Parrēsia

I would like to open by thanking all of you who take time to read and respond to these blog entries, and I’m finding that there is a wider circle of readers than I had planned or imagined. I truly and deeply appreciate your support, prayers, and encouragements; I find myself dependent on them. It’s proof that the mission field is not bound by location or worked by just the few – all of God’s kingdom, which encompasses the whole world, is involved in spreading the gospel and reaching to the needy with the compassion of Christ. I wish to encourage you by saying that I believe you to be apart of the work of the Kingdom of God here in Dublin through prayers and encouragement. It is a world-wide effort.

World-wide is a fitting term to describe what my typical encounters with the people in Dublin are like. This city of 2 million, which is small by international standards, hosts dozens of different ethnic groups. This past week, during open abbey (our open door outreach to the community) I was able to have conversation around the tea table with a German student who now lives in France and a Chinese couple who live in South Africa, all three happened to stop in the church at the same time. We had a short conversation in English, and then the Chinese couple began talking in Mandarin to Connie – an Abbey church member from Hong Kong. On another day, I had a long conversation about faith, Christianity, and our favorite movies with a man named Pawel, he was a middle aged Polish man who had come to Dublin to work and learn English. Today I was able to help a Romanian who was living on the streets and could barely speak a word of English, he came into the church looking for some food. Fortunately our kitchen was well stocked this week and we were able to give him a meal, coffee, and some biscuits. On Monday, I had a conversation with Ramon – a Kenyan man who is living in a hostel on the same block as us. He’s come to the church several times for our arts café, and is now planning on coming to our Sunday services. Meeting the international community, needless to say, is very common here.

The Arts Café (named Xpresso) has taken over most of my time for the past week. We’ve been planning for this event all summer, but we kicked into overdrive this past week in preparation. I designed a banner and had it printed, helped to schedule and get in contact with artists, I contributed to our refreshments menu with some smoothies, and amidst all this we prepared for our RTE service this past Sunday. RTE is the national public broadcasting of Ireland. Every Sunday they select a church to broadcast a service, and this past Sunday Abbey was host. I was able to be a part of the service by singing. I also wrote a prayer and read it at the conclusion of the service. During this time, we’ve had two teams from America come and help with our preparation for Xpresso. One team was from Monroeville. They were mostly high school students, and they helped with cleaning, painting, and preparation for the café. The other team was a group of musicians, many from Nashville, who have come to perform and advertise for the festival by busking (playing for spare change) in the streets of Dublin. I played harmonica with one of the artists, Dave Dewese. We had rigged a small stage from scaffolding equipment and two amps. From underneath the shadow of Abbey Church, David and I played into the streets of Dublin as people walked up and down the sidewalkss of Parnell Square. It was a great experience to get the looks, stares, and turned heads as people were surprised to hear live music being played over loud speakers into the streets. The Café has been a great success, and we’ve been averaging over 100 people coming into the church each night.

I’ve titled this entry parrēsia because it’s an apt word to describe what the Lord is teaching me as I reflect on my experiences here; the word is Greek for boldness (i.e. “outspoken”);. I’m learning to have parrēsia, to be outspoken, in my witness to the people who come from all parts of the world to this city. I’ve become more willing to confront people that I have just met with questions that I may have been timid to ask because of the demand it places on the other person to answer and on me to press them for a sincere answer. Questions like: Do you know about Christ? Where do you think you stand with God? What do you believe in?. I am finding much more confidence and willingness to raise these and similar questions. I hope the Lord continues to teach and build me up in this area, not only on this trip, but for the rest of my life. I want more and more to have boldness, to be outspoken, for Christ.

Thanks Again for reading

I want to offer a quick praise report. We’ve had a Hindu woman, Annita, attend Abbey church for the last two weeks. She started coming after she had walked into the church during Open Abbey; while there she had a conversation with one of our team members, Steph. Just a few days ago, She accepted Jesus as her savior! Praise the Lord.

Luke