dublin welcomes my dad

whoo hoo! after 8 months of seeing no friends or family from home, i get to see my dad.. he flies in tmrw mornign, so excited.. i love this place, so will be cool to show him around.. so.. ya.. welcome dad!!

the Word

in isaiah God says that when His Word goes forth, it does not return void, but accomplishes the thing the He sets out for it to do. well praise God, becuz lately at the clubs, we have gotten the oppurtunity to share the Word of God and share about Christ. the kids have so many amazing questions, and with my older teens, you can tell that they do not like being confronted with what the Bible says, becuz in as much as there is a message of hope and eternity.. it means that they have to give up things that they dont want to. my kids are so desparate to know Jesus and can not understand so many things. please pray that the eyes of their hearts would be opened and that God would help them to see the things that are life and truth. in corinthians it talks about we are to God a fragrant aroma of the knowledge of Christ in every place.. its a smell of life to some, and a smell of death to others, rite now, my kids are blind, they are searching, but are blind and see the cross as foolishness and smell the aroma of death rite now.. pray for them. pray for salvation for the. pray for the Word and truth of God to go forth and the Spirit of God to change their lives.

death is a reality all of us face, but over here, every single child and teenager that i work with has lost someone close, death, and murders are constantly happening daily around them. time is short. pray for their salvation. the realities here are so intense in these young peoples lives. last nite, on the street in drimnagh that they all live, and where i am at almost everyday, 4 guys who are 19 years old (who have been coming to club in years past), got into a fight with 2 polish guys, and ended up repeatedly stabbing these 2 guys with screwdrivers, in the head, and left them for dead. my kids are brothers and sisters of the 4 guys that did this, the police know who they are, they are in hiding and the mens bodies were left there for all my kids to see. there was so much blood.. so much, they see so much, literally outside of their doorsteps.. and death and murder is a reality every single day. its so important that we pray for them. for their salvation, cuz time is so short here.

pray for the polish men, they are barely surviving in hospital rite now.. pray for the lads that did it.. pray for Gods Spirit to change lives.. drimnagh is such a dark place and yet God is there, working, moving and we just need to keep praying..

thanks guys.. God is so good, all the time.. His character does not change.. He is unfathomable. He is awesome. He is Sovreign. He is Lord. one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. until that day comes, pray for the work God is doing here, pray for me, pray for my kids and for these families. thank you.

you know when ur in ireland when

you wake up and go to make some boiled eggs.. (which are obviously brown, cuz only americans bleach their eggs), and you take them out of the carton, only to realise they are covered in feathers. straight out the chicken to packaging.. then go to pour yourself a cup of milk, laughing, cuz the milk is called, full fat milk.. again, straight from the cow to packaging. and then look at the cheese and beef you have in your fridge and it tells you on the packaging from which farm the beef and cheese come from, and in case you have any problems with it.. has the number of the cow it was and can talk to the farmer directly.. wow.. so funny, what a morning already!

they seriously crack me up

hey! God is doing such amazing things.. last week in my thursday girls club, (ages 10-12), we had just finished talking about the lost sheep, and for some reason it sparked all these huge questions. i got to stand in the front of all these girls and talk to them, answer their questions, it was amazing and they were the ones asking! stuff like; "does Jesus forgive everything we do?" "is there a hell -- what's it like?" "what does being a Christian mean?" "how can i get to heaven?"

my goodness, the other leader was sitting down just looking at me in shock and so i just went for it and used that oppurtunity to tell these girls as much as i could.. it was so awesome. and then just like with my choose life teens, hangin' out with them last nite and talking about their struggles with drugs and gang violence and all of this huge stuff, they were just openly talking about, and telling me and this other lady stuff as if we were there to help them, which we are, but they actually trust us and are telling us huge stuff and letting us pray for them. one of the guys was even saying how he didnt think God was real, so challenged God to make Himself known to him and that nite he had this really intense dream and its just incredible. they are all fighting so hard against God, but He is pursuing them in the most amazing, undenyable ways. so thank you for your prayers.. daily, i am blown away by seeing the goodness and the grace of God. its awesome.

i wrote my subject line as that though, becuz these teens are so culturally bizarre and just make me laugh.. like they just continually slag the mick out of each other, like that is how you can tell you are fianlly their friend, and that you have been accepted. the more ppl make fun of you and rip you to shreds, the more you are accepted.. so, its pretty much impossible to offend me ever again, cuz ive heard it all here, and its harsh stuff, but that just means that "im in", it's hilarious though, cuz every other world is some sort of swear word. but its the way they do it, and you have to imagine the thickest accent you have ever heard, i always refer to snatch, but its exactly like brad pitt's accent in that, like unless you have lived here at least a month, you wouldnt be able to understand them.. but last nite one of my dudes was mad at another dude across the room and they were shouting at each other and i finally had to be like, guys, stop, chill out.. go sit down.. and the guy looks up at me and goes, "im not sitting next to that vegetable".. and i just laughed.. this huge thug of a guy, calling another guy a vegatable, and i go.. "sorry, what? vegetable?" and just started laughing, and cuz i was laughing at him he goes, "ah, he's a mad tick of a ting he is, f-ing and blinding all over the place, ur a mad vegetable you are, you're a cabbage, ya fat tick.." haha.. i was just listening and laughing thinking how absolutely ridiculous they were.. and they saw me laughing, and i just go, "guys, seriously.." and then we all just started laughing. these huge gang dudes.. with their thick accents, insulting each other, and me just laughing.. it probably doesn't sound that funny.. but it is just so amusing here. they are hilarious. ahh.. i love these kids.... thanks for praying.. God is doing huge stuff!!!

jammin with frank black

today was awesome.. sami, anni and i were out shopping all day, it was beautiful.. then we were on our way home and saw hundreds of ppl with cameras and all huddled around someone sitting on the groud.. all the ppl were my age.. and musicians and so we squeezed our way in and it was frank black.. the lead singer of the pixies!! genius!! the dude on the ground with the stripey hat is him.

we were literally crammed in the middle of hundreds of ppl, and about 10 feet away from this guys who was singing all his hits, and we all sang as well.. it was awesome! and then when he was walking away he bumped into me.. haha.. was awesome.. live music.. by the dude himself, with hundreds of ppl in dublin.. absolutely amazing.. was a great day! dublin is rad!

so good

"Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear, proceeds the crown we wear. To be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all its difficulties and agonising and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only thru suffering." martin luther king jr.

"whoever wants to save his life will loose it, but whoever looses his life for My sake will find it." Jesus

"paradoxically, we get this abundant life in ways we many not have counted on. we get it by investing in others, by taking courageous stands for justice, for ministering to the weak and needy, by pursuing God and not self.. those who suffer hardships and sufferings seem to me more fully alive, not less." philip yancey

we need to refocus our reality. the world says one thing, the Word says the complete opposite.

some pics finally

i suck at formatting stuff on here, but heres some pics anyways. youll get the idea.

dublin is beautiful.. like i am so blessed that even when i am

dealing with really hard stuff and situations all day long, that

i can go outside and be in such a visually beautiful place. all you
hear are sirens and the smell is a bit much sometimes, but it is
a gorgeous city. i am very blessed to get to walk these streets

every day.

i know i dont post pics usually, but here as some of where i live.. i just went out my door and literally did a 360 turn and took these.. if you dont know all the drugs, alcohol and fighting exist here, it really is a visually beautiful place.. welcome to my home.

God is so good.

"I will tell of the Lord's kindness and praise Him for everything He has done. I will praise the Lord for the many good things He has given us and for His goodness to the people of Israel. He has shown great mercy to us and has been very kind to us... Because of His love and kindness, He has saved them, since long ago He has picked them up and carried them." Isaiah 63:7 & 9

"My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you paitence. Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need." James 1: 2-4

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:1-5

Hope. One of the things that I am passionate about. I am realising more and more that I do have hope, but one of the key things in developing this hope in this life, is suffering and trials and tests.

These last couple of weeks have been the most trying of my faith and character and patience that I have ever had in my life. But as I keep trusting in God with all of my heart, I am realising that God is good, He is going to work and act and move for His name sake, bcuz He is out for His own glory. He has shown Himself to be so faithful and is asnwering prayers and coming thru in amazing ways, not only encouraging and taking care of me and my needs and my heart, but also is developing things in my that only come thru testing and trials. It's so difficult, but so necessary and God is just so good.

All this to say, but thank you very much for your prayers, I can not make it without them and appreciate it so much. God is hearing them, answering them and I am very encouraged. Please just keep on praying.. thank you so very much, and God bless you.

Shawnda

please pray

please pray for these next couple of weeks and my choose life club. God is really at work, and satan really is doing his best to destroy the club and is trying to cause dissension and really doing alot to discourage, distract and destroy. theres alot of stuff going on that i am not going to go into, but all i can ask is for your prayers. these next couple of weeks are potentially going to be a couple of the most difficult that i have had to deal with and have no idea what to do if thats the case. its a really bad situation that has already caused me so much stress and so many tears. i really need God, i really need His help and your prayers. thanks guys.