Thoughts with a warm cup of coffee at the end of Lent

Lent has ended, Easter has come and Christ has risen.

I got up today and made myself a warm and comforting cup of coffee and once again thanked the Lord for all the incredible blessings in my life including coffee. I know it sounds shallow to be thankful for such a little thing but truly over the past 40 days I have come to realize how much coffee serves as a reminder of how much God loves me.

I wont lie to you and tell you that Lent or the act of giving up coffee was easy because frankly it wasn't. I spent more time than I wont to admit to wondering at why I would give up something as vital to life as coffee, and in those moments I will admit my mind did not immediately jump to my feelings about God. There were incredibly challenging days where I know that a cup of coffee would have made them better, but now that I have reached the end I'm thankful.

I reached the end only because I have a loving and faithful God. I found that I frequently use other things in life as a crutch to get through a hard day or stressful situation. Instead of remembering who I am or that I have God with me I look to other things that inevitable drain me or just do not give me the results that I want. I get weighed down by the world, I forget that I am FREE, that I am not tied down by sin or regrets. That I have been bought at a price and not only did God buy my freedom he did it without regret, he did it out of all consuming love.

There is something so wrong and yet so right about
jumping puddles. Its messy, wet, dirty, rebellious fun,
to me freedom can sometimes feel and look like this

Last year my verse was John 10:10

The thief comes to steal kill and destroy

I have come so that you may have life

and have it to the full.

Before that it was Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us 

FREE

Do you sense a theme here? It seems that I need to be frequently reminded that I am free. 

I think that maybe that's why I love lent so much because it reminds me and makes me aware of all the many things that I rely on instead of God. Easter wakes me up, it reminds me of who God is and within Him who I am. 

Some people use New Years as their time to do self reflecting and to make goals for the coming year. I'm pretty sure without consciously making that decision I do that at Easter. It fits for me, spring is coming. Around Easter I find myself looking at the past year, I remember that good time and the hard times that I have lived through. I look for where God was and is in my life, its a time that I refocus with God. During lent I think I prepare and in some ways wear myself down so that I am ready, willing and happy to talk about the different areas in my life that need growth because during lent I see how weak I really am. Its a time that I see clearly the places that I struggle and with seeing these not so pleasant parts of myself I am ready and willing to let God help me to make these changes in my life.

Maybe I am expressing myself wrong but for now this works for me.

Lent has ended and Christ has risen, today I rejoice because we are loved by a God who calls us beloved. So please today of all days thank God, think of him and just rejoice in your blessings. 

Be not afraid.

Help and Paypal

One of the graduated youth who also
volunteered with the camps last summer

I need help. The reality is that Ireland and Dublin specifically is expensive. I am hoping to be there for June, July and August in order to help with camp prep, all of the camps, and take down at the end of the summer which is 12 weeks. The following is the minimum breakdown of the absolute min I need for those twelve weeks

$1500 on Flights
$600 approx. Rent cost (most likely will change)
$152 per week min for living costs (works out to be 100 euros a week)

Total minimum costs is $3, 924 for three months this summer.

A hot day at the beach with a girls camp
last summer

My goal is to have regular donors giving $10 a week which would make $40 a month. I need 12-13 starting in April to give $40/month in order to reach a goal of 2500. I will pay the rest with savings.

Part of the low ropes course at the
campsite. This is our bog swing

I have worked really hard to make this easy as I can. I have set up a pay pal account if you would like to give online there is a button on the left hand side of the screen which will enable the giving to be as easy as possible. You will have to click on the button every time to donate but I hope its still easier than trying to get it to me in person. However if that is how you would like to give that's fine as well.

I am asking for regular supporters in this post however I am not against one time gifts either, please give however you feel works best for you.

Thank you so much for your time, your prayers, and frankly for the gift of money, to me your donation says that you believe in me and the work I am going to be doing in Ireland.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to message me, or leave a comment on here and I will be sure to answer it.

Back to the Emerald Isle

Last year I fell in love with Ireland, I loved the people I was working with, the city, my church there. Heck I even in some ways loved the sometimes gross or grueling tasks I was asked to do because I knew that I was contributing to something I believed in. Nothing has changed in the months that I have been home, I still believe in what Dublin Christian Mission (DCM) does with the youth in Dublin.

Coolest playground ever  that we have on camp.

The staff  have an incredible love for the communities that they work in, they pour their lives into what they do and I learned so much from them last year. DCM is a privately funded organization,which means that they rely and need volunteers in order to run many of the amazing programs that they offer for the people they work with.This is most especially true in the summer when they run 8 different camps for a week straight in the Wicklow Mountains. With this in mind I am going back to Ireland for the summer, I will be participating in likely participating in 5 different camps over the course of the summer. 

Everything the volunteers need for camp

I am going back for a thousand different reasons, everything from the knowledge that they need help to the fact that I want to continue my connection to many of the youth that I worked with last year. I want to continue to be a cheerleader to the many of girls that will pass through the camps this summer. I want to get to get to know the girls better because they are incredible and I love getting to be a hopefully positive person in their lives. I want to go back so that I can learn more from the incredible youth workers who have spent all year with them encouraging them, teaching them, and at dealing with the messy parts of life with them. Like I said a thousand different reasons. 

Our homes for the summer. This also falls into
the heavy lifting category

I am going back but the reality is that I can't do it alone. I need help, I need support. I need people praying for me because the realities of the camps are that they are really hard (think 2-4 hrs sleep a night), its emotionally draining, and its at times physically demanding. Last year it was only by the grace of God that I made it through and this summer will be the same. Now for the unpleasant part I will also need financial help, I will not be paid for being there. I will have to pay for rent, food, some transportation and camp. I will in another blog do a basic break down of costs.

Thank you all for your support on previous trips, I truly could not do what I do if it weren't for the love and support that I get from so many people. I cannot wait for us to face this next adventure together.

This is long enough for today, please be watching for more information over the coming weeks and days.

Catch Up Part Two

Well now that we have talked about my job situation let me fill you in on life.

Frankly life has been a little bit boring since Ireland, however not nearly as much as I thought it would be, I have recently developed a love of snow. But hear me clearly when I say I love snow but only as long as its snowing and its not that cold out. As soon as it hits -20 and stops snowing I am over it.

I also have been blessed with a small group or house church group this year. This group is something that I never saw coming, I have always avoided church small groups out of the knowledge that I cannot keep a long term commitment. But this year I decided that I needed something in my life that would force me out of my comfort zone and challenge me for however long I was in Calgary. I have been so blessed by this group of people that I meet with and share a meal with once a week. It is a group that only God could have put together and I am forever thankful for them.

I have also been thankful for the quietness in my life, it has been a time of just sitting and waiting on the Lord and although that has not been easy I have felt my faith grow because of it. In my life there has always been a plan and a next step to take, however for the past several months I have felt the Lord saying that the next step is waiting and trusting in his time. Its been a challenge but I am thankful for it.

That for now is all I can think to catch you up on. Thank you for continuing to read and support me all these years it really encourages me to think that people are reading this and hopefully praying for me as I follow God through all the places and stages that he has taken me through,

Catch Up-Part One

Catch Up- Part One

We took a quick trip to Northern Ireland before going home
to Canada

Since I have arrived home and even before that I got out of the habit of writing on here, I would say I feel bad about it but I haven't. Before I left Dublin I felt God telling me to live in the moment, be fully present in what was happening around me, that didn't change when I got home.

When I got home it wasn't necessarily pleasant, it was hard ,I had car problems that cost to much money to fix, I had no money due to the fact I lived in Europe and spent it all.Then there was the fact that I was home in Calgary with no clue what the next step was.

Logically I started to job hunt. I am very blessed to live in a place that essentially always has plenty of jobs avialable but strangely I could not get one in that first month home. I was forced to live on the good will of my family and God and that was really hard. Here I was almost 24 and I felt helpless. But God is forever faithful, not only did he make sure I was provided for I was given more than I needed, no it wasn't money but not only was my needs provided for I was blessed by so many around me.

When I got home I got to attend the wedding of
a good friend. Thanks Lindsay for helping
me get there

Then finally God provided a job, it wasn't at all what I was looking for but they were offering money, how could I say no, it was above minumum wage, it wasn't working with food or retail, I couldn't say no. So I accepted it, the only downside was it was only part time and would not provide what I thought I needed.

But God again was so good through this season, I made it through I always had enough. Finally through months of prayer for the Lord to bring me full time work the Lord provided a place for me at the place I was already employed which was in some ways an incredible answer to prayer. I like where I work and I am so thankful for all God has given me in this.

One of my jobs when I got home, she has great jewlery

Now that is only one aspect of the past six months. But this is long enough as it is, I will write another time of what else is going on.

I have missed writing here so hopefully my postings will become more frequent.

The liturgical practice of LENT

LENT is something that I have come to adore in recent years, however my feelings about it are hard to express.
This season actually tends to be the time of the year that I most enjoy. It is a time of slowing down and remembering who God is in preparation of Easter.

When participating in lent you are encouraged to give up a luxury in your life for forty days. During the forty days you abstain from the (now) forbidden luxury in the name of remember Christ. Except on the Sabbath, one day a week you declare the Sabbath and you party. You do NOT abstain on this day, on the Sabbath you partake and enjoy what you have given up.

I find that during Lent is the only time that I truly keep and appreciate the Sabbath. Other times in the year I do go to church and life goes on the same as any other day. However during Lent my focus is clearer and more direct, I find I appreciate my Sabbath day of rest, I slow down and truly just rest. I find that as I indulge in my luxury I think more clearly about who God is. I crave deeper intimacy with him, I find I crave to know more of His word just so that I can truly understand and appreciate why I am putting myself through a fast.

Yes we could all be very holy and proclaim that I should feel this way all year long, and I am not saying that this is not something I do not experience at other times of the year however there is just a different feeling associated with Lent. There is a shared knowledge that people are around the world are also partaking in this spiritual time, that you are all thinking and remember Christ together over these 40 days. Then at the end everyone celebrates together, we know truly how to celebrate the rising of Christ from the dead because we have been focusing and thinking on it for the last 40 days. This is truly a feast day, this is when the fast ends, this is when we all party.


So I encourage you to participate, just try it out once, what do you have to lose?

I miss it. but thats not the end of the story

I miss it but...

I am determined not to miss out on life here in Calgary by dwelling on how much I miss Dublin. I know in my heart that I will go back so right now I am struggling to learn balance. I am struggling to LIVE here in Calgary, to invest in the people around me with out dwelling or worrying about Dublin. Its a struggle but one I am excited to see what God places in life here in Calgary. I am so blessed.

How can I not love that face and fall

But that's not the end of the story.

My life here is full, since coming home from Dublin I have seen God provide for me in every area I have had a need. I went from frantically panicking about having no job and bills to pay to having 3 jobs in a matter of a few weeks.

I desperately wanted a community to be apart of. I wanted it to be diverse, challenging and loving, a group who wasn't afraid to argue or be different. I can now happily say I am apart of a small group that is definitely all of these things and more than I would have dreamed for myself.

I wanted peace about life. I wanted to know that I am going down the right path and I can honestly say that although I have absolutely ZERO idea about what the future will look like I am at peace with where I am right now.

BUT

I miss it.

I miss the kids.

I miss the people at DCM

I miss the teens.

I miss the HARD times and the GOOD times.

I miss the city.

I miss my roommates.

I miss my church there.

I miss the laughs.

I just miss Dublin.

But I will keep looking at the Lord and thanking him for my incredibly blessed life.

Choose Life Kids