Let me start by saying I am really sad that I can’t update you all more (at all) on what is going on here in Ireland. It really has been next to impossible because I have only  a couple hours a week online and I am putting out fires on email or trying to do essential things like pay bills etc.

A few things I will say:

The team has been really great. The food has been great. The Church we are working at has been phenomenal to us and they love Jesus and his Word which has in many ways revitalized my soul after a hard year. Kelly has been doing an amazing job being locked in at times with Owen and at loving the team in sometimes awkward circumstances.

The weather….The last two summers in Ireland have been “rained out” as they say a ton. Only two days of sunshine last summer to give you an idea how it can be here in Ireland. This summer we have only had two days of rain and we hear about our fortune daily from the locals. God is good!

This country is beautiful! I love the hills and cows and smells yes even the smells of slurry (manure) and I love the ancient ruins and castles and rivers and cemeteries. I also love more than I could of imagined round-abouts. Yes I am now an experienced (quasi-experienced) opposite side of the road driver and America needs to wake up to the beauty of the round-about. I have found myself at times wanting to stop the “mini-bus” I am driving and just congratulate whoever is close by for the round-about. I love scones and tea with milk and even more then both I think I love the electric hot water pot that always has or will have boiling water within 1 minute of desiring it. I love being around people in church who talk so different but love the same Jesus I love. I love Irish beaches and their ability to produce great sea glass. I love driving and finding roads that I should of never found. I love getting lost with Capone on the other side of Ireland in a big German van with a GPS that doesn’t know the roads and getting home @ 2:30 in the morning, I love Irish kids playing hurling (an Irish sport that is a mix between Soccer, Rugby, football, and baseball) outside our house @ 10pm and it is still light outside. I love milk chocolate digestives and egg sandwiches with Brennan’s whole grain bread and mature Irish cheese. I love to not be able to watch tv, or be online, or be able to constantly make phone calls (this also destroy’s me). I love walking 4-5 miles a day. I love Kelly, Owen, and I going hiking with Owen on my back and him rubbing my head in delight. I love it being June 30th and the highs in the low 70’s. I love being on an Island with no predators besides man (no poisonous snakes, no bears, no gators, no bad sharks, etc).  I love all you who I miss and I love being loved by you all so well and how being far away makes those feelings come to the surface. I love Kelly and Owen.

Owen is the most amazing boy in the world! I went with him yesterday (our day off) to a little par 3-4 golf course by our house and rented clubs and we golfed. I was overwhelmed with God’s goodness to me to let me have a son.  Owen loved to walk and put the ball in the hole so much so that he couldn’t stop doing it. He ooohhed with joy when “he” hit a golf ball 30 yards with my help of course. He is walking full go now and on top of that he is a world class toaster.. as in he loves to “Cheers” with his sippy cup. He lights up with the biggest grin and says cheee and after the touch of glasses he laughs and asks for more.  Owen also loves bananas with a love that exceeds words. One night he woke up early in pain from teething and in his cries would say baba baba baba… One of the guys living with us said that he went from annoyed to dying laughing when that happened at 4am. Owen loves the guys on the team (Caleb and Capone). Capone plays the viola and the other day at church Owen saw his buddy playing and pointed with his mouth open… when the song (a solo) was done owen clapped and invited all to join him… Owen went solo. Owen though has an ultimate love… more than anything in the world Owen loves his mom. Man that boy loves his mom.  She can open her mouth or look sideways or do nothing and he dies laughing. If he sees her walking to the car he screams with joy. He will be doing some 14 month old task and out of nowhere just go and hug her and go right back to what he is doing simply because he loves his mum.

I can’t say it all but maybe I will do what I don’t love sometime soon. Pray for me I am preaching the next 3 weeks and not recycled material. It has been hard hard work here on many levels and in some ways I am spent. Thanks for your prayers… I miss you all a ton and I wish you could be here with us seeing what God is doing and what he has done. The history of the people we get to eat with are amazing! The history of the church and the families have brought me to tears more than once, the history God is writing even this summer is yet to be scene but I am glad to be a small small small piece of what God is doing here.

here are some pictures:

Just wanted to let you know that we made it! It was an adventure but we are here and we are leaving Dublin in the morning for Kilkenny. We have walked literally over 20 miles in the last 3 days and I have discovered that to be a bad idea when fat and out of shape! Oh and I was carrying Owen on my back for about half of that time which was great and I can’t wait to post pictures.. but I am stuck in a lobby right now!

Updates soon.

Hopefully. We are finally aboard a plane headed to Dublin! \n\nThis morning was a fiasco. I had to walk on no sidewalk roads for about a mile and a half to get diapers and wipes. To quote a worker at our hotel “you woked ova da bwidge?”\n\nPraying we will have luggage at 5:15am Dublin time. Praying Owen will sleep. He has been great and so has Kelly. But we are tired. That loui ck clip is encouraging me not to complain to much. \n

No that is not the # of an amazing ( wifi carrying) flight to Dublin. That is the vouchered usair room that we are in right now minus luggage, sleep, and a good stash of baby supplies. Good thing with modern ammenities you get a sink to wash clothes in!\n\nSo my traveling woes continue. Here is how our day went. \n\nArrive at airport to hear from checkin lady the airport is shut down and we probably won’t make it to philadelphia.\n\nWe give it a try and miraculously get on an earlier flight that will leave before our original flight even though this new flight was delayed.\n\nBoard plane with fist bumps.\n\n45 minutes later hear that Orlando air port fuel center has recieved a direct lightening strike and no plane can get fuel. (the airport had reopened but planes do horrible without fuel).\n\n30 minutes later(original departure time) recieve news we will have to stop in jville for fuel. \n\nGet to jville and our plane starts sprinklering. I mean water starts pouring on folks.\n\nFueled up\n\nCaptain says that due to water problem mechanics are on the way.\n\n30 minutes later captain says everyone including Boeing says roll. I quasi quote “over time water gets in the cracks” and this is residual condensation…. Are you kidding me! Cracks! Airplane!\n\nEnd up in Philly 1/2 hour late missing our Dublin flight.\n\nGet vouchers and no luggage. Owen had been on a plane for 6+ hours and was great except the vomit. \n\nGet to hotel and restaraunt is closed. \n\nWalk across street and eat.\n\nOwen pees through backup outfit ( first is covered in vomit).\n\nEtc etc\n\nPray for us as we now fly to Boston and catch a different carriers flight to Dublin arriving a day late and possibly without luggage…. Oh with a one year old!\n\n Itenerary = often different then reality= my life.

I love this boy!

The normal day off for a pastor is normally Monday. For me the day I try to rest is Friday.  Kelly works on Fridays so I get to hang out with Owen and do some daddy day care. I love it (most of the time) and in many ways it is really restful. Today is a most of the time. Here are some pictures of him last night wanting to kiss me through the sliding glass windows on our patio. You gotta love the safety of the glass kiss… sure way to keep away from mono!

In opposition to those who hate posted videos I post this here video! Why? Because it is amazing and I realized that many people I know have not seen it.  It goes back to my “lawnmower post from last week”. I hope you enjoy it!

Everything is Amazing, Nobody’s Happy

I am blogging from my mower (a first and possible last). Our hawk is perched on our light post in our back field looking eagerly for his next mole (not squirrel which I would prefer). He got me rethinking of how much I look and don’t find. Sometimes because I’m looking for the wrong thing and sometimes because I’m looking in the wrong place and sometimes both and sometimes neither. I just got back from bps (bass pro shops) a store that I love but hardly ever lives up to my mental hype. Either to expensive or not there I often walk away hoping next time will be “the” time. This is the next time from the last time and I’m still disappointed. Maybe I’ll learn that as good as this world is I’ll never find ‘it’ and that’s ok.

Owen found it though:.. He strolled away with a smile because he saw some of God’s handywork. Fish, deer, turkey, etc and in his contentment I was reminded where to look and where to long. The creator not the created.

So this is not what you think. This is not a debate over who really started this phenomena ( ketchup people or mustard people) or the dangers of such risky behavior. This is a post to celebrate one of the most wonderful parts of my life right now… Owen’s kisses which are never proper, never dry, and always sharkesque. Life has been crazy to say the least but in the middle of the waves I have the most precious and most sweet shark who is always ready to kiss/ consume his daddy. I’m so thankful for this big blessing.