~Ireland~
Our goal is to support American missionaries who arrived in Ireland last year, and to bring a message of Jesus, not denomination, to a heavily Catholic, inner-city slum area. We’ll partner with a local Methodist church, conducting all-day outdoor outreaches to children and ministering through evangelism, stories, and singing. Kids, kids, and more kids! If you love working with needy children, this project could use your skills!
Ministry Description:
This testimony from a former trip participant illustrates the heart of what you will do in Ireland:
Our team worked alongside the staff of Dublin Christian Mission. We were involved in leading nine different clubs for the Dublin area youth and befriending the homeless and drug-addicted people of the city. Neither task was easy for me, but I knew that God wanted me at least to be there-not necessarily to DO anything, but to change my heart for His greater purpose.
Jill Briscoe learned the same lesson and records it in her book, God’s Front Door. She asks God why she is in the midst of such suffering and sadness when her words and actions seem so helpless.
“Can I say anything that will help?” “No.” “I didn’t think I could-so why am I here?” “Because this is where I want you! Why does there have to be a ‘why’? Isn’t it reason enough to be where I want you to be, among the people I send you to? You are here to have a ministry of Presence and a ministry of Silence. Listen to them! I want you here to ‘feel’ something! To feel the hatred, and weep.”
Jill’s conversation with God is exactly the same as I had with Him many times in
Ireland. It took me a while to catch on to what He was teaching me, but I got it. From an active standpoint, many were “saved” while we were in Ireland, and many hearts were opened to the Spirit’s promptings as well. I believe the real victories are in those of us who caught glimpses of Christ and beheld His profound beauty, and in those of us whose hearts could break while holding a swearing child or touching a drug-addict with AIDS.So while the trip was only a short time in my life, I know that I am irrevocably changed. My heart is still with the people of
Ireland. It isn’t easy to forget them, and I don’t want to. I am prone to worrying about them, but that is another lesson God is teaching me. The Holy Spirit is big enough and powerful enough to change lives without us. What He wants from us is a commitment to trust and to pray that He will make Himself known to others.
