Day 4 - Cliffs of Moher, Ennis, and Finding a New HBC Location

Matthew 18:11-14

11 - For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

12 - How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

13 - And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that [sheep], than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

14 - Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Cliffs of Moher (http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/)
How magnificent it was to see the majesty of God's creative handiwork! Words cannot express and pictures cannot fully represent the unbelievable sight of the cliffs. The highest point is approximately 702 feet and 5 miles long. There's are a few pictures at the bottom of this entry...

Ennis (http://www.ennis.ie/)
The town of Ennis is a neat and unique town. It is one of the few towns/cities that haven't widened some of the main roads, so the shops still have an old-style look and feel. It was very neat to take in the rich culture.

Finding a New HBC Place
Most of the content of the blog today I thought it would be best to devote to how we were able to secure a new location for the Holiday Bible Club.

• Miracle #1 - On the way to the Cliffs I received a call from Bob Hutton that we will now be having the HBC at the Mallow Youth Centre, which is the same location where Bob hosts all of his Sunday morning services (the Mallow Youth Centre is under the responsibility of one of the local Catholic churches). In the past this location was never available, but for some reason God had miraculously opened the door this year. Moreover, this may continue to open the door for us to host HBC there in the future! We will have a full-size gym, a small gym, and 3-4 rooms that we will be able to use... which for those that helped with the HBC last year will completely understand how much of a blessing it is to have SO much more room!

• Miracle #2 - Typically the Mallow Youth Centre rents just the small gym room for approximately 40 euros per hour, but they are allowing us to use the whole place for 4 days for only 50 euro a day!! The reason why we were given such a great rental cost is because of Bob's great reputation with them and, most importantly, that we are not charging the children to come to HBC (As a side note, Bob just so happened to include the fact we do not charge the children as the last sentence to his email to the people that run the Youth Centre... Wow! Imagine if Bob left out that unknowingly important detail!). 

• Miracle #3 - Now that we are changing locations, no one knows but us and a few of the other workers from Bob's church. How will we redirect the potential 70+ kids to a new location? It just so happens that Michael, a good friend of Bob's that was hired to drive from/to Dublin and to/from some of the sightseeing places we've visited, checked to see if he could help transport the children when/if needed. Michael got the okay, and it will only cost 50 euro a day!

Talk about God taking care of all the details! (Psalm 103) ...Moreover, there were several other blessings throughout the day on top of all these things. God is good!

Oh, and Ray's jacket and camera was found... :)

Evening Devotions: Compassion - Part 3
After reading through Psalm 103, we were challenged tonight to reflect on the fact that true compassion  is not with restraint (and remember the definition of "compassion" - it goes much deeper than just a feeling; compassion has the intent of being with someone in their suffering). At times, whether because of our own bias, preferences, or other feelings, we can hold back our ability to be compassionate towards anyone and everyone that may cross our path. We must always remember that even though we did not deserve it, God didn't withhold compassion towards us when he purchased our redemption and made a way of escape from the wrath we deserve (Jn 3:36)... So we ought to follow in the steps of our Saviour and have compassion on all