Surviving the Irish Winter

D – E – L – V – I – N! Whatcha Talkin’ Bout Man?! That’s Delvin! What? That’s Delvin! YEAH!

That right there is the beautiful song our Supervisor Mark wrote for us all the way back at training, it is like our spirit song that we sing to get pumped up or end a meeting! Who says we aren’t awesome! Well it’s just another week gone by, already the beginning of the 3^rd week, and we are going strong. We started the week with a sleep in to follow up our jam packed Team day on Saturday that was brought to us by Marie and I. We went to mass at 11am and came home did some lunch, and began our weekly cleaning and shopping. Sundays are pretty consistent; mass, cleaning, shopping, some sort of practice whether it be Drama or Skit and dinner followed by phone time and then the evening off leading into Day Off. The only abnormal thing that happened this week was an adventure that Becca and I went on. We were craving chocolate or munchies of some sort. So finally deciding to go get something at 10pm we left to go to the local corner store. We passed the person who just closed up on our way there so we quickly made the decision to go to the local chipper, Burger Boss. After a short wait we returned with a bag of Chips, French fries, and bottle of Fanta. Once back we, Tim, Marie, Becca, and I, watched Shutter Island and enjoyed a nice late evening together. Then came Day Off, and as those go it was pretty normal, except for I got a haircut by Jean O’Neill, who is the mom of some of our youth. We watched some Chuck that evening and then went to bed to begin yet another week of ministry.

Tuesday’s are most consistently the same out of all the days each week. We have breakfast, mass, team service time, Tim and Amy do a meeting with Fr. Seamus, and then Tim has his Supe call. Then we have lunch followed by something that changes every week. This week Tim and Amy went to Athboy for a meeting while the rest of us stayed home and had more service time. Then team prayer, dinner, and Jam session. For a Tuesday it was really good, but nothing super spectacular, just a normal day in the life of a Parish NET Team. Wednesday was a good day we had a meeting about DJ and good team prayer. It was followed up by lunch, and then Tim and Amy left to get our tire fixed. We had some drama practice and learned a new anointed drama (that is a drama done to a song with no spoken words) that we will be recording in the next few weeks.  That evening we ate a delish dinner and had a really good Hood time. Tim and I played a game of Risk and watched Inside Man. Thursday we began School visits again, which was actually really cool, to be back with these kids after not being there for quite a while. That afternoon we had some final team service time which included Tim and Amy doing scheduling for the next week, and Becca freaking out for that nights Youth Group. Becca did such an amazing job that night and is really a pro youth night leader. The night was on God the Father, and I honestly think the youth learned a lot about their personal relationship with that member of the Trinity.

Friday we went to the other 2 schools and did sessions with them, and the school that is normally a bit rambunctious was actually really well behaved. That afternoon after a Team meeting, and dinner, we went to Athboy for a Christian Unity prayer service. It was really cool and we actually did the Dare You To Move Drama which the rest of the people really liked. The evening was very chill, but very eye opening to how terribly people are treated around the world. Saturday we slept in, had a pleasantly long breakfast followed up by personal prayer (PP) and Team Prayer (TP). Then after lunch we began Becca’s Team Time!!!! We basically went on adventure, with the only two requirements being to have fun, and find some kind of ruins. Both were accomplished by the end of the 4 hours. After driving around enjoying the scenery, we found some random ruins off in some field so we walked to them and took pictures and Tim and I tried climbing up a stair case in one of the towers. Then it began to rain so we headed back home, which was awesome because then Becca showed us her picture slideshow of her family, and friends. It was a really chill relaxing afternoon.  After some dinner cooked by the girls, we has a brainstorming session about anything youth nights in the next month to see if we needed help with ideas. Finally before hitting the hay to end the week we had internet time to catch back up with all the rest of the world. Over all this week was really really good, we did a good amount and are continuing to grow as a team. The next week we had our first retreat for 5^th graders, and went down to Cork and saw Blarney Castle. We all kissed the Blarney Stone, so we are all gifted with the gift of eloquence so watch out J We had a great week busy but good. We are now enjoying a day off.  So anyway I cannot wait to look back at these blogs and see what I have done this year, it is flying by, so the quote of the day, “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” Walter Hagen

Take care my dear friends and random people who are reading my blog J

Your Friend on the Green Isle

P.S. The weather has been so crazy from being like a hurricane to sunny and nice I guess this is the Irish Winters

Benjamin Record