"September Start Up" ...

Its that time of year again ... we like to call it - "September Start Up"! All of our ministries have begun, and time is already flying by ... can you believe I have already started "planning" for Christmas events ... scary! Our youth club began last Saturday ... we had 11 lads! Emma and I were very out-numbered, probably to Joel's delight :0)

Last Friday, our "Explore Club" started up with a "Back to School Bash". We had "classes" for them in: Art, Geography, P.E., and"Break time". There were 15 boys and girls, and a few regulars couldn't make it. This year we are doing something different. We are holding club every Friday night, and splitting the group up. Two Fridays a month will be for the "Senior Explorers" (3rd class -5th class), and the alternate Fridays will be for the "Junior Explorers" (Jr.Infants - 2nd Class). Needless to say, we are very glad that when we first arrived in Ireland, we purchased smaller and fairly light-weight pieces of furniture! Yes, we continue to hold both youth club and children's club in our home. We will be continuing to search for a local venue for the Explore Club to eventually move to.

This September we finally had all of our team back together again here in Ireland! Bryce & Carolyn and Nathan & Abigail & Jonothan returned to us from home assignment in Canada on August 18th, and Lee also returned that day from home assignment in the U.S.A. His wife, Joanne, returned on the 1st of September after spending some additional time in the U.S.A caring for her parents.

Earlier this month, Joel and I were invited to Westside Baptist Church in Bandon to teach at their start up "mini-camp" for their children's ministry called "Adventure Club". I (Chris) taught the main lessons and Joel taught the memory verses. Still not sure how he managed to get me to agree to that one?! :0) We taught the children three things about God: 1. God is our "Creator", 2. God is our "Saviour", 3. God is our "Father". We had a great time there and brought Emma with us for the first two days. She had an absolute ball! I am now fairly confident that by the time she is 3, she will be well ready and able for playschool. In fact, she already asks if "Emma go school?" ... oh boys!

For those of you wondering when our next prayer letter will arrive ... soon, we hope :0) We have had a rough start to this coming year of ministry due to: illness, computer crashes (resulting in having to purchase a new one ... *groan), and trying to still start everything on time ... whew! Hopefully this blog post will catch you up a bit until then :0)