up down and around Wicklow

Yesterday was a rather pink day. I looked back on some of the photos and it seemed that pink was in nearly every one. After an early start of dropping the team from last week at the airport, a bit of paperwork, and a meeting with the leaders of the team here this week, Martha (DCM family worker), Carol, Helen and I got into the car for a day out of the city. Carol has been with us since September but has never seen the campsite. Helen is visiting Carol from my home church in Canada. It was the perfect opportunity to head down to Wicklow. We stopped at the gate leading down the lane way to camp. I forgot to ask about the keys so we just hopped the fence and made our way down to the very empty camping area. The sun was bright and beautiful - blue, blue skies! After a picnic lunch and a bit of a look around Carol suggested we pray for the camps. While my skin was absorbing a little too much sun for its liking we took our time praying for the campsite, the leaders, the campers, and the staff.

In the early hours of the morning yesterday (not a usual time for me to be up) I had read in Zechariah 2:

"Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. And I myself will be a wall around it," declares the Lord, "and I will be its glory within."

We prayed for miracles in the lives of all people who will be down - the kind that can only come if God's glory is with us (I was a little suprised with myself when I realised that I considered us having enough drivers and cooks for camps more of a miracle than people being set free from deep set fear and bondage ... hmmm ... maybe I need to pray for drivers and cooks with a little more faith).

The rest of the day we journeyed some new to me narrow, hairpin cornered, steep roads between our destinations of Avoca Town, Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, and Johnny Foxes Pub. It was a beautiful day on so many levels.

AVOCA

 

 

KILMACURRAGH BOTANIC GARDENS

then came Haggai

I sat down to a lovely breakfast and a bit of Haggai (one of those minor prophets). I am waiting on themes of justice and mercy but was pulled up short by the second verse of the first chapter ... and the ones following it.

This is what the Lord Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house.'"

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." (ummm ... sounds like a lot of conversations I have been a part of - "I just don't have enough")

This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I might take pleasure in it and be honoured," says the Lord. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house."
~ Haggai 1:2-9

This word wasn't for the whole earth - it was for the people who called God "Lord". Jesus established that his people are the temple, the place where God lives and makes his home. I was really challenged because these verses are completely opposite to what even Christian cultures teach us, as if God cares more about financial and educational wealth in our homes more than he cares about the living, breathing, live-giving, freedom fighting, grace-offering, justice-seeking, Christ-looking/loving church. Looks like my day will be approached from a slightly different perspective than I originally intended.

community fundraiser

Home and hoping that all the sugar I ate this evening won't keep me up ALL night! Tonight these lovely ladies put on a bake sale in DCM. My role in the evening? Buy cakes and eat them with a cup of coffee ... mix and mingle with the community. Since 2009 when we took our Junior Leaders to Belarus, there have been several groups that have gone on mission/service trips to different countries. The community has gotten used to the idea of their young people raising money to go and serve others. This year one of my colleagues had a vision to bring this group of girls to the States to serve a community that has so often served us. Tonight was their bake sale fundraiser. Cakes were coming out of our ears at the start of the evening and just seemed to be coming in more and more. Thankfully, people kept coming as well! I was able to just sit and catch up with different families that I haven't been able to have proper chats with in what seems like ages. The girls did such a fantastic job! Can't wait for their next bake sale.

there is always enough time in the day

You might as well call May the month of teams! The last two weeks we had a team from California working with our moms and girls. They are amazing women and have come several times in the spring. They see the goodness of God in the lives of the women they have met over the years. Yesterday morning the Roberts Wesleyan Team arrived. They have come consecutively for the past five years. It is always this week in May. We can count on them to serve wholeheartedly and be willing for anything! Next week another team arrives - the last team before camps begin. Meanwhile, the practical details of camp are getting sorted - forms, schedules, speakers, drivers ... It feels like I have hardly been on the ground with kids much lately. It is easy to get bogged down in the never ending list of things to do during the two months leading to camp.

To be honest, I don't think that it matters if it is tasks or relationships that are the focus of the moment. Those aren't the two sides that pull against each other. Those are preferences and appropriate balance. The real pull is keeping our eyes set on why we are doing those. We don't run clubs and camps for the sake of having a tidy programme as do-gooders in the community. We do these things because God loves the world. We do them because he wants to bring people back into the perfect family relationship with him - being restored to who they were intended to be. That's the why. That is what is easy to loose track of. When we loose track of him we also loose track of what is important in the moment, whether it is the things to do or the people to be with. He knows the time we have in a day. He knows the needs. It is arrogance to think that we don't have enough time to do what he is asking in the moment. If we are crunched for time that usually means that we weren't listening at some time or another (my hand goes up here because that is me).

In Habakkuk I read today: Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. ~ Habakkuk 3:2

This is what we really want in the coming months - we want God to repeat his powerful salvation and restoration. Now to keep my eyes on him ...

rhubarb and ginger jam

Rhubarb - it seems to be the only thing that is guaranteed in a garden (if you are not a great gardener!). On Saturday myself and a few of the DCM ladies went to visit the garden to see what needed to be done. This year, I have decided on roundup to kill the weeds in there. We also took a few detours around Meath while visiting gardening shops. There are always lovely jams and chutneys at these shops. They reminded and inspired me again to try making rhubarb and ginger jam. I grabbed a small bundle of rhubarb before heading home on Saturday. Yesterday I picked up the remaining few things I needed and set to work.

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam
(adapted from here)

1 kg rhubarb pieces (no more than 2cm in length)
1 kg jam sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
100 g ginger, peeled and finely grated

Combine everything in a bowl, cover with a bit of cling film and let it sit for 2 hours ... mine sat for 4 because I was at a friends house for Sunday tea. Stir occasionally.

Put 1-2 small plates in the freezer (to test the jam later) - I have seen Helen do this. Transfer the whole rhubarb mixture into a large pot. Heat at medium. Keep stirring until it boils. Stir at a rolling boil (one that doesn't go away when stirred) for 10-15 min.

Test it by putting a small amount (less than a teaspoon) onto one of the frozen plates. Let it sit for 30 seconds. If it sticks and doesn't run when tilted sideways and you can push it with your finger and it bunches up then it is ready. If it doesn't, boil for a couple more minutes then try again.

Remove from heat. Wait a couple of minutes and then pour into sterilized jars. Seal right away. I sterilized the jars in the oven. I used Kilner jars and lids.

oh Jonah, I am so glad I can learn from you

Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” ~ Jonah 4:6-11

Over the past week I have been revisiting the some of the books of the Bible that we call the minor prophets. If I ever doubt God's justice or his mercy all I really need to do is make my way through one in very short order. Yesterday I read chapters 3&4 in Jonah. A couple of things really struck me. The first is how much I can be like Jonah - after being faithful in what God has asked of me I assume that I have a right to the comfort he gives me as if it is a well earned pat on the back. I don't want to become like Jonah where I would feel so strongly about the "rewards" of my obedience that I get angry with him if he takes away something he gave as a blessing. I want a thankful heart. The second thing is God's compassion for people. He had sent a message of doom and gloom to Nineveh because of what they were doing. Jonah had some cheek complaining about how God showed such mercy to people who were deserving of anger and wrath (a common problem for many of us - the cheek we have to complain about God's mercy towards others while forgetting that he has shown the same to us). God has compassion because he is compassionate, not because we earn it. It is in his character. We don't have a right to be angry about his compassion.