The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas season is officially here in Northern Ireland. Of course, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. Therefore, Christmas decorations go up after Halloween. We have been listening to Christmas music and trying to pick up a few gifts to take back home with us. There will be no Christmas tree for us this year as we are leaving the first week in December to head back to Louisiana. We are fully relying on the Christmas trees and decorations of our friends and family at home.

Actually, someone at church said that they don't put their decorations up until after Thanksgiving (even though they don't celebrate it). I don't know. But decorations are up in stores and Christmas music is playing. We are in the mood for the most wonderful time of the year!!

More Miracles!

On Saturday evening Pastor McFarland received word that his father, who lives in Oregon, had a massive heart attack and was on life support. Simultaneously, Sis McFarland's father was undergoing major surgery in Florida.

On Sunday, the church prayed. On Monday the reports came back that Bro Mac's father was completely off of the life support, was walking around talking, and will probably be released from the hospital next week. Then we found out that when the doctor's opened up Sis Mac's father, they found nothing of the condition for which he was undergoing surgery!

Is God good or what? I'm telling you, He is still working miracles.

November Is Here

Has another month already come and gone? It's amazing how fast time passes. It seems like October just arrived, that I had my 32nd birthday, that we were enjoying the beautiful fall colors....and now it's November and things seem more winter-like every day.

We rolled our clocks back an hour (as a matter of trivia, we performed this ritual one week earlier than the US) and that has meant that it is getting darker earlier.

It also means that it is time to give you a summary of what God did in Ireland during October!

Holy Spirit Outpouring
Gillaine was filled with the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the month. It was so amazing to watch her being born into the Kingdom knowing that six months prior she had no knowledge of what this New Birth was all about. God is still pouring out His Spirit on all flesh!

James and Eve are a precious Apostolic couple from Dublin who have been driving up here to the North to attend services. They rent a room of their house out to a girl from France named Florence. She visited with James and Eve and showed interest in the things of God. Pray for Florence.

Staff Meetings
We began a formal series of staff meetings, aligning our goals, priorities, job descriptions, roles, etc. We had a great time brainstorming and organizing the various ministries from the ground up.

College Ministry Launched
Speaking of "ground", we launched our college ministry, called "Grounded", in October. We meet weekly at Starbucks for a time of Bible Study and fellowship geared to the college level. Why meet at Starbucks? Well, it appears that God is opening a door for us there. Shawna works at Starbucks and as she began to share with her staff and managers about Greater Life, they became very interested and wanted to offer Starbucks as a place for us to meet and have Bible Study. The manager told us that she would be willing to close the Starbucks one evening and then re-open it after ours just for us! The only thing is we'd need a crowd large enough to justify the re-opening. So this opens up all kinds of possibilities for outreach/youth services/meetings, etc! Who wouldn't want to go to a "youthy" type meeting at Starbucks?

Communion Service
We had a phenomenal Communion Service this month. In Ireland, like many of the churches in the States, they would tend to have communion each week. We choose to partake of communion less often, in order to underscore the importance of the service. We spent time in prayer and fasting to prepare ourselves for the service and God showed up in a big way. Many prayers were answered and lives were touched.

Now we have high expectations for November! Keep praying for Ireland!

Let It Snow!

We are having very cold weather (temperatures in the 30s and 40s) with a so called Arctic Blast that hit the UK. And yesterday we had snow! That's right, it snowed for about an hour and a little bit even stuck on the fences, cars, etc.

You can imagine the excitement we had when we saw the snow! We were running around looking for Christmas music, and Dawson kept asking where the Christmas presents were!

I believe Farrah took some good pictures of the snow event, so hopefully we'll have those posted soon.

Work, Work, Work

Last week we stayed busy constructing a drainage system in the back of the parsonage/church. There was a lot of water damage to the building due to a leak as well as rain water seeping in under the foundation. So our nice fresh drainage system should cast out the water like Apostolics casting out devils!

On Thursday we worked late into the night because rain was coming and we needed to finish in order to avoid an absolute mud hole!

It was hard work, but we had fun - especially with the heavy equipment!

Miracles!

God is on the move! We have several miracles to report and we are all rejoicing over the victories God is giving to us.

Timo
By now I imagine most of you have heard but I did want to take a moment and celebrate with the Simoneauxs over Timo's healing at General Conference. (You can click here to read their blog). As you remember, Timo contracted bacterial meningitis last summer, and we brought his need to you through this blog. God did a great work in Timo's life, but his hearing was still affected from the sickness. Last week at General Conference God touched Timo's hearing - much too his doctor's amazement. Thank you, Jesus!

Eamon
Our own Bro Eamon testified Sunday that his wife Pauline (who is a recovered cancer patient) had signs that the cancer might have returned. Between the time she received this news and the time she was to go for more tests, they prayed in the Name of Jesus. She went for those tests and the doctors found nothing! She remains cancer free. Praise God!

Paul

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Bro Paul also testified Sunday that he had been praying that God would work it out with his job that he would be able to attend church regularly. In the past couple of weeks, God has given him a brand new position that allows him to be at every service. He told me that this is a better position and that his managers are very pleased with his performance. God is awesome!

October Spice

We had a great day in Belfast on Monday celebrating David's humahum (you have to guess) birthday.

We ate at an American Chili's. It was pretty much the same as home. They even had ice tea (so I heard...they never did bring mine out...I couldn't be bothered with reminding them. I think they were nervous about serving Americans in the advertised American style restaurant).

We later walked around a great indoor/outdoor mall. It was really nice.

And on the way out of town, David found a really nice used book store. Anyone that has ever talked to David for 5 minutes knows that this would make for the end of a great day!

The rest of the week was spent getting Tara and Riley a car, working at the church, and ministering to Lynne and family. Lynne's dad passed away this week. Please keep Lynne in your prayers. She was a daddy's girl and is having a hard time.

David and I are really enjoying teaching the Jr. High/High School aged kids Sunday School. I have been trying to cook some for the Mac's since they have no kitchen right now. And I have also been serving as a Taxi driver when needed.

Kristen has been helping out with the toddler aged kids (Whew! I'm so glad to be out of there.) She is also our sound booth girl. Her main job is to keep the words to the songs going on the projector. She and Gillaine do a good job at this!

David has also been playing the bass at church. A lost art of his that he has been happy to rediscover. And he is learning to do lots of handy man things around the church and the McFarland's house.

We are scheduled to go over to Scotland in November for some minister meetings. We will also celebrate Thanksgiving there with the Kellys.

Then, we are headed home for Christmas. David is going to narrate the Christmas program in Denham as he did last year. We will be home for 3 weeks!

And then we are headed back to Ireland until the end of February at which time we have to go back to America. We are planning to return to Ireland as soon as God provides!

Lots of Love from Ireland!

Happy Birthday David!

This is a little late....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!!!

Here is a trip down memory lane of some fun times that God has blessed us with while serving Him in Ireland.

Wonderful Week

We've had a great week here at Greater Life UPC. Wednesday night was "acoustic worship" with the guitar and we really had a great worship service. We really caught a wave of the Spirit and were all blessed in the worship service. Pastor Mac had asked me to preach, and I felt God wanted me to speak about pressing toward the mark - despite present obstacles. A great altar service finished out the evening.

Friday night we travelled down to Dublin to James and Eve Owens' home to begin the initial planning of the home group there. We had a great planning session, and of course, great food. Eve is Filipino, so she served us a delicious, traditional meal from the Philippines. Very soon, we'll have a vibrant home group going in Dublin!


Having a great meal and a great time at James and Eve's home.


James and Eve

Today (Sunday) we had our second Youth/Junior High Sunday School class. Farrah and I are teaching it and we had a blast. I think the kids did too! At various points today we had paper airplanes going, rapping of original poetry, and some artwork. And in the middle of all that we taught the truth of God's word that a relationship with Jesus Christ brings love, peace, and a sound mind. It strikes me that if you really break it down, those are the three things that this world is searching for most - and we know the Answer!

Power of Prayer

Hello from the Ireland Gang! (All 15 Americans except for Sister Mac who was taking the picture.)

We have been having AWESOME services. Thankfully, we know how to have church. It is so nice to worship with "Seasoned Saints." There is so much power in a church full of Holy Ghost filled believers.

We serve an AWESOME God!!

You wouldn't believe the spiritual battles that need to be fought here due to the lack of spirit filled people praying daily in this country. I now realize how blessed that America is due to the prayers prayed everyday by Holy Ghost filled saints! Please plead the blood of Jesus over Ireland when you pray. We could use some extra prayer!!!

Shawna Mansfield once said that though Ireland is not a 3rd world country physically, it is spiritually. The people here need the truth for the truth SHALL set them FREE. Thanks Shawna for sharing that bit of wisdom!

Revival!

I am very happy to announce that Gillaine got the Holy Ghost last night! God is AWESOME! It was the sweetest thing to hear her speaking in tongues. She was glowing after church. You may remember that she was baptized two Sundays ago.

Last night turned into one of those services where God took control and there was no preaching. It was one POWERFUL prayer meeting.

We are definitely having revivial in Ireland!

Keep up the good Prayers! We are seeing results!

A Barely Beard

I thought this article on beards that appeared in yesterday's Irish Times was interesting. Among other interesting uses of the beard, it notes that Celtic warriors used the beard to incite fear in the enemy:

In fact, the country's fascination with Tyrone's beards may have something to do with a cultural collective memory of the hirsute and snarling Celtic warriors described by quivering Roman legionnaires. Or perhaps they just remind us of watching Braveheart.

But what struck me most is the author's colorful description of the current trend of wearing stubble, or something just beyond:

The beard is actually something of a fashion on the street at the moment. A city stroll confirms this, although it's clear that the trend is towards a barely beard, only a couple of days' growth ahead of a George Michael. They are trimmed, neat, tight to the face. They do not look as if you could lose your lunch in there.

A "barely beard"! Gotta love the Irish way with words.

Misc.

Autumn is quickly seizing us here in Northern Ireland, which is okay with me because autumn is my favorite time of year. By night fall temperatures are dropping into the forties and the leaves are turning beautiful colors (some are already falling).

Sunday school is absolutely rippin' under the direction of Farrah, Ashley, and Shawna. Today they had 20 kids. I don't know why it took the area kids all summer to realize Caleb was back home, but he has finally registered on their radar and they are packing the place out. They are all around 10-12 years old and each one is absolutely precious. Pray for them.

We are happy to welcome the Riley March family from Doniphan, Missouri. This young family of five has joined us in Northern Ireland and are kindred spirits. God has assembled a strategic team and we are all bubbling with excitement over the potential of the near future.

Here are a few pictures that I'd like to share.



A puppet show during Sunday School. Notice all the kids!



Sunday School is fun




I guess she was praying and got caught away in the Spirit! She was actually being much more closely guarded than this picture makes it seem.



You walk out the front doors of the church and this is the view - yes, it is a rural area. And not all of the trees have changed colors yet, so don't think I was exaggerating about Autumn. Some trees are still very green!

Anniversary Services

What an incredible weekend we have had in celebration of the McFarland's 10th anniversary. That means they've been in Northern Ireland 10 years, and consequently Greater Life UPC has been in existence for 10 great years.

We had a fantastic banquet last night - the entire sanctuary was re-arranged and re-decorated and became a beautiful banquet hall. Of course, that meant it had to be converted back to a church by this morning, but we made it happen!

Today we had a great service in which Bro Robert Rodenbush ministered and conducted the ordination of Pastor McFarland. After a great time around the altar after the ministry of the Word, Kyle played his bagpipes as a kind of Irish tribute to the McFarlands. He ended with a stirring version of Amazing Grace and I'm telling you the Holy Spirit came into the place in a mighty way.

We enjoyed fellowshipping with Bro Rodenbush and Bro Francis (General Superintendent of the UPCI of Great Britain and Ireland) over lunch at Diamond's restaurant in Warrenpoint (just on the border).

An exhausting yet exhilarating day!






A full house!






Besides yours truly, there is Rev. Joe Cooney, Rev. Robert Rodenbush, Pastor Terry McFarland, Bishop Francis, and Rev. Riley March.

Three Have Been Baptized!

Where has this week gone? We were busy this week getting ready for anniversary services and now that those are in the rearview mirror we're taking a few minutes to recompose ourselves and our blog!

It's late on a Sunday night here in Northern Ireland, but I am so excited about what God is doing that I told Farrah I was going to stay up and post blogs on everything tonight. We want all of you to share in the joy of the harvest.

Last Sunday Kyle, Gillaine, and Kirsty were all baptized in Jesus Name! Wow! We've been working with this family all summer and they are the ones that had us over for a Bible Study just a couple of weeks ago. Look what God is doing:



Kyle



Gillaine



Kirsty



Dawson, Micah, Faith - 3 future baptism candidates!

Thank you Jesus for changing lives and families in Northern Ireland.

Riding in a Porsche

Our neighbour, Jonny, took Dawson and me out for a spin in his father's Porsche Carrerra! We really had a nice time in this baby. I've always admired Porsches from afar, but never had the chance to be on the inside of the machine. Dawson said the engine noise and vibration hurt his ears, but otherwise we were loving it! Thanks Jonny!