we have arrived

Hey Family and Friends!

                Well I am officially commissioned by the Catholic Church of Ireland to be a NET Ireland missionary! Our Commissioning Mass went very well and we had about 63 people watch it through the live streaming of it. Bishop Boyce is a great man, and has supported NET Ireland since the beginning 7 years ago. Following the mass we had a small reception where not long after the first team left.. L (ARI team) it was a lot harder than I had thought it would be to say those good-byes, I will miss all my friends on that team very much. I had my first experience staying in a Host Home the night before the Commissioning Mass, Tim (my fellow team mate) and I stayed with the Jackson’s who are an awesome family. Beth Jackson is the Mom and who cooked us dinner and stayed up with us talking till midnight, she is so sweet and made us feel very much at home. The Jackson’s have three kids who are all out of the house and done with college. That night we slept so well, and woke up to nice HOT showers for the first time since we had been in Ireland. Both Tim and I will look forward to staying with her again if we get the opportunity.

                After the reception Tim and I stayed with the Newbridge team Guys, and our supervisors at their apartment. We basically had a guy’s night and watched the movie Safe House, would recommend it to people who like action. The next morning (Sunday) we went to mass, had lunch with Mark and Kristen (our Supervisors) and after saying good-byes left for Delvin. The drive from Ballybofey is really about 3 hours, but after a few times of getting lost and a detour we arrived in Delvin 4 and a half hours later. Delvin is a small town; more like a village, with about 400 people but has more in the surrounding area. There are 5 pubs on the main street, with a small grocery store, a hair salon, a butcher, and a small diner called Netties. We met a sweet older lady named Olive who is very involved in the Parish; she had spent the night before cleaning our house and preparing it for us. Fr. Seamus the parish priest is an awesome man very involved with the Youth and has 2 churches that he watches over plus 3 schools.  These keep him very busy. Being very busy and a slight procrastinator he didn’t set up a house for us until Friday, it was then Sunday.  Our house is very nice, but little, it has a kitchen and a living room with one toilet on the main floor 2^nd floor has two full bathrooms and two bedrooms with a double bed, with a tiny room that has a single. Upstairs is an attic room with another single but we are using that room for a storage and office kinda. It is right in town a 2 min walk from 3 pubs and the grocery store. Tonight we are having out first youth group get together at our house, it will be a fun social, Pizza party, we are all excited. Yesterday we went on a tour of Delvin it is beautiful but again very small, we have an old castle and an old church that looks like a castle that are in ruins from the 1100s! I took pictures, and will post them when I get a chance to upload them. We met a family named the O’Neill’s, they are the family of Laura O’Neill who is on the Newbridge team, they are so awesome they brought us right in and made us feel at home in their house. Their sons and I got along right off the bat, they play Munchkin the game, play with Legos, and they also play Pokémon on Gameboys, they are 16 and 13. I am really excited to start the youth group, keep us in your prayers! I will post again next week sometime.

Coming to an end!

Hey everybody!

                Life has been very full these last two weeks, and most of it has been cooped up in this beautiful (yet getting tired of it) Carmelite Fathers Monastery. We have had talks and learning activities every day that by the end of the day you are dead tired. The only way we aren’t going crazy with information over load is pretty much every day we play Sport for one and a half to two hours which is really a life saver. We play Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, or a new game to me Flicker, and we let all of our energy out, stay fit and have some awesome friendly competition. Flicker is like ultimate Frisbee with a Rugby ball, it’s fast paced and good for all types of athletic ability (a ball is easier to catch then a Frisbee), but it is ultimately a lot of fun or as we say here in Ireland, it’s some good craic (pronounced crack). I love to get out, play, get fresh air and feel healthy, but soccer is a favorite but until this week I haven’t been doing very well, but I’m finally getting the hang of it. We have some very athletic people on NET this year, and guess what… my Brother on Team is a beast, his nickname is TIMBOWSLICE, he is a great goalie and gets all over the place to defend. I just wanted to brag about him for a minuteJ.

                We have been given time to get to know the people on our teams, which has been very nice, I really like all of the people on my team; it is going to be a great year. Since we are in teams now we all have roles and duties to play in the team from team leader to team journal, which is fun but since we are a small team we each have like 3 rolesJ. I am the Entertainment leader, the Hospitality person, the Team journal, and Recruiter; it will be a lot of craic but also lots of work. We have had two days so far that were devoted completely to learning Dramas, they are good powerful dramas but very draining, we have learned three so far; Dare You to Move, Yellow, and Guardian Angel. My favorite it Dare You to Move, it shows a girl that is tempted by sin and they end up taking her and trapping her in Despair and Jesus (I play Jesus) comes and saves her by crucifying himself for her then raises from the dead. They are all silent dramas done to a song; the name of the drama is the name of the song. Wish you guys could see us do them, they are powerful.

                We have also been learning these activities called Educational Learning Activities, that are basically games or mind puzzles that have a meaning to it. They are fun but sometimes very very frustrating! One is called 1-2-3 20 and that is all they tell us, they are holding a big jump rope, and that is it. It took us 45 minutes to figure it out and the 20 to even accomplish it, so frustrating!!!! I hate jumping rope too haha. But the meanings for all of them are good. This last Saturday we had a day called Hermit day, basically we don’t talk all day. We couldn’t use music or movies to spend our day, we had to write our talks and spend the day in a reflective state. I enjoyed the silence but it was difficult to not just sleep all day since we are all soo tired! But I think someday I want to do a silent retreat, God really does speak in the silence. Life here in Ireland is good and I really enjoy the people I am with, but I do miss home and all the people there, the saying absence makes the heart grow fonder is very true. Another thing that is true is how many potatoes Irish people eat; basically we have potatoes in some form lunch and dinner, mmhmm starch overload! Well better get back to Training only a week left, we have practice retreats next week and commissioning mass the 22 of September. I will write another post after that!