1 Month

I have been in Ireland for a month now. It has flown by. but continues to be the best experience ever. Tomorrow morning we leave for the North and will be in Belfast for three days two nights so i wanted to post for Mom before i left. We have to get up early and are out the door by 7 AM. I am a little uncertain about the bus trip to and from because every time we have been in a bus i have been getting motion sickness kind of. it is weird. but i am going to take some medicine tomorrow before we leave. Ireland is just so hilly. which is a great thing. especially good for hiking. Which is what i did a lot of this last week. On Friday we went to Glendalough, Ireland which has like one of the oldest monasteries in Ireland. So that was neat. and we hiked there and it was boss. Here is Glendalough (Glenn-duh-lock) Oh, and these are just pictures off Google, i forgot my camera...

And so then on saturday me and a few other people went to Howth which is like an hour away from Greystones and is a huge seaport town. It was easily one of my favorite days since ive been here. we walked all along the peer and the weather was so nice. It was a great little town with all these different seafood places. some were expensive but i want to go back for a nice dinner one night. However we went to this incredible fish and chips place. and with all the restaurants, its the type of deal where they serve you the fish that was caught that day. so good. but the main thing we did when we were there was go on a 3 mile hike along the cliffs of Howth. it was one of the most incredible things ever. here is another google image of Howth. it was sooooo boss. It was a great day.

And then this morning for one of the local churches here called Hillside they had their family service where Taylor students usually come and help out. So i actually ended up speaking at church this morning! it was awesome. I had them laughing. I told them that when i was born i weighed 11 1/2 lbs and i basically looked like a rugby ball with a face. And that my Mom was still accepting sympathy cards if they wanted to write her. so they were laughing at that. and then i got real and talked to them about da gospel and stufff. it was super great. and then i encouraged them to all get in the Word in the morning. And i told them the line that Dad always says, "You have to fill up your coffee cup in the morning because the whole world is just going to try and pee in it the rest of the day." the place lost it. it took a minute for everyone to regain composure. because coffee and tea is such a big thing here, i think it really struck a bell with them hahaha. so that was great too. We are starting to kind of get into classes a little bit. but it still is money compared to actual school so thats great. Im still loving my life. but missing home too. I have never been so excited for a Kansas City Royals season in my life. so i cant wait to keep up with that. But i will blog after our trip north and it will be SUPER LEGIT!

I love everybody.

Mucho Take it Eeeesssay

Allllllllrighty thennnn. Officially a little over three weeks in Ireland. Still loving it. Still getting better each day. Growing in the Lord. I know I am in a great place right now (mentally and literally) but I am trying not to be content so that i can continue to make strides both in my life and more importantly in my relationship with God. God shows Himself through so many different things when you are living in Ireland. For instance, this sunset on Valentines Day...

This is taken from our back porch. What the smokes

It has also been great going around town and finding those places where you can get familiar with and just kind of escape to. there are a ton of little coffee shops to go to that are just a few minutes away. here is one of the most popular places in Greystones called the Happy Pear. It is an awesome place that sells really organic type things, but also super legit coffee/hot chocolate/lunch food.

Happy Pear. Super Legit.

And then by special request... here is the upper room at the Greystones library. Just this little room with a huge window that overlooks the sea. Probably the best/worst place to go to read or study or anything of that nature. I went there today for an hour to read and i think i read three pages.

But. Those three pages were da bessss main. Our guys small group is reading Mere Christianity right now and I am loving it. I read half of the book last year on my own but i had to stop because i knew i was not reading the book the way it should be read: slowly. And therefore i am now taking my time to depict C.S. Lewis' work of art. It is nuts. Definitely a must read for the half-convinced or those who are wrestling/searching in their Faith.

Since my last post a ton has happened. Some of the highlights include our Valentines Day party we had with each other. We had a "Polygadate" where each of the five guys each got to escort four different girls to the kitchen where we had dinner and then danced. We all had to dress as awkward as possible. So i hope that explains pictures put up of me on Facebook dressed in Under Armour and Sockos (Chocos with socks). I have been helping out with the youth group here that the kids of our program leaders go to. Thats fun. After being involved in youth group for so long, it is funny to see how it is different here. it's crazy but still so fun. And one of my favorite things is that i got to see some of my great friends in Adam Donyes and Seth Higgins from Kanakuk Link Year since they are in Ireland this month. We met up in Dublin and had a great day. Just a few hours with those guys is enough to encourage me immensely. Plus it got me pumped to work at Kanakuk K2 this summer! I am super pumped. But without a doubt my favorite thing this past week was Skyping with my Mom for a couple hours on Friday night. Once i got past the painful e-mailing back and forth with her on how to set up Skype, she nailed it. So good to talk to her. I miss her and my dad so much. and my whole family for that matter. I am not homesick necessarily, I just miss my family. And I miss everyone from Taylor so much. It is hard when you start to get really close with some guys, then leave. But I know God's timing in this is perfect and I get to go back for 3 years! So excited. I love all you guys. But dont get me wrong, I love it here and am beyond blessed.

Still been hitting the Word, hard. And prayer is definitely appreciated that i would stay disciplined while I am over here. I want to grow personally over here so much, and there are also ways to encourage others and lead them as well but I know God is working in me so much. But pack to the Word. The Psalms are rocking my body. So is Acts. Love how it all points back to the Gospel which i usually end up in with my quiet time each morning. I am going through a huge Lecrae/Tedashii/Trip Lee phase right now (Christian Rap). I have always loved their music. But I am starting to realize how theologically loaded their lyrics are and it honestly has been a huge encouragement to me. especially when i run. And apparently Jeremy Lin loves Lecrae too haha. without Sportscenter or anything like that i have been reading about him on the internet. What a story. i love it. But even they always point back to the Gospel, which is where I will finish. Convicted me this morning, sorry it isn't happy, but it is Truth. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.  So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." - Matthew 22:27-28

Love and praying for all you guys!

SCRUMTRULESCENT

What uuuuuup friends. And Mom. And Sarah. And Dad. And Matthew and Lindsay and Drew and Julie and Grant. And David and Annie and Ruthie and Lillian and Naomi and Sarah's mystery baby. Well Ireland is still super legiiiit and getting better every day. seriously at the beginning it is kind of hard because you are getting so far out of your comfort zone. Not to mention jetlag. But every day that goes by I am resting assured that God has me right where He wants me. And He has plenty of material on this island to remind me every day of that fact. Here are a few examples from when me and some friends went on a famous cliff walk from my town of Greystones to the town just north of us, Bray.

Annnnnd i have spent two days in Dublin so far and this is my first time where we went around and it was soooo legit! i love Dublin. we also went last Friday but I did not take my camera. The place is quite a gem. Chalk full of everything you could possibly think of.

Here is the famous Trinity College. I found out it was famous when i got here. so that was neat.

Im real bad at taking pictures. But it has been fun using my new camera. 

Other than all that the trip is incredible. I know that my expectations have been exceeded as far as my first post goes. I am growing so much in Lord already and know that is only going to continue. I am so blessed that I am in this place. And the community is so good. I love the group that I am with. It is very girl heavy, but they are all pretty down to earth and there are not any blatant crazies. So thats great. The facility we are at is like 180 years old. It is called the YWCA and has two houses. one for the guys and one for the girls. Probably the worst part about our house is the shower situation. Pretty much all it is is this button that you push and the shower runs for 15 seconds, then it turns off and you have to hit the button again. haha. It is ridiculous. Slash awesome. I've been dominating the town of Greystones as far as running goes. I have been pretty consistent which I am excited about. The sea is too great to pass up running alongside. My early morning runs are the best (when i can get myself out of bed) to finish off my runs by sitting on a bench and watching the sunrise. I cant describe it. But I know this is probably the only time I will live by the sea, so im soaking it in. Classes are good. I'm learning about St. Patrick which is pretty sweet actually. He was a boss. But our schedule is really relaxed. We have class for like 2-3 hours in the morning then can pretty much do what we want in the evening: Run, go get coffee, go to Dublin, learn Rugby rules, and read a ton. (Matthew, it is nice)

LOVING MY LIFE. 

Meditating hard on this verse lately...

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. - Matthew 15:18-20

Get in the Word and fill your heart with the Goods.

LOVE AND PRAYING FOR YOU GUYS

Will

THE GOODS

This is my first Ireland blog post. And more than anything it is for my mom and sister's appeasement. However, I am glad to update anyone who reads this about my first few days in the TU Irish Studies Program! We all got here last Saturday morning, and things have been nuts ever since. So i wanted to a least leave a few lines before i post more hopefully later this weekend or earlier next week.

First of all, the way this trip has come about is a huge blessing in my life. I was not originally planning on studying abroad until sophomore or junior year, but a couple months into first semester I was praying about it a ton and God made it super clear that this semester was when it was best to happen. While here I am taking classes that qualify for some gen ed requirements at Taylor (i.e. Celtic Christianity=Historic Christian Belief, Irish History=History). The program goes from January 27th to May 5th and there is so much packed in between it's ridiculous. This is just the end of the fifth day and i have already become acclimated with the Greystones community (where we are staying), been running along the Irish sea, using the Dart train system to go to numerous cities, and today we spent all day in Dublin for a scavenger hunt. Hopefully i will be able expand on these in due time, but it is incredible and I am literally loving every second. There are 20 girls and 5 guys on this trip, so there is definitely enough estrogen to fuel a 20th century women's rights rally. But whatever. Its still Ireland. And all of us have gotten close pretty quick.

More than anything though i just want to grow so much from this experience. As the trip approached in mid January, it started to hit me that I just need these few months to grow spiritually and inwardly after having just gone through the first semester. I dealt with a ton mentally and I think this is a great time to step back and reevaluate what the smokes just happened. However, I am doing so with the mindset that God has huge plans in the works as long as I keep the Gospel at the center of my present focus. This realization made me understand that it didn't matter where i was spending these next three months as much as it does what I am doing with the time. God just happened to bless me enough by putting me in my favorite House Hunters International location. I love that I am doing this now in college because it is like i am (I don't mean this in a bad way at all) getting it over with so that i can have three years after to focus and hit Taylor (which I love) hard. I want to keep good track of this blog, but we are always moving here and things are crazy. And Mom I will post pictures later but I am taking some! But in the midst of the commotion of my life right now or yours at home, I pray you can meditate on this verse my Dad left me with for my trip.

Galatians 5:22-26

But the fruit of the spirt is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

soooooo GOOOOOD

DONT WASTE YOUR LIFE