I haven’t written since before Christmas! Let me catch you up on the good stuff. I rang in the new year with friends and gin. It was a quiet January. I find January to be the worst month of the year. It’s typically grey and boring and cold. However, this January ended on a sweet note. My dear friend Emory came for visit. IT WAS SO FUN. It was unexpected fun, which I think makes it even sweeter. I really needed this visit. I needed to laugh and cry and be with an American. After she left, February hit and I turned 27. Other than the overwhelming amount of grey hairs I am getting, 27 feels good. My friends threw me a surprise birthday party! Dieuwke had planned a whole weekend to shower me with birthday surprises and love and I coudln’t have asked for anything more! Mid February I move into my new apartment here in Sligo! A really great family here + my work bestie Hannah, helped me move. THEY ARE SUCH A BLESSINGS. Honestly it almost brought me to tears to think that people I didn’t know a year a go would do so much for me. But Hannah reminded me… this is the body! I blinked and it’s March. St. Patrick’s weekend just passed and it was the best weekend i’ve had in a while. Hannah (i’ll tell you about her later) had some friends visit from the north and they spent most of the day with us. Amy is also here from Cardiff so I had my best mate with me! The parade in Sligo starts right where ReCentre is so we gave out tea and coffee and cheered everyone wildly! Later that night we got all cute, found a pub and danced to Irish music all night long. I’ve realised I need to learn the words to more Irish classics. But mouthing “watermelon” worked like a charm!

I feel like I am in another season of transition. I mean, I am. Even though I’m still in Ireland doing mostly the same things I was doing before. I feel like maybe I’m having the honeymoon phase that I never had when I first moved here. I’ve been feeling this deep anticipation for quite some time now. I can’t really describe it but i’ll do my best. I’ve heard many people say recently “the bride is waking up”, and it’s like I can feel it! It’s in the air. Or maybe it’s just me seeing the hope, the joy set before us. Either way it’s fueling this fire inside my spirit that longs so deeply to see people transformed by the gospel. Not just a an acceptance of Christ, but a radical transformation that only Jesus can do.

He’s been speaking to me a lot about self control. This fruit of the spirit that I always thought I would never have. I’ve always told others and myself, “I have zero self control”. I thought it just went along with my impulsive and addictive personality. It’s just me! That’s not true at all. I was just ignoring my sin by putting a personality label on it. I actually have all the capacity and strength to say no and yes to thing that are and are not Holy. It’s taken digging deep into 1. why I want to serve myself over God and 2. Having this self control from a posture of reverence and connection with God. Now maybe you are thinking that it’s some huge issues i’m struggling with when it comes to self control but it’s actually quite simple. Like over eating or spending hours on Tik Tok before bed. It starts with little things. I’m not saying those things are bad, well maybe over eating lol. But I want to be Holy and if small areas of my life can be placed at the feet of Jesus, hopefully the rest will follow.

Since we spoke last, some big changes have happened. I told ya’ll we got a new field leader, Paul. Well Paul and his wife Gill are ahmazzzinggg. After a ton of prayer and chats and trying to think of every possible avenue we agreed that OM might not be the best fit for me. I mean, I knew this lol. But I think I was so obsessed with finishing my commitment that I was willing to suffer . Paul recognised that I wasn’t thriving there and he wanted me to thrive. So I’ve joined another organisation! Church Army. ReCentre is actually a centre of mission with Church Army so it seemed like the obvious choice. So yeah, I work with Church Army now! I’m really happy about it. I feel like a burned has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m finally here in Sligo full time and now I get to give my full self to all the ministries i’m involved in. With winter coming to and end and spring approaching, I can literally feel the hope in the air.

So what am I actually doing? Well, we are still doing Alpha in two secondary schools. It’s always fun to see some of these girls out about in the town and say hi. Young adults is still going strong and we are meeting in ReCentre now. It looks different every week but honestly anytime I get worried about who and how many will show up, God moves radically amongst the group that is there. We are also getting ready to have a prayer week during Holy Week at ReCentre. Last year we did 24hour prayer, but this year we thought why not a whole week!? We won’t be going all through the night, even though that would be kind of cool! I’m also going to be taking some refresher courses on inner healing and prayer ministry so we can offer that at ReCentre. There is so much going on this spring and summer as well. I’ll catch you all up as it happens. I’m also working with a girl named Hannah. She from Northern Ireland and was placed in Bundoran (a little north of Sligo) as an evangelist there. Her focus is in Bundoran but she also is doing a lot for us here in Sligo and with ReCentre! I’m so happy she is here. It’s been nice to have another strong female leader to work alongside!