Back from break!

This is just a shout out to let you all know that I'm back from my whirlwind European adventure safe and sound. In the meantime, I have papers due very soon, not to mention work so the pictures and accounts of what happened will come as they may in little segments.
For those of you who don't know, we had March 16-31 off from work and for the first week (16-21) Ben, Kelsie and I went to Greystones to be with the other ISP group for St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, showing Kelsie around some of the historical sites, hiking in Glendalough and other local places.
Then on the Friday 21, we split up- Kelsie to visit friends in Liverpool, Ben to Dublin with Lauren and hiking in Scotland and me to France to visit Devon.
I went to Paris until Sunday morning took a train to Caen in Normandy to see the DDay Memorial and beaches. Tuesday night, we headed to Devon's town of Angers in the Loire Valley where we saw the sites and her stomping grounds. Here we decided based on cheapest train ticket price that my next adventure would lead me to Geneva, Switzerland and I so headed there on Wednesday, TGVing all across France and spending the remained of my days there until yesterday when I headed out for the marathon adventure of making it back here. I've been awake for far too long, traveled for 30 hours, sleeping on the streets of Paris and am hoping you will be patient with further updates. It was a trip full of amazing sights, people, and lots of unexpected hospitality.

PS Traveling alone is cool because you have so much freedom to do what you want, but it also sucks because it's so lonely. I miss you all and can't wait to talk to you in person again.

Historians take note!

On Saturday we took a "religious history tour" of Galway. This was not some fool guided tour with a bored kid with a memorized script. Mike knows this guy named William Henry who is probably one of the smartest men I've met (outside of Dr. Ringenberg and a few others). He was a fascinating and hilarious Irish man who's written loads of books (seemed like one on almost everywhere he took us, but the more famous ones are this book and this book, on Galway and WWI. It was wonderful to have this tour because he showed us all these fantastic historical and archaeological things that have been right under our noses this whole time. Did you know that the building I live in was once a barracks for the infamous Black and Tans? He took us to an ancient 6th century monastery that you would expect to be hidden miles out in rural Gaeltacht Ireland, but no St. Odram's monastic settlement of Roscam is a mere seven minute drive from city center! Buried in an old cemetery on Michael Collins road in Ballybane are revolutionaries from the war for independence. Surrounding it are imposing and modern apartment complexes threatening to consume the history within it. St. Augustine's Holy Well holds stories of Christianized Druidic practices from the 5th century as well as a brawl and a brush with the Gardai in Willy's childhood as he and his friends realized that coins were tossed in the well!

We heard so much in such a short time, there was no way even if I had taken notes that I could have remembered it all. Truly a remarkable man keeping alive the memories of a fascinating town in a historic land. He was so passionate about his work- especially the parts on remembering the Irish who fought in the trenches of WWI and were hated for defending their land when they returned to the anti-British revolutionary climate of postwar Ireland.

Here are my various pictures of the afternoon.

Nuns make me smile

I had the joy of washing our outside walls yesterday morning and as I was scrubbing away, I was approached by a little old nun who kept telling me that I was a good man, keeping things clean like that. She went into our bookstore for a little bit and when she came back out she came up to me and said, “Would you scrub my soul clean?” Not knowing what to say I said, “With soap and water? That’s not the trick.” And she replies “Oh I know, but wouldn’t it be easy if that were the way?” Then she tottered off. It was a very interesting experience.
Then today, we went to Mass with Aine at Poor Clare's Convent on Nun's Island and there was one nun who couldn't stop grinning throughout the whole Mass. It was great.

In other news, we're going on a history of Galway tour tomorrow, we have one more week until spring break and I'm planning a 37 mile bicycle trip to a castle on the other side of Galway Bay. Should be sweet.

Here are some pictures I've been neglecting to put up. Remember, you can pause the slideshow and scroll through them at your own pace.

Claddagh Church & Cafe


Swans on the Long Walk

Irish weather

I was told of a Mountaineering Club at NUIG, so we might look into hooking up with one of their hikes to get out more.

The rest of the week was pretty classic- work and good jokes and such. Ben and I got to reconnect with Alan on the bridge and I sat there quietly while they talked in Spanish and we found out that he doesn't have a job because he doesn't have the right papers to work in Ireland, so we talked to Mike to find an organization that works with people in his situation to get it all figured out.
Then tonight while I was out wandering about I met a guy named Jason from Bray who wanted some spare change because he was "sleeping rough tonight". Having been taught not to give cash to just anyone and everyone, I got him a kebab and invited him to come our cafe sometime, even showed him where it is and he was thoroughly impressed by our prices so we plan on having lunch tomorrow. Apparently I just attract these people or God just lands them on me, but I do what I can.

We walked home from church this weekend which was really nice because it was sunny. Today I walked around a lot and got rained, snowed, sunned and winded on. The weather was very shifty today.

Moinin na gCiseah

This morning I was excited for two things- first in place of our staff devotions time in the morning, Deidre was going to give a talk on the Stations of the Cross which promised to be both enlightening and meditative. However, because of the second thing I was looking forward to (going with Mike and Paul into a school for evangelism) we had to be ready to go earlier and I had to miss out on Deirdre’s presentation. We gathered together a notebook and some DVDs in a Catholic Evangelism packet that Mike has called “Youth caFE” but I never did find out what the awkwardly lettered “caFE” stood for. On the way there, we previewed a song we plane don discussing with the kids: a rap about the Trinity and Jesus as our God. I found it not quite as embarrassing and awkward as most Christian rap I’ve heard, but it was still Christian rap. I wondered why Mike and Paul chose it, running though my head the theories that kids these days identify with rap but also taking note that kids often find that when they are presented with something that doesn’t come natural to the presenter, it can come off as contrived. Seeing how Paul and Mike are not accomplished rappers nor do they listen to the genre, I wondered if there weren’t some genre that both we and the kids could identify easily with. Anyway we got to the school called Moinin na gCiseah which was a secondary school attached to the community college. After being ushered in and setting up in the library, we began playing the song to three boys hoping that more would give up the basketball match that had robbed us of most of our usual crowd. By the time the song was over, we had two more and when were finished discussing the Trinity, two others had joined us. Irish kids are much like American kids- you have the one who is solid in his faith, but nervous about answering all the questions so he doesn’t look like a prude; there’s the kid who plays like he doesn’t care, but you can tell is actually searching because he’s confused; there are the ones interested only in goofing off and the quiet ones who conceal there thoughts and are a total mystery. We discussed confession and why we are encouraged to do it. They had some decent answers with a little bit of prompting. We began to play a second song but as it was about to finish up, the bell rang the boys were out of there… just like all my friends and me when we were in the eighth grade. We wrapped it up and headed back to the café, discussing most of what I have mentioned above. It was a really interesting time and I'm glad I was able to go.

Some things you might like to know

It’s always nice to start the week off right with a good day. This is the first time since I have been with An Tobar Nua that we have had a school retreat come into the café for a day of testimonies, drug/alcohol talks, and ministering by Mike. We spent a good bit of the morning in prayer for the group of kids in their last year of school (like high school seniors in America). We prayed over a passage about rescuing children back from the tyrant (Isaiah 49:25) and Megan mentioned the David Crowder song “Rescue is Coming” which just happened to come up on my iTunes on full random. Basically, God was in this day in a big way. We served the kids cookies and hot chocolate in the late morning, cleaned up as they had another talk, then served them lunch, finishing just in time for the lunch rush. We had lots to do in the kitchen and on dishes and I tried to use my extra few minutes of “stand around time” before the actual rush to help put away the mountain of dishes. As it turns out, the retreat was very effective and Mike told us that 13 of the 25 kids made a public commitment to Christ at the end of the day- very exciting stuff! Solid

Also, on a more personal level, some of our prayers for ourselves were answered. Dr. Harbin came to visit and see how the practicum was going and to help iron out the troubles with our new class. If you don't know, we had been originally registered with a prof who was on sabbatical and we got a new prof a month into the semester. Being a industrious young professor he wants us to work and I've heard from friends back on campus that the very class (Contemporary Christian Belief) is quite rough over there too. Unfortunately he wanted us to do all the same work even though we're starting a month late, have twice as long a spring break, end weeks earlier, and work 20 hours a week, plus 7 other credits of class to complete. It was not going to happen and I sent him a nice long email describing so. And so, today his boss, the dept chair (who was in Ireland anyway, mind you) came to visit us to work it out. Such a weight has been lifted! Our papers can be shorter, our due dates are flexible, and we have until May 23 to finish. Granted it's still gonna be rough, but it's at least feasible.
Dr. Harbin is also such a sweet guy that he invited us out to dinner (on TU of course) and so the three of us, Leanna and Cat headed up the road a bit to an Italian restaurant none of us had been to. It was great! the canal flowed underneath it and we sat next to a window that displayed a huge waterwheel at work as we dined on fine Italian foods and homemade ice cream. Such goodness!

In other news...
I was invited to come along with Tommy, Paul, and Mike as they go to one of the schools in the area for something shorter and more informal but similar to what the retreat was today. I asked what the school was, but I couldn’t pronounce it let alone spell it. But tomorrow promises to be another good day and I look forward to observing this new aspect of the ministry.

Weekend

I had Saturday off which was really nice. Except I did homework most of the time. But! Maren took me to the Saturday market which is my new favorite thing. Piles and piles of goodness: I got some chili con carne for lunch with a huge roll stuffed with cheddar and onions, then I bought some fresh strawberries and clementines to eat during the week. Here it is Monday and they're almost gone. Gosh.
Saturday night we went out to Oranmore for a worship service which was pretty cool and we met a lot of interesting and friendly people. Megan and Paul got mistaken for Americans and I got mistaken for an Irishman. Hilarious. We came back and got chips and Paul messed with Ben and we got amusing pictures: you know the classic late night jokes.

I went to bed and got up again and then what happened was worth putting in my practicum journal, so I'll copy and pastes it here for you:


I didn’t work today, but something happened that I felt was worth journaling. First it needs a bit of the back story to explain it: Last week, I was walking down Shop Street and I encountered a man who was clearly mentally unstable, but he was begging for change and despite the feeling that I should help him in some way, I ignored him and walked by. Later in the week, I was having my quiet time in a church and praying and I felt God telling me that I should go out and look for him or someone to help and the feeling was so strong that I actually got up and left the church, headed toward Shop Street to see if that guy was still there. On my way over, however I failed again: a drunk man stumbled toward me and I felt a twinge of guilt as I thought to myself, “He’s not the guy I came looking for; I can’t stop.” Within minutes I knew I had ignored the opportunity God had dumped in my lap and I futilely turned around to look for the guy I had passed. Frustrated, embarrassed and upset with myself, I confided in my roommate back home that I needed prayed because I was struggling to follow the things God was leading me to do. But tonight He gave me another chance and I almost blew it again. Coming back from a Christian conference/gathering of some sort in Oranmore, we drew close to our café and as we passes the bridge, Ben threw some change at a guy huddled up against the railing while I tried to ignore the thought that this was another chance. A couple hours later after hanging out with friends, getting ready for bed and even almost falling asleep, I remembered the man on the bridge. Determined to not fail again, I got over the fact that Ben would think it was really strange of me to get out of bed in the middle of the night, get dressed and go out. I grabbed some of the left over bread we had gotten from the café at the end of the week and went down to the bridge to give it to the guy. He was there and I handed him the bread and asked how he was doing while he looked startled and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. I stood up and said, “Well, I’ll be praying for you!” and left feeling like a fool. I made it back to the café and realized that what God wanted me to do was not just be that rich kid trying to be generous and thinking I had done my good deed by being cliché and promising prayer, but he wanted me to befriend the guy. Again, faced with the awkward prospect of going back for no apparent reason, I grabbed some lunchmeat I had, flashed Ben a confused grin and headed back to the bridge. This time I sat down next to the man instead of crouching next do him like a father would to a little child and I immediately felt more on his level. I told him that I remembered that I had lunch meat and wanted him to have it too. The next hour turned out to be one of the best of my week. His name is Alan and he’s from Montenegro and doesn’t speak very good English (whereas I have no idea if Montenegrese is even a language or how it sounds). I remembered Ben and Kelsie talking with the Brazilian sisters in French and Spanish, so I asked him if he knew any other languages hoping he might know French, but his specialty is Spanish. The last time I took a Spanish class was in fourth grade so through my broken Spanglish we got to know one another. He has two small children, Alan Jr. and Laury and a wife who I think are all staying with an Irish friend nearby. So he’s not homeless, he just doesn’t have a job and is pretty poor. He’s Greek Orthodox and told me he had to get to bed so he could go to church tomorrow and he wanted to make sure that I knew that he doesn’t drink and thinks alcohol ruins families. Every now and then locals roaming from pubs or parties would come by the bridge and almost everyone had a spare coin for his little paper cup. Alan is a very grateful man, always said thank you and kept telling me how nice and generous the Irish are (though he said he had to watch out for the Gardai because they would take away all the change he had collected). Eventually he looked at my watch and announced he needed his sleep so he could be in church tomorrow and I agreed, so we got ready to go. I had tried to invite him to come to our café, but he never really seemed to understand my Spanglish invitations. I asked him if I could find him there tomorrow night because I wanted to bring back Ben to translate for us. After a good bit of confused words, I got out “Viernes noches, aqui” and so I talked with Ben and we are going to meet Alan on the bridge on Friday night. Hopefully with clearer communication we’ll be able to learn more about him and possibly find this Orthodox Church and go with him and his family. It was very fulfilling to know that I had finally stopped refusing what God was asking me do and it was great to make a new friend. Sometimes we can be very serious about our own prayer life and the little things we go through to ensure our own growth, but at times I find myself being such a hypocrite and not following some of those terrifying words of the New Testament that remind me that Jesus is the least of our brothers who we clothe, feed, or visit. I pray that God can take this breakthrough he’s made in me and make it concrete so that I can stop messing it up so often.