David's Commitment Service
Sunday we had a special 'Commitment Service' for David. We as a family formally committed to doing everything we can to raise him (and Daniel!) up in the knowledge and love of God to the best of our ability, by the grace of God. The service was really special for us, and even more so because we not only had our church family there to celebrate with us, we also had some neighbors and friends from Youghal who came along as well! It was a beautiful day! Check the gallery for pictures!
Swimming in Tea
The National Ploughing Championships had a record crowd this year: over 200,000 people came over the three days of the event!! The Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland had a big tent there where we served tea and homemade goodies, gave away free CD's, balloon animals, Bibles and other literature, plus we had room for people to sit down and take a break from fighting their way through the crowds. On the walls of the tent there were 20 testimonies of farmers from around Ireland. It was amazing how open people were to talk about spiritual things once they had a seat and a cup of tea! We gave away over 2,400 cups of tea/coffee, piles and piles of gospel-goodies, and had a lot of great conversations. It was fun!
Ploughing Championships
Seth will be heading a few hours north today to help with an outreach at the National Ploughing Championships (yes, Ploughing, not Plowing). It may not be directly related to our work in Youghal, but it's a great way to make contact with people from rural communities that would normally be difficult to reach. The event is huge! You can see more about it on the official website: www.npa.ie
Life In Ireland: Shopping
Just to give you a taste of how daily life is a bit different in Ireland than it is in the States, we'll give you a quick overview of some of the differences in shopping here vs. shopping in America.
In downtown Youghal (like every other town, village or city), there are rows of small shops:
These shops sell all kinds of things - electronics, clothes, furniture, hardware, jewelry, etc. There banks, butchers, bakeries, book stores, toy stores, and restaurants. Downtown is where you go for most things - you just have to know what store has the thing you want. The cool thing is that after you go a few times you start getting to know the shopkeepers.
There are also supermarkets for groceries. Youghal has three, and the biggest is called Tesco. It's just a couple blocks from the shops downtown. Tesco is not as big as a Kroger in America would be, but it's big enough to have pretty much anything you'd need - unless you're looking for graham crackers or Ranch dressing. And some things have different names here, for example: baking soda is called bread soda, diapers are nappies, ground beef is steak mince, and "squash" is a concentrated drink. Meats and veggies are sold in Kilograms, not pounds. When you get a shopping cart (trolley) you have to put a Euro coin in it to release it, but you get it back when you put the cart away. You also bring your own shopping bags - but if you forget, you can always buy new ones when you check out. Oh, and the carts have four-wheel steering. It sounds like a little thing, but it really changes the way you have to push. On Saturdays there is a fresh market in a parking lot downtown. We get a lot of our fruit and veggies (or just "veg" here) from there. Yum.
In bigger cities like Cork and Dublin, there are department stores that sell clothes plus housewares, etc. They would be more like a Belk than a Wal-Mart, and not as big. Bed Bath and Beyond would be considered a big store here (and it's called Homestore + More). There is also something like Home Depot that's called B&Q. Seth likes that one. The closest mall to us is almost an hour away in Cork, and you can walk the length of it in a few minutes. But you know... it's starting to look big to us...
Dublin
OK, so the train mentioned in the last post started in Cork and ended up in Dublin. We did get David registered at the Embassy, which is nice. We thought it would be cool to be on American soil for the first time in quite a while, but the Embassy is not a particularly exciting place... it's just a regular old government office: take a number and wait a long time to hand forms and money to a lady behind thick glass. I guess it's unreasonable to think they would offer us burgers or something, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little welcoming, would it?
Dublin was fun. A friend in Youghal gave us a coupon for a discount hotel stay so we were in the heart of the Medieval part of town and could walk to most of the historic stuff with our amazing double buggy (stroller).
Some Highlights: Christchurch Cathedral (across the street from our hotel) The Book of Kells St. Stephen's Green (a big park - Daniel loved the ducks) Starbucks
This and That
The last two days for Seth were full of meetings. Really, literally, full. We also had a quick visit from the lady in charge of missionary kid services at the home office, which was great, and today we're headed to Cork on the train! While we're there, we'll be going to the US Embassy to register David's birth and we'll also take some time to see a few of the sights.
In The News
Once again, Seth's picture made it into the local paper. Actually, twice this time - once from a community event for internationals in Youghal and once for the Medieval Fun Day. A couple of our teammates were also in the paper from the Medieval Day, and our teammates' son got a half-page full color photo in another paper! Anyone who picks up a paper will know our church was there!
