Adios. Sayonara. Au Revoir. Shalom. Ciao.

Just over a year ago I arrived into this great country of Northern Ireland and have since fallen in love with the city of Belfast, the people, even the weather! Looking back on the past year it's amazing how many adventures I have been on, how many challenges I've faced, and victories I've achieved. I'm not the same person I was before coming out here - I've found strength I never knew I had. Ready for the next year to begin! I wonder what all it holds. Love this journey He is taking me on!

As much as I have enjoyed blogging I think I need to retire writing for this season as my days are getting busier and free time is hard to come by. Maybe I will one day begin back up again but until that time enjoy the adventures of life the Lord is bringing you on!

Love to you all!

-J

Peek-A-Boo...

Wonderful couple of days! Spent the day collecting Mel from Dublin yesterday! Got caught up in a good conversation with Ems on the way, missed our turn off and ended up taking an extra hour to get there! Oops! Spent the afternoon resting and had youth that night. . . I ate a worm! Sigh, the things I do for them teens!

Today has been awesome but tiring! The last kidzone followed by a "thank you for helping" lunch from Cecil. Street reach in the evening (Not alot of kids out but still amazing!) Cecil came for a bit and led someone to the Lord! Love it!

Just got back from celebrating Abigail's birthday at Nandos! Ha we had such a fun time! Rique thoroughly enjoyed his extra spicy meal as he has been really missing the hot and fiery Mexican food he is accustomed to. At the end of the night Mel, Rose, and Emma, tried to hide and scare Rique but unfortunately they only managed to scare strangers passing by as Rique went a different way back to the car!

Hope everyone is well at home! I'll be back soon now! Less than a month away!
Love yall!
-J

PS Happy Birthday Mom! xo

Melody and Emma

Rique w/ his Extra Extra Hot Sauce!

Birthday Girl!

Hiding in hopes to scare Rique!

You're Only A Day Away...

This is by far the shortest post yet! Heading to bed early cause Ems and I have an early start in the morning! Picking up my sister from the Dubline airport! Can't wait! TOMORROW! TOMORROW! I LOVE YA, TOMORROW! YOU'RE ONLY A DAY AWAY!!

-J

A Whirlwind Of A Week...

Wow where has this week gone? Where is August disappearing to? Seems like only yesterday the summer began and now Autumn is near upon us!

I have decided to catch you up on this past week cause some of the days have been AMAZING! But here on after I plan to change things up a wee bit. Getting too busy to write as often. It's either I change things or stop altogether.

Now lets see. . . Last Tuesday was the start of Kidzone (actually Monday was but we had that day off). It's basically like a VBS. Worked in the office all day and then headed over to Sue's cause Tanya is back in town :) Rique came as well and we were treated to a delicious home cooked lasagna! Afterwards we all watched the Olympics while playing chicken foot. I just love that game! Sad to say Sue beat me again. . . not sure how she always does that - but one day things will change. . .

Wednesday after kidzone we all headed into town. Rique was meeting up with Jack and I was meeting up with Courtney (one of the girls from the Loft Youth) Courts and I had the best visit at S'bux. Love her so much! Such a sweet heart she is! Prayer and bible study tonight was beyond AMAZING! The best and most anointed we've ever had! Everyone was crying and praying for each other. Emma gave a spot on message and the Spirit just filled us all to over flowing. Truly was a special night.

We had kidzone on Thursday even though it was our day off. It was alright - but it sure wears me out! Them kids have 100 times more energy than I do! Afterwards Rique, Abigail, and I went over to Tanya's to watch Matilda. Her favorite. In my opinion little girl in it is by far the cutest child star of all time. ADORABLE!

SIDE NOTE: There is actually a girl named Naomi who comes to kidzone and looks so much like Matilda! In fact I often catch myself calling her that instead of her real name!

That night we had The Loft's Got Talent. So much fun! Singing, dancing, comedy acts. . . I loved every minute of it! I felt bad for our judges having to decide a winner! Definitely not an easy job!

Friday we had kidzone again. . . starting to really love these kids and almost wish I was starting Junior Youth back up again in September. . . almost. (After much prayer I felt the Lord tell me to step down from leading the Junior Youth and to focus everything into the Belfast Drop-in Centre.)

Street Reach that night was amazing! So many of the teens came out! Awk I just love them so much!

Saturday after AAB I had a chill day :) Definitely needed one of those after such a crazy week!!

Yesterday was a lovely day! Baby Joshua got dedicated during the morning service. Both Rachel and Alan's families came out! Afterwards they all went out for lunch and invited me to join them. I felt so blessed. The Kirk's have been my NI family since the beginning and I felt extremely loved when the asked me to go with them.

Last night was AMAZING!! Rique was extremely anointed and the presence of God fell during worship. Then Alan came up and basically felt to give an alter call from the beginning! 3 people got saved for the first time and several others rededicated their lives! From the teens to the leaders everyone walked away impacted that night!
Today we had another wee family day. We went to Frankie and Benny's for lunch and then spent the day shopping in Belfast. Window shopping mostly - but Emma got her highly anticipated denim jacket :) Just finished watching Wayne's World (Emma's fav). Now its time for me to get some sleep!

-J

Family Day...

We just had the best wee family day ever! I am loving every minute of life with Emma and Rique! We decided that today, Monday, we were going to have a family day. The past weekend was good but busy; Work, outreaches, CFC worship night, church and more church. . . yes today was a much needed day off for us. The weather seemed to be pretty good so we opted for a picnic and a zoo trip!

SIDE NOTE: Because the Belfast zoo doesn't have hippos, I decided bringing Hippo Jr was a must. Ems then decided she'd have to bring Jique (a penguin who's full name is Jique-Rulie. . . named after her two favorite people). And the "family day" would not have been complete if Rique didn't bring Shaggy along as well. (One day I will need to write about the adventures of Shaggy)

Once we were all buckled up we headed off!

It wasn't as sunny as we would've liked but we still were able to enjoy our picnic just fine! Haha we had SO MUCH FUN! All the animals were out and talking! I can't remember a past zoo day (and there have been loads) where I have heard so many of them talking. Lions, monkeys, seals, pigs, goats, eagle, otter. . . to name a few.

Towards the end of our trip we walked through a rainforest bird house which also had bats and a sloth. The goal is finding Jasmine the sloth as you walk through. We tried twice and still no luck. Rique wasn't too happy about it. . . .  hahahaha!

That night we decided to watch Star Wars. Finally found a place that had the fifth one and after taking forever to figure out how to get it to play in our gameroom we were near exhausted! But it was soooooo worth the effort! I have recently realized how nerdy Emma and I are! After half an hour or so Rique called it quits as he was tired so Ems and I finished the movie without him.

Still as our first wee family day I deem it a huge success! Love them guys!

-J

An Audrey Hepburn Day...

What a lovely day I have just had! While Vinny, Emma and Rique had a meeting I spent my day being Audrey. I honestly don't know where the idea came from (maybe my lack of dressing up these days, or my newly dyed hair) but I had the strongest urge to dress up and walk around town. Sitting outside a cafe was also a must happen.

I chose a classic simple green dress with black heels, did my hair and headed off on my adventure! (I did have a continual fear of tripping in the heels on the cobblestone streets and falling flat on my face - but thankfully that didn't happen!) Did quite alot of window shopping before ending up outside Starbucks. (A little French cafe would've been better but S'bux worked just grand)

It couldn't have been more perfect weather. Warm (for Belfast) and the sun was out! I got my coffee just as a table became available outside. I sat there and people watched for a good half hour before some of the teens from Street Reach arrived to crash my "me date" - though I didn't mind. Love them guys loads like!

Around 2pm I met up with Amy (another teen) and we headed to a vintage shop near where the DCB meeting was at.

SIDE NOTE: I am in love with this vintage shop! It is full of the most exquisite and rare pieces - however, unlike in American vintage shops, the stuff is actually at thrift store prices! It's like they found all of the most incredible vintage pieces for me and put it all in one shop while leaving the old price tag on! Didn't really have money to spend. . . but when I do, I'll know right where to go :)

We finally met back up with the team - their meeting ran a bit longer than usual. After lunch, Emma got her lip pierced (something she's been contemplating to do for a couple weeks now - haha no more drawn on dot!)

Youth tonight was AMAZING! We hung out beforehand and then went into a worship evening. Lasted several hours and the spirit of God was so thick! He continues to show up in amazing ways! Each week there's something more extreme than the last!

Well I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Gonna head to bed now! (After watching some Olympics that is! Girls all-around is tonight!)

Sweet dreams!
-J

Great Olympic Moments...

Life is all about moments of impact and how they change our lives forever. . .

The Olympics (aside from ministry) has been consuming my life the past couple of days. I just can't get enough of it! It makes me feel alot closer to home and my family tho we are currently separated by an ocean. I have been so proud of the Americans! Keeping right up there with China on the medal count!

Today was an epic one for us! First the US women's gymnastics team took gold! Just above the Russians who crumbled on their last apparatus. (Though we would've still won had they've been solid) Romania took home the bronze. Every one of our girls were spot on tonight! I on the other hand was a nervous wreck! I literally held my breath during all our beam routines and several other times on the other apparatuses I would gasp and cover my eyes in fear of them falling or missing a step. But no, they were next to perfect.

As the great Vince Lombardi once said; “It is and has always been an American zeal to be first in everything we do, and to win." This was also shown true tonight by our men's relay team in swimming. With Lochte in the first leg of the race he went ahead of the others by quite alot. Our next two swimmers were able to continue the pace set by their teammate allowing Michael Phelps, the anchor, to have a near body-length head start. He finished strong as well sealing a gold medal for the US. And his first of the 2012 Olympics. With that medal Michael Phelps became the GREATEST Olympian of all time. At 19 medals, 15 of them gold, he stood on top of the podium grinning from ear to ear. Coming out of retirement he accomplished something no person has before; to win 19 medals in the Olympic games. Making history for himself, his family, and his country. I was very proud. . .

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious" - Vince Lombardi

As I close this entry I am reminded of the most epic Olympic moment in my lifetime. I could give the full blow by blow (Rique and Emma got it over dinner) but fortunately for you I found a clip of it on YouTube so you can just watch it :) I was 8 years old but I remember every detail like it was yesterday. My fondest childhood Olympic memory and to be honest this was why I fell in love with the Olympics. This great Olympic moment. . .