Great Weekend!!!

This weekend was crazy, but it was fantastic! As you may recall, this past weekend we had a retreat with the youth at the church. We had a smaller group than we hoped for, but it was a weekend of fun, memories, and quality teaching. The theme of the weekend was "It's a Wonderful Life." We talked about how God desires us to live 'wonderful' lives for Him filled with risk taking and Spirit led living. Over the course of the weekend, we gave many examples of heroes of the Christian faith, both from the Bible and from modern times (from Abraham, to the apostles, to St. Patrick, to Hudson Taylor, to Billy Graham). As for fun, we did everything from an 'Amazing Race,' to a midnight Christmas party, to a zip line, and of course the obligatory bonfire.

Yesterday afternoon, we had signups and evaluations for our basketball leagues forming in Janurary for 4th-7th graders up in Ballymun. We had a turnout of 26 guys and 16 girls, which is about the normal size for both our guys' and girls' leagues. We will try to recruit a few more in the next couple weeks, especially a few more girls to allow us to have 4 girls' teams. The kids are almost all new to the game and they loved the drills that we had them do yesterday.

Finally, last night, we had the second carol service and winter wonderland at the church. The kids were much more behaved for the Winter Wonderland and for the short skit that the youth put on for them. I got a chance to close at the end and talked a little bit about making Jesus the Lord of your life and how to ask Jesus into your heart. The kids seemed to all really enjoy everything we did and went away with some great Christmas candy.

Erin went right back at it today as she had her last day of student teaching at St. Andrews. We are still waiting to hear if she will get a paid position there after the new year, but it sounds promising.

Tomorrow, we have the chance to get away for a few days. We came upon some great deals on flights to Paris, so we are taking the opportunity to spend 3 some time there. Both of us are extremely excited as you might expect and it will be a fun way to celebrate Erin being done with school and also taking in all of the Christmas lights in Paris.

Hope you are all having a great month and we will be thinking of many of you over the Christmas holiday. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.

Merry Christmas!

Tyler and Erin

Getting in the Christmas Spirit!

The Christmas season is in full swing here. Erin and I are proud to say that we have a tree up, the stockings are hung, and the smell of baking is in the air. Our place is decorated as well as possible and looks very festive thanks to Erin’s imagination. It will undoubtedly be a different Christmas this year, but it will surely be a memorable first Christmas for the both of us. We are hosting a Christmas dinner for the adult volunteers of our youth ministry tomorrow evening and are looking forward to the fun to be had together, which includes the all-important “white elephant gift exchange.”

The last two Fridays of youth meetings at St. Mark’s have gone very well as we did a video scavenger hunt and then had a normal meeting this past Friday. The scavenger hunt had them singing Irish folk songs in front of statues and interviewing police officers, just to name a few. The students loved it! After we returned to the church, I had the chance to share my testimony and then we had snacks while we watched the videos of each group’s antics.

This past Sunday, the youth were given the responsibility of putting on a short kids’ program after the traditional carol service. One room was decorated beautifully as a winter wonderland type of scene and the kids were led from there into another room where we had a stable scene set up. Several of our youth were dressed up as characters in the Christmas story and put on a short play. About half of the audience was from a rough area right next to the church here so it was quite an experience! But, the Christmas story was told and I got a chance to say a few words to the kids afterwards, so the night was beneficial.

Erin’s student teaching experience is winding down this week as her students have Christmas exams. She has been kept very busy this past week as she is sending back her final projects and papers to Taylor. There is a possibility that she may be able to stay on at St. Andrew’s in a paid position for the duration of our stay. This would be ideal and we are praying hard that it will come to fruition!

Happy Holidays!!!

Tyler and Erin


Prayer Requests:
- Erin: that she would get a paid position at the school for the duration of our stay
- Sportslife: for a great turnout at the signups for our basketball leagues
- St. Mark’s Youth Group: for a wonderful retreat this weekend

Greetings friends! It has been quite a rainy week here in Dublin. It seems like every day we have had downpours and enormous waves crashing up against the rocks on the coast.

Erin had another good week at school. Last night, some her sophomore students had an art exhibition at the school. Their works were sold off and the money was donated to humanitarian works in Uganda. The night went very well and was a lot of fun for parents and kids alike.

This week, the basketball team I help coach had our first game since I have been here. I am sad to say we lost, but it was still a good time with the kids. I’m not going to lie; it was an awful lot of fun to be on the sidelines again of a high school athletic contest. I wanted to jump out on the court myself!

On Sunday, we were given tickets to see a big rugby match between the Irish national team and a team from the Pacific Islands. Ireland won big and being there in the crowd was a delight.

Tonight at youth group, we will be doing the video scavenger hunt around Dublin that we intended to do last month. Rain cancelled our plans then, so we are praying that the same will not happen again tonight.

God bless you all and have a fantastic weekend!

Love,
Tyler and Erin