How The Irish Saved Civilization
How The Irish Saved Civilization is a fun little book that describes how, after the fall of the Roman Empire, when much of western literature was lost in barbarian invasions, the Irish were copying all kinds of books in their quiet monestaries. Later, when the Irish began to send out groups of missionaries all over Europe, they brought their love of literature with them and helped in a big way to re-introduce the continent to their own philosophical history.
Seth has enjoyed reading this book recently and thought you should know that. He does, however, caution the reader to read carefully - not all of the author's opinions or even stated facts are entirely correct. Still, it's a fun (and short) read and makes a good point.
Labels: Ireland
Friends
We've had lots of new folks join the church recently, which is really great, especially since some of them are close to our age! One of Seth's managers at Ruby Tuesday joined last Sunday with his family (he's not working there anymore, either), and we recently got to hang out with another new couple that is our age... we are excited and encouraged to have new friends who love the Lord!
Labels: our ministry
Stocked is Good
Jess spent the last day and a half near DC with one of her best friends and her family. Daniel went with her, which left Seth at home to fend for himself. That wasn't too bad, though, because Jess left lots of great food in the fridge. Yeah, she's that good.
Labels: travel
Socialites
The best thing about full-time support raising is getting to see people. We've been able to spend some wonderful time with some great folks lately, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. We're also looking forward to presenting our vision to a handful of churches - do you know any churches or individuals who would be interested in what God is doing in Ireland? Let us know!
by the way, Daniel got his second tooth the other day :)
Labels: family, our support
Videos
Some fellow CrossWorld missionary appointees (to France) have made some great short videos about ministry in western europe... check them out here:
http://nightmayer.com/12.htmlLabels: Ireland
Valentinus
The life we supposedly celebrate on February 14th every year was lived 200 years after Christ. Valentinus was a Christian leader who opposed the decision of the Roman emporer at the time (nicknamed "Claudius the Cruel") to ban all weddings so that he could recruit more soldiers to fight the barbarians. Kind of a strange rule, don't you think? Anyway, Valentinus believed marriage was ordained by God, so he continued to preform weddings - secretly. But not secretly enough, because he was soon arrested and brought before Claudius the Cruel. While Claudius was accusing him of treason, Valentinus presented the gospel. Clauduis actually stood and said "This man's words make sense! What is wrong with asking Jesus to save our souls?" but his officials soon convinced him of the political folly of becoming a Christian, so instead of accepting Christ, he had Valentinus put to death on February 14th. While he was awaiting execution, the chief prison guard Marcus and his family were saved after his daughter was healed of blindness because of the prayers of Valuntinus.
That's a life worth celebrating!
Labels: miscellaneous
Again, Home
We thought it would be a couple of days before we could write this, but we are very happy to report that we are back in a heated, powered home! We came back yesterday to get a few more supplies and take some of the food out of the fridge, and just before we left - bam - the power came on! So now we're warm and, for the moment, dry... hopefully we'll stay that way if they can fix our roof today. All in all, we are very thankful to be home!
Labels: family
Refugees
or at least, that's what we feel like after a terrific windstorm knocked out the power to thousands of folks in Virginia, including us. We have taken up residence in Jessica's parents basement for the time being while we wait for the power company to get to our neighborhood, which may take awhile because it's only our house and the building next door that are out where we are as far as we know. The wind was so strong yesterday that we saw our neighbors canoes flipping through the air along with their lawn furnature and a couple of trees in our yard. We're just so glad we have a place to stay warm!
Labels: family
Unexpected Opportunity
Seth got a call yesterday from a sick youth pastor friend asking him to fill in for youth group last night. Seth ended up leading almost the whole night of activities/teaching and got to present our vision for Ireland to the middle school group (about 25). It was lots of fun, but more than that, I think they were really getting the whole idea of why missions is important and what it means to plant churches. How exciting!
Labels: our ministry
Home Again
Thank you for praying!
We had a good trip back from Oregon! We flew from Portland to Huntsville, AL (where our car was, because we were celebrating New Years with Seth's folks) on Friday and Daniel actually did incredibly well - someone had to be praying for him. Then we drove home to VA on Saturday and two things happened that show how our God is a God of detail:
1) we really wanted to stop and walk around a bit, so we stopped and "just happened" to park right next to a walking trail... we were literally in one of the closest possible parking spaces and had no idea it was there until we got out.
2) a man told us one of our tires was low, and sure enough, it was low enough that if he hadn't said something, I don't know that we would have made it. Mental note: check the tires first.
Isn't God good? Even when we make mistakes, He always cares for us!
Labels: travel
