today's objectives: meet missionary from morocco, english speaking corner at immanuel church, give good friday service.
we started this day off with a walk to Saint Stephen's Green for our quiet time. it was a lovely park right in the middle of the city. i found a place to sit in the sun so it wasn't quite so cold.
saint stephen's green
after quiet time, we meet up with chuck at trinity college again. we were going to meet with him and another missionary (from moracco) but she ended up being sick and unable to join us.
next stop, immanuel church for english speaking corner. we were able to take our time getting there since our previous engagement was cancelled. we saw dublin castle...complete with a gift shop and cafe (ha!). the back of the castle was an array of colored buildings. beautiful against the blue sky. we also passed a statue that was dedicated to someone named "moore" which happens to be my mother's maiden name...so i had to get a picture of that.
back of dublin castle / statue of "moore"
then, on to immanuel where we met some international students to help them with english. i was with a young girl from china who was going to school to learn english so she could become a doctor. near the end of our time of learning, they do a brief explanation of jesus and the gospel. we go over what we've just heard back at our table. i noticed that the international students were much more willing to try and understand and learn what they just heard (asking questions, etc) than the people we met that grew up surrounded by christianity.
amy & mikkee direct arrivals
english corner
now we walk back to abbey church to do a run through of the evening. our team is doing the good friday service (called tennebrae) at abbey that night, so we want to make sure we have it down. all of us have a part to read, except david, who does the worship music. i think we did a pretty good job of being prepared, even for a run through. one thing...the church was EXTREMELY cold. most of us kept our coats and gloves on the entire time. one of the major appreciations for america and more modern buildings - central heat/air and warm toilet seats. definitely something i've always taken for granted.
instead of having the service in the sanctuary of abbey, we had the service in a smaller upstairs room (with heat!!!). the smaller room made it more cozy and intimate, and i loved it! the service of tennebrae, or "shadows," is an ancient tradition, used in the last days of Holy Week to impress upon the hearts of believers the awful consequences of sin and the magnitude of the Savior's sacrifice. we each read our verses, which was the account of the betrayal, conviction, persecution, and death of Christ. there were 7 candles in the room. after each reading, one of the candles would be extinguished. by the time we were at the end, the room was completely dark. the last candle to be extinguished was the Christ candle and, of course, represented His death. which is what good friday is about. after the service was over, we all stayed in the room and chatted for a bit with everyone. our new community. :)
christy and katherine invited us all over to their apartment afterwards for some tea and cake. the cake was delicious and the conversation a delight!
katherine & christy's place
we are all pretty worn out by now. so, we head back to harvey's guest house and hit the hay. zzzzz.
click here for pictures from day 6
No comments:
Post a Comment