Check out the new photos!!!

Hey we've posted up some pictures of our time at the Grace church weekend away and also for our time away here in Killarney. We've had a fantastic time away, it's been romantic, relaxing and recharging. We head home tomorrow as we have a leaders training evening tomorrow evening but we're so glad we got away for this time, it's been great for us. Enjoy the pics!!

Well Needed Rest

This week Linda and I are getting a little chance to go to killarney for a couple of days to unwind and relax. We will go to ladies view, see torc waterfall and Mucross house among other things. We are really looking forward to just time away from everything and just the two of us for a while, excited, talk soon

Rejoice with us.

Rejoice with us. The Lord has done some incredible stuff this week. Firstly we had our twice monthly college group on monday night and at the end we found out that one of the group gave their life to the Lord, we are so encouraged.

On tuesday night we were asked to give both our testimonies at Grace Christian Fellowship (www.graceireland.com). With a few nerves we did so and again the Lord moved and a girl there was moved to give our life to Jesus.

We are deeply encouraged and feel this is the beginning of a big move of God here in Cork.

We are looking forward to coming up to Dublin at the end of the month and seeing people again. God bless.

Answers to prayer and one more request.

Hey all, thanks so much for all your prayers over the last few days, God answered many of the things that we were worried about this last week and surprised us yet again by His faithfulness, He is truly stylish, but it could'nt have happened without you the saints in our corner.

There is a possibility of a bit of work for Linda that she could do from home( a few hours a week), using her travel agency skills which would be great, and we need your help in prayer to see if God would have this as part of His plan for us right now. College group is going great as is the youth group at grace, I am starting to really enjoy prepping for teaching and preaching again which is a blessing and looking forward to a season of fruit ahead, be blessed with you in prayer, love Alex and Linda.

Words of encouragement

Some people have been asking what verses we have been getting so I thought I would share them with you here.

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.

1 Peter 1:6&7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus is revealed.

I kid you not I was so upset that I had my bible in my hands and just thought I had to read some truth as there was so much lies after been spoken over us. I just opened the Bible and this is what jumped out. I wouldn't normally just let the Bible open up and read whatever is there as it normally back fires ; ) but this time I was so upset I didn't know what to do. I just had to read some truth and get it into my head quickly.

A few days later things were getting really tough again and I was trying to figure out what we were to do next and I got this verse ~
2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Oh and also Colossians 3:12-17

Isn't it cool how God's word is so effective even in those hard times. How his words soothe and heal wounds.

We have a few key meetings this week so we would really appreciate your prayers. Thanks for all the encouraging words and notes. Miss you all and love you lots.

Keep those prayers coming ....

Hey lads keep those prayers coming as things are heating up even more this week. It's hard but God is so faithful in bringing us verses daily but just when we think we're feeling better from the verses and stuff we get hit again with another blow. It's quite hard.

Recovering from the weekend

Well we just got back from a church weekend away on Sunday night. We had Naomi and Andy down with us so it was great to get to see them and it made us realize even more how much we miss people in Dublin. The church weekend itself was very busy and to be honest we had a really hard time. We felt we really got attacked over the weekend and the battle continues so we would really appreciate your prayers and especially that we would continue to turn to God and to the truth in his word. Xo

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.