First Week of Ministry: June 8 - 14

We've just completed the first week of ministry here in Dublin. 

Sunday the Summer Team, accompanied by Katie Manley and Luke Whipple, led the Abbey congregation in singing "O Church Arise," a song that I personally hope will be our theme song for this summer.  After church we all gathered for a church picnic at Phoenix Park where we met members of the congregation from Angola, Nigeria, Korea, Kosovo, China, Brazil, Cameroon and some other countries I can't remember at the moment.  What a great experience of the multi-cultural kingdom of God! 

 

Since Monday is our day off, Kathy and I took the train to Dalkey, a quaint (and wealthy) suburb of Dublin that used to be home to 6 or 7 castles.  Only 2 remain.  We toured one, led by real characters from the 15th century, including the local barber/surgeon who offered to pull our bad teeth and drain the bad blood from our bodies.  We, of course, politely declined.  :)

 

On Tuesday we had our first "staff meeting" in which Alan Boal, the pastor of Abbey Presbyterian Church, reviewed with us the tasks and responsibilities for the week.  This past Tuesday Stephanie White and Paige Larson led us in a team devotional from 1 John on the theme of love for each other that grows out of God's love towards us.  A large part of this first meeting consisted in planning an RTE (Irish radio) service for July 13th.  Alan, LIzi, Jacqueline and I planned the outline of the service, including the music and the mini-messages for the morning.  That may not sound terribly exciting to those of you who are reading about it, but, as we examined the text from Ecclesiastes (That's what Alan has been preaching lately.) we began to see Christ foreshadowed there.  And we saw the gospel afresh.  Tuesday also began "Open Abbey" in which the interns greet visitors to Abbey Church's historic building and look for opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those visitors. 

On Tuesday evening the team gathered in the "ministers room" at Abbey to hear a presentation by a street preacher named Mickey Walker.   He is an American "refugee from California" who came to Ireland 26 years ago with Operation Mobilization and has been preaching the gospel on the corner of O'Connell and Talbot Streets for the past 20 years.  In his presentation, Mickey described his gospel presentation and prepared the members of our team to assist him the next day.

Wednesday began at 9:00 AM with team devotions from Gospel Transformation followed by "Open Abbey" from 10-2.  Those not assigned to Open Abbey went to assist Mickey Walker in following up on members of his audience.  Members of our team were dispersed through the small crowd that gathered around as, on three occasions, Mickey and an associate explained the gospel in an engaging and respectful way to those passing by the corner of O'Connell and Talbot Streets.  After one gospel presentation Stephanie White had an interesting conversation with an avowed atheist.  After another, she followed an angry heckler for four blocks, engaging her in conversation, until her heart seemed to soften and she was willing to accept a Bible and have Stephanie pray for her.  Several others had conversations about the gospel to those in the crowd who had stopped to listen.

Kathy has taken responsibility for organizing team dinners.  Each night she and two interns prepare dinner for the team.  Wednesday was her first experience food shopping alone, finding her way around Dublin alone, and using foreign currency (on this trip).  Luke Whipple and Wes Lyle provided us with a little before dinner musical entertainment.  At dinner Lizi Guthmann commented that it felt like we were a family.  Afterward we all went back to "number 5" to watch a film together.  All in all the evening was one in which we began to feel more closely united to each other. 

Thursday:  Team devotions at 9:00 AM was followed by Open Abbey (10-2) and a meeting to organize our first prayer meeting.  Paula, a young Portuguese woman who we met our first Sunday at Abbey, invited the interns to dinner at her apartment.   It turned out to be a lot of fun for the interns, who learned a few things about "break-dancing" from one of Paula's friends, and a great opportunity to build relationships with Paula and another Portuguese man named Vladimir (doesn't sound Portuguese, does it?)  While the team was at Paula's, Kathy and I had a little time to meet with Alan and Ruth. 

Friday:  Our Team devotions have been focused on doing ministry from a heart that is resting in the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ.  During Open Abbey, Stephanie White had an opportunity to share the gospel with a Mexican student named Daniel who is studying in Scotland, but who is visiting Dublin (How's that for cross-cultural ministry!)  Since she speaks Spanish, Stephanie spoke to Daniel in his native language and led him to faith in Jesus Christ!!!  That evening Daniel joined us for a prayer meeting attended by about 30 people (9 interns, 2 mentors [that's us], Alan Boal, and about 20 people from Abbey Church.   This is certainly the most amazing prayer meeting we've ever attended!  Christians from Angola, Mexico, Nigeria, Korea, China, Brazil, Ireland, and the United States gathered to pray, using the Lord's Prayer as our outline.  Each one prayed in his or her native language.  We prayed for two hours and the time just seemed to fly by!

Saturday:  We staffed Open Abbey and practiced the song the team would sing for Sunday morning.  Later that day the team attended the Street Performers World Championship at Merrion Square across town.  Joining us were Paula and Vladimir (from Brazil) as well as Henry (an approximation to his real name) from the Czech Republic.  Henry is visiting Dublin for a few days with his family and decided to stop in to Open Abbey.  So we invited him to "hang out" with us for the afternoon. 

Kathy and I left the rest of the team to shop for dinner.  All week we could feel the fatigue growing.  Since the sun doesn't set until nearly 11:00 PM and it rises about 4:00 AM, it has been difficult to avoid staying up too late and getting up a little early.  We have been constantly active, either in spending time with the interns or with the ministry tasks that occupy us all.  So, on Saturday afternoon we were physically tired, emotionally drained and longing for the peace and quite of Orrstown. :) Frankly I was irritated that the people on the sidewalks wouldn't get out of my way, that nobody seemed to speak a language I could understand, that the open market on Moore Street smelled like fish left out in the sun too long and that my feet hurt.  (Was this the early onset of "culture shock" I wondered?)  Kathy and I grumbled through the shopping only to find that another church group was using the basement of Abbey where we had been having our team dinners.  So we had to move the whole show to "number 5."  But in the end, the evening turned out great.  Kathy cooked a wonderful authentic Irish meal, and we spent the evening / night talking to the interns about personal and theological issues, and just playing a game together.  It was another one of those "family" experiences. 

Sunday (today):  We attended worship at Abbey, then went to the home of David and Pat Colvin to enjoy their extraordinary hospitality from about 1:00 PM until about 10:00 PM.  Can you imagine spending nine hours in delightful conversation with people you've only just met but who are quickly becoming old friends?  That's what it was like.  Before we left they said, "Be sure to tell Scott and Lindsay that we are praying for them to come back to us."  That's the message we hear, not only from David and Pat, but also Robert and Sandra, Alan and Ruth, Deirdre (sp?), and almost everybody at Abbey Church.  I know it's perhaps amplified by our sense of parental pride, but it seems we are continually being told by the people of Abbey how much they love and appreciate Scott and Lindsay's ministry here.  It makes me hope all the more that their support can be raised and that they can return to Dublin soon.