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.