Car!
Here's our new car! It's a 2001 Opel Zafira, with 7 seats and only 32,000 miles! It's also automatic, which is actually pretty rare around here. You can see in the window that the price is posted as €12,990 - can you believe we only paid €7,000?! The whole thing smells strongly of God's providence! We knew we wanted more seats, but the combination of that with an automatic is almost impossible to find here, especially for a reasonable price. God must have had this one marked out for us though, and He put the right people in our path so that we would find it. The car only has one previous owner - the president of GM in Ireland! Needless to say, it has a complete maintainence history :) God is good!!
Labels: family, our ministry
House!
Here's our house! Thank you so much for your prayers! It really is lovely, and we'll have more pictures of it up eventually to prove it to you. It has four bedrooms, but don't let that fool you about the size - they are not big! One is actually more like a walk-in closet... anyway, we are thrilled to have a place and we'll have it set up as soon as we can for whoever wants to come visit :)
Labels: family
What a Tease!
we thought that by now we'd have a house to tell you about. Well, here's what's happening:
over the weekend we decided to rent #3 Meadowlands on Monday unless something stunning popped up. On Monday, we found out that the house we originally tried to get before we came to Ireland was back on the market (see January 6th's post). Today we looked at the place and told the agent "we want it!" but a few hours later we found out that the landlords had changed their mind about it again, and decided not to rent it out! That means they have changed their mind about it four times in all! And I thought I liked roller coasters...
Stay tuned - I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have good news about #3 Meadowlands and maybe even pictures up by tomorrow - but don't hold your breath!
Oh, and the rescue helicopter the other day was doing a practice run :)
Labels: family
Sunday
this morning we went to Midleton Evangelical Church, the church that is in the process of planting a new church in Youghal. The place was definitely crowded, with something like 75-80 folks there. Everyone was very nice to us, and most of the folks we met already know who we were and said they have been praying for us for some time! Right now we're in our apartment listening to one of our teammates host a program on the local Youghal radio station. It's an interesting story of God's providence about how he got the opportunity to do that - they actually asked him!
Our sea-view window gave us front row seats to some drama today as a rescue helicopter came through searching for something or somebody. Eventually they left, but I guess we'll have to ask around or get a paper later to find out what actually happened.
Labels: miscellaneous, our ministry
Pictures
we've got a few up now in the "Gallery"
Labels: miscellaneous
We're here!!!
we made it to Ireland yesterday with no trouble, and about as much sleep. Actually, Daniel did get some, just not as much as we hoped he would :) We're set up in our sea-view apartment right now, and we had a chance to look around at a couple of possible rental houses today. We found a couple that look very nice, so we are feeling better about that! Thank you so much for your prayers - we can definitely feel them! We'll be posting pictures as soon as we can, and we'll keep you up to date as things progress!
Labels: family, travel
On our way...
today we're driving to the airport in DC. Not a great day to be anywhere near there, traffic wise, but here we go! We are going to the airport outside the city, at least. Our flight leaves this evening, so we won't get to Ireland until tomorrow, and hopefully we can all sleep on the plane...
This weekend we had a tough time saying goodbye to the folks here, but it really was good in so many ways. Saturday we had an open house at Jessica's folks place with about 60 folks coming by. Seth preached for the morning service at church on Sunday and in the evening we had a commissioning service... everyone was a huge encouragement and we are so thankful that we have such strong support from home!
We'll write from Ireland as soon as possible, but we're not sure when that will be - so stay tuned!
Labels: family, our support, travel
Housing update
we now have an apartment lined up in Ireland for at least a month after we get there. It's furnished and near the city centre, so it will be a great "home base" to work from as we try to find a long-term place to live, a car, phones, etc, etc. Plus it's right next to the sea so we'll have a great view!
Labels: family, travel
It's a boy!!!
we had an ultrasound today and found out that we're having a boy!!! David Joel is the name, we are thrilled, and Daniel is confused about why everyone keeps talking about his "baby brother"!
Labels: family
Countdown to Ireland!
we drove back to Virginia today from Georgia, where we spent the last couple of days with friends. We had an open house at a coffee shop while we were there and it was great to see quite a few of our Georgia friends!
Now that we're home, the final countdown is really here: just ten days to go! The plan is to pack a room a day until Friday when it all goes on the container, then stay with Jessica's folks until we fly out a week from Tuesday (Jan. 20th). Thank you for your prayers - we have lots of details to work out!
Labels: family, travel
Plans change
we've had a couple of changes in plans recently:
Change 1: we thought we were set to rent a nice house in Youghal, but now the landlords are not sure that they want to rent it out at all. They had moved to the country, but it turns out things there are not what they expected and they are considering moving back to the house we were hoping to rent. They have not decided for sure yet, but since we don't have much time, we're looking elsewhere. Thank you for your prayers!
Change 2: the U.S. Social Security system just changed some requirements regarding folks who live overseas, and although it would still be possible to do a 4 year term up front and come back to the States for a year (what we were expecting to do), CrossWorld tells us that it would probably be better to come back for six months after 2 and 1/2 years in Ireland. We think that's fine - we'll get to see everyone on this side of the ocean sooner, and we won't be away from the work in Ireland for a whole year.
Labels: family, our ministry, travel
Open house in Alabama and Georgia on my mind!
yesterday afternoon we had a wonderful open house at Seth's folk's place. Almost 80 people came!! Seth's mom had plenty of food ready and God provided warm and dry weather so folks could sit on the porch - which was important because we were still almost shoulder-to-shoulder in the house for a while there! We are so thankful for such an encouraging send-off and for the chance to see so many friends before we leave!
for those of you in Georgia: we're going to swing through on our way back to Virginia, and we want to see you, too! We're going to camp out at Barns and Noble on Riverside Drive (in the Shops at River Crossing) from 6:30-8:00pm on Thursday. We'd love to see you if you can swing by!
Labels: our ministry, travel
Family time
it's been great to get to spend some time with Seth's family in Alabama. We've seen a few friends as well, and we're looking forward to seeing many more folks at an open house we're having on Sunday. We are certainly thankful to the Lord for giving us this time and the time we've had with Jessica's folks before we ship out!
Labels: family
