It's not lonely around the fields of Athenry

The past few days we've been spending time with the parish team in Athenry. And let me tell you with 16 team members in total, it it neither quiet nor lonely in Athenry. Sometimes it gets so loud in their small house that I really feel like I am back at home.

It is a pretty little town and I've enjoyed being here and having time to wander a bit. I still have these really random moments where I remember that I am in Ireland. Like this morning when I woke up walked to catch the bus to Galway City and had to walk past/under this gigantic stone archway which is probably older than America. (The house I am staying in is about 400 years old.) In the end I wasn't able to get to Galway because today is a bank holiday and the buses weren't running, but I was able to spend time with the girls and have tea, so it was a lovely day anyways.

Funny story. Since we are not natives to this lovely country, and also since we just travel travel travel all the time, we are not always up to date on the sort of things you would expect people to be, such as what weekend daylight savings time will go into effect. So this Sunday morning (yesterday) we literally could not figure out what time it actually was because most of our clocks said 9:00. But mine and Diana's ipods said 8:00, and they had been correct the night before. But we were so confused and it took us about an hour to figure out what was going on when finally someone volunteered to go ask at the hotel down the street. Luckily we were able to find out what time it actually was before any of us showed up for the 10am mass at 9am... Rest assured we're all set on winter time now.

So thats my update for now. Athenry is lovely and visiting with the parish team is always good times. We've eaten like 85 packages of biscuits in the past 5 days, but hey you can't have tea without biscuits, it just wouldn't be right.

This week we have time off of retreats since it is midterm break here, but we will be plenty busy preparing for next week when we head off to the big bad Dublin City. We've heard a lot of rumors about how hard it will be in Dublin, so I'm just saying extra prayers and you all should too.
Thanks so much for reading & I love you all!

Oh and one last thing... MY TEAM HAS A FACEBOOK! So if you friend us on facebook you will be able to be introduced to my team members and you'll see pictures and get random updates from us on facebook. Search for us under NetIreland TeamOne. Can't wait to be friends with all y'all.

swimming & guinness. NOT swimming in Guinness...

Get excited folks cause this is your FIRST OFFICIAL UPDATE FROM KELSIE IN IRELAND!!

Almost a month into ministry I have been having a

terrific time and I am so happy to be here in Ireland doing God's work. Our team has been done retreats in four counties so far; Donegal, Down, Wexford, and right now we're in county Galway. To be specific I am in Tuam, Co. Galwa

y. It is not pronounced Tu-am, its more like "tchoom", don't say it wrong they'll correct you swiftly. I think the best thing about Tuam i

s the three priests that we h

ave been eating dinner with each night. They just have the most amazing sense of humor and instantly ma

ke us feel comfortable with their jokes and entertaining stories. But somehow they are able to balance out with answering all the cr

azy questions that we come up with, some of the

m our own and some of them from retreatants. The recent topics "do ghosts exist?", "have you ever done an exorsism?", and I think tonight I'll ask "is there a limit to how much water you can make holy?" I'm hoping the answer is "No, I cou

ld bless your backyard pool or perhaps even the whole atlantic ocean." I mean, honestly, how cool would it be to swim in holy water! Really cool.

Retreats have been so good, I'm really enjoying the

ministry. I gave my first talk two weeks ago and I'm meant to give it again this Friday. It is slightly scary getting up before all the young people, but I just try to remember that it isn't me who they need to hear from, it's God so I just channel the Holy Spirit and it's all good.

Today we performed a drama in which I played the main part, which was also scary, but I am getting used to being called upon to do things that I find scary.

The country as a whole is simply beautiful. Everydrive we take my eyes are either glued to the window or shut shut while I'm napping cause I am tired from all the hard work. We do get some play time too though. Almost once a week we've had a "team day", which is just a day that we spend together as a team doing whatever for bonding and having fun. Last week we went to the beach and I got the chance to swim in the Irish sea! It was amazing cold, but so worth it. One of my teammates took a video of it, so perhaps eventually I will be able to share the experience with you all.

I also was able to experience my first official Irish Guinness. NET has a one drink

policy, and I personally hold fast to the belief that there is no finer one drink than a pint of Guinness. It was the first item on my Ireland To Do List that I was able to check off. When we get the chance to go out as a team to the pub it is really revolutionary to most bartenders that a group of young people would just have one drink, but it's kind of cool that we also get the chance to explain why and evangelize through our recreation. Bartenders need Jesus too.

Well it is getting late and I do have to be up in the morning and looking and feeling my best for retreat, but I'll leave you all with these pictures and hopefully I'll pop on again to give some more updates soon.

God bless & keep praying for me!

Slan go foill! (goodbye in Irish)

PS: I asked the priests and they said there's no limit to how much water they can make holy. Sweet, eh?

Leaving on a Jet Plane.

We received this email from Kelsie on Saturday. Her hope is to be able to up this blog on the road, but I will also be adding some messages that she sends through me to pass on...

Training in Canada officially ended for me on this past Friday night, it was a bittersweet leaving since I've gotten to know so many of the team members who will be staying in Canada very well, but I am EXTREMELY excited to be flying out to Ireland tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. I was placed on the traveling team in Ireland, so for the first week we will be in Donegal and shortly after that we will be spending a few days in Northern Ireland, which is technically part of the UK. Training has been an amazing experience for me to grow in my own faith with 60 of my fellow missionaries as well as become equipped for the ministry which we will carry out. On each team all the members are given roles to spread out responsibilities, on my team I was given the role of "entertainment" which simply means I get to choose and cast the funny skits/jokes that we do on each retreat. So it doesn't necessarily mean that they think I'm entertaining, but I like to think it does.

My absolute favorite part of training was bonding together with the women and finding that when we really embrace our identity as women of God and be who we were created to be, our beauty shines. I found that women are called to use their compassion and emotions which are gifts from God, and that men are called to be strong and to protect and fight. Not to say that women cannot fight, I mean honestly think of St. Joan of Arc, but I really enjoyed seeing how when both the men and women embraced how God created us to be our strengths truly complemented each other. God is so smart.

Tomorrow I fly to Ireland with my teammates and start on a whole new chapter of the ministry, the actual carrying out of the mission I have been learning about and preparing for in the past month. I am still nervous, but every morning brings new energy and excitement and new strengths from God that I never knew I had. I am just relying totally on God's gifts and trusting that He will provide for me since He's called me here. Thanks so much for praying for me!

Photos of my team and the rest of the teams are up here! And be sure to check out the rest of my photos from training in Canada.

My contact info for the year is:

Kelsie Grimes
Net Ministries of Ireland
13A Lower Main St.
Letterkenny, Donegal, Ireland