Ireland In 2006

I have finally decided after much prayer and consideration to go to Ireland next summer with my church. It has been interesting to see how everything came together to form my decision.

When my church first announced the mission trip to Ireland, I did not immediately feel called to go, as I had felt when I went to Uganda last September. As exciting as Ireland sounded and as much as I wanted to be called to go, I didn’t feel led to go yet at that time. It was really a struggle for me, because I wanted to feel called, yet I didn’t. I felt like God was saying “Trust Me; I know what’s best for you”. So I began praying to be called, and began trusting God to lead me to my decision. During the last couple months I have been overwhelmed with emotions and frustration, wanting to be called and not understanding why I wasn’t.

Through my prayer time I felt like God was telling me to completely trust Him with the present and future, and to remember all the times trusting Him in the past had never let me down. So I gave the decision to God. I said “God, as of right now I am going to focus on what you have for me right now. If you call me to go to Ireland then you do, but if not then there must be greater things you have for me here.” So that’s where I left it.

Not too long after my long chats with God, my pastor did a sermon series on totally relying on God and having “Active” faith. Putting faith into action was something I decided I needed to do. Not just trusting God with little things, but in all things. Faith without stepping out on a limb is not really faith, at least not active faith. So anyway I felt like God was speaking to me, and suddenly while I was in pray one Sunday, God called me to go to Ireland with my church.

I am looking forward to all God is going to do in the lives of people over there. Like the many times before that God has drastically changed the lives of people in Brazil and Uganda through ministry I am confident that he has even bigger things in store for the revival that I believe will take place in Ireland.

Before I felt called to go to Ireland I really thought that Ireland was a poor choice for a mission’s trip. I felt that it was mainly just a pretty country filled with people that were for the most part pretty well off, at least in contrast to Brazil and Uganda. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Come to find out although Ireland is not a poor nation or third world country, only a very small fraction even recognizes there is one true God. Over 90% of the population is Roman Catholic. Most people are not willing to even listen to the message of hope that we want to bring. God truly does have a sense of humor. If I knew all this before being called to go I would probably get scared out of going. God defiantly knew what He was doing.