We are home! What a wonderful time we all had, and I hope it was true for those we went to serve. 

Saturday was a FULL day!! We spent more than 12 hours in Dublin on a Hop On-Hop Off bus seeing the sights. Disappointing was the fact that Christ Church, St.Patrick’s Cathedral and Dublinia we’re closed due to other events taking place. However....it was such fun just to see the city and hear the history. Of all the facts swimming in my head, the most stunning one that sticks out is the story of Charles Guinness leasing a hect acre for 9000 years at 45 pounds per month, so that he could build his factories. Can you imagine?!?!?! 9000 Years!!! His ancestors will be set for many generations. 😂

We finished the day at Murray’s with some Irish singing and dancing. The singers were such great fun and the feet on those dancers we such an amazing thing!! How their feet fly that fast is an incredible thing to see!! Even having seen it on television, it was most impressive. 

I have so many stories to tell. If you ever want to take the time, let’s do lunch and I’ll fill you in.

THank you again for partnering with me in prayer as I have been on this journey. They certainly paid many dividends.

What a week!!! Finished up camp today. The kids were excited to be there but sad it was the last day. I think this really was the best day. The attitudes and participation really showed how much they were enjoying themselves. It was great working with the other coaches and junior coaches. They have such a love for what they are doing.

Coach Michael, especially, has a real gift for working with the kids. Even when he has to “discipline” someone he is encouraging and uplifting. I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice but was always able to bring the kids back on point. Loves Jesus, loves the kids. AND he doesn’t allow Dan to pay him for the week, as he does the other Irish coaches. He is a blessing to Dan, the kids, and the entire Ballymun community. What an inspiring man to get to work with all week. 

Our team is exhausted but blessed to have been part of the camp this week.

This evening we took a taxi into Dublin and popped in at The Parnell Heritage Pub for dinner. Can I just say, that may have been the best meal of the trip! Guinness And Beef Casserole with Irish soda bread. I can officially come home now. Well, maybe just one more day to see the sights.

Thank you again for all the prayer support. I know it was precisely because of it that things have gone so well this week.

Today was another great day at camp!! I can’t believe that tomorrow is the last day. Although, my body can vouch for the fact that we are 4 days in. 😂

Mostly, the Fitness area is NOT the favored activity. However most of the kids engage and we end up having great fun. Today I introduced them to the AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) concept. 20 Jumping Jacks, 15 Air Squats, 10 Push-ups. Do as many rounds as you can in 5 minutes. Those kids worked until they dropped!!! Then begged to go get their water. Which of course I allowed. Because I’m an excellent coach! 😉 

Please pray for Momo. He’s one of the little guys in the 8/9 age group. He was blocking a ball and fell backward over the tennis net and cracked his head pretty hard. No visible injuries but some dizziness and he was very upset by it and even clung to Kendall, one of the guys on our team, cried in pain and said he wasn’t ready for his life to end. He was very scared that this would be it for him. We aren’t sure of how he’s doing but are praying all is well and he’ll be with ya tomorrow. 

Right after camp we headed into the city for a little sight seeing and dinner. (See my FB page for pics). Great fun. Can’t wait to see a little more on Saturday.

Thanks for your prayers!!

Day Three is in mthe books! Another fun day. For some reason (I think it was Halloween, it’s huge, and pretty evil, over here.) there were fewer kids today, so I didn’t get to do the workouts with all the age groups. Only the 8/9’s today. So I helped Coach Michael with Ultimate Frisbee and other frisbee games. I don’t think I even played that hard when I was a kid!

Highlight of the day, I think, was giving out the Camper of the Day award for Tuesday’s top performer in each age group. Coach Michael asked me to pick the kid and tell them all why they were chosen. I picked Jack! Jack had such a great attitude and did all the exercises with his best effort and encouraged the other kids. When we split up to go do our exercises, Jack stood front and center, grinning from ear to ear, ready to make it another great day! 

And truthfully, the low light was not getting to split up for the other two age groups. Maybe tomorrow the kids will have recovered from their sugar comas (or their late night tricks, more likely) and be back and ready to move!

I’ll ask them: You guys like this stuff?!?!

To which they will reply: Yes! We like it! We love it! We want some more if it!!! 😊

Can I just say...Iron Tribe Fitness has NOTHING on this Camp! As some of you may know, I’m heading up the Fitness part of camp. I get three age groups, 6/7,8/9,10 . They arrive at 11:15, 1:15, and 2:15 and rotate each age group through the hour for 20 minutes. And we make exercise fun! Shout out to my coach, MartyMcLain, for helping me! He put together all of the work outs and made them fun activities that teams and partners can do together. 

So, three hours of exercise every day for four days may get the better of me. So sore right now that moving is hard. Dreading tomorrow just a LITTLE bit. 

But the kids were awesome!! There’s always one or two that don’t want to get on board, but I have to say, I don’t think there was even one kid that didn’t, finally, come around. 

Best part of the day was when one of the older kids (overweight) came to the Fitness area. He hated it and I could tell. I could also sympathize. I’ve been there. He would look at me and say, “I can’t do that!”. I had the opportunity to encourage him and let him know he could! “Look at my bum. It’s way bigger than yours and I can do it. Give it your best try! I’ll do it with you.” And he always did! Wasn’t always perfect. But he did it!! Later at the closing assembly, he came up to me and thanked me for helping him and encouraging him. What a pleasure and how humbling to hear that, since we’ve been told these kids don’t really do things like that. 

Unfortunately I can’t take any pictures of the kids to share with you. I understand. But I’d love to have a picture of the two of us!! Pray for Daniel as he finishes out the week. Pray that he will see Jesus in me. That he will understand that a physical transformation can come through Fitness, but Life Transformation can only come from the Father.

Thank you for all your prayers. I feel them and am encouraged each time I send an update, because I know you’re behind me!

La

Can I just say...Iron Tribe Fitness has NOTHING on this Camp! As some of you may know, I’m heading up the Fitness part of camp. I get three age groups, 6/7,8/9,10 . They arrive at 11:15, 1:15, and 2:15 and rotate each age group through the hour for 20 minutes. And we make exercise fun! Shout out to my coach, MartyMcLain, for helping me! He put together all of the work outs and made them fun activities that teams and partners can do together. 

So, three hours of exercise every day for four days may get the better of me. So sore right now that moving is hard. Dreading tomorrow just a LITTLE bit. 

But the kids were awesome!! There’s always one or two that don’t want to get on board, but I have to say, I don’t think there was even one kid that didn’t, finally, come around. 

Best part of the day was when one of the older kids (overweight) came to the Fitness area. He hated it and I could tell. I could also sympathize. I’ve been there. He would look at me and say, “I can’t do that!”. I had the opportunity to encourage him and let him know he could! “Look at my bum. It’s way bigger than yours and I can do it. Give it your best try! I’ll do it with you.” And he always did! Wasn’t always perfect. But he did it!! Later at the closing assembly, he came up to me and thanked me for helping him and encouraging him. What a pleasure and how humbling to hear that, since we’ve been told these kids don’t really do things like that. 

Unfortunately I can’t take any pictures of the kids to share with you. I understand. But I’d love to have a picture of the two of us!! Pray for Daniel as he finishes out the week. Pray that he will see Jesus in me. That he will understand that a physical transformation can come through Fitness, but Life Transformation can only come from the Father.

Thank you for all your prayers. I feel them and am encouraged each time I send an update, because I know you’re behind me!

La

What a fun (and exhausting) first day of camp!!! Monday is always a Family Fun Festival!! We arrived a little after 10:00am to set up and the families started arriving at 11:00am.

The kiddos had such great fun and the parents seemed to enjoy seeing us love on their kids as we reinforced their good behavior and gave out “atta boys” and \"atta girls”. The theme for the bounce house seemed to be “Its hard to be patient!” But each time I encouraged them to waitvtheir turn and told them what a great job they were doing being patient their little faces just put up! 

The basket ball toss was fun too! The littlest ones would approach with what can only be called “professional stance” only to fall, more than a little, short of perfect execution. But this did not deter them! They simply went back to the end of the line to try it again! 

I didn’t get around to all of the activities, but it was so much fun to look across the gym and see delight on so many little faces!!

i can’t wait for tomorrow!!!

Today we got to have lunch at Clontarf Castle. The castle was built when the first King of Ireland, Brian Boru, was killed by his enemies. His guards posted around his tent were wooed away from their post and his enemies rushed in and killed him. The next king built Clontarf on the site of Boru’s death. IF I remember the story correctly. 

The castle has been remodeled into a hotel and we all ate some wonderful Irish stew in The Knight’s Rest restaurant inside the hotel. Then we walked it off as we took a short hike to the coast. (Check out my FB page for some cool pics).

In the afternoon we were able to go with our partner, Dan Tabb, to his church. They had a special service for the installation of a new Pastor to their staff. Worship, the new Pastor gave a short message, and a huge spread of food was shared to continue the celebration.

Tomorrow the work begins!! Family Fun Festival is tomorrow from 11:00-2:00. We’ll help set up, run, and clean up. We should see about 300-400 people come through the festival. We’ll get to meet the other counselors and check out the places we’ll be working the rest of the week. 

Pray that we all get a good night’s sleep and that Ballymun will see Jesus in and they us as we serve them tomorrow.

Today we got to have lunch at Clontarf Castle. The castle was built when the first King of Ireland, Brian Boru, was killed by his enemies. His guards posted around his tent were wooed away from their post and his enemies rushed in and killed him. The next king built Clontarf on the site of Boru’s death. IF I remember the story correctly. 

The castle has been remodeled into a hotel and we all ate some wonderful Irish stew in The Knight’s Rest restaurant inside the hotel. Then we walked it off as we took a short hike to the coast. (Check out my FB page for some cool pics).

In the afternoon we were able to go with our partner, Dan Tabb, to his church. They had a special service for the installation of a new Pastor to their staff. Worship, the new Pastor gave a short message, and a huge spread of food was shared to continue the celebration.

Tomorrow the work begins!! Family Fun Festival is tomorrow from 11:00-3:00. We’ll help set up, run, and clean up. We should see about 300-400 people come through the festival. We’ll get to meet the other counselors and check out the places we’ll be working the rest of the week. 

Pray that we all get a good night’s sleep and that Ballymun will see Jesus in and they us as we serve them tomorrow.

We arrived safe and sound!!! Our partner, Dan, and his friend Paul picked us up from the airport. Arrived at the Airbnb we have rented and took a quick walk to the store for some food. Temp is about 57, it’s damp, and a little windy. We are hanging out here for a little while then we’ll go to Howth (look it up)for dinner and to hike a little. 

I might try to squeeze in a nap. 😊

More later!!

La

Well Friends,

I leave tomorrow for Ireland!! I\'m so very excited to be going on this journey. Let me give you a little more background about what I, personally, will be doing while I\'m there.

I think I mentioned our partner works with Sports Across Ireland and has outreaches to kids in the community to reach them for Christ through sports. Twice a year, he holds a week-long day camp that features Soccer, Basketball, playground games, arts and crafts, and dance. Initially he asked if I (or anyone on the team) had a background in dance. No. But it did give me a chuckle that he asked. 

For the first couple of months during our training sessions, I felt a little adrift. What would be my contribution to this team? Arts and Crafts? Ok. I could that. I\'m not passionate about it (or even very good at it). But SURELY I could color, cut, and glue some things together with some kids and show them the love of Jesus. Then, in our third training the team leader, Dennis, was talking to each of us about what we would do while there, solidifying each team member\'s \"job\". Then he stopped himself and said he should probably clarify the \"Playground Games\". Short story...last year the fella that ran that did exercises with the kids. As he went around the room confirming our jobs it was determined that Charles will work with the Soccer track, Kendall with the Basketball track, Linda and Kimberly with Arts and Crafts. All of this made perfect sense, knowing each team member and their gifts and passions. Then Dennis got to me.

Dennis: Lori, are you thinking Arts and Crafts?

Me: Actually, Dennis...I think I might like to do the Playground Games. 

Dennis: Oh!. OK. (I could see the doubt in his eyes)

So after the training session I explained a little about why I would like to do that particular job. I know most people wouldn\'t look at me and thinK...this girl would be great at exercise!! :) The following day I clarified a little more in an email, why I felt passionate about doing this job at the camp.

Over the last two years God has helped me to transform my mind and my body (though the body has been a little slower to transform than the mind!). He has placed people in my life that encourage and support me in this daily transformation. I have arrived at a place where I am stronger and healthier than I have been in my life. And I want to share that with everyone! But if I can share that with kids and they can be transformed now, as children, then they might not grow to be adults who regret choices they have made as it relates to their health and they won\'t feel incapable of moving past where they find themselves. 

God has been using Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, in my life in an unusual way. For some reason I always thought of this verse in terms of relational help or emotional strength. But recently, God has shown me that this too means PHYSICAL strength. He has given me the strength of mind to change years of bad habits and physical strength to change the effects of those bad habits. While perfection has not been attained,by any means, other things have been. As I shared with Dennis in my email, I\'ve lost some things and I\'ve gained some things. 

I\'ve lost: 1) Weight  2) Inches 3) Inhibitions about doing active things because I’m “the fat girl”. Now I just do them because I want to see if I’m strong enough. 4) Fear. Fear that someone is watching and judging me.

I\'ve gained: 1) Knowledge about how to exercise and not get hurt 2) Knowledge about what exercises I can do and what I can’t do and how to modify until I can 3) Muscle 4) Confidence to try it and fail and keep striving until I can. 

So, God and these things He has taught me are what I am leaning on as I walk into this GO Journey. Two years ago I would have settled for doing Arts and Crafts in a mediocre way. But God has given me the strength to step forward for a challenging, and what I pray will be a fruitful and fun, adventure, where children will see someone spiritually and physically transformed by the love of Christ.

Pray for me as I go that this GO Journey will be all the Christ intended it to be, for His glory, and our good.

La

This us my update.

A new Update is here!