Hello friends,
You may be wondering about the title of this post. I'm referring to that wonderful experience of meeting people and instantly connecting with them, feeling like you've already known them for years, even though you've just met.
That happened to us yesterday. We've been corresponding with Kirk & Sandlin Poth for months. They are WorldVenture missionaries from Ireland, currently on a short home-assignment in the States. A few weeks ago they let us know that they would be coming through Oregon and wondered if we could get together, so yesterday we spent much of the day together just getting acquainted. It was great having them here in our home. This was very important for us because we will be working together on the Sligo church-planting team, along with our other colleagues, Matthew & Pam Boardwell from Colorado.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship and telling our stories. We also shared our thoughts about the challenge of church-planting in northwestern Ireland. We discovered that we are all on the same page and very excited to get this show on the road. Kirk & Sandlin will be heading back to Ireland in July and are already making plans to move from Galway to Sligo to begin spying out the land and looking for open doors for ministry. The Boardwells and we are hoping to be in Ireland in 2014, Lord willing.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. We've been getting together with people regularly and telling our story, trying to share our passion for the ministry to which God is calling us in Ireland. Pray that people will catch that vision of the open door for church-planting that God has put before us. Quite a few people have said that they want to support us financially on a monthly basis; however, we have not seen those good intentions materialize in firm commitments. Pray that these folks will take the next step of actually committing to partner with us in taking the Good News to Ireland.
Your missionaries to Ireland,
Mike & Ramel
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
St. Brigid's Well
Hello friends,
As many of you know, back in November Ramel and I spent two weeks in Ireland getting acquainted with our future WorldVenture Ireland Team colleagues and getting a general feel for the country. While we were there we traveled around a lot, seeing all sorts of beautiful and fascinating places. Close to the end of our time in Ireland, the field leader, Tim Cumings, and his dear wife, Joan, took us to see the area known as "The Burren." This is the rocky, barren part of County Clare that sits just south of Galway Bay. It consists of 250 square miles of some of the roughest country I've ever seen in my life.
One of the places we visited there in County Clare was St. Brigid's Well near the little town of Liscannor. It is a major pilgrimage site for Roman Catholic people who come in hopes of being healed of their infirmities or of receiving a blessing from the "Holy Saint Brigid." In the lowest part of the site is a cave cut back into the hillside where pilgrims can leave their votive offerings and drink from the so-called miraculous waters. To catch Brigid's attention they leave letters, signed photos, beads, candles, hair clippings, and many other things, all in the hopes that she will intercede on their behalf before God, not knowing that they can pray directly to Him without a human mediator.
I've seen other places like this when I worked in Brazil, where people come as a last resort, hoping to connect with something that will give them hope, but in reality it is a place of profound sadness because without truly knowing Christ there is no hope to be found. But desperate people will do anything they are told if they think it might help them or their loved one get healed.
The following is the prescribed rite for having your prayer heard and your petition granted at Brigid's Well. I'm not making this up. If you doubt me you can look it up for yourself.
As many of you know, back in November Ramel and I spent two weeks in Ireland getting acquainted with our future WorldVenture Ireland Team colleagues and getting a general feel for the country. While we were there we traveled around a lot, seeing all sorts of beautiful and fascinating places. Close to the end of our time in Ireland, the field leader, Tim Cumings, and his dear wife, Joan, took us to see the area known as "The Burren." This is the rocky, barren part of County Clare that sits just south of Galway Bay. It consists of 250 square miles of some of the roughest country I've ever seen in my life.
One of the places we visited there in County Clare was St. Brigid's Well near the little town of Liscannor. It is a major pilgrimage site for Roman Catholic people who come in hopes of being healed of their infirmities or of receiving a blessing from the "Holy Saint Brigid." In the lowest part of the site is a cave cut back into the hillside where pilgrims can leave their votive offerings and drink from the so-called miraculous waters. To catch Brigid's attention they leave letters, signed photos, beads, candles, hair clippings, and many other things, all in the hopes that she will intercede on their behalf before God, not knowing that they can pray directly to Him without a human mediator.
I've seen other places like this when I worked in Brazil, where people come as a last resort, hoping to connect with something that will give them hope, but in reality it is a place of profound sadness because without truly knowing Christ there is no hope to be found. But desperate people will do anything they are told if they think it might help them or their loved one get healed.
The following is the prescribed rite for having your prayer heard and your petition granted at Brigid's Well. I'm not making this up. If you doubt me you can look it up for yourself.
The Rite of St. Brigid’s Well at Liscannor, Co. Clare
(NOTE: Pilgrims should deposit their votive offerings on the wall before beginning the rounds.)
Introduction: Go on your knees in front of the statue of St Brigid and express your intention (e.g. you come to have your headache/arthritis healed). Then say: "Go mbeannaí íosa duit, a Bhrighid Naofa, Go mbeannaí Muire duit is go mbannaím Féin duit; Chugat a thána’ mé ag gearán mo scéil chugat Agus d’iarraidh cabhair in onóir Dé ort."
(Translation: "May Jesus salute you, O holy Brigid, may Mary salute you and may I salute you myself. It is to you I have come making my complaint and asking your help for the honour of God.")
- Go on your knees and say 5 Our Fathers, 5 Hail Mary’s, and 5 Gloria’s.
- Stand and proceed to make a round of the Statue of St Brigid (sunwise/desiceal keeping the statue on your right)
- Recite the creed while moving.
- Do this 5 times.
- Go on your knees at the Well.
San Ula Uachtarach (In the upper Sanctuary)
- Go on your knees and say 5 Our Fathers, 5 Hail Mary’s, and 5 Gloria’s.
- Stand and make a sunwise circumambulation on the long path while reciting the Creed.
- Do this 5 times.
At the Cross
- Make a circumambulation (sunwise/desiceal) of the Cross while saying once the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Gloria.
- Kiss the Cross.
- Do this 5 times.
At the Well
- Descend the steps to the Ula Iochtarach (lower Sanctuary) and go to the Well.
- Drink the water 3 times.
- Go on your knees and express your intention again.
(This rite should be performed while barefooted if possible. According to holy tradition there is a fish in Liscannor Well and if the pilgrim sees the fish he is certain to obtain his request.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
I'm so glad that God does not require all these gymnastics just to attract His attention or get Him to care about our petitions. However, Ireland is filled with people whose only concept of God and of Christianity includes this kind of mumbo-jumbo. This is the norm, not the exception. That is why we are excited to go there and begin telling Irish people that they do not have to twist God's arm. He already loves them and gave His only begotten Son to prove it. Won't you pray that God will raise up the partners we need to get us on our way as soon as possible?
In His service,
Mike & Ramel
Friday, January 25, 2013
Still Working Out the Bugs
Greetings to all of you dear people who are interested in what in the world Mike and Ramel are up to lately. For the past couple of days I've been spending way too much time trying to figure out how to link up all of our hi-tech toys and software so that that everything communicates with everything else. However, we're still trying to sort out the bugs so that if we post
something in one place it automatically shows up in two or three other
places. Good plan, however, as near as I can tell, right now those
other places are Neptune, Mongolia, and Guam. I'm about to pull out my
hair. Seriously, you can pray about all this detail stuff that we have
to do. Our ducks are unruly and do not like to line up.
This new blog is supposed to help us keep in contact with our prayer supporters and financial partners so that we can quickly and easily let folks know where we are, what we're doing, and how they can better pray for us. Pray that we will have the discipline to keep it updated. Otherwise it's not worth much.
We have been reading some good books lately. One is called Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, two brothers who really know how to make ideas "sticky". This is required WorldVenture reading because missionaries must learn how to communicate our vision and our burden for the ministry to which God has called us. If we can't get those across to people in a way that "sticks", then others cannot catch the vision and partner with us to get the job done.
We are thankful for YOU! Thank you for your interest, your prayers, and your willingness to partner with us. We will try to do our part to keep you up on what's going on in this process of getting to Ireland. We are praising God because two people have recently taken on support for us, and our home church voted to put $10,000 in our MA Fund. Now that's what I call a good start!
In His service,
Mike & Ramel
This new blog is supposed to help us keep in contact with our prayer supporters and financial partners so that we can quickly and easily let folks know where we are, what we're doing, and how they can better pray for us. Pray that we will have the discipline to keep it updated. Otherwise it's not worth much.
We have been reading some good books lately. One is called Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, two brothers who really know how to make ideas "sticky". This is required WorldVenture reading because missionaries must learn how to communicate our vision and our burden for the ministry to which God has called us. If we can't get those across to people in a way that "sticks", then others cannot catch the vision and partner with us to get the job done.
We are thankful for YOU! Thank you for your interest, your prayers, and your willingness to partner with us. We will try to do our part to keep you up on what's going on in this process of getting to Ireland. We are praising God because two people have recently taken on support for us, and our home church voted to put $10,000 in our MA Fund. Now that's what I call a good start!
In His service,
Mike & Ramel
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Our New Blog
Hello friends,
Well, here we go. This is our new "Mike & Ramel in Ireland" blog. Actually it is a blog in progress, with a long way left to go, obviously. This first post is just a test to see what the page might look like. Our goal is to create an interesting blog where you can check in often and keep up with our comings and goings, see some pictures of our recent adventures, and learn about current prayer requests. We'll also post things that move us either to tears, or to laughter, or to our knees.
If you are reading this then we consider you to be either a partner or a potential partner. Either way, we are honored that you have dropped by. Come back often.
Your Ireland bound friends,
Mike and Ramel Wilson
Well, here we go. This is our new "Mike & Ramel in Ireland" blog. Actually it is a blog in progress, with a long way left to go, obviously. This first post is just a test to see what the page might look like. Our goal is to create an interesting blog where you can check in often and keep up with our comings and goings, see some pictures of our recent adventures, and learn about current prayer requests. We'll also post things that move us either to tears, or to laughter, or to our knees.
If you are reading this then we consider you to be either a partner or a potential partner. Either way, we are honored that you have dropped by. Come back often.
Your Ireland bound friends,
Mike and Ramel Wilson
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