Ireland Update January 13, 2012

Hello all, Sorry it has been a couple of days since I last updated. We have been pretty busy around here. Monday was fairly busy. Michael took me out to see Blarney Castle early in the day. That was amazing, as it is one of the most famous places in the world. In fact, the Discovery Channel listed “kissing the Blarney stone” as one of the 99 things to do before you die. Later that day we did some street evangelism and had a bible study that evening with one of the Christians here in Cork.

Tuesday (the Irish pronounce it choos-day) we started off with a bible study with a couple from the church here and then spent the rest of the day at one of the universities nearby. We were set up with a table of free bibles and literature about the upcoming seminar we are doing.

This was an experience. We managed to give away perhaps a dozen bibles. Unfortunately, we got some resistance too. It is a little strange to have people laugh in your face when you ask if they would like a bible. Some were exceptionally rude but others were nice. Michael made me laugh as we offered a bible to one person and they said, “nah I’m good” to which Michael retorted, “but are you good enough?” Good question, and given the opportunity we would have explained that none of us are goo enough. Thank God for His amazing grace! We stayed at the university till dark and headed back home to the Connolly’s where Ramash is feeding us well. We drove up to Dublin on Wednesday. That is about a 2 ½ hour drive. We spent the entire day there. We went to two museums. One is the Chester Beatty library where several of the oldest papyri of the Bible (P45, P46, and P66 for the textual nerds out there) are housed. Unbelievable!

Following this we walked down to Trinity College (founded 1592) where they keep the Book of Kells, which is one of the great treasures of biblical manuscripts. I could write a great deal about the book but I won’t. If you want to know more “Google that stuff man.” That evening we met with the brethren in Dublin before driving back to Carrigaline where we arrived about midnight. Thursday I taught the brethren at the Connolly’s home. We are still trying to generate a great deal of interest for this seminar on Tuesday. Please pray that we will meet a lot of people and that the word will be spread. Thanks for reading and grace and peace and love to you all. - JC3