Please don’t be mad! I know I have only posted one update since i’ve been here but LIFE IS CRAZY. I have so so so much to tell you all. I don’t even know where to begin. Since we spoke last, I purchased a car! YAY. I’m a proud owner of a cute little black Prius. She gets great gas milage (which is a huge blessing that I will get into later), is super comfy, and is an automatic! This car has been a major blessing. Thank you all so much for praying.

A lot has changed within my role here at OM and my living situation. I have transitioned into helping Dieuwke with hospitality here at Lacken House. It’s def not something I particularly love but I do LOVE working with Dieuwke. You could say she’s my best friend here. I think I mentioned her and her family in the last update but I will give you a refresher. Her (Dieuwke), Her husband (Sander), and their two kids (Elaim & Linde) live in the main house at Lacken and are in charge of maintenance and hospitality. I’m not really sure how it happened but, I ended up completely integrating into their family. It really is amazing how the Lord has provided these families that make me feel apart theirs in every place he has called me. I am still doing a little bit of office admin tasks as well as hospitality so a majority of my week is spent here at Lacken House.

On another note, I found a home church! And let me tell you, it sure does feel like home. It’s called ReCentre Community Church and we meet in a small little building in Sligo town. We have a community of about 20 which happen to all be (except me) indigenous Irish people. This community is small, new, and just beginning their journey. I am so excited to be apart of it! After a bit of a struggle (feel free to reach out if you want a little more detail) with the leadership team at OM they agreed to let me dedicate Fridays to ministry work with ReCentre and the community I have in Sligo. I’ve been able to help with a 24/hr prayer, drop in kids club and I also discovered I have a secret talent. I can play the cajon! So sometimes I jam out during worship on Sundays. So my weeks kind of looks like this: Tuesday-Thursday hospitality/office admin, Friday Sligo, Saturday rest, Sunday Sligo, Monday hospitality and then back up to Sligo. Mind you, Sligo is an hour and 20 mins North/West of where I live. This is why the great gas mileage has been such a blessing! I know commuting isn’t ideal for the long term. My hope is to move up to Sligo but I am getting a little bit of push back from OM leadership. This is disappointing but I have to trust that the Lord will keep me where He wants me.

Speaking of where He wants me… I moved! In my last update I mentioned my housemate Claire and how different we are. I thought about not sharing this but God has been so good through it, I just can’t not share. We have had some difficulties in our relationship since living and working together. I decided to move out of our shared house and into one of the chalets here at Lacken House. I made this move back in Feb. and it has been such a good experience. Me and Claire got the chance to talk about things and reconcile and really let the Lord work on both of our hearts. We decided together that for the health of our friendship and as co labourers for the Gospel, we should not be housemates. But that is okay because now I live right next door to the Eweg’s! YAY.

We have had the opportunity to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees at Lacken House. There are two families here who hope to settle in Northern Ireland. They are staying with us until they get visa approvals. That’s all the info I will give you for now but please keep them in your prayers as they are with us and soon travel to Northern Ireland. They are amazing people and it has been such a blessing to connect with them.

I’ve made a ton of Irish friends too! There is a lady at my favourite coffee shop who calls me Kendra lol. I don’t know why Irish people struggle with my name so much. Anyway… too much time has gone on now so Kendra it is! Her name is Alana and she makes the best iced vanilla latte in Roscommon and Athlone. Then there is Amy and Sarah. They teach me all the cool Irish lingo! They are also apart of the young adults group that I go to, so it’s just a big party every Monday night.

ANYWAY, I’ll stop talking and you can just look at my life in pictures for the past 5 months. I’ll meet ya at the bottom :)

Now on to the heart stuff…

I expected to have a hard time with transition into Irish culture but I didn’t expect to have a hard time transitioning into my team culture. Working alongside people who have been serving here for years and very stuck in the past has proven difficult when trying to create an environment that is relative to our current modern culture. Don’t get me wrong, I love my team. I think the work they have done here in Ireland in the past decade has been amazing. But, if I am being transparent, we need a fresh fire. Fresh vision. The embers are still burning but it feels like the fire is almost out. We just need God to pour out straight gasoline on this place. It’s hard giving updates like this because of the people supporting me. I want them to know that their support is funding church growth and lives being drastically changed by Jesus. And it is. But there are also hard parts that I think is so important to be transparent about. Ministry is hard and sticky and sometime dramatic. But God knows what he’s doing. So… here is what you can be praying about.

Me.

Pray for my heart. I want to grow deeper and deeper in love with Jesus. I know to the people not in ministry that might sound crazy because like, I’m already a missionary. Serving Him with my life right? But I want more of Him. I want to deepen my faith. I want to be so connected to the Father that I never doubt His voice. That’s the big one. Doubt. I doubt I hear Him a lot of the time. I used to not. I think it is just the enemy getting in and tricking my brain into questioning Gods voice. Anyway, pray for me.