Skerries.

This was definitely a summer of firsts for our team. But perhaps the most notable, and certainly the most exciting, is that this was the first summer RS has had a team do ministry in the Republic of Ireland. All past teams have done ministry in Northern Ireland, and they've traveled through the Republic, but we finally broke ground in Ireland and it was awesome.

The Royal Servants were involved in a 3-day Holiday Bible Club here, Monday-Wednesday, and that was so much fun to watch our team interacting so well with the youngsters. I even formed a friendship with one of the young guys, Daniel. He was 7 and extremely rambunctious, but we got along quite well. His family was a member of the church we were working with, and according to his older sister, when they got home Daniel wouldn't stop talking about his new friend Shaggy (because I look like an animated hippie who solves mysteries).

On Friday night we went all out. In partnership with Skerries Cornerstone Church we had a BLOCK PARTY. About 50 students came out and we had games of both football and american football going, we had groups just hanging out and talking. That's what a lot of our ministry was: half getting involved with the youth in sports and half engaging them in conversations. After filling everyone's bellies with grilled burgers and hot dogs, we sent our performance teams up. This was by far the most challenging performance of their summer. Elsewhere whenever anyone watched our performance they were interested and respectful. However, on this night we had some very loud and obnoxious guys making fun of our dances and drama throughout. And that makes me HAPPY. because it reminded our team that ministry is not always easy. and then when we had some of those obnoxious people interested in conversations about Christ afterwards it was SO rewarding. That block party was a massive success.

Ireland has been fantastic. Now we go on to London for debriefing.