there are graves there that date back to 455 AD.  i love the stonework on this one...

                                                                   a walk in the park

                                                   on a walk to buy more bread

                                                                the last sunset of 2009