SeaFest 2017

There seems to always be festivals going on in Galway. Honestly, we miss most of them! Some are just not very kid-friendly or cost too much (for us). One that we try not to miss is SeaFest. It is so much fun and Elisha loves it. You get to explore different ships and learn a lot about our very own Galway Bay. It is very interesting. This year it was even bigger than last year. You could easily spend all day here. There was a food tent (with cooking demonstrations), 4 ships you could explore, power boarders, different free sailings or kayaking you could book in for (we missed it!), kids crafts, face painting, and much more. It was fun last year and great again this year. We even saw the Taoiseach (the Prime Minister of Ireland) and a captain of one of the exploring ships (I was more awe-struck by the captain of the ship...  just imagining how much work he had to do to get to that position!). Here's a few pics of our day out.

Stephen's Visa

Attempting to get a visa is always a stressful thing, even if it is guaranteed (as it was in this case). You never know what the immigration officer may say to you, or want more information about. You are at their mercy, no matter what. There is a certain immigration officer in Galway that has no mercy whenever you meet with them, so we are always hoping that someone else would be there when we go in. We have our visas, but Stephen's passport was expiring, so his visa could only go as long as his passport was valid. Now that he has his new passport, we had to go back in to get it re-stamped for the current visa he is on. We were told last time that we would have to pay all over again for the same visa, and were prepared to do so. Stephen went in one morning this week and said it was really easy. Also, the immigration officer was very kind and said that he didn't think it was fair to have to pay again for the same visa! Hooray! We were very thankful for his kindness. 

Meeting Meghann

We had a really cool opportunity at the end of this month. One of our long-time supporters came to visit Ireland and we were able to meet her for the first time. Meghann had found our blog online just about before we moved to Ireland, felt connected to us and has been a faithful supporter of our ministry ever since. It was so cool to finally meet her after all of these years. She and her friend Abby were able to come to our house and we had lunch together and talked for quite awhile. We had such a nice time meeting the both of them. We also were able to show Meghann and Abby the church. They were very encouraging and we look forward to hanging out with them again.

Abby, Meghann, Stephen and I

New Intern- Ben McGue

Ben is a student at Johnson Bible College and is interested in perhaps moving to Ireland someday to church plant. We are glad to have him with us. He is a photographer, so we are planning on getting his expertise on some new photos for the website as well as pictures for an advent devotional book. Please be praying for him as his wife and two children (with another on the way) have stayed back in the States for the ten weeks he will be here.

English Lessons

Kayla Badger has now started teaching English as a second language at the church on Monday nights. She had one person come to the lessons on Monday. It is a woman from Italy. Kayla quickly improvised so her formal lessons became more conversational. She said they had a good chat and the woman seemed interested in all what is going on at the church. Very encouraging and exciting.