Here We Go!!!

FIRST MONTH ON THE ROAD!!!! WOOOOoOOOoOO

First off....THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME FINANCIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY ALL THIS TIME.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

So I think the last blog left off around two-thirds of the way through training. Since then quite a lot has happened. I've(started) writing this on October 12^th and we've been on the road for about 3 weeks now and things have been super busy. It's Friday evening and I'm sitting in the living room of our host home for the night. We're staying at the empty house of one of the local teams, they're off on a trip to Knock for the weekend so we're crashing at their place for the night. We just wrapped up our 13^th retreat this afternoon.

It's funny, all at once it feels like it's been ages since we left training, but at the same time it seems like we just left. Our time out here has, of course, like everything in life, been filled with plenty of struggles and joys. We've gone out in pairs and stayed in various host homes, as well as swanky B&Bs and awesome guest houses. I've slept on everything from allergy crazy floors to super cozy double beds. I've stayed with devoutly orthodox Priests as well as good-hearted agnostics, and learned a ton from both. I've met a boxer dog, bigger than some friends, named Tigger who loved nothing more than standing up on his hind legs and wrapping his paws around your neck for a hug. I've seen breathtaking vistas basically every time I've looked out our van window, and gotten a closer look, through various expeditions, a lot more often than I would've thought. I've drank a Guiness (SO MUCH BETTER HERE) in a local country pub while a live band played some reels, all while enjoying the best onion rings I've ever had. But most importantly I've been streched and pulled by grace in so so so many ways, some expected, others definitely not, and its truly been amazing.

Each retreat, while basically the same, has a character all its own thanks to one pretty important variable, the retreatants themselves. Our particular team operates exclusively through the schools here, which, for the most part, are run through the Church. Our average day involves waking up somewhere between 5:30-7:00, followed by 20-45 minutes of personal prayer, breakfast, a quick run-down of the day, and then arrival. We've pretty much got our set-up routine down to a science, with each member having specific roles and functions throughout every stage of the day. It really is awesome to see us running at top form, looking like a well oiled evangelization machine. The retreat (Encounter Day) starts around 9 AM and consists of a series of games, sketches, music, dramas, fillers (my purple rose story etc.), talks, small groups, and prayers. With the whole day peaking in the afternoon with a powerful prayer service. The only thing I just about always do on a retreat is lead music. We do one praise and worship song in the first half of the day, and then later on I play a meditation song on my own. Other than that what I'm doing changes day to day. I would say about 90% of the time I have a SG(small group), and the few times I don't are tough because it's hard getting to know the kids without one of those. We do various dramas, think like “Everything Skit”, throughout the day, with an elaborate one towards the end of the retreat, some goofy ones (I get lots of shaving screamed splattered on me pretty frequently), and, depending on the day, I might be performing in several or none at all. We take turns leading games, doing fillers, giving talks, testimonies, allllll sorts of stuff. This format inevitably results in days where I'll be doing toooons of stuff, or days where all I might be doing is leading a small group and singing a song. I honestly thought this whole not doing a lot thing was gonna be a lot tougher, but it really hasn't been nearly the struggle I was expecting, whatdy'know, prayer works.

The culmination of a NET Encounter day is the Prayer Ministry, a time when each retreatant has the opportunity to talk and pray, individually, with their small group leader. I can honestly say that this has been the absolute best part of my time here. It's amazing how much these kids open up, and how willing they are to allow God's grace. Already I've met so many incredible young men and women of all different ages and backgrounds. Each age group and gender has their own set of challenges, but they've all been such a joy for me in their own way. We just wrapped up a retreat with a bunch of 6^th year (senior girls) and AH! They were so fun! My first all-girls retreat( a couple weeks ago in Sligo) was a little scary at first, but once we started talking about chocolate we were good to go and I never looked back. I would say the toughest retreat so far has been a group of third years boys at a rougher school in Galway. They just could not stop punching and screaming, ALL DAY LONG. The greatest joy so far was one of the first retreats we did in County Kerry. We were at the same school, a mixed school, for 3 days, and by the end of our stay we knew half the school. Sandwiched in between our first years on tuesday, and our third years on thursday, was a fantastic group of 6^th years. We had an absolutely amazing time with these kids and were lucky enough to run into a few of them the next day in town. I was walking around taking pictures while my teammates Devan and Gannon were inside a watch shop and I ran into a group of them. We took some pictures and talked for awhile and it was just amazing to see just how much of an impact this 7 hour retreat had made on them. Everytime I'm getting down or discouraged I think about that encounter with those kids and I'm instantly reinvigorated.

Anyways! The lifestyle has been so intense, I'm very grateful for the 6 weeks we spent in Derry training, and the way that was able to sorta ease me into the whole getting up early, staying organized, being responsible and disciplined thing. Not that it's not still a struggle, but it's much more manageable than I thought it would be.

Some Lows

-Hardly any free time has been tough some days

-We don't really know where were going to be beyond a couple of day

-I'm prone to car sickness sometimes in the van

-I've gone through an obscene amount of socks

-my camera mysteriously stopped working yesterday and I have no idea what could've caused it

-my laptop battery is seriously limited and, when away from outlets, like we often are using internet in McDonalds, I can't use it

-I miss playing basketball!!

-I miss my family and friends!

-I miss cats

-We eat pretty light when we're all together

Honestly these lows, are really relatively minor things, I would say honestly home sickness is the toughest thing, you guys are all just so great and I miss yas. While God's seriously blessed me with a wonderful NET family I can't help but miss you guys back home.

Some Highs!!

-SO MANY AWESOME RETREAT STORIES!

-SO MANY INCREDIBLY STUPIDLY WONDERFUL INSIDE JOKES!

-A LOT of dancing

-I've gotten to read a lot of awesome books on the road

-Everywhere is beautiful

-I've met some seriously awesome priests

-I've been able to witness some seriously incredible spiritual growth in myself and my team

-I haven't broken a guitar string in a few weeks!

-I've learned a lot of fun Irish lingo

-A host mom at a house I wasn't even staying at gave me a haircut and I loved it!

-I've had a ton of fantastic, gigantic, Irish breakfasts

-PENNYS

-I still love the weather, in all its muggy, cold, rainy, glory!

-The Irish are hilarious

OK so before I go and proofread this thing and post it up online, here's a little rundown of where we've been in 3 weeks.

• Derry to Donegal
• Donegal to Kerry
• Kerry to Sligo
• Sligo to Galway
• Galway to Donegal
• Donegal to Meath
• Meath to Cavan
• Cavan to Louth
• Louth to Kildare

Love you guys so much

Another post in another 3 weeks or so probably!