More visits from Dublin folk

Had a great time with Paddy and Stan. It was so nice to have them down to visit and share in our lives for the weekend. We miss them already now they've gone back : (

We've put up some more pics so you can check them out. Andy and Naomi are coming down thursday for the Grace church weekend away, so that'll be cool. The week ahead is busy with leaders training on wed eve with grace leaders and we're having dinner before hand all together as well so we're looking forward to that. We're meeting in the new Christian cafe, they're keeping it open for us and making dinner for us too. It's great to be able to support them by having our meeting there and it's so central for everyone to get to. We have the Grace church weekend away so there's lots to get ready for that as we're putting a youth programme together for the weekend and we meet with the church leaders tomorrow to look over everything. Appreciate your prayers, we're quite tired this week.

Happy Days!!

Well we have our first visitors to our new house. Paddy and Stan (our leaders we trained in City Gates) are coming down from Dublin. We are really excited about having people staying in our new home. We had Andy and Naomi in the house in the city but this is the first time we have people staying in "our house" . We have to say that this week has been really hard as we feel quite lonely this week. It's certainly not from lack of family and people around us but we were watching the parade on TV and got a bit teary eyed seeing our old home.

On a brighter note though we had our college group last Sunday night, so we had 2 nts last week with them. We are so encouraged by this group. We had 12 people in our house and we looked at the whole book of Job in one evening. Everyone was really encouraged as they said they had never looked at a whole book in one session before, but we all came encouraged and left encouraged. God is cool the way he brings us all on one the path at different seasons.

We've really been spending time growing the relationships with the youth leaders we're training at Grace church. It's been really cool just spending a lot of one and one time with people and really getting to see their hearts and how God has a plan for each one of them. It really is such a privilege to be part of people's lives and see how God is stretching them and growing them. We do miss our bunch in Dublin though. But we know God is starting something big down here as well.

Long overdue...

Ok guys we've just put up some pics of our time since we left in Feb so hope you enjoy. There are 3 sets 1) Our new home 2) Andy & Naomi visit Cork and 3) Adjusting to Cork life, so be sure to check it out when you get into www.flickr.com/alexandlinda/sets

Finally moved in, Happy Days.

Thanks for your patience, it has been a crazy few days this last week, firstly we got the keys on tuesday afternoon and began to load our stuff into the new house, when we got a call saying the banks had delayed the electronic transfer of our money and that we would have to take all our stuff back out of the house and drop back the keys.

We prayed hard and got a call back later that day to say the money was good and we could move in for real this time. The house ROCKS, WE LOVE IT!!! lots of space and it is warm, something were not used to. Smoochie has been slowly getting used to her new home and ventured outside for the first time today.

Youth stuff is going well and it is encouraging to see the group growing closer together, leaders and teens. We had our first parents eve the other night and it seemed to go well, with lots of encouragment and support for Youth work in grace.
College group is going great with 27 people turning up last monday night with 10 regurlars missing, we are already having to look for a new venue. I am preaching on sunday in Ballincollig and am prepping talk today.

Well fun times ahead as we decorate the house and unpack all those boxes. AAAGGGHHHHHH!!!

Hope this post finds you all well and we miss you guys all alot, praying for each of you, love Alex and Linda, oh and the reinstated SMOOCHIE:':

So sorry, keep being patient

We are so sorry we haven't had much update on our blog at all recently. But we've had no internet and there's been lots happening with trying to move etc. THe great news is we moved in late this afternoon (tues) and now finally have a home!!! We are really excited about being able to have a home to share together and with each other. It's exciting to think about what we can do now in having people over to stay, visit and just hang out. Still lots of stuff to move into the house. Lots of boxes to try and unpack and have fun in trying to buy furniture still but it's all good times and God has been so faithful to us. He gave us our home. We will get a proper update on here soon. Thanks for being understanding. Talk soon.

Update as promised.

Hi there, well were just back from an amazing weekend in Kilkenny. There we enjoyed God’s presence with 370 teens and leaders, and even did a bit of teaching on stage which was a first for us at an event like this. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the bungee run and surfboard simulator which we hired went down a storm. It was great to meet old and new friends and to see all the gang from City Gates again.

On Monday we said goodbye to the bus heading for Dublin and also one going to Cork which was a little strange. I had planned out my route home in my head, how to avoid any traffic on the n7 and then realised I was going to Cork. It will take a little while I guess for the reality to sink in.

On the house front things are looking up for us. We got our money for our house through and today we are signing contracts for our new home in Glanmire please God. All going well we have a closing date of march 3rd. We have had great help from a good friend Don O Sullivan who has helped us out with all things planning and council wise and this has been a blessing. It is weird to see all the money in our bank account and to realise that in 2 weeks it will almost all be gone again, but at least we will have a place to call our own again and be able to finally unpack our stuff. Everything has been boxed since last may.

More good news as my friend Rob who had a brain tumour removed is making a complete recovery, walking, talking and still has his quirky sense of humour which is great. He had a six operation to remove the tumour and his wife says he looks like an extra from the movie mad max, but he is doing great and will go home tomorrow.

Anyway that's all the news for now, pictures to follow in the next couple of days. Alex and Linda.

Update coming soon .......

Boxes, boxes and more boxes

Well we have just under a week to go and I think we're half way through boxing and cleaning the house. It seems endless. Amazing how much rubbish you can collect over the years. But everything seems to be going well. We will definatly be out by the 1st of Feb and we had our survey report back from the surveyor yesterday so all looks good to go on the Cork front. Just waiting on contracts and a date.

We're really encouraged and can finally say WE'RE MOVING for real this time. We also have teenstreet Ireland coming up so do keep that in your prayers as they are 298 signed up at the moment and we have lots of planning still to work out. we just can't get our heads to think past all the moving and what we have to do now with the house. So would value your prayers from the 1st - 9th so we can get prepared for teenstreet and that God will really give us his ideas and thoughts for the weekend in what he wants us to get across to the teens. We'll update you as soon as we move to Cork. Thanks again for all your support.

Alex & Linda xo

Hot off the press!!!

Hey there rejoice with us, contracts are finally signed and were good to go, praise God. Also we thought that a house we loved in Cork had sold but upon checking we have found out that we are now in the running for the house. We will put a deposit on it on monday. Our house now has to be cleared outby the 1st of feb, so pressure is on.

In other news things are going well in Grace with programme planned out till may and the college group starting again on monday night.

We are very excited right now, but would greatly appreciate your continued prayer as we have to move, buy, teen st and all the other stuff in Cork right now. Thanks again love Alex and Linda.

Hello from Cork

Hey oh my goodness things have been so up and down over the last few weeks. The house stuff has really gotten on top of us but God has kept us sane and has been so faithful. The solicitor called today to say that the buyers have finally signed the contracts to seal the deal for the 10th of Feb. We're just hoping now that it will go through this time but there's no more planning issues praise God.

On the Cork front we arrived down Monday evening and had a long meeting at Grace yesterday from 9.30-3pm. It was good though talked about a lot of stuff like different roles, the youth and the how we're looking forward in regards to growth and development. Tom also asked Alex if he would be interested in being trained to preach!!! He was nervous but delighted at the challenge. Tom told him they wouldn't throw him in the deep end but would start him in on Tuesday evenings at their bible study evenings which on a quiet night there's between 70-80 but on an average night there's 100-140. Hehe had to laugh when I saw his face then but I think it's great the opportunities that are opening for him. So we went to the bible study to get a feel for it last night and really enjoyed it.

Today we met with Ciara one of the youth leaders we're training and had fun planning out the main leaders meeting for tomorrow night. For our next week we'll be meeting with youth leaders, teaching discipleship groups, teaching our 2nd meeting with the college age group we started and going to youth groups to help out. As well as this we are getting ready for teenstreet Ireland and planning a lot of stuff for it so we value your prayers at this time that we can wisely manage everything. We'll update you soon as things progress. Thanks for checking in on us. We really appreciate your support, prayer and friendship.

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Five years is a long time in anybody's life, whether you saved an ssia or perhaps supported a crap football team like Newcastle United, five years is a long time alright.

The funny thing is that the last five years have flown by so fast and that's because I am totally in love with my beautiful wife more than when we first started going out FIVE years ago today,

SO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!!

New Year ahead

Hey everyone,

Just thought we would give you a little update. Things are at a stand still with our house so it's a little frustrating as we are in limbo as we wait. We're having a few problems with planning issues etc. In the meantime we are getting ready for the new year ahead. We are putting together some talks and programmes for leadership training while also preparing our review and revamp for presentation to Grace leadership. We value your prayers at this time as we have a lot going on as well as Teenstreet Ireland organizing in the background. Teenstreet Ireland is happening on the 9th of February. Happy New Year to all. God bless. We will update again soon, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Alex & Linda

Have a blessed Christmas!!

Hey everyone just wanted to say have a great and blessed time with each other over Christmas. We're going to be spending time with family and friends, really looking forward totime off and just chats with many people. We've had a leaders meeting with the Grace leaders last thursday evening and had a brill time of just openess and honesty for all of us.

We then drove to Wexford to hang out with Alex's mum and aunt and some friends. Really had a good a time with them and we just drove from Wexford today to head back to family in Cork. So just a nice time of relaxing and family stuff. May God bring His peace to your home this Christmas, lots of love Alex and Linda.

Update

Well we got a phone call today to say that the contracts have been provisionally signed pending a few enquries. But the solicitor says there should be no problems. So God willing all will work out, but we're quite excited about the fact that the contracts have been finally signed. Thanks for remembering us and continuing to pray for us we'll keep you posted. Also still waiting to see if our offer will be accepted by the people for the house in Cork.

Correction

We found out that it is actually the buyer and not the solicitor that is causing all the hassle. He is being really strange about things and is holding everything up for no real concrete reason. We've even heard that he is questioning the "garage conversion" that we don't even have. So please pray that they stop messing around and sort the deal out. We hope to hear from them tomorrow.

Still waiting ......

Just to update you on the house situation. Still waiting on news back about our contracts we don't know what the hold up is really about as the buyers want to push through the deal asap as well but the solicitor seems to be holding it up. It's just all really strange. Also we have put our final offer in for the house in Cork and the owners are getting back to us on Monday or Tuesday after he has done his figures. So it's all very much still up in the air. So please keep praying. We'll let you know as soon as anything happens.

Back in Dublin

Hey there, were back in the BIg smoke and the traffic really sucks. 7km tail backs wont miss that for sure. I oficially hate the M50. Today we put in a real/final offer on the house in Cork and are waiting on their thoughts. So please pray with us as we are waiting on the Lord for clear direction.

Also there may be a problem with a planning issue on our house which could become a problem. It is a bit hard to swallow as we didn't see it coming and it is a silly issue. So please pray that the sale will go through here and that this issue will not materialise into something big.

We have started boxing the house and it is a bigger job than we first realised, at least we have time.

Today was very hard as we said goodbye to our great friends the Steiners who are heading back to the States and we won't see them for a long time. We were very close and had an emotional time at the Airport this morning.

Thanks for keeping an eye on us, and for praying for us as we continue to follow the Lord's will for our lives.

Praise His name for a great time of fellowship and ministry over the last week in Cork

House is gone

Ok the house in Glanmire is gone and we were gutted. Really sad it went but we're going to put an offer in on one tomorrow, so please pray that if this is the one that it will work out. The agent we are dealing with is really odd and quite rude at times, so it's going to be fun trying to bargain prices with him. So we really need prayer for confidence and courage with him and that if this house isn't the one then we will know quickly rather than having it dragged out. We need to find somewhere to live sooner rather than later. This house by the way was the one out of the two we had narrowed it down to, so it's our last choice we have at the moment. After this it's back to the drawing board.

In Cork again

Hey sorry we haven't updated since the last one but a lot has happened since then. Alex got sicker and ended up in hospital all day monday but thank goodness and of course thank God that prayers are being answered and Alex has gotten so much better. He feel to the floor monday with pain and when we took him in they gave him blood tests, x-rays and other tests to see if it was galstones and try to figure out what was causing all the pain. In the end stocked with plenty of painkillers and a referal to the the physio we were off home again. Was so good that he didn't have to stay overnight. It was great to have him back home. Turns out that while they were convinced he had gal stones after a few hours they then determined that he just had severe backpain brougth on by back spasms. I don't know but it sure didn't just look like back pain but we're really grateful it's now not as serious.

On a brighter note we traveled down to Cork on wed and viewed a house. Not convinced it's the one but there was one that we had fallen in love with back in Sept but when we called back about it we were told it was sale agreed and no longer available. But yesterday we drove by it and saw it was still for sale but was being sold by two agents so we called the other one and they said it was still open for offers but was almost at sale agreed. We couldn't believe the other agent shafted us. So we are awaiting the couple to come back to the agents so we can find out if we still have a chance to make an offer. So apart from all that waffling the bottom line is PLEASE pray that if this is the house that we will get it, even though it seems slim now. But God is in control and we know that but would be nice if we knew we had somewhere to move into in January. Would just take so much stress off us.

Ministy wise we just came back from a training time with the youth leaders at Grace. We had a great evening with them and talked about the importance of building relationships with the teens as well as with each other and of course God. It was really encouraging to see them all back tonight and as eager as ever. We are also trying to arrange a missions trip with them all next June to Kenya so praying and looking at that. So ya we were quite excited about tonight and after the last two weeks as hard as they were it was so nice to be with the leaders again tonight. Funny also that we heard that some of our leaders down here have also been having a battering and someone has been having a field day in trying to twart their ministry. So would appreciate prayer for protection in all we're doing down here at the moment.

Schedule for Cork ~
Thursday night ~ Trainging youth leaders at Grace
Friday night ~ Christmas party for the youth at Grace
Saturday night ~ Leaders get together with the Pastor from Grace
Sunday night ~ Carol service at Grace followed by our first "college age group" for anyone from Cork. (1st one so pray all goes well, we have no idea who's going to come)
Monday ~ Back to the big smoke

Deposit is paid.

Well we got a phone call from the agents today to say the deposit is in. So we're just awaiting the survey which will be early next week and then we'll get the contracts. So it's getting closer and closer to the full sale of the house. In another matter, Alex is not well this week. He was up till 4am this morning throwing up and doubled over in pain. He has been sick since tues morning so we went to the doctors today and he had his bloods taken. So we're awaiting results but the doctor thinks it might be gall stones. So please do pray for him as he's in a lot of pain.