8 Years and a Virus

Today marks 8 years we’ve lived in Ireland!

It’s an odd St. Patrick’s Day. All parades and festivities have been cancelled. I can’t say we’re too upset with a quiet day at home as a family.

Here are a few updates for us and Ireland with all the craziness lately.

• First, we’re all safe and healthy, and yes…we have plenty of toilet paper. I know that was your primary concern.

• Ireland isn’t on a full lockdown, but most are working from home. Overall, it’s fairly calm. There’s a bit of panic shopping, but the shops are all handling things in stride and restocking daily.

• Katy is working hard to continue developing Zoe Community training. We’ve had to postpone physical training for the time being and are working to utilize Google Classroom so we can keep moving forward with the amazing volunteers signed up. I (Blake) am working on getting videos for lectures and lessons to upload for training purposes.

• All gatherings indoor gatherings over 100 people must cancel, as well as outdoor gatherings of over 500 people. Because of that, pretty much all church services and activities have cancelled.

• I have had great opportunities helping a couple of churches taking their services online to accommodate their church families continue gathering (digitally).

We want to thank you for your prayers and support. Together we will walk through this time and come out stronger on the other side!

Summer Support Raising

Sorry for the silence lately. We have been busy busy in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and soon Nashville. We are on a mini-tour raising money and seeing friends & family. We are able to be working in Ireland full-time thanks to over 100 churches, individuals, and companies who support us and pray for us as we pursue God’s call.

Please pray that we are able to raise all the money we need and make the most of our limited time with family. Thank you so much to all those who already pray and support us financially!

Fearless

God sees the way ahead before we could even imagine it. He makes it possible for us to dream bigger than what we can see and influence the generations to come. We can’t let fear stand in the way of such dreams. 

The vision for Zoe was birthed through multiple events. One in particular was a women’s conference in Ireland called “Fearless.” It was, I believe, the first ever large scale multi denominational women’s conference in this country. I had never been to a lot of women’s conferences, so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. 

The ads for Fearless started popping up around the time when I was terrified about taking Zoe public. I thought, “Maybe I should go to this conference. Nah.” Then, I unexpectedly ran into the lady organizing the entire thing. She put a ton of fliers in my hand and asked me to pass them out at my church. Reluctantly, I joined a bunch of ladies from St. Marks and we attended what I was certain would be full-blown feelings fest. Happily, I was wrong - the conference was amazing. 

The most surprising of all, though, was the fact that God interrupted my fearful questions and called me to get up and start working on Zoe. The main speaker was talking about the analogy of “passing the baton” to future generations. She then spoke prophetically, I believe to a few of us there: “There are children yet to be born who are counting on you to pass the baton to them.” 

That day, God lit a fire under me for the women and children of Ireland. His peace drove fear from my heart and gave me the courage to get started. Passing the baton is possible when he leads us on