My first blog

Welcome to my first blog! Bare with me as I'm new to this. It's been a long time waiting. So far, I have been in Northern Ireland for 8 weeks. Time really has flown by!

God has been doing amazing things here! It's hard to believe that in just over 5 weeks I'll be back home. I've had several things that I'm involved in. I've gotten the opportunity to teach and participate in jr. and sr. discipleship, shared my testimony at youth club, have been participating in DIY teams, and teaching how to lead in worship through guitar and piano. God has been teaching me so much through each of these. I've been developing some good friendships with several of the guys in the discipleship groups. We hangout and do things such as playing football(soccer) in the local Tesco's(similar to wal-mart) parking lot.

The DIY teams(we paint, garden, etc.) have been making a big impact on the community, as well as me. Last November, Lisnabreen(the church I'm working for) started up these teams. They've been going into government owned housing estates and have been helping fix up homes, where otherwise it wouldn't be able to be done. Since then, they have completed about 2 homes per month! Just in the few weeks I've been involved, I've been able to see the impact it has. One lady, Linda, who's husband passed away in February and isn't able to use her legs, didn't want us to leave. She really enjoyed the company. She now participates in the guitar lessons. The first week we were at Kathy's house, she would barely even come into the room with us. She opened up more and more each time. Our last week there, she ended up telling us her life story and later told us that our time there had been a big highlight in a long while.

The piano and guitar lessons are going well. I've had several people showing up for both, and not just from Lisnabreen! I'm trying to teach several people that haven't ever played these instruments to be able to lead worship, all within 3 months! This is a pretty tough thing to do! So far, it's been working out.

Please be in prayer for me this week specifically! I'm preaching on Sunday! Pray that God would speak through me. This is my first time to preach, so I'm very nervous about this! I ask that you also be in prayer for this community! I've been going on and on about how great it's been, but the communities here are hurting! Most of these families are broken, many kids not knowing who their dad is, little/no source of income. I'm giving you the light version of what's going on here. I could go on and on about the brokenness here!

Finally, thank you for all your prayer and support! I couldn't have gotten here without you! Please check out the pictures I've been posting up on Facebook! I hope you enjoy them!

Josh

And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15 ESV)