A couple of weekends ago Gary and Terry Crowley hosted a conference that they had organized on The Emerging Church. That is the nature of the church today and how some things need to be updated to be effective in todays culture. Things like cell groups or small groups, accountability to serving in the church and how the church is more than a Sunday morning service or programs, but a way of life, were some of the topics discussed. The speaker they had brought in was Bob Roxburgh. Bob is the Director of Incarnational Leadership Institute in Vancouver. His son Cam is Terry's Pastor and that is the connection. Bob is interming at a church in England so it was easy to get him here. There were four sessions and averaged around 20-25 people at each session. Usually half were from our church and the rest from various other churches and connections. As we have no building Gary and Terry found a great facility that was attatched to a Methodist church called Ardfallen that just happened to be beside the Tim Hortons that we found. Makes you go hmm? The Tims is on the other side of the trees to the right. The weekend had mixed reviews as the Irish are slow to change and a cautious lot when it come to new ideas. But saying that it was well recieved and worth the effort.

Christmas Has Come Early
Only in our sugar plum dreams could this be true, wait a miniute. Only in Gary's sugar plum dreams I should say. He thought he was dreaming when he was told that a Tim Hortons had been spotted near Cork. We found a second one while checking out a place for a conference that Gary and Terry were organising. It was right next door at a SPAR convenience store!!! It was like a coffee kiosk that you find in a gas station but Gary said the coffee was pretty close to home. The fellows holding the sign with Gary are fellow Canadians, in the middle is Frank Peters who is here working at the university as a professor who is with a mission that put teachers into universities and on the right is Bob Roxboro who was the speaker at the conference. I will give you more info on him on the next blog. The saying on the bottom of the sign is " A Taste So Big It Could Only Come From Canada".

Roar!!!!!!!
Yay, BC won. It was a long six years but this fan has been satisfied. I'm thankfull that Ireland has satalite dishes and that NASA (North American Sports Network) exists. Now what do you think the odds are that one of the girls coming to watch the game with me would be able to get ahold of a t-shirt like mine and a Lions hand. I would say 1 in 3 million. But she knew someone who had just came back from visiting BC and saw a game (didn't remember much of it though), bought the shirt and came home to Ireland where very few if anyone knew who they were. Well I had a room full of young people who now know very well who BC Lions are and why CFL is better than NFL, Hee Hee.

If you weren't sure if you had to go before you entered, you sure have to go after you get in. What am I talking about? Our little toilet on the main floor. There is no heat in our bathroom on the main floor. We do not have central heating and there is no radiator in the bathroom. I put a thermometer in the room to see the temp and it was a whopping 9 degrees celcius . So the effect that cold air can have on the bladder is in full effect in there. Anyway I thought I would share this with you all as it is something new and exciting for us!

Music Teams Look Out!!!
The Swabey Girls are looking for your job.
Shanaya and TaLeah had the opportunity to lead a team of children in the church during our service and it was special. Shanaya on the piano and Taleah on her guitar while other children played recorders and the triangle. We were proud parents. Yup I was glowin!

RANDOM DANAI SHOTS!!! CAN'T HELP MYSELF, HAVE TO SHOW HER OFF! Oh ya and those are her parents.

I thought I would share some pics from this summer. I was forwarded them recently and thought they deserved a place in blogging history. Eric McNalley and his wife Allison took our girls and their two girls Kerry and Kaira and another girl from the church named Lauren to go crab fishing. Some how they would catch the crabs by fishing for them with a string with bait on it. They would relase them after they played with them for while. I don't think TaLeah was too sure of the whole idea of touching them but as you can see she enjoyed the view and the day out. It was a beautiful sunny day and sunscreen even came into play!

These are some pics to go with the previous story as blogger would not let me add more pics before.
We walked from just about as far as you can see past the lake down by the other little mountain. Here is our group, from the left me, Kevin, Sharon and Jenny. We met up with a fellow from Poland and another Irishman and they came down with us and it is good they did because the last part being in the dark it would have been dangerous for them to be alone. Double right click on the pics to get them in all their glory!

Intentions mean everything!!!
There are two very sweet girls here named Jenny and Sharon and they have taken me on some very interesting adventures. Their intentions were to give me a great day out and show me some of the best that Ireland had to offer. The problem is I get motion sick on everything that moves and the first adventure was to take me to Kinsale, about 1 hour away on a very windy road and then to put me in a boat on the ocean for about an hour. Well I did make the car ride but the boat ride just about did me in as the rolling waves (and they said it was calm) took their toll and I only made it for about half the trip and we had to turn back. I did keep my stomach down that of which I am very proud. I wish I took my camera bacause we did see some great veiws of Charles Fort from the ocean side.
The second adventure was to climb to the top of the tallest mountain in Ireland. The problem with this adventure is I was told we were going on a hike and I had envisioned something much gentler than we had done. I figured maybe 2-3 hours of climbing up the mountain on a nice path. But the first part of the journey was on unstable rolling rocky ground and if the ground had no rocks it was boggy. The second part of the journey was up what is called The Devils Ladder. A name justly suited. It was very steep and wet and cold and unstable. The rocks rolled away very easily and they were slippery with moss. In the first pic, a great guy named Kevin, is pointing to the peak that we would eventually get to. The second pic does no justice to the incline and the difficulty of the Ladder. The next part of the journey ws to climb a hill that would take us to a cross at the top of the mountain called Carrantwohill. This part of the journey was difficult because the ground was mostly very loose shale type rock and was hard to keep your footing on and cramped up the balls of your feet. Well I just about did not do this part because I was knackered, as they say here, up to this point but after some great moaning and complaining and pulling the grandma card out I decided to conquer the mountain, and boy was I glad I did. I did something I did not want to do and in doing so it reminded me of Rick Warrens statement "God is more interested in your character not your comfort". The view from the top was spectacular. It was not so easy do get down however. The loose shale part cramped your calves and hurt your ankles and the Ladder turned out to be easier to go up than down and we ran out of daylight and I ended up sinking in the bog up to my ankes and lost my footing crossing the creek and one of my feet went in but, 81/2 hours later we made it back to the car, ALIVE. I was very stiff in my legs for the next three days but I was ALIVE.

Get out! Shut up ! No way,Yahweh!

Yes it's true. We have an office shed/monk hut/dog house. It was delivered and put up in one day. It was like playing with Lego the way it went together, no nails except for in the roof. It would have been faster however to have it shipped over from Canada. What was suppose to be 3-6 weeks turned into 12. We have now been waiting a week for the electrician to "schedule us in" or even let us know if we are in. We have started to move furniture into the shed and move things into place and out of my bedroom. Gary did a great job of staining the shed in a traditional Irish looking colour, red with black trim. Gary can now have access to his books and now get a little more organized.