Sorry for not posting last night, we have had some late evenings here in Ireland. Thursday was great, but nothing compared to Friday!
We started our morning off as usual, meeting at the Tebbe home before heading to the community centre! Today was a bit different though as we somehow managed to get separated on the way there. 5 cars in total, going in 3 different directions! Thankfully we all made it to the community centre safely, but this was the first sign that the enemy was hard at work to distract us and try and get between us. It makes sense as today we were sharing the Gospel with both the kids at the VBS as well as the teens in FLOURISH.
After arrival and a time of worship and a quick word from Pastor Shawn, we all laid hands on those teaching in the classrooms today and prayed over them and their teaching. It was such a sweet time and a really great way to start our morning!
The VBS was a great success this week and not only were the kids of the community able to have lots of fun, but more importantly they learned all about Jesus. Today they learned that "Jesus is Saviour!" What an incredible blessing it was to have the opportunity to share the Gospel with each and every child!
One of the highlight moments of the day is when we called Pastor Shawn up to the front to help lead the last VBS song! The songs were so much fun and it was absolutely amazing to see how pumped the kids were when we did the hand motions. They even did them after camp in the "car park" aka parking lot!
Following the end of our VBS, we got some much needed down time at a restaurant where many were happy to see salad as an option and some even laid on the ground and fell asleep! The Lord knew we would need every ounce of strength for our last day of FLOURISH!
When we arrived back at the community centre, there was a scheduling conflict and the Muslims had rented the gym at the same time we had. Pastor Shawn always tries to extend grace, so he let them use the hall and we furiously set up the cafe. Just another tactic the enemy was trying to use to get us off our focus!
The turnout was great again and after worship and testimonies by Skylar and Jeff we sent the kids on a bit of a scavenger hunt to the "green" across the way. Just think, a big patch of grass! :) They had to find a 4-leaf clover, a heart shaped rock, make a flower bracelet, take a team selfie with the 4-leaf clover and take a picture of at least one member of a team doing a handstand.
After all the teams were back from the hunt, the enemy struck again. While handing out juice to the kids, an argument broke out over someones seat which led to a fist fight just outside the front doors. Fighting is not abnormal, but it was definitely something that caused a great stir among the kids and it was a little tough to get everyone back inside who went outside to watch.
Thankfully Deanna was able to get worship started as Kaylee and Maia sang a couple songs which almost instantly provided a calm in the room. Maia then shared her testimony followed by Pastor Ryan teaching a message about the discipline aspect of 2 Tim 1:7. It was more Gospel oriented than anything else, but it was what the kids needed to hear!
Both our VBS and the Youth Club outreach have concluded, but our ministry is not finished. Even though tomorrow is an off day, and we are taking a little tour, please be praying that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit guiding and leading us to share with those who we come in contact with tomorrow. Also, Sunday we will be running the church service at Calvary Chapel Dublin so our team would love prayer for that as well!
We are on the home stretch! Pray that we finish strong!
Mission Ireland