The Team

Another great week of #EdgmonTour15. I (Blake) finished off the final round of Light for the Lost steak dinner. I led worship and Katy spoke at Lawton First Assembly's youth and young adult combined services on Wednesday. I spoke at The Bridge AG's mens breakfast, which was attended by many minimum-security prisoners and teen challenge members. Sunday morning attended at New Life Church in Owasso. It was such a pleasure to connect with people and share about what God is doing in Ireland.

Of all the great moments this week, the highlight was spending time with our friends. These special friends...Rachel Reilly from Denver, CO and Daniel & Kelsey Collins from Chicago, Illinois...came all the way to spend 36 hours with us. These three will be joining the Students for Christ Ireland team as well as assisting various other ministries within Assemblies of God Ireland as soon as they raise their support.

Please pray they are able to raise their budgets quickly. God has placed it on their heart to serve in Ireland.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Here we go for another crazy week!

Family Weekend

Yet another busy week filled with meetings and visiting great churches. We visited Coweta AG, Carbondale AG in Tulsa, and Victory AG in Rattan. We also connected with pastors in the Tulsa area, the Beggs area, and the Spiro area. Many miles on the road, but all in all a great week. 

However, the highlight of the week was seeing family. My (Blake's) mom and sister flew in to spend the weekend on the road with us, which was super helpful and fun! We also had a wonderful time seeing cousins who came out to our service in Rattan. I also found out that my great grandparents helped start Victory AG a in a brush arbor revival. My family history is strong down in Southeast Oklahoma. It's always a special time for me to be down in that part of the state.

We are being blessed more and more everyday and growing closer to our needed budget for ministry. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Wanna Cuppa Tea?

Another busy week visiting many churches, pastors, and people. It was great but exhausting. Here's a fun little anecdote from our week.

We like to inject a little cultural knowledge into our talks to churches. It’s fun to talk about how, in Ireland, it’s a known fact that you shouldn’t accept a cup of tea straight away when someone offers.

Polite society dictates that you should wait until it’s offered again…usually not finally accepting until they offer a few times (or mention that they’re already putting the kettle on for themselves). As Americans, we just tend to say exactly when we do and do not want things. It seems so crazy now!

We’ve really had to work on the “I don’t want it” face when we are in situations where our sanity depends on a cup of tea or coffee but we must politely refuse. We know it will inevitably be offered again…but still. Our American nature does not have confidence in this yet and there is the element of risk. 

We mentioned this very bit of information in two separate churches this week and (no exaggeration) both pastors said this at the end of the service: “Should we do an offering?” They asked this question three times, expecting on the third go for everyone to shout “yes.” Of course, this happened, and everyone got a good laugh out of it. 

The mix of cultures is mad. We are having a lot of fun at each church we attend.