Halloween
Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday. Did you know that Halloween began as a Celtic festival? Follow this link for a good explanation of the origins of Halloween:
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&sub_display_order=1&mini_id=1076Labels: Ireland
Life as it is
I had this idea that after school was over, life would be less hectic. Ha! We also had this idea that October would not be such a busy month. Ha! So things may not be quite what we expected, but they have been great in their own ways - we've had some great opportunities to see people this month that we hadn't seen in years. We've also had ministry opportunities this month - meeting with friends, neighbors and coworkers, preaching at church, leading worship for a youth camp... When God fills the days with His adventures, life is good.
Labels: family, our ministry
The Darkness of Europe
I've been doing some research on the state of the evangelical church in Europe.
I already knew that Ireland is only about 1% evangelical, but it turns out that statistic is not uncommon for Europe. If you take Europe as a whole, it's still only about 1-2% evangelical. Some countries are as low as .04%.
To put things in perspective, North America is about 30% evangelical. The evangelical church is growing 50x faster in Africa than Europe. Even in Asia, the church is growing 43x faster than Europe! If you go by continents, Europe has the lowest percentage of evangelical Christians in the world.
Yet Europe is powerful global influence and many people from restricted nations are moving there in search of better jobs. A strong church in Europe could easily have a global reach! Pray for us as we seek God's wisdom and power to reach Europeans with the good news of God's grace!
Labels: Ireland
Mole Ball
We had a picnic with one of the Sunday School classes from church at a local Christian camp ground on Sunday and we played what is probably one of the coolest games ever - "Mole Ball". Basically, it's human fussball - but the pictures will explain better than words:
No, Daniel didn't play Mole Ball with us, but isn't he a good lookin fella?
Labels: family
Missions Emphasis Month
A couple years ago we planned our church's first "Missions Emphasis Month" in October. This year our church has done a great job of emphasizing missions - we had missionaries from Africa and India visit and speak (Seth will also be speaking on the 21st - if you're in the area feel free to come listen in!). At the end of the month we'll have a big "International Dinner" where everyone brings food from all over the world - lots of fun!
Labels: our ministry
Opportunity Knocks
It's funny - now that we don't work for the church so much we've actually had a lot more opportunities to share the gospel! There are reasons, of course: one is Daniel - we never had so many opportunities to talk to our neighbors as we do now, and it's his fault! Another is that Seth is around a lot of new people at work while Jessica still keeps up with the folks from her old coffee shop job. We had a great ministry at the church, it's true, but if you want to reach lost people, you've got a much easier time of it in a secular workplace than any pastor at a church. For some reason, lost people just don't tend to hang out at church...
Labels: our ministry
Advice
Tomorrow morning we are going to be meeting up with some missionaries to Africa (on home ministry) that our church supports. We'll be getting advice on how to raise support from folks who have done it - please pray that the meeting goes well and that we are teachable!
Random side note: Seth met some missionaries going to England who were eating at Ruby Tuesday the other day (having one last real hamburger before they left). They had a little baby not much older than Daniel, and it was encouraging to talk to them!
Labels: our support
Three Months
Today Daniel is three months old, and my has he grown! Not only is he much heavier to carry around all the time, but he'll grab anything in front of him that he can and put it in his mouth now that he realizes those little hands are his and he can use them! He played peek-a-boo for the first time this morning, too! He is a good baby most of the time, and seems to be a morning person. Every day is a joy as we watch him grow!
Labels: family
Surprise!
Jessica's mom's birthday was Sunday, so we had a surprise party for her! Jessica and her brother cooked up some great food and we had lots of folks over at our house - I think the pictures will say enough about how well it went!
Labels: family
