National Ploughing Championships

To the majority of my American readers.... "ploughing" is our word for "plowing." Like ... farming.

If you want to read a report I wrote about the Ploughing Championships, you can download it here.

Don't forget you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Over 190,000 people attended

Everyone wore "wellies" (rainboots).
And by everyone, I mean everyone.
Even men in business suits!

So many good samples! 

Prime place to see stereotypical old Irish farmers.

Baptist Association tent whom we partnered with

Ashley and Colm serving tea and sweets

Seong Bok and I trying out the face paint

a picture is worth a thousand words.

... and that's why I have a lot of photos this time. Because to describe everything would take about 400,000 words.

Before I get into the scenic photos of Ireland that everyone sees in coffee table books or calendars at Barnes&Noble, I wanted to give you a little taste of what every day looks like for me.

Here's my office. I was sitting at my desk when I took this photo. Whoever is doing finances for the day, sits at the desk in the left hand corner (on this day, it happened to be Julianne). And the right hand desk is my overseer, Alastair's desk. You can see him in the nook of our office rather than his desk chair.

The OM Ireland family, when we're all together, consists of about 80 people. 80 divided by 12 ... let's see ... that would put us at an average 6-7 birthday's a month. We're always celebrating something. This particular birthday was Anna's 21st, and we hosted it at my house.


The next set of photos are from a 3-day trip up to county Donegal.  I went up there to do some training with a woman who is passing the torch to me. On Saturday we got to do a little sightseeing, so I thought I would share these pictures with you so you can say (like I said, as I stood on top of a mountain) "Ah, now this is Ireland!" (reminder, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

moments of a month gone by...

I realize that it has been almost a month since my last post. Meaning, I've been here for over a month! Can you believe it? I can't.  I've been to Germany, Holland, and managed to settle into Ireland. It seems like it should be longer, but it has felt like days. I guess that's a good thing, right?

My first assignment at work was to design a magazine that OM Ireland puts out twice a year. (well, they're supposed to, but since they were lacking in the communications department, the last one came out a year ago.) So I was given all the articles and told to lay them out in an 8 page spread. Here's a sample of what my finished product looks like:

The morning I got the final "it's good to be printed!" from the printer, I hopped on a plane for Holland. OM has a conference called the GO conference for people who are joining OM (anywhere in the world) for 1+ years. 

The GO conference was amazing. There were people from all over the world going all over the world. And all with the same message of Jesus' love. Again I was blown away by how global our God really is, but at the same time, how personal He is. One of my favourite things about he conference was getting to hear how God had called everyone to missions in a personal way to them. 

Holland, not gonna lie, looks a lot like Indiana. Cornfields, driving on the right side of the road, flat... but Holland is not Indiana. 

First of all, sprinkles are a normal part of a Dutchies balanced (or, not so balanced) breakfast. and dinner. Every household has a large box (or two) of sprinkles. You can get chocolate or fruit flavoured. I prefer the chocolate because the fruit ones tasted like Pez. 

Second, in an Indiana field, you would not see windmills. 

Third, you would not have markets with miles of gummies. 

And, lastly, the thing that America is greatly missing out on, is the wonder called stroopwafels. These little guys are so good. So, they come in packs of 10, and it's two thin little waffles stuck together with a cinnamon sugar syrup substance. But after being packaged, everything is hard. While they are good on their own, the secret is to place them on top of a mug of hot tea or coffee (and they are perfectly sized for this very act) and the hot steam melts the cinnamon sugar syrup substance, making your stroopwafel a warm, gooey delight. 

Now that I'm back from Holland, I'm here to stay for awhile. At least until Christmas. :)