When Thursday Comes...

...I go home.  Its weird, this place that I've called home for the past 9 months (and no, I did not have a baby in that time) will be no longer.  And as happy as I am to go back to Ventura, I'm sad to leave Dublin.  I've made so many great friendships and met so many amazing people, its a bitter sweet departure.  Some exciting news though, which I'm sure most of you have heard by now, is that I have been accepted to Physiotherapy (Physical Therapy) school in Scotland and (Lord willing) will be starting in January on my masters.  Thankfully when I get back to Ventura I will be able to work at the physical therapy clinic that I was working at before I left, so I will continue to get experience in that field study.  Thank you for all the prayers and support you have all given, I appreciate it greatly.

It going by so fast...

                                                 The City of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Leery)
 Sorry about the sideways picture, but I thought it was a pretty shot of our walk around Howth.
                                                               Alyssa and I (fun times!)
                                                                       Cows.
The past few months here have been like a whirl wind.  We at Urban Junction have been so busy that its been hard to find time for much else.  Luckily I was able to take last week off and my friend Alyssa came to visit.  It was nice to see a familiar face and to know where I was going when taking her somewhere.  We also ended up going to Southampton to visit my cousin Mike who is in medical school there.  It was a good time.  Now its time to get back to work for the next 3-4 weeks and get things ready for the summer, both for Urban Junction and my departure.  Here are some pictures I hope you will enjoy.

St. Paddy's Day!...continued

So under that great introduction were suppose to be great pictures that i took throughout the day...obviously they didn't upload correctly or I'm just technologically inept (which is quite probable).  Let me try again...this was our experience.  (Thanks for the heads up Sam)

                  Who knew that King Kong attacked Ireland first?  Maybe he's from Ireland.
                          Holly found it necessary to buy an undersized Leprachaun headband/hat for the occasion.  She pulled it off quite nicely.
                   Apparently this guy needed a better view of the parade.
                                                  A sea of green hats.........                                

                                                         The parade route.

There were so many people that packed the streets of Dublin I felt like I was in Disneyland on the opening day of the 50th anniversary celebration.  We were shuffled along with a multitude of people bearing green in some form or another, one guy was in all green head to toe.  I heard more American accents than I have in a long time, but along with the grand number of Americans were Italian, Spanish and Eastern European.  There were few Irish nationals and if I were an Irish national, i wouldn't want to come into the city either.  After watching random float after random float (King Kong being my favorite) we decided to get some food.  Traditional Irish sounded best but all the pubs that served food were so full that we opted for the next best thing, kebabs (and they hit the spot).  After our meal we hit a few pubs and got a few drinks amongst the chaos.  We finished off our day with some ice cream.  All in all I had a blast and was glad that I went into town and had great company with me.  I hope everyone had a great St. Paddy's Day.

St. Paddy's Day!

St. Patrick Day in Ireland can be peaceful or chaotic depending on where you go.  Normally I would vote for the peaceful senario, but how often are you in Ireland on St. Paddy's day?  So I had to go with chaotic, which ended up being a really fun experience.  Holly (who also works with GEM) and I ventured into the city to see what all the fuss was about, here's our experience (or at least part of it)...

Bitter Sweet

Today has been very bitter sweet, let me explain.  A couple of days ago our boss Simon went to the hospital with his wife who was very pregnant and stayed over for a couple of nights, we found out via text this morning that she gave birth to a healthy girl at 2am.  It was an exciting moment for all of us at Urban Junction.  

But with the joy came sorrow.  I got another text this morning from Phil it said that Cormac and Karen Shaw's 12 year old son had died in his sleep, and was rightly so asking for support and prayer.  I don't know the Shaw family really well, but I know them well enough to be heart broken for their loss.  They will definitely be in my prayers.  

Please pray for both of these families, one rejoicing in a new life, a first child; and the other a grieving family suffering a loss.

The Holidays...and beyond

After the controlled chaos of Christmas and New Years, I had to prepare myself for GEM-K winter camp in the French Alps.  I left with Matt and Hailey on the 3rd of Jan and flew into Grenoble then drove for about an hour (after a stop off at McDonalds for dinner) to Camp des Cimes (its pronounced "comp de ceem", I had to be told this several times).  The rest of the staff came the next day, which was pretty much a random group of Americans who didn't really know eachother, but that's the best.  The kids all arrived on the 5th and the whirlwind began.  This week was a great time of fellowship, snowboarding, cold (temperatures were freezing), beauty (the French alps are amazing), and more importantly having deep discussions about identity in God.  This week was a welcome refreshment in so many ways.  I miss everyone who was involved in that camp and hope to see them again at some point in my life.  Now its back to work at Urban Junction, we are leaving for a brainstorming retreat today to plan out the rest of the year.  Its weird to think i've lived here for 4 months now and only have another 4 and a half to go.