His works are perfect

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy 32:4

I am back home. Dublin has been by far the best summer of my life. My experiences there are bound in me and I will be able to talk about them for the rest of my life; I will never forget any of the people I met whilst being there. What an amazing God we have, what a creative God we have and a purposeful God we have. Even as amazing as God is I struggle with trust, we all do. After this summer I know those issues are all within myself, something I must battle everyday, something I want to battle everyday because I love God so much and I don't want anything to come between our relationship.

This summer I met so many people from different places, going through different struggles and in different walks in their faith but we all still struggle on the same plane in our relationship with God. We struggle for forgiveness and trusting if God has forgiven us for our Sin. He knows we are going to Sin before we even Sin and he has forgiven us, he just wants us to recognize that we have sinned. As I have grown in my faith I often have found that God reveals other sins to me that I never realized were wrong before, but as I have grown I realize yes they are wrong and I do need to pray about them and make changes. This is God changing my heart, which is a beautiful thing. I now know how much I need the word of God everyday and how I must take everything to God, entrust everything to him. Before I wasn't doing this in my life. I was entrusting what I wanted and thought I could deal with everything else myself, often this turned out to be quite messy. I dealt with it until I had to give it over to God, often feeling quite foolish. God is my rock and I will entrust everything.

A couple of the last talks I had with people were with three women Sekai, Nita and Connie. Let me just say these women inspire me! Sekai is from Zimbabwe and invited Steph and I over to her flat for a meal Zimbabwe style, which was amazing by the way. We had amazing conversation about forgiveness of sin. Sekai is an inspiring woman who is living in Ireland without her family and will eventually re-unite with them. Nita is from Mauritius and was brought to Christ this summer through Steph, amazing. I know Christ uses our struggles to share the gospel and this summer was a true testament of that for me. I shared about my childhood with Nita and the pain I went through with my father because she had asked me. She asked me how I still believed in God after all of this pain, and I responded, "Nita God was the only one there when I was in this valley, he was the only one who picked me back up." She responded, "You believe." I said, "Yes." I asked her, "Do you believe that I believe." She said, "Yes." When we parted that night she told me that one day things would be good again with my father. I later found out that she had a similar situation. I know that for all the pain that has ever occurred in my life that I would go through it over and over again if it was going to be used as it was this summer. The situation with my father was used with every person I met, which is absolutely amazing.

God was devout and faithful this summer and I saw him work through every team member. I am going to miss Abbey Presbyterian very much and I hope I can return one day if that's what I am supposed to do. I love the congregation and I can see great things to come for the church and the city of Dublin.

I just ask for prayer for a few specific things:

-Growth and community within Abbey Presbyterian

-Youth Pastor for Abbey Presbyterian

-Pastor Alan Boal and Ruth Boal and family

-Future missionaries to come to Abbey: Kate Kelley (1 year intern), Scott and Lindsay Nimmons

-Returning year interns: Christy Rodriguez and Katherine Manning

-Mentors: David and Kathy Fidati

-Team Members: Jacqueline Lamb, Luke Whipple, Wes Lyle, Katie Manley, Lizi Guthmann, Steph White

Thank You to everyone who supported me through this ministry. I am going to continue this blog for the time being so pleaaaase keep reading if you would like!

This week has been a bit of whirlwind with the festival but the busyness was all for Christ, which is worth every bit. The Xpresso Arts Festival at Abbey went on this week from Monday to Saturday. We had some amazing musicians come in and play every night from 7:30 – 10:30 in a café like atmosphere. They included Susie Young and Soul Connection (jazz band from Belfast), The Americans (a group of people from Covenant), Hey Dublin and the Family (lovely interns!!!), David Dewese and several other bands and poets performed as well. Some of the bands were even formed the day of the festival which is always fun. We also had some great art exhibited which was really fun to see come together once everything was on the walls.

It was great to see everyone come together in the Xpresso café at Abbey. We had some inner city Dublin kids come in on the first night, at first they seemed to just raid the coffee and tea, but they ended up staying for a good bit and one of our interns, Wes, hung out with them throughout the week. These kids came to the festival every night and came to both of the hip hop classes we provided on Friday and Saturday. The first couple of days the kids would come in and ask, “What is this about or who is this for?” I would simply answer, “Jesus.” They accepted my answer; for some reason I was unsure if they would at times.

On Friday and Saturday we had hip hop/break dancing classes with Don King, a dancer from Kildare. Learning hip hop was sooo much fun even though I am not exactly coordinated…I laughed my way through the steps. I loved the way he spoke to these kids, after he taught the class he would make a brief statement about Christ. I just remember he said, “You are all so precious and I hope you realize this in Christ….if you ever need someone to talk to you should feel safe to talk to leaders here.” I hope these kids understand that this church is a safe place and they are always welcome. I had a lot of youth who attended the event ask me when something like this was going to happen again and one girl even asked me if the church had a youth club, which is really exciting for Abbey since they are getting a youth leader this fall.

Today was one of the first of goodbyes on the trip for me. My host family is leaving on holiday today and won’t be back before I leave. We all said goodbyes and I teared up a little with Emily.
I think all of us are starting to realize that we don’t have much time left here, less than two weeks. I just ask that you pray that God continues to work in our hearts while we are here, it doesn’t stop now. I feel like a lot of my struggles and wounds have been worked on this summer and I am so thankful and I couldn’t have done this with those who surround me here, not a chance.

Interns, I love you.

He lifts us up.

xpresso arts festival

The arts festival is coming up close, it begins on Monday evening. This week has been a very busy and exciting week. We have had two more teams come to Abbey from the states who have been helping and will be participating in the arts festival; one of the teams will be performing in the festival. 

We have all been doing a lot of preparation for the show. Everyone had been assigned their own jobs such as lighting, music, advertising, decorations, art, food and sound. It has been really great to see everyone pulling together for Abbey.

I AM REALLLY EXCITED!!!!!! Please pray for the festival, that everything goes well and people from Dublin are brought to the church all in the unity of Christ. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS  

On Wednesday Jacqueline and I went on an adventure with my host family, Emily and Nathania Mc Dermont. First they took us to Malahide to see the mini castle and play at an amazing playground, next to Howth to have dinner at a chipper (fish and chips) and last to Dollymount beach. I have had a blast getting to know this family, they have been truely kind to me an I am going to be sad to leave them.

As the week moved forward I began to realize my time here was declining...

It made me quite sad due to how much I love Abbey and the many great relationships that I have made here. I began to worry and I realized my thoughts were turning to worry too much. Do you ever find that you do that? Try to control something that you really cannot control like time.

I had to revert to this passage and I just wanted to share it with anyone who had been reading:

Mathew 6:24-34

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

great week

This week has been full of planning, meeting and greeting. This week I worked in Open Abbey for the first time. Open Abbey is where we meet with people who may be just visiting, someone who lives in the area or someone who has never been in Abbey before. We answer questions and chat with them about the church and faith. I really enjoy this part of the internship; you get to meet so many people from many different places, different from your own. I met a woman the other day that is from South Africa, she has lived in Dublin five years but has never been in Abbey before because she thought the building was daunting. Once she had come inside a few of our interns, Katie and Steph were playing music, she commented on how beautiful the music was, and she noted that the music reminded her of services back home in South Africa.

Eddie
Wednesday night as we were all walking home we were just about to be at Harvey’s when I noticed a man lying on some steps. His bags were strewn about and looked as if he had fallen; as we got closer I noticed that he had blood dripping from a cut around his eye down his face. I had a deciphering moment – Do I or Don’t I? I knew I wanted to help him but my heart was a little unsure due to fear. What I was afraid of I am not sure…what could this man have possibly done to me in all of his weakness? I was perfectly fine, why was I afraid? Thankfully Luke was walking next to me and saw everything I had just seen. In my deciphering moment I think I began to say, “We should help him,” and Luke was in complete agreement. This was all a little surreal. We went back and asked if he wanted our help – he did. I went and tried to find something in which he could wipe his face down with and all I could find was some yellow napkins. We began to talk to Eddie about his situation in Dublin.
In Dublin you have to have a photo ID to stay at a hostel or bed and breakfast. Eddie did not have any of these things and that’s why he was not able to stay at the hostel he was lying outside of, he had cash just no ID. Luke and I ended up sharing conversation with Eddie and learned about his life. We walked with him to the Garda (police station) where he thought he might receive a new ID, he was declined. Eddie told us he had four children and has been on the streets for twenty years. I guess the part which broke my heart was when he told us that he was riding a bus one time and hadn’t realized that he had been on the bus with one of his children until twenty minutes had past. I’m still thinking about him – he reminds me of someone back home. Most importantly we often lose hope in people and see some as hopeless. Well God has hope in us all and loves us, no matter what walk of life someone comes from I never want to look upon someone without hope.

Mathew 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?



I John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.


Howth
Jacqueline, Steph, Matt Moorman and I went for a couple of hours to visit Howth. We experienced true Irish weather with wind and rain. Howth is a really beautiful place with green cliffs jutting out into the ocean, and homes perched on high hills. The high point of this trip for me was that we got to see seals!!




Prayer Vigil - Friday
This week we had our second prayer vigil. It went really well. I know I have let you guys know how praying out loud in groups isn’t exactly my forte and it’s true, it hasn’t always been. I have been praying about being able to pray aloud, to share my prayers with my team, which at first seemed contradictory to me but God is coming through. This week at the prayer vigil I was very thankful that we did break up into smaller groups instead of praying in one large group, when we did this we were all able to pray in my group. I did not get nervous or fearful, like I had previously, I was just at ease. This is the picture of what God truly is, our comforter. Psalm 62 Thank you Jackie and Steph for helping me through this and understanding!

Sunday school
Lizi and I taught Sunday school this past week. The class ranges in ages from 5 to 12 so we had to keep a lot of kids entertained. I thought it went really well. We taught about Noah’s Arc. We asked all of the kids to draw their favorite animals so we could incorporate it into the story of the arc; one of the kids drew their mom, which I thought was really cute.

Ultimate Frisbee Monday
I was hesitant about going to play ultimate on Monday but I was really glad I went, it was great. My team is extremely helpful especially since most of them are on the Irish National League of ultimate. I found this out yesterday. They must see me do so many things wrong, they have such grace over me! I am really meeting so many people so fast through so many different outlets, it’s amazing. I feel as if I will be in shock when I go home.





Today
Today I went with Alan Boal (pastor at Abbey) and Luke to the Lindsay school for the last day before the school lets out before holiday. They do a show where they sing songs for their last day of school. It was great!!! The kids even did a performance of Oliver Twist which was really cute. Our pastor got up and spoke and talked about America, because he is going to visit there, and brought us up on stage, I played the role of the statue of liberty and Luke played the national anthem via harmonica. The kids were excited. I kind of wanted to stay and hang out with them, it reminded me of the job I left at home! Miss my kids at after school care!
Later on I met up with some artists who are going to show their work in the Abbey Arts Festival July 7th – 12th. It was fun to talk with them about there work and get some input from them about the show.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Nathania (host family), Kirsten Boal, Christy (year intern), Katharine (year intern), Steph and Jacqueline (team mates) to visit at Nathania’s house!

a love that never fumbles, i fumble

(Mondays are our day off: I took the dart out to the little coastal town of Bray with my mate Wes)

you came to take us all things go, all things go to recreate us all things grow, all things grow we had our mindset all things know, all things know you had to find it all things go, all things go

-Sufjan Stevens "Chicago"

All I know is I am a mess, I mess up everyday, we all do in our own struggles. All I know is God is amazing amazing amazing and most of the time I am merely holding on by a tether but his strength will never drop me.

I feel like I am faltering lately, falling a little behind. Not trusting myself, sometimes not trusting God. Most of this probably comes out of my own selfishness, which makes me a little upset with myself because in the end I have allowed it. Even though I am having these thoughts I still know...God is my redeemer and he loves me and You no matter what...even though I/You may distrust that love when I feel I am unsuccessful.

Keeping Busy.....

The time here is flying by....flying. I am loving every second. On Friday's our team is involved in a prayer vigil at the church which is great, people from all different cultures from around the city of Dublin get together and just pray. Some people prayed in their home languages if english was their second language. Even though you didn't understand what they were saying we still had the unity through Christ which is beautiful.

The team has joined an ultimate frisbee league which we go to on Mondays. I have never played before but we had our first game yesterday and it was quite brilliant! My team is amazing, very friendly group of girls and guys and I can't wait to get to know them more. I am on the black team and our team name is Friends...you have to say the name in an awkwardly friendly voice. It's really weird but amazing.

Katie, Luke, Steph, Christy and I are on the planning team for the arts festival which is really exciting. Everything is starting to get rolling on that and I can't wait to see how that pulls together. Luke, Wes and Christy painted a bike hot pink and I believe my lovely roomie, Katie plans to ride it around to Dublin to advertise for the festival to bring people to Abbey! I have been making some contacts for artists around Dublin so maybe I can pull some in for the show!

Love

Abbey Picnic

Sunday was the picnic with Abbey members and it was awesome. The picnic was in Phoenix Park, which probably is the biggest park in Dublin. It is absolutely gorgeous. It was really awesome to see all the team members and congregation get together and just get to know one another. I had soooooo much fun. I did get pretty tired but it was well worth it. Played lots of games....tried to play rugby a couple times, failed.

I guess what I really got from that day was that God pursues my heart everyday and I so often miss the mark.

I John 4:11-12
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us

I guess I have really realized how much God pursues our hearts, he wants, yearns for our hearts and I know I need to pursue his heart in prayer...but I also need to pursue my brother and sisters hearts in love while I am on this earth. It has just become so evident to me....clear cut.
I love it.

Rostreavor Retreat

Our team spent this past weekend at Rostreavor, Northern Ireland for orientation and team building. We spent time in prayer and getting to know about the history of Ireland and the church in Ireland. We also spent much needed time in prayer for the the people of Abbey and Ireland.

Coming to a beautiful place like Rostreavor really can put things in perspective for someone like me. All this beauty outwardly laid out right in front of me which I cannot deny...God is fully beautiful but I often deny him everyday. At Rostreavor I was finally able to pray outloud with a large group, something I have never done before. So this was huge..... So just maybe this was a "God thing?" Maybe? No...Definitely! I had confessed to some of my team members of this fear...and a few friends back home, so I thank them for their prayers.

I love team dub

The team at Pre-field training in North Carolina May 27th - May 30th! From left to right Jaqueline Lamb, Lizi Guthmann, Kate Kelley (11 month intern), Luke Whipple, me, Wes Lyle, Katie Manley and Steph White.

This was our first day in Dublin, we went to the Temple Bar area where we stopped for a group photo. From left to right there is Jaqueline Lamb, Luke Whipple, Wes Lyle, Lizi Guthmann, Steph White, Katie Manley and Me.

Everyone on the team is awesome, we all are so different but together through Christ we are one body. I know God has distinct plan for our team this summer and I just ask that you pray for that while we are here.

It is my third day here and so far the weather has been amazing, no rain in sight. Over the past few days I have begun to know our mentors Kathy and David Fidati, my team members and a few of the church members. Our team has been accepted here with open arms and I am so thankful for that. I can't wait to see how God is going to move while in Dublin. I really feel that what I am being called to do is to develop relationships with the people around me.

This week we have orientation to The Abbey and Dublin. So a very busy week ahead! I hope to keep this updated as soon as possible!

LOVE, in His name

night before

Well, it's the night before I leave and I really have not been nervous until now. My stomach feels somewhat tense and I am just pondering what the next few days are going to be like. I am really excited though, it's not a bad feeling just an unknown feeling. We go through a lot of those in life don't we? I have begun to notice that it's the "unknowns" that I look forward to.

I just keep wondering....Have I packed everything? You know...but I am sure somewhere down the line I will realize I have forgotten something but that's ok because I have made list after list trying to make sure I have not forgotten everything, I have done all I can at this point. 

Well I had an amazing send off yesterday, I got to spend time with friends and family and I have to admit I am surrounded by some wonderful people in my life. I am so thankful for you guys and I will be thinking about you all the way there!!!

LOVE 

beginnings

Just about twelve days before I leave, I still really can't believe it. I know I am not leaving for all that long, just two months but I have never left home for longer than two weeks without being able to run back home with my problems. I am definitely excited about this not only because it is an adventure but because God is moving in my life like never before and it is amazing. I can't wait to see what is going to happen. It's just the beginning really....

I am going to miss everyone so much, but I can't wait to hear their stories of what happened while I was gone, I am sure some awesome things will transpire. 

I am so thankful for everyone who supported me. You guys ROCK! That was an interesting process, I had some highs and lows with that but in the end God showed me that he is sovereign and I should just ttttrrrrrruuuuuuussssssssstttttttt with all my heart. 

Well guys I am going to try to keep my blog up as much as possible while in Ireland. Keep in my mind they wont always be merry, some will, but sometimes I might need a joyful email letting me know you're on my side as we all do. I love you guys. Keep in touch! 

Oh yeah..I have 100 international texts so I am not going to use them all at once but...I do have those..heheh so my cell is 2056017738

Love, 

Paige