A Trip 14 Years in the Making

I met Jim Carroll, the rector of the All Saints Church of Ireland located in Raheny, the north Dublin suburb Juli and I lived in from 2010-2015, in a local coffee shop back in 2012.  Jim noticed that I was reading a Eugene Peterson book and so he immediately struck up a conversation and when he learned that I was a fellow pastor, he gave me a tour of the beautiful All Saints building and invited me to be the guest speaker at their Harvest Sunday worship service.  In October of 2012, I spoke at the event and a couple of years later, Ashlyn enrolled in the Springdale National School which is run by the All Saints parish.  I continued a friendship with the new rector, Reverend McCausland, when Jim retired, and I have since come to know, albeit only briefly, Kevin Ronne, the current All Saints rector.

Through this relationship with the good people of All Saints, Ashlyn's youth group will partner with this Raheny parish to run a Holiday Bible Camp from July 27-30.  I will be arriving in Dublin tomorrow and the youth group and some other adult sponsors will be arriving on Saturday.  It will be good to be back in bubblin' Dublin and it will be fantastic to reconnect with so many friends and loved ones in Ireland's fair capital city.  I plan to update this blog daily over the next 10 days or so to capture at least some of the shenanigans the group gets up to.  Who could have imagined that a "chance" meeting in a coffee shop 14 years ago could continue to be so fruitful?!!! - Shay