ABWE Seminar 2011

Some of our New Friends!  What a great time we had at the conference in Pennsylvania.

PADDY'S NEW LIFE

Way to go Paddy, telling of the amazing change that Jesus has made in your life.

Baptism Morning. Ballycullen Community Church

Baby dedication for little Abby Hay.

That's church growth!

Happy Holidays!

No, it's not Christmas in July.  It's what we call 'vacation.'  We had a friend offer us their family home in Donegal so we accepted their hospitality for a week.  Donegal is a rugged, exciting, wild, beautiful northernmost county in the Republic.  What an amazing time we had!

Donegal Road - 'Shortcut' over the Mountain

Driving the Inishowen 100 - coastal drive 

Famine Village

Malin Head - northernmost point of Ireland

Approaching 'Errigal' - Donegal's Highest Mountain

Climbing Errigal

Trudging through the heavy bog of Errigal

Finally to the scree on Errigal - slow and difficult!

The views were amazing!

Finally, the summit!

Mt. Errigal, Donegal

Rosapenna Beach, Co. Donegal

Rosapenna Beach, Co. Donegal

Karting in Donegal

Great racing lads!

Buncrana Beach, Co. Donegal

Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim

Giant's Causeway

Barry's Amusement Park
Portrush, Northern Ireland

Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland

Carrick-a-rede, Northern Ireland

Summer Visitors. Yay!

Mom & Dad Peace
Glendalough

Well, this has been a busy summer so far.  Our highlight has been the visit from each of our sets of parents.  In the weeks that they were each here, we saw more of Ireland than we've seen the entire time we've lived here in Ireland!

One thing is for certain though - the more we see of Ireland, and the more we engage with the culture here, the more we love living here on this little island in the North Atlantic!

Mom & Dad Osborn
Cliffs of Moher

During our parents' visits, we toured many castles (too many if you ask my dad!), practiced driving on loads of tiny, curvy Irish roads (sometimes very scarey!), saw the beautiful Irish countryside (GREEN!), were overwhelmed by the Cliffs of Moher, and most importantly, got to spend loads of time catching up with our dear parents!  It was fun sharing our Irish way of live with them and they really seemed to enjoy seeing where we live, shop for groceries, see where the kids go to school, getting to meet our friends, and just get an idea how we get on in everyday life really.

We were so blessed to have our mums & dads here! God is so good to us.  Please pray for Jen's mum as she is battling a rare form of cancer again.

Please PRAY!

We thought this blog would be a bit of a window into our lives, and this is one of those times that a window is not the easiest thing to open.  Usually, we have funny or exciting things to share, but, today, we are begging for prayer support - not for us directly, but for our good friends, Heidi and Rod and their little boy, Joe.  Jennifer grew up with Heidi, almost like sisters, and Rod and Heidi married the same year as we did (20 years ago!)

Last week, Joe (7 years old) ran out to talk to his daddy, who was mowing grass on a large farm tractor.  Rod did not see him and a tragic accident occurred. Our Lord spared little Joe's life, but he has sustained facial lacerations and has lost his left arm from the mid forearm.  He was flown via chopper rescue from their home in Whitefish, Montana to Washington state where he has undergone at least 5 operations to date.  While Rod (who is an orthopedic surgeon) flew in the chopper with Joe, Heidi (a nurse) drove the 8 hours to be with her son.  How those hours must've felt like an eternity!

It appears Joe is recovering nicely, he's a very strong little 7 year old!  And I hear he's a good athlete, too!

Jen and I have been gutted to know of these difficult times that the Brandts are going through, but, their strong faith in Christ the Lord is carrying them through. We are asking that you will join us in praying for Heidi and Rod, Joe and his two brother, and the rest of their family.  Heidi's parents are Bob and Joyce Nixon, close friends of Jen's parents, and we love them dearly too.  So please pray for Joe's grandma and grandpa Nixon, too! Pray that God will comfort them as only He can through His Holy Spirit.  Sometimes it is hard to see the "why" in hard times, but, it is always best to trust the creator of the universe - He knows best!

Thanks for praying!  If you'd like to keep praying for Joe as he heals, you can follow his progress through a blog from the family at Little Joe Brandt's Blog

As "Féte" would have it...

Féte is a french word meaning 'festival.'  For some odd reason, this is the word we use in Dublin to refer to a church carnival/festival.  Likely this is due to the Norman influence here.  Today we got to go to the Féte for related to the school that Spencer and Ali attend.

Are you kidding me! What fun!  Real "Fair-style Big Burgers!" for lunch.  ONLY €3 each! We also figured out that 'bric-a-brac' is the same as an American "yard-sale or
flea-market" section of the festival.  We had the biggest 'candy floss' (cotton candy).

Spencer and Ali ran around with their friends - even taking turns getting pelted with wet sponges. Maybe we should try that at home - and they could pay ME a €1 / 3 throws!

The usual 'stalls' (booths) were in place, face-painting / nail-painting / popcorn / sweets (candy) tuck-shop... you get the picture.  All-in-all it was a good day.


FUNNY STORY ALERT - BRACE YOURSELF.   The other night, Jen and I were over to our friend's house getting ready to have an evening out, actually on a "double-date."  Jen shared that she was beginning to see people just "out" in the community that she knew - like she would've in America.  this really is starting to feel like "home".

Feeling rather confident, she announced that she felt she has "acclimated" quite well to our life in Ireland.  Caroline, being an American by birth, affirmingly said "That's great Jen."  Jeff, her Irish husband, however,  could hardly contain himself.  Finally, he burst with laughter declaring - "acclimating - you mean "acclimatizing"... we would never say "acclimating"!  Of course we had to quickly Google it and sure enough --- UK/Ireland say "acclimatizing" and US says "acclimating."  At which point, seeing the beautiful irony of it all - we all joined Jeff in a good round of 'nearly rolling on the floor' laughter!

Well, there it is... our life... a constant learning curve - this week --- Vocabulary.

ON THE LINE...

Well, here's for a little piece of insight into the daily life of the Peaces...

We've entitled it - 'life on the line.'  You guessed it - as if the picture didn't give a big clue - the CLOTHES LINE.   Is there ever really a day of rest?

This Sunday morning started with heading to the Firhouse Community Centre for church.  Rick had to get there a bit early to practice for the worship music.  Pastor Jeff had a REALLY good message on John 6 (you know-feeding of the five thousand / Jesus walking on the water- check it out on the church website)  Afterward, Oz and Carol came over to our house and we had a new kind of "spaghetti" pasta that Jen cooked (called bucalotti). It was nice!

After our friends left, back to our constant chore - LAUNDRY!  One thing that is ongoing with a family of six in Ireland is LAUNDRY!  Our washing machine is a cute little one that sits in the downstairs common water closet and when it's on - it sounds like an airplane taking off - for about 2 hours per load!  Then comes the drying - a two part process.  First comes the line drying - if that is possible - between the sporadic and periodic showers.  if the day s a complete washout - we have to resort to only the indoor drying rack. Once the clothes "just damp" we put them in the finish drying mode via a condenser drier.  Electricity is quite a bit more expensive in Ireland than in the USA, and the condenser drier really draws a heavy 240 volt current - ouch! (this is why we must dry clothes on the rack or line first.)

All in all, a single load of laundry takes about 6 hours as long as the weather cooperates - which rarely happens in this lush green climate.  That's taken a bit of cultural adjustment. But, then again, I suppose that's the price we pay for living in paradise :-)

Welcome to our new blog!

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