January and February - Pictures and News

Hi Family, Friends and Everyone Else!

Welcome to the Jan/Feb update!! Sorry it's been so long since we updated you all. I've been waiting until we could send some pictures of the newly tiled bathroom and assorted other visual delights. The past month has been really hard for us. We seem to be hitting a large wall of discouragement and that's making it very hard to focus on the ministry right now. We could use your prayers now more than ever. Please pray for:

- Renewed focus, drive and vision
- Encouragement in ministry

- Unity with eachother as "a house divided against itself cannot stand" (Mark 3:25)
- Favour with the parents of the children we're working with. We are looking into having a block party in the next couple months and public events seem to spark a lot of controversy here.

- LOVE. May everything we do, say and think be seeded in love. We can't show God's love if we don't walk in it.

We're really trying to focus on what's going on around us right now but emotions are running rampant and we're 3 girls in a very small house - so please pray that our love for eachother would be dominant over our annoyances and nit-picking.

As you all know, it was Valentine's Day recently and we spent the evening handing out little treat bags to all the kids. Tasha and Kristie painstakingly wrapped chocolate and candy in little bags and attached cute bows to them. One thing struck me as we went around handing out the candy - the parents were delighted and not at all surprised! I was so encouraged by this. When we first started playing with the kids and handing out treats, the parents were shocked and admittedly, very nervous! And now, I am delighted to say that they've gotten used to it!! I think that says a lot about the progress that's been made here. Ireland is a place where everyone is suspicious of kindness and we've been trying so hard to show the people in our neighbourhood that our motive is pure and we just want to love them - so we feel like we've finally broken thru a bit.

The kids were so thankful and two of our favourite little girls came round the next day to thank us. We couldn't let them in the house, so they chose to hang thru the window!! And yes, for all those mothers out there clutching their chests and gasping in horror - they are definitely standing on the window sill wearing rollerblades.

Aside from the Valentine's stuff, we are just getting ready to have Joe and Jill come visit us from Canada! We are so excited to have them here and we have our fingers crossed that they will bring a puppet or 2 with them and we can incorporate a puppet show into our Spring party!! The idea is to have a barbeque and (hopefully!!) a bouncy castle and cake etc. outside for the kids. The parents are all very interested in the idea, we are just looking into permits and stuff right now. So just say a quick prayer for favour in that area.

The next few pictures are assorted from New Years, Andrea's birthday and some cool statues. I hope you enjoy them and forgive me for taking so long to get them out to you.

(L-R) Konrad and his sister Ania.

A cool Jesus statue that Tasha found in a little town outside Dublin

Me, joyously making smoothies to ring in the New Year

Andrea and I on her birthday

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and the next post should include pictures of the demolished and rebuilt bathroom walls!! Hooray!

God bless you all and thank you for your thoughts, prayers, emails and phone calls. We truly appreciate hearing from you.

More than Well,
Kristie, Tasha and Jen

Jortosh Ministries Ireland