whoa whoa whoa... where did the last 20 days go?

Oh hi :) I've had a super busy week! The last half of my first work week went well. The CEO gave me a pretty legit project. Like I said before, I'm working on promoting their big National Day of Volunteering. The CEO put me in charge of putting together the two flagship promotion events that they're hosting to bring attention to NDV. The first one is a knit-a-thon where they're trying to get people all across Ireland to knit for charity. We're going to try and break the world record for "most number of people knitting simultaneously." I had to plan the event, write up an official proposal, contact knitting groups asking them to get involved, and contact charities who we would donate the knitted items to. We've had a lot of groups express interest in being involved, which is encouraging. I have to have meetings with the CEO of one of the charities and the head of one of the knitting groups next week (by myself! eek!). I'm also setting up the flagship event that will feature the Scouts of Ireland (basically Boy Scouts of American, Ireland edition). I sat in on a meeting with them and the CEO of VCI last week which was a really neat experience. I'll be working on putting that event together more next week.

So now I want to tell you about the trips we've taken! In my last post I totally forgot to tell you about our trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was hosted by UCD, so it wasn't the most exciting trip ever, but it was really interesting! For those of you who don't know, Northern Ireland is its own country apart from the Republic of Ireland and belongs to the United Kingdom. It's whole history is based on religions conflict (Catholics of Ireland vs Protestants of the UK). Apparently there's still a lot of prejudice and conflict. In fact, there was just a huge riot there this past weekend. Good thing we weren't there!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3652030/Burning-hate.html

There are still big propaganda murals all around the city, and there's a HUGE wall running through one neighborhood dividing the Catholic side and the Protestant side. When you drive down the Catholic side of the street, all of the houses are sporting Irish flags. On the Protestant side, they all have British flags. I've never seen anything like it! It reminded me of stuff we learned in high school World History about WWII. The picture on the left is a picture of the Belfast wall covered in propaganda murals.

This past weekend we went to Galway on the West coast of Ireland. This was another UCD trip, but it was a little more exciting than the Belfast trip. The city itself was pretty fun. The night life was a little ridiculous. It felt like a college campus times 10. We stayed in a relatively "dodgy" hostel, but it was livable. On Saturday we

visited Connemara, which has some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland (which is really saying something). We also visited the oldest whiskey distillery in Europe (so they say...), and all I could think of was Hot Rod. Also, it felt like we were standing in line for Splash Mountain, so it made me want to go to Disney World really bad. We also visited the ruins of an old monastery, which was beautiful. I was just so excited to get to see some of the countryside! I was starting to get a little claustrophobic in the city. We also went to see the Kelmore Abbey (left) which was AMAZING. On Sunday we went to the Cliffs of Moher (below). That was by far my favorite thing that we've done so far. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It was legitimately a spiritual experience. I was speechless just marveling at God's creation. Ironically enough, the background of my blog is the Cliffs of Moher, which I didn't realize until about 10 minutes ago.

So this past week, God has really been reminding me of His faithfulness. I haven't met one Christian since I've been in Ireland. It's a pretty lonely feeling, but it's also been presenting me with a lot opportunities. I'm trying to have the mindset that I may be the only Christian that these people ever meet. I was able to tell one of my co-workers all about my faith. He had never even heard of the concept of "saved my grace through faith" and not having to earn your way to Heaven. That was really eye-opening. God has been using people in my life like my wonderful boyfriend to encourage me to be a light here. Even though Ireland is seemingly spiritually dead, God has been reminding me that He is still God of the nations and everything in Ireland belongs to Him. It's amazing to me that so many of these people can live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, surrounded by God's amazing creation, and still not acknowledge Him. This nation needs prayer for sure. Being in this environment can be overwhelming because I want to share the news of God's saving grace with every single person I meet, but I know that I just need to be available for God to use me in whatever way He wants, and He will remain faithful to His promises. I'm learning to depend on Him in a whole new way during this trip. Thank you so much for your prayer support! I have faith in God's power to change the hearts of the Irish people.

Sam