long overdue!

hey everyone, thanks for your patience! we were having way too much fun in cork to be able to sit down to blog!

the conference was GREAT. thank you so much for your prayers. the Lord was our strength, we had amazing volunteers working in kids ministry with us, the kids were awesome, it was a beautiful place, and we got the absolute best mexican meal ever on sunday night. weekend well spent!!

aan-sofie and i got home at like midnight on sunday and slept till noon on monday! it was a chill day. we went into town for a really late lunch/early dinner, wandered a bit, and came home to watch a movie and skype with inga-lill. tuesday we went to kinsale, which is a gooorgeous irish town along the sea. had the best fish and chips ever, freshly caught that morning. bought a claddagh ring, which is the hands holding a crowned heart. later rachel [the pastor's wife] and eoin [their son] met us down there and we saw the historic fort together. after we came back to cork, aan-sofie and i went out to dave and audrey's house for a legit irish dinner! she made irish stew and incredible wholemeal grain bread and blackberry crumble. mmm. then we hung out, played card games, watched a Father Ted episode [very irish], and laughed till we were nearly too tired to get home. such a great time.

wednesday we woke up early and made a huge batch of banana bread [which the irish would call "cake" because it's quite sweet!], then i stayed at home while aan-sofie went into town for some church business and tour guiding of other friends! i went down into the city for a bit, wandered through a few shops, ate another lovely organic meal at the quay co-op [first day i had african mung bean/tomato/lime stew and mashed carrots and turnips, and this time i had red pepper/mushroom/spinach quinoa risotto. seriously.. so good.] and eventually headed back up the hill homewards. i have to say that cork is a really great city. it's quite easily accessible, very colorful, not overly posh, and the irish people are sooo friendly and talkative and kind. you just can't go wrong in cork!

wednesday night i got to lead worship at calvary cork again, which was a blessing again! jimmy o'keefe taught, and we realized we've got plenty of mutual friends! it's amazing how many connections there are out here. i am so blessed to be able to travel around and see missionaries and make new friends and spend time with people who are like family.

this morning we woke up, got my suitcases all packed and weighed [and emptied a bit!], then went into town for a legit eggs florentine and coffee. ran into a couple shops and then grabbed my stuff and headed for the bus station. it was a sad goodbye! my time with aan-sofie was soooo blessed by the Lord. just like in colossians 4, i know the Lord sent me out on this trip "to know circumstances and encourage hearts." i was so encouraged by our conversations, times of prayer, serving together, and likemindedness. and dang can that girl cook!

so this afternoon i flew out to london! from gatwick i took a train to london bridge, followed by a tube to canary wharf, where debbie alnutt met me at starbucks and brought me home! it's soooo lovely to be here with marshall and debbie! i'm blessed and encouraged and uplifted already. we had a little dinner and then a few others from church came over for prayer meeting tonight. i was blessed by fervent hearts for the lost. tomorrow i'm hanging out around here with debbie and tomorrow night a few friends are coming over for dinner! looking forward to some great fellowship this weekend. i get to lead worship on sunday at calvary docklands and city. so looking forward to that. i was here two years ago and they were so welcoming.

one other side note: although i've had crazy visa troubles of my own, i've been able to witness people in every place get visas and citizenships since i've been here! God is truly the Visa-Giver and He is blessing His people in leatherhead, cork, and docklands with visas and citizenship in their places of ministry. so exciting!

time for this girl to go to bed! thanks again for praying. please pray for an abundantly blessed weekend; good fellowship; fast friendships; a great sunday service. also i hope to hang out with my worship leading buddy jeremy on saturday! so you can pray we get to do lots of awesome stuff :)

love you all! xx from the banks of the river thames!

to dublin we go

so i'm in cork, it's 3:53am, and we're headed to dublin this morning! it's been really nice so far to be in cork, and to be in ireland for the first time. it's quite different from england in a lot of ways, although you'd think it would be nearly the same. however, the people i've met in both places have been very kind.
today we're off to dublin for a few hours and then from there we'll go to the place where the all-ireland conference will happen this weekend. i'm helping with children's ministry, so aan-sofie and i will have 2 big suitcases full of supplies in tow, plus our own stuff. we're hoping to leave our belongings in a locker in dublin at the train station so we can use our few hours in town to look around a bit. otherwise we'll take turns camping out with the stuff. i'm hoping we'll find a locker so we don't feel strapped to the stuff. but, whatever works.
please pray for a blessed conference! pray that the parents will be blessed in their sessions, that we'll be blessed as we minister to the kids, that the kids will be blessed and at ease with us, that we'll all have sufficient strength and grace to rely on the Lord for each step of each day. i'm a bit tired already so especial prayers for my strength and that i'd abide in the Lord would be appreciated. thank you.
love to you all. God is good. His family is so vast, and i've been blessed every single place i've gone. i do believe the Lord is going to use this conference mightily to equip His people for the work of the ministry, and to encourage each one of us.
so i'll try to write again monday to let you know how He has done just that!
xo

last day in leatherhead.. already?!

thanks for praying for me though i've been sporadic with the updates!
i'm currently in leatherhead, england, staying at matt and dianna kottman's home.
i got to lead worship yesterday at CC Leatherhead, which was a huge blessing, and spent all day hanging out with people from the church. everyone is so sweet. they've all been praying for me so faithfully over this past year. i am blessed and humbled, and enjoying every bit.
today i got to help teach school to the kottman kids, and had coffee with a friend-i'd-never-yet-met! we had a great time sharing our stories of God's faithfulness and lessons He's teaching us. it was encouraging. we have a mutual friend, suzie, who introduced us when she heard i may be moving to england. otherwise it's been so lovely just hanging around with the kottmans and seeing a bit more of the english life.
tonight we had proper scones with clotted cream and jam. did you know they toast their scones here before they smother them in goodness? um, starbucks, you really have nothing on england with your scones. these were incredible. add some tea with milk and life is goooooood.
tomorrow i'll be taking off for the airport about 11am- flying from gatwick to cork, ireland! a lady from the church is willing to bring me to the airport, which is such a kind blessing. pray that my bags aren't overweight.. my typical prayer when flying. i really only bought a few small things but you never know with ryanair.. they like to cause trouble..! it's a short flight and i'll be in cork by 3pm.
it seems like this weekend flew by. i left bristol friday night with katja after a busy sightseeing day. we got to twickenham station a little after 10pm, joanie picked us up, and we went home and crashed. saturday we slept in a bit, had a nice leisurely breakfast and then headed to a boot sale [a boot is the trunk of a car, fyi- i'm learning a whole new english vocabulary! it's proper good!], and after perusing the rows of interesting items, joanie brought katja and i to hampton court palace. we explored the gardens and saw the biggest/oldest grapevine in the world [quite impressive!]. pictures are up on facebook. google it. it's crazy gorgeous. afterwards we took a bus into kingston to explore the shops and have a nice coffee whilst the rain came down and the floods came up outside. actually, for being in england 2 weeks already, i've not seen half of the rain i expected. we bought cheap umbrellas at the mall. in other news, primark is my new favorite store. after we searched it high and low for exquisite finds, and purchased just a few, we headed back to joanie's, met up with eleanor, who got us on the right train towards london. i hopped off at clapham junction to catch the train for leatherhead and they headed into town. got here safe and sound, no problems at all, and have been having fun ever since!
i'll try to update again soon from ireland. i'll be catching up with aan-sofie, preparing kids ministry stuff with her for this weekend's conference in dublin, leading worship at calvary cork on wednesday, then heading to the conference on thursday with aan-sofie to get things set up. i hear tell that siegen friends will be in attendance as well..! we'll spend all weekend in dublin, then back to cork for some relaxing and sightseeing till thursday. after that, you'll just have to check the blog. hint: it starts with lon and ends with don.
life is one grand adventure! thanks again for your prayers. i came out to be a blessing but i've been blessed so abundantly all the way along. please continue to pray that i'll be a blessing and encouragement, and that God alone will be my strength and song. to Him be the glory.
ps isn't His family incredible? i feel so loved. beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God..
xoxo

last day in bristol

it's been 10 days already! i'm sad to leave bristol. it's been such a lovely visit.
we had bible study again last night here at the berrys house, and enjoyed some great fellowship with katja who is visiting from siegen.
tonight i'll catch the train with katja to twickenham to stay at the dingmans' house, then tomorrow morning i'll head up to leatherhead for the weekend. tomorrow i'll watch the kottman kids while matt and dianna go to a wedding, sunday i'll lead worship, and then i'll be hanging out there until tuesday when i'll fly to ireland.
please pray that all our connections will work getting to twickenham, and that my time in leatherhead will be fruitful and blessed.
fixing my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith..
love a.

the sea.

yesterday we all went out to clevedon, which is a town by the sea. it was dreadfully windy but so beautiful.

clevedon pier- they still receive ships out there! just too windy this week.

beautiful church and graveyard along Poet's Walk- see the sea in the background?

snacks for the journey. we thanked the Lord for these bushes towering over the path- it gave us a break from the wind.

beautiful.

there was much flying to be done!

thistles on the moor!

conor atop the old bunker.

a sweet lady walking her dog summed up the day just so: "exhilarating, isn't it?!"

pretty quote-unquote "fantastic!"

wales was lovely! we stayed with a dear girl named claire, ate portuguese food, watched julie and julia, drank loads of tea and ate a whole bag of cadbury caramel bits [seriously the best cadbury i've ever experienced!], went to calvary cardiff sunday morning, talked with wonderfully sweet people from the church, saw a bit of a rugby match, ate sunday dinner with 12 or so new [to me] friends at the pastor's parents' house, heard lovely stories from the ladies, and headed back to bristol on the train sunday night. whew, that was a run-on sentence. wales is a dear place.

claire's lovely house

me and fae keeping warm

the berrys!

wales!

boots!

welsh!

going across the bay

i'm sipping a lovely cup of yorkshire tea with milk, munching on some biscuits [cookies], and uploading pictures from this morning. they're all on facebook.. maybe next week i'll put a few more on the blog.

last night i babysat fae so hannah and conor could go on a date celebrating their fourth anniversary. we had a good time! after she went to bed, i was able to book my train ticket to london for next weekend, and my flight to and from ireland. just need a flight to germany for the week afterwards.

but here's the update! we've had a lovely week so far. this morning we went down to the waterfront to visit the new Bristol museum called M-Shed. afterwards we did a little window shopping, had a delicious lunch at Pret a Manger, and headed home for naptime.

this afternoon we're going to Cardiff, Wales! we'll spend the night with a friend who goes to CC Cardiff, and tomorrow conor is teaching at church. i'm really excited to see wales, but i always look forward to meeting believers from different places in europe. i've heard rave reviews about some lovely folks on the other side of the harbor, and about the city of cardiff itself.

so please pray for a lovely, encouraging, refreshing weekend for all of us, and a blessed service tomorrow morning.

lots of love!

a.

cc bristol

last night, after our lovely day strolling through Clifton, was the weekly meeting of Calvary Chapel Bristol! they meet every thursday at conor and hannah's flat for bible study and worship, and on mondays for prayer meeting. they said this was the biggest meeting yet! it was nice and cozy. i got to lead worship, ben taught from genesis 31-33, hannah kept us supplied coffee or tea, and conor prepared a big pot of really tasty black beans that we feasted upon after the study. a few people had to take off right away, but the rest of us hung out and had a great time talking about all sorts of stuff. we all went to bed encouraged that the Lord is doing a good work here in bristol!

thank you all for praying!! i have nearly every day known without a doubt that many people are praying for me and for this "missionary journey" which i'm making throughout europe. please keep praying for this church here in bristol, that God, by His Word and His Spirit, would continue this good work which He has begun.

we went to bristol's beautiful neighborhood called clifton today, for brunch and a wander through the quaint old streets and lovely shops. here's hannah and i at the clifton suspension bridge over the avon gorge.
i found a beautiful russian stamp necklace with a picture of a ship on it... you may have to see it to believe it!
and i found some lovely yarn, so hannah can teach me to knit socks! lessons have already begun. it's lovely! xx

bristol!

Fae and jet-lagging Nannie!

flight #1: i was the last person to get a seat assignment and get on the flight.

flight #2: i was the only standby person who was immediately cleared and given a ticket!

got in really early to heathrow, but stood in the customs line for an hour, so i got out of baggage claim on time.

handed off a box of books to a friend who met me at the gate, and hopped on the bus to bristol.

my bus drivers were very nice. one was a big friendly giant who asked me where i was going, and the other was a fairly average guy whose language was utterly incomprehensible to me. i suppose it must have been english? he mentioned something about the weather being lovely, and i said, "oh yes, beautiful."

it's been rainy off and on all day. british weather is quite cozy.

got to bristol at noon, conor and fae picked me up, and we ate a sandwich before walking home.

hannah got off work and we had coffee, went for a walk up the hill a bit, had some baked potatoes, and now fae's in bed.

trying to make my 2 hours of sleep last night last me until a decent bedtime tonight. we'll see how it goes.

cheers from bristol!

xo a.

missionary journey: post 1.

i leave on monday!

praise the Lord:
-i see His hand so strongly at work on my behalf, in arranging my schedule and places to go
-He provides!!
-i am so excited, blessed, and humbled to have this opportunity to journey out as a missionary, in order to bless other missionaries.

please pray:
-that i can get on my flight and travel without delays! i'm flying standby at 3:35pm, this monday.
-that God would continue to arrange my plans. i'm waiting on a few emails from people to visit; i'll be buying all my tickets fairly last minute for travel within Europe.
-i am sure that many things will change even after i arrive. please pray for flexibility on my part and that all changes would result in more blessing to others and glory to God. He knows where i need to be and when.
-i am sick! the sneezy noseblowing kind. please pray that i get well soon, and that i don't develop a cough or infect others.

first stop: BRISTOL, UK!


and here's a verse i read this morning that perfectly sums up my heart and vision for ministry this fall:

I am sending him [or her, in my case!] to you for this very purpose:
that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts.


Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you,
always laboring fervently for you in prayers,
that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
-Colossians 4:8, 12.

thank you! love you all.
a.

today's streams in the desert

September 3

"And He saw them toiling in rowing." [Mark 6:48]

  Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives man to do.  Only God Himself, who always works without strain, and who never overworks, can do the work that He assigns to His children.  When they restfully trust Him to do it, it will be well done and completely done.  The way to let Him do His work through us is to partake of Christ so fully, by faith, that He more than fills our life. 

  A man who had learned this secret once said:  "I came to Jesus and I drank, and I do not think that I shall ever be thirsty again.  I have taken for my motto,  'Not overwork, but overflow'; and already it has made all the difference in my life."

  There is no effort in overflow.  It is quietly irresistible.  It is the normal life of omnipotent and ceaseless accomplishment into which Christ invites us today and always. --Sunday School Times.

Be all at rest, my soul, O blessed secret,

Of the true life that glorifies thy Lord:

Not always doth the busiest soul best serve Him,

But he that resteth on His faithful Word.

Be all at rest, let not your heart be rippled,

For tiny wavelets mar the image fair,

Which the still pool reflects of heaven's glory--

And thus the image He would have thee bear.

Be all at rest, my soul, for rest is service,

To the still heart God doth His secrets tell;

Thus shalt thou learn to wait, and watch, and labor,

Strengthened to bear, since Christ in thee doth dwell.

For what is service but the life of Jesus,

Lived through a vessel of earth's fragile clay,

Loving and giving and poured forth for others,

A living sacrifice from day to day.

Be all at rest, so shalt thou be an answer

To those who question, "Who is God and where?"

For God is rest, and where He dwells is stillness,

And they who dwell in Him, His rest shall share.

And what shall meet the deep unrest around thee,

But the calm peace of God that filled His breast?

For still a living Voice calls to the weary,

From Him who said, "Come unto Me and rest."

--Freda Hanbury Allen

and so september begins.

it was nearly a million degrees out today.
i worked day 8 of 9 in a row.
one more early day and i'm donesies for over 2 months.
i woke up with charliehorses in my legs and a marathon-running nose.
plans for europe are coming together by the grace of God, but it's actually hilarious how often they change!
i need a just-the-right-size suitcase.
i'm going to bed early tonight.
but The Hiding Place is just so captivating it makes me stay up late!
i wonder how many more bike rides i'll have on my zephyr this year?
seems to me like it'll only be 3..
because on the fourth day i fly.