The Wicklow Way

I've always wanted to do a multiple day hill walk in Ireland or the UK.  When I lived in England a dozen years ago, I never had the opportunity to do one, so when we moved to Ireland last year I told myself that I would have to do several before its all said and done.  Last Thursday, Juli and Ashlyn flew to Kansas City to spend three weeks with Juli's family.  So this has presented me with the perfect opportunity for a multiple day hike.  I'm leaving out bright and early in the morning to trek my way through the forests, hills, mountains, and glens that are county Wicklow.  Lord willing I'll be back on Wednesday evening and I'll have some stories to tell. - Shay  

Climbing Croagh Patrick

This past weekend, the Smith family took a trip to County Mayo in the west of Ireland.  For the second consecutive time on a trip out west, we were bombarded with wet weather.  The forecast for Saturday was meant to be drier, but as we set out on a trek up Croagh Patrick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croagh_Patrick it became obvious that the forecast wasn't quite as accurate as we would have hoped.  About 250 feet up the mountain, Juli and Ashlyn (Ashlyn has a comfortable little backpack to be carried in) headed back for the visitor's cafe at the carpark, while I was determined to make it to the top.

About an hour later I was 2500 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, but for all I knew, I may as well have been on Jupiter.  The cloud cover, fog, and mist was so thick it felt like I had been hiking through a bowl of soup.  My shirt and wind pants were as wet as if I had taken a swim out in Clew Bay.  Needless to say, I didn't spend too long on top and quickly began my descent to the bottom.  As I passed a couple of lads from Kilkenny on their way up (I had passed them on my way up earlier), they asked me if I had taken time to say my prayers on the top.  I told that I had indeed offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord, but I hadn't lingered too long because of the rain.

Thankfully I made it back down with only a couple of slips and no injuries.  And I was even more grateful that Juli and Ashlyn had made it down without a fall. Meanwhile, the weather back in Dublin was sunshine and 75 degrees.  We may have missed one of the best days of the Dublin summer on our trip, but it was worth it to check one more place off our Irish bucket list. - Shay

 Beginning Croagh Patrick Trek

Daddy, are you sure about this?

Soupy view of the Atlantic

Yes, caps must be worn!

Traffic jam in Mayo

Reflections on Colossians 3

One of the great things about worshiping Christ in the context of a small Christian community in an organic setting like your home is that you are able to have a more inclusive and participatory gathering.  Often, when we meet in Balbriggan, Raheny, or Baldoyle, we'll share a discovery Bible study together.  With a DBS, we all take the time to write out word for word a short text from scripture before paraphrasing it and then writing down life application statements.  When the community comes together we share our reflections and the entire group is mutually encouraged to a greater understanding of God and his word and a more faithful response in our individual and corporate lives.

We've recently spent time in Colossians and I'd like to share some reflections that I gained from Paul's emphasis on our new lives lived in Christ's body.  Here's my paraphrase and some of my life application from Colossians 3:12-17.

Because we've been raised with Christ to new life (vs. 1) we are a part of God's family - his chosen ones.  We are loved by God and set a part for his purpose.  Since we've stripped off the sinful and selfish rags of our old way of living we are to get dressed up in God's finest new clothes.  We're to immerse ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  And since we're part of community, we don't just live for ourselves - we live for others and we put up with their garbage, just as they put up with ours.  Even if we rightly have an issue with a brother or sister in Christ, we are to forgive them because God knows the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven us of so much more!  We cannot do this without love.  Love allows us to live in the messiness of community life because it creates melody and harmony where there was simply noise and confusion.  Love unites and overcomes all of our human brokenness, so we must love above all else.  And if the peace and calmness of Christ flows through our lives and the lives of the entire community we can live and function as one body.  Thank God!!!  Live in gratitude.  May Christ's word not simply go in one ear and out the other, but may it permeate every fiber of our existence until it transforms us from the inside out.  We all have the responsibility to teach and at times even rebuke and correct each other.  This means that we must in humility be willing to learn from the whole community.  Instruction is always a two-way street.  God's wisdom arises in the context of community.  And when we respond to God's acts of salvation through singing or any other kind of worship - we do it out of a gracious response to our God who has done so much for us.  Whether through the Old Testament psalms, through the hymns of the ancient and modern church, or through any kind of music that puts us into contact with Christ's spiritual reality, we offer what we can to God.  In fact every single aspect of our lives should be nothing less than worship in the name of the Lord Jesus out of gratitude to God the Father.

It's not enough for me to simply strip off the old layers of sin and selfishness.  Full life in Christ calls me to put on a new set of clothes and these clothes don't fit without love acting as a belt to pull it all together.  Love God and love neighbor.  Community life is messy.  Living in community has taught me that so often I am not humble, meek, or patient.  Nor have I been as forgiving as I'm called to be.  I need to repent.  I need greater humility (seems like an oxymoron, eh?), meekness, and patience.

We've been called to one body.  In that body I am to let the peace of CHRIST RULE in my heart.  In that body we as a community are to allow the peace of CHRIST to RULE  in our collective hearts.  I need to let go of some things.  I cannot be a control freak and live faithfully in Christian community.  I need to trust Christ and his Spirit and his peace to work in other people's lives, just as I've seen them work in my life.  I need to trust Christ's community more.  I also need to make sure that I'm always open to learn from the community.

The last verse in this passage challenges me to make everything - every aspect of my life an intentional worship and missional activity.  Everything I do should be infused with an understanding of Christ's Lordship and be done as an extension of Christ's mission.  Everything I do should be done as a gracious response to what God had done for me in Christ. - Shay     

Nearly a Year In

I should probably wait for another two weeks to post this, but I just realized that Juli, Ashlyn, & I have lived in Dublin for 50 weeks.  Two weeks short of a year and the North Dublin Smith family couldn't be any happier.  By far, this has been the fastest year of my life.  It seems like yesterday that we were selling our possessions, packing up our stuff, saying goodbye to our loved ones in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and boarding a plane for the adventure of a lifetime.  Now, here we are nearly a year in.

A lot of things have happened in these 12 short months.  We've met many new friends, volunteered hundreds of hours, launched two new (small) worshiping communities on the north side of the city, welcomed a new brother into the Christian family, shared our faith with many who are seeking God, mentored fellow brothers and sisters into stronger leadership roles, and are in the process of laying the foundation for further opportunities.  The Spirit is at work in this place and we are simply joining God in the work where it's already happening.

Over the next 50 weeks I'll continue to update this blog with stories of life and faith and hopefully I can convince Juli to write a few too or to at least post a few pictures! - Shay  

One of 40 Million

They say that 40 million Americans trace at least some of their ancestry back to Ireland.  I'm one of 'em.  Juli (and obviously Ashlyn) are two more of them.  It wasn't until a few years ago that Barack Obama (or is it O'Bama?) discovered that he has Irish roots as his great, great, great grandfather Falmouth Kearney originated from the small town of Moneygall in county Offaly.  Today my President came home and met some of his distant cousins including his 8th cousin Henry Healy (or is it Henry the VIII?).

A few years back my first cousin, Johnny Smith traced my dad's side of the family back to Ireland through at least two lines.  One of my ancestors, Matthew Wallace came from Raphoe, in county Donegal.  Another one of my ancestors, John Smith (also my dad's name - quite original, eh?) came from the north of Ireland.  I've not located the exact location of John Smith's origins, but I have been to Raphoe (a tiny little village between Donegal town and Derry) a couple of times and spent the night there in a quaint little B&B. 

Before President Obama spoke to a throng of thousands upon thousands of enthusiastic Irish well wishers, Taoiseach Enda Kenny introduced him to the crowd and then invited the other 39,999,999 to follow the path of their President back home to the emerald isle.  Based on our conversation 3 months ago in Galway, Taoiseach Kenny should have remembered that he only need invite 39,999,997 because 3 of them are already here. - Shay


 

Iron Sharpens Iron

Craig and Merschon Hutson, Scott Karnes, and I just got back from Sheffield, England last night where we attended the house party, a church planting seminar put on by The Crowded House.  TCH is a collection of gospel communities whose focus is to live out the realities of the gospel in all its glory as well as all its messiness by sharing life together in small house based groups and by intentionally living their lives with a missional focus.  Presently, TCH consists of 9 gospel communities in Sheffield, 4 in Loughborough, England, and several more in formation, scattered around the world.  The four of us and 5 others from England and Romania spent several days observing and participating with these communities as they engaged in mission through their natural rhythms of life.  We experienced a lot and learned much from those experiences.  Once we have a couple of days to process what we saw we plan to figure out how what we learned might be useful to us here in Dublin.  As iron sharpens iron, so one church planting initiative sharpens another! - Shay

A Dying Danish Church

The Smith family arrived back in Dublin on Friday.  We had an amazing 10 day trip to the UK and Denmark and were able to experience some of the sights and sounds that my grandfather and grandmother did 66 and 87 years ago respectively.  It was great to visit the old American airbase near Bury St. Edmunds where my granddad was stationed in WWII.  Many buildings at the base are still standing and have been turned into a museum. 

Unfortunately, the house and barn my grandmother's family used to own near Gelsted, Denmark were torn down about 2 years ago.  We stayed in a house only 10 minutes walk from her old farm and though some things had changed, a lot had remained the same.  One thing that has definitely changed in Denmark is the religious climate.

In most rural areas the people are more religious than in urban areas.  If that's the case in Denmark, then the Danish state-funded Lutheran Church is dying, if not already dead.  We were able to worship at the parish church my grandmother was Christened in some 92 years ago and if it weren't for the priest, the organ player, and 3 teenage girls recruited to sing in the "choir", there would not have been any Danish people present under the age of 70.  In fact, there were only a handful of elderly people there and most of them had been bussed in from a local nursing home.  After worship Juli asked the girls if any young people ever attended church.  "No", they replied.  "What about families, do they ever attend?"  "Never", the girls responded.  It would have been a rude question to ask, but I have a strong premonition that if the girls had not been recruited to sing in the choir, they wouldn't have been in the church that Sunday either. 

Denmark is leading Europe's secular parade and it won't be long until other European countries have as little religious fervor as Scandinavia.  But thankfully, Denmark's story isn't complete and there is hope that there may be revival in the future, if only in small numbers (who am I to doubt the power of God...maybe there will be a revival in big numbers?).  A friend of mine in Dublin did mission work in Denmark over 30 years ago and he said that it wasn't known as Europe's spiritual icebox for nothing.  God bless the work of those whom he may send in the years to come.  And for those of us engaged in Christ's Kingdom work in other parts of Europe or North America, visiting Denmark is a good reminder that the work we do may be the difference between spiritual life and spiritual death for many individuals, if not entire nations. - Shay