First Week Here

Well.... I'm here in Dublin. It was a long road to get here, and it took many stops - Atlanta, North Carolina, London, and now I'm here at the Abbey Church. I had a short time of training at a camp in North Carolina where I met with other interns from Mission To The World - it was a worthwhile experience and it allowed me to meet other students going to places like Honduras, Kenya, Sweden, and Lithuania. After the 3 day training I flew out with my team from Atlanta and we had an 8 hour flight into Dublin. It was a unique experience to see the sun set and then rise within five hours since we left Atlanta at 6:30 pm and arrived in London at 7:00 am local time. We were delayed for a couple hours at Gatwick Airport in London, where we sat. We were a tired, lost looking group at the airport. We were a little confused on how to get through customs and we were running off of little sleep. From there we had a two hour flight across the Celtic sea into Dublin. At the Dublin airport, people from Abbey church were there excited to greet us and drive us to our new home for the next few months. We arrived at the Harvey House, the bed and breakfast that we are staying at, then we dropped off our stuff and walked two blocks down to Abbey Presbyterian. They had a dinner for us with a few of the members of the church. It has been wonderful getting to know Alan Boal (the minister at Abbey), his wife and children, as well as members of my team. Over the past few days here in Dublin we have been getting acclimated to the city, and have been receiving training about the culture of this city. On the surface, Dublin resembles America in many ways. At its heart, however, Dublin (and Ireland at large) beats at different rate than our culture at home. They know oppression and poverty much more nearly than we do. They have experienced class conflict at a more intensified rate. They are more willing to be friendly, but less willing to be open about their life experiences. I pray that God will be able to use me here and with these people - who desperately need Him.

I included several pictures. The first is of my team at Temple Bar - one of the cultural gathering places in the city. The second is off Cornell Street - the "Broadway of Dublin". The third is a picture of Abbey presbyterian - shot from The Garden of Rememberance. The last is a picture of a cricket game I watched at Pheonix Park.

I hope to update this again as soon as possible.

Take Care & God Bless

Luke