dublin, ireland: day 5

day 5 - thursday, march 20th

today's agenda: tour international scene in dublin (including a mosque). chuck's "project" details for saturday. communion service.

we started the day off by walking (which we did A LOT) to trinity college to meet chuck. while waiting, we looked around the campus a bit. amy took me to see the dorm that oscar wilde used to live in. very exciting! i'm a big fan!


me in front of oscar wilde's door

once chuck arrived, we headed out. chuck took us to a mosque. it happens to be in an old church, believe it or not. a very interesting sign of where christianity is at in this country. the girls all had to wear our scarves on our heads to be able to get in. everyone took their shoes off. the gentleman that showed us around and told us about their beliefs was very friendly, but in an a somewhat uncomfortable way. it's hard to explain. the women worshiped in a separate area than the men. they pray according to a time schedule. definitely a different worship environment than i'm used to. the gentleman did tell us that the muslim community / church has shown huge growth over the last few years. i wasn't sure if that was due to population increase or conversion. christianity in ireland has not grown.


mosque in church building / prayer time schedule

after the mosque, we started back to the city centre of dublin...thank heavens we found a bus! we went to lunch with chuck who explained his project for us. i won't go into huge amounts of detail, but he had some brain-storming to do for sure. it will be more clear in saturday's blog post. :)

when we finished our project with chuck, we had a couple hours to do whatever (shopping, sight seeing, etc.) until heading back to abbey church for holy week service stuff. a few of us opted to go to the guinness factory for the tour during this time, instead of shopping. and if you aren't aware, guinness beer is native to dublin, ireland. another massive walk to the factory, 5 stories, and one glass later, we are finally at the top of the guinness factory looking out the 360 degree windows over the city of dublin. awesome!

the guinness towers / reward at the top

we all met back up and headed over to the church for communion service. all the services during this week are shared between three churches. none of which are the same denomination. that is almost unheard of here in the states. a baptist and methodist church would probably never hold a function together here in the U.S. but in ireland, it almost seems necessary due to the small number of members. they have to band together and i love that. i wish we were more blind to our 'so-called' differences here too. it's like the gentiles and the jews...jesus' message was for everyone, not just one religion vs another. that's actually what i love so much about the church i attend now...the message is 'love everyone' not just 'love pca members only.' refreshing.

finally, we had team meeting time. i think we were all pretty worn out at this point. emotions were high, nerves were frayed, but we trucked through it...and we all still love each other. haha!

click here for pictures from day 5

dublin, ireland: day 4

day 4 - wednesday, march 19th
(prayer walk / chuck tarter time)

day four's objective was to do a prayer walk (which i have never done before) and get to know chuck, his family, and their mission better.

we started the day off with quiet time, as usual. but this time mikkee decided to take us to killiney beach for our time with God. it was slightly overcast, slightly sunny, and quite cold. the beach was very interesting. made up of sand and smooth oval rocks. lots of fun happy dogs running around as well. killiney beach is also where the lead singer of U2 (bono) lives, and enya.


fun pups on the beach


killiney beach

chuck met us at the beach and we started on our way...we, of course, stopped to take some pictures of bono's grafiti door. :) now, i have never done a prayer walk, and as many of you know, am not great at praying out loud either. so, i was extremely nervous about this walking and praying thing. it ended up not being so daunting. i did not pray out loud, but i was able to say many silent prayers as we went up the streets. it was really inspiring to hear others praying for each other, friends, strangers on the street, the town, the country, and even their own fears and struggles. i hope to one day be comfortable enough to converse with God out loud...but that is my OWN struggle.


this puppy was our constant leader during the prayer walk!

when we finished the prayer walk, chuck took us back into greystones (where he lives) and showed us the town and places that he works with and helps support. one of the most interesting places to me was the ywca. they host groups and even vacationers in a christian evironment. here is a link to their site: http://www.coolnagreina.ie/index.html

we then went back to chuck's home to meet his wife and 3 kids. they were a lot of fun! his wife, michelle, is super sweet and down to earth! the girls chatted with her most of the time. what life is like in the mission field and sort of a "get to know you" conversation...which lasted so long, we almost missed the train back. we only had one car to get us back to the dart station, so chuck had to take us in groups. the girls were first. the boys missed the train. oops. ha! but chuck drove them back to town.


the life of a missionary kid..cute!

us girls had dinner together before going to the church for holy week service. i was able to secure my first free glass to bring back with me to america at the pub we ate at. woohoo! we met up with the guys at the church and had service. then the abbey church interns (chrisy and katherine) took us to a music outreach night held at immanuel church dublin. ireland seems to really embrace the arts as a way to reach people. i thought that was awesome!

then back to harvey's guest house for our team meeting and BED!

click here for pictures from day 4

99 accessories, but a hitch ain't one

dublin, ireland: day 3

day 3 - tuesday, march 18th

actually, we were mostly in county wicklow (greystones & glendalough). this was our free day. shelby, david and myself opted for the trip to glendalough with missionary chuck. chuck lives in greystones, so he was the perfect tour guide. we were able to spend a lot of time talking with chuck about his mission too, which was awesome!

this is also the day my camera died, so all of the pictures are from either david or shelby's camera. they were sweet enough to even let me take a few pictures with their cameras. yay!
there are no words to effectively describe how beautiful this country is. i really don't think the pictures do it justice either, but it's all i've got. ha! parts of it reminded me of east tennessee, but it was so obviously not east tn at the same time.

our day: we took the train (called the dart) from dublin to greystones. a train ride looking over the water and hills of ireland...phenomenal. once in greystones, shelby and i popped into a coffee shop (YAY!) while we waited for chuck.


view from dart train


shelby & i finally get some coffee!

once chuck picked us up, he took us to a place called powerscourt for some shopping and country side views. he was great at giving us details about history and culture in the area. shelby and i picked up a few items while the guys did their thing. then we headed to AVOCA for lunch. AVOCA is a brand now, but it is mostly handmade items in co. wicklow. that was probably the best meal ever. i ordered a 'tart' which i thought was everything, then they asked me what i wanted for my THREE sides. hungry? i hope so.

then we headed for glendalough with full stomachs. there is a link below with details about what glendalough is if you would like to check it out. it was spectacularly beautiful! and we saw sheep and little lambs!!!


entering glendalough


the upper lake @ glendalough

after glendalough, chuck took us back to 'town' for dinner at a place called "the hungry monk" (they had chanting in the restroom, or 'toilet' as they say).

we catch the last train back into dublin and have just enough time to pop into a bar for our very first irish guinness. mmmmm!

a grand end to a grand day! and chuck was amazing. we were lucky to have him with us!

link to co. wicklow: wicklow.com/glendalough/glendalough-county-wicklow/

click here for pictures from day 3

dublin, ireland: day 2

day 2 - monday, march 17th

saint patrick's day in dublin, ireland. how awesome is that?!

we started the day with breakfast at our b&b (harvey guest house). i really enjoy there breakfast. they have hard boiled eggs, a variety of healthy cereals, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad. there is also something called 'brown bread' which you can only get in ireland. it is thick and grainy and very good. ruth gave mikkee the recipe before we left (woohoo!). my favorite, however, is the hot tea. it's called barry's tea, and it's grand! just add a little raw sugar and a splash of milk. d-lish.

we had a few minutes of quiet time each day. and each day mikkee surprised us with an encouraging letter from a friend or family member. for those of you that sent cards, they made my day! i can't tell you how many times i broke out the tissue (you know me!). love you all very much!

we head out to abbey church all bundled up. when we get there, we are lead to the downstairs room where the céilí will be held to start the clean up and decoration process. however, there is a crew of youth and parents getting ready for the saint patrick's day parade. they were actually IN the parade. a "bee" theme. there were worker bees, a queen bee, flowers, spiders, bumble bees, yellow jackets, you name it. absolutely adorable and incredibly creative. we found out after the parade that their float won the top spot (spirit award) in the parade. and they deserved it!


a flower / creator of all costumes & me

when it's time for the parade, we line up outside to watch. it was an amazing blur of color and creativity. not to mention an abundant amount of american marching bands...that was sort of odd. ha!


american marching band / colorful parade group

once the parade is over it's back to work. we have practice time (square dancing / line dancing routines that we have to teach at the céilí). then we clean the downstairs room and decorate for the party. the church has invited several other churches and people.

quick sandwich, then time for the festivities to start. the dj sets up, the irish band tunes their instruments, and the dance instructor promises me a dance. very sweet gentleman. the room was so cold when we started, but by the end of the night, we were all in our t-shirts because we were so hot from dancing. we learned traditional irish dances as well as teaching a few american line dances of our own. it was neat to see several kids that were just passing by on the street join in the festivities. we even learned a few salsa and swing moves from our new friends! :)


traditional irish dance / céilí (kay-lee) band

after the céilí we cleaned up and moved everything back into the room. it's late, we're super tired and we head back to harvey's for our team meeting and sleep.

click here for pictures from day 2

dublin, ireland: day 1

day 1 - saturday, march 15th / sunday, march 16th.

saturday and sunday are both day one since they merged together with no sleep.

we arrived at the nashville airport around 7:30am saturday morning only to find that our flight left an hour earlier...the airline didn't inform us of the change so we got to fly FIRST CLASS on the next flight to NYC. they really do give you hot towels. wow! after arriving in NY we had to take transportation to JFK for our connecting flight...in a limo. not what any of us expected on a mission trip. of course, the shoe box size seats of the next plane brought us back to reality...6 hours of reality.


our first class meal (sweet!)

by the time we landed in dublin it was sunday. we had to make sure to stay awake all day so we would adjust better to the time the next day, so mikkee kept us busy. we had sunday service with the boals at abbey church. lunch with the boals, chuck tarter, and abbey friends. we stayed outside the majority of the day, as the cold kept us from dozing off. amy and chuck took us on a tour of the city. it was beautiful.


abbey church / sunset over dublin


the spire / temple bar area

i never slept so well as i did that night.

click here for pictures from day 1

boal family:
alan boal - minister of abbey church
ruth boal - wife to alan, mom to kirsten & sam
kirsten boal - daughter to alan & ruth
sam boal - son to alan & ruth

tarter family:
chuck tarter - ireland missionary
michelle tarter - wife to chuck, mom to 3 kiddies
ava - daughter
giselle - daughter
charlie - son

cool it now

grrrr!arrrrrrgggghhhh!rrahhhhhrrr!

grumble.