Dublin Prayer Conference - Saturday

Saturday morning we had the priviledge of hearing from Paudge Mulvihill who heads up a group called Calvary Mission which has a vision to reach the west coast of Ireland. He shared some amazing statistics with us regarding the state of the church on the west coast. For example, there are 11 towns of at least 20,000 people, 11 towns of at least 15,000 people, 45 towns with at least 10,000 and 63 towns with at least 7,00 that have no evangelical church presence. This is absolutely staggering and we were moved to pray for God to send more workers into the harvest there.

In the afternoon, the women had a luncheon where the ladies sat at tables with different women involved in ministry and then heard from a guest speaker who is the wife of a church planter in Trim. Megan sat with a woman who heads up a prayer ministry called Lydia International. This group of women gather to pray not for personal concerns but rather for their country, their churches, and their communities. The men, on the other hand, split up into two groups and I headed with the group led by our good buddy Luke down to Dun Laoghaire Evangelical Church where Al Breen told us about the work there. After a season of prayer with him we packed up and headed back to Greystones.

After returning, Megan and I took some time before dinner to discuss what we had learned throughout the week and to talk about how God was moving us to respond to the events of the week. They had given us these response cards that we were to turn in during the evening service and I was glad to see that we were in full agreement right from the beginning. It will be a delight to continue to pray for these folks over the next year!

After dinner with our small groups, we went to the evening worship service. This was a sweet time of singing, communion, and prayer for one another. It was neat to see and hear how God had been working in the hearts of other participants throughout the week and to lift them up in prayer. Following the service, we said our goodbyes to the interns and some of the staff and we all headed down to the pub for one more time of fellowship. What a privilege it was to get to know these folks and we are so thankful that God drew us close to several people to form friendships that we already deeply cherish. It was bittersweet saying all the goodbyes, but just maybe we'll all see one another again soon!