Tim's blog

This week I spent much of Wednesday with Kieran, the young man with glandular fever (mono). He is doing MUCH better and expects to be at full speed within the next several weeks. Please continue to hold he and his sister, Ailish, in your prayers. Ailish, who suffers with cronic fatigue is 17 years old, and also showing good signs of improvement. She was able to come over to our house yesterday for a few hours with Sarah!

We have had a full house with guests over most of the past couple of weeks, with many more on the way! Starting 12th July I will be coordinating our church's 9th annual basketball camp for 9 to 14 year olds! We have 5 college kids coming to help us; 4 from America (2 men and 2 women). They will conduct the basketball skills training, along with our own coach - Kieran (pending full health recovery) and another young man from Northern Ireland. We have distributed 2000 flyers in our area and are waiting on the Lord to see who he will send to camp!

The camp goes for 2.5 hours per day, from 3:00 to 5:30 PM over two consecutive weeks. The coaches arrive on Saturday, 12th July with our first day on Monday the 14th. The guys will all be staying with us while Sarah will be staying with Ailish as Kieran will be here! This camp will be a wonderful chance for us to establish a relationship with kids and their families over the summer.

Please pray that God will use us to show His love to the kids He sends our way. There are many logistics that Kieran and I will be taking over, so we need your prayer support! Perhaps God will send us many who need to see what Christianity looks like - pray we will be able to humbly serve in this way!

This has been a HUGE week of watching God move as only He can.

FIRST: Last Monday we met with a representative from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. She came to our house and filled us in on lots of details. Not only are dogs trained to lead the blind but they are also now assisting children with autism. Great strides are being made with many autistic children who have a well trained dog companion. After the meeting our only hurdle was to secure approval from our landlord ( our lease states 'no dogs'). Tim was able to talk to the landlord on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning we recieved a text message that they did not have a problem with us raising a guide dog puppy! We could not do this, only God could. We should be getting our puppy sometime in August, as it looks now. Pray that we will be sensitive to the Lord's direction as we serve our community in this way and build new kingdom relationships.

SECOND: One of our wonderful supporters donated money so we could buy a BBQ! This seems to be a very popular way to entertain neighbors while establishing new friendships. A huge thank you to David & Brenda for their help in this key long term approach. Pray that God will lead us to the right neighbors and that our invitations will be well received. We'll keep you posted on progress in this area.

Third: We have had a professional photographer here at our house, who is a volunteer with ABWE. Jay York is from Sacramento, CA and has come at the request of our board to take high quality photographs of Ireland and some of the work going on here. Jay has done a great job, not only in taking pictures, but in teaching me how to take much better photos in the future. Please pray for Jay as he is facing some health challenges as well.

With today's spike in crude oil to over $140 per barrel I thought you might want to know about Petrol (gas) here in Ireland. First, there is only one grade of auto fuel sold, not the three grades as in America (diesel is also available). I believe it is about 91 octane or roughly the same as the top grade in the states. Second, petrol is sold by the litre, not by the gallon. There are 3.785 liters per gallon, so you have to multiple the 1.32 price times 3.785 to see how much a gallon would cost. Finally, you must convert the price from Euros into Dollars; so a gallon would cost 4.996 Euros. the exchange rate is 1.575 as of an hour ago. So, the 4.996 Euro price translates to $7.87 per gallon as of today.

I am so very thankful to the Lord for providing us with a little Renault Scenic that gets a little over 40 miles per gallon when driving on the road, and about 30 mpg in town. It's still expensive, but it would be twice as bad if we had a car that only gets 18 to 20 mpg!

This coming Monday, 9th June, we are having an interview with the organization that provides Guide Dogs for the Blind here in Ireland. We think this may be a good way to meet many new people in our estate (sub-division) as the Irish LOVE dogs, and they respect volunteers who help train these wonderful animals.

Prayer Point: We want to know the mind of the Lord as to whether or not 'Puppy Walking' would be a good thing for us to do. Also, our current lease states that we cannot have a pet - a guide dog is considered a 'working animal' but we weould still want our landlords' OK in order to move ahead. Thanks for praying - we keep you updated.