Photos of Summer in Ireland: Mobile Ministry Trips, Lots of Music & Beauty!

Getting ready for outreach!

We've begun a small ministry which is mobile and the heart of it is to connect with people around Ireland, learn what needs there are and go serve whether we do it ourselves or connect people who we think will be a good fit - NETWORKING! So we have done four circuits of Ireland in the last few years and then lots of little trips to get to know people, play music, worship, pray and get more of God's good heart for this place.

The cafe we ran for Fiddler's Green - good fun!

                             Music workshop our team ran at Summer Madness Youth Festival
                                           Special Guest: Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou

                                                                      Exploring the West...

We're so blessed to be building relationship with the Benedictine nuns at Kylemore Abbey, and had a great opportunity to do some garden work for them in exchange for an incredible place to stay for the weekend. Here's a taste of Connemara:

           
                                              Beautiful Connemara, County Galway

Salmon Festival music outreach trip - Ballina, County Mayo in the west of Ireland, where Joey and our friend Nathanael's ancestors were from.

Bert and Val - great hosts to the team

Prayer in Rosserk Friary

                                   Downpatrick Head - Ballycastle, with Sean and Nathanael...

                       
                                              Sometimes you can't resist the chase.

Our friend Nathanael has joined us for a few of the mobile team trips around Ireland. We've had great times together and have been a doing a lot of worship together- a great blessing!!

                                                 Ceide Fields - Ballycastle, Co. Mayo

Hedge torn out, 36 tons of soil in, let the planting begin!

Sowing and reaping...

                                         Recording one of Joey's songs in our 'summer flat'

Cooking community meal for 30-40 people, which we have every Friday, inviting people from the area into our lives. This was almost all from the garden - A stir fry, a garden-salad and then chocolate beet-root cake!

Christy singing "Pressing On" with Liam O'Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers at The Music of Healing in An Cuan. There's a real story here! Click here for the full video!

  

A peaceful stroll in the land of many castles

"The Beard!"

The "Mourne Wall" - County Down where we live...

May God Bless You With Discomfort

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,

So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people

So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,

So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world,

So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

-A Franciscan monk

A bit of color

Happy Christmas! We are very blessed that we will be able to spend this Christmas with our dear friends - Richard and Rachel and their four children in London. We have had a lovely weekend hosting 2 YWAMers who we met in November on our journey around Ireland. One of them is from Galway and the other from Papua New Guinea - we are so blessed to have met them and that they came to Rostrevor to visit!

The rest of our trip around Ireland was really blessed and thought we'd share a few photos of the beauty of this place - with all its color!...

Below is the family who hosted us when we first came to Cork, Ireland in 2007 - It was so wonderful to reconnect with them again!

Love to all and be blessed with the reality of His Presence!

Love,

Joey & Christy

The network journey

'Tis a journey - our hearts being opened to more of His heart for this incredible, yet divided island!
Lots of great connections with people, so blessed by divine appointments!

In Kesh, County Fermanagh we got to stay with a lovely YWAM family, and see The Fountain - a new youth center where we'll be sending outreaches - a great opportunity to reach out! Pray for Kesh - especially youth who don't know Jesus to be connected in to The Fountain and of course connected to the Fountain, Himself. We were only in Galway for 1 night but got together with 6 people there and it looks like there will be some great connections there. If you'd like to pray for Galway, a huge need is unity in the church...

We met with a wonderful minister in Ballina, County Mayo and are excited about outreach to a huge Salmon Festival there this summer (200,000 people will be there!)

Something terrible happened when were catching up with Joey's distant cousins in Foxford, County Mayo (where his ancestors are from). Right when we arrived for dinner, they found out that a man they knew had committed suicide near their house (we had just been praying with some local intercessors about the huge problem of suicide in the area). We were thankful to be able to speak hope into the situation though. Pray for Ireland, for the veil of despair to be lifted and Hope to flood the land - that people will find their hope in Christ and not be overwhelmed by the current economic crisis.

We're learning lots as we see the different spiritual climates around the island and meet with local brothers and sisters who are working in different areas. We've had very little time in between towns and meetings, which has been a bit difficult but have managed to stop at some beautiful places along the way (not hard to find here).

 A holy well with a tree growing out of it - great place to pray for ancient wells to be opened up in the land!

 It was great to see Rosserk Friary from the 1400's - where Franciscan married couples lived and worked together in community and mission.

 We stayed a night in Foxford where Joey's ancestors are from and this is the place where his Great-great-great Grandad is buried, Patrick Mullen!

All the traveling has been good and we're thankful for over 40 miles per gallon on our wee car.

We arrived in Cork last night and it's so good to be here and reconnect with friends and ministries. We are spending Thanksgiving at The Haven, a wonderful ecumenical Christian cafe ministry in downtown Cork where YWAM outreach teams have been working for a number of years.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Joey & Christy

Around Ireland!

We leave tomorrow morning to do a networking trip around the island to see people we haven't seen in a couple years and connect with others that want to be involved with YWAM outreaches in the future, so we would greatly appreciate your prayers! We will do our very best to update the blog while we're away! We're getting there!
Love,
J & C

Walking from our flat to the YWAM center every morning -

The fat-on-bacon-scraps town dog sauntering in the village
Pass the five pubs
Scrap metal on the side walk
Oak trees crashing in the wind, raising praise...

New flat in Rostrevor!

Well, we're getting settled in! Here are  a few photos of the new place. It was really cool how God provided it. We had looked at a bunch of places that were moldy and just didn't seem right and then we saw this in the paper. We called about it and were the first to see it because the landlord had "forgotten" to post it in the paper the week before. It was the same price as others, only clean, had a great park we can walk in and is right next to town. It's the 3rd/top floor of the apartments and we can see the mountains and Carlingford Lough a bit, yay! Also, the place is furnished so that is such a blessing! Will be in touch! Lots of love,

J & C

Fishing in Ketchikan

Sooo....we are in Alaska again! It wasn't what we expected, but here we are! We have been working and fishing since we got here and Joey is going to be going out on the boat fishing for 3 weeks pretty soon here. They are going for chum and will be working long hours and fishing in a bay with 100 other boats!

Ketchikan is always beautiful in the summer and we are always thankful to spend time with family. Funny, God's timing.

He is good, good, good!
J & C

Community in God

" A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity-all the while praising God and enjoying the good will of all people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved." Acts 2: 43-47

The community of God - living and active, knowing each other, sharing what has been entrusted to us by the generosity of Him who owns all things...the Kingdom of Jesus - not like the temporary. Every day is a gift to know Him more and to grow in love and character...to know our brothers and sisters and share hope with those in need.
Every day is a gift...to deepen our trust in Him who is worth it all.
Pressing on,
Joseph & Christy

back under the big sky

Hello lovely people!
It has been so encouraging to see the Lord at work in our time of “waiting” here in the states. We are in awe of His timing, plans and how He works all for good. ! We’ve just finished our time in Colorado - We were in Georgetown, taking care of our friend Kashia’s two-year-old son Charley (a joy!) and cleaning house while she recovered from a spinal fusion. We stayed with them for five weeks, giving her sufficient time to heal up enough to resume care of Charley. We went from there to Denver, where we enjoyed a wonderful two-week visit with Christy’s brother John and family. It was lovely to soak up time with them, not knowing when we will see them all again. The Lord knows!
From Colorado (knowing we would have to wait a bit longer to fly to N. Ireland) we felt the Lord directing our steps toward Montana, so we booked our tickets and arrived last week! It is a wonderful time to be here as we are able to be involved in some momentous occasions: our friend Melody Brittsan is getting married and we get to help with preparations as well as be here for the big day. One of our favorite couples, Luke and Jacy Dowler, just had a baby girl and we are able to help out while Luke is on tour for a couple weeks. We are also leading worship at Headwaters Church and so delighted to be able to connect with our family in Christ here.
Some divine appointments we are thankful for: Days after accepting our role as outreach coordinators, Joey had a “chance” meeting with a Scottish woman who wishes to lead an outreach to Ireland next summer - we both had goosebumps discussing all the possibilities and the wonderful way God puts the pieces together. Shortly after this, we bumped into a worship leader who wishes to bring his team to Ireland next year (this would include Christy’s brother John as drummer). The same night we met another worship leader who had just returned from N. Ireland and is planning to lead a team there next fall. Coincidence? I don’t think so! :)
Last week God simultaneously put a friend from Montana (whom we haven’t seen or heard from in a couple years) on our hearts. I was across town thinking of writing him while, unknown to me, Christy emailed him to let him know we were in Denver. He wrote back to let us know he and his wife were also in Denver! We had a wonderful visit and time of encouraging prayer with them. Thanks be to God for His nudgings. May we become more aware of all He is doing in all of our everyday lives!

IRELAND UPDATE:
Some exciting news: We have recently confirmed our role as the visiting outreach team coordinators for YWAM Ireland. We are very excited about this as it allows us to work together, placing us in a steady flow of outreach to Ireland. We will be able to network throughout Ireland, assessing the needs and visions of communities and churches and sending/ leading teams to partner with ministries around the island. Some of the other things we will be involved with are worship and hospitality.
Regarding the visas: YWAM has had to reapply for a charity workers visa; the application was put in last week and generally takes 6 weeks to process. We pray we will be granted the go-ahead to return to Northern Ireland on that visa. Please continue to keep this in your prayers!

We would love to hear fromyou!
Love, Joey & Christy

Praise During the Hard Times: Reflections for Easter 2011

 This Easter season I've been thinking about the "cloth of life"... the chinks in our armor/the holes in our cheese. Not that I am bent on a depressive series of naval-gazing, but on the hope of giving glory to God as He who is All in All. Scripture tells us we are but a mist, a tent to be folded up, passing through this life, and one Resurrection morning we will look back upon it as one waking from a dream. We travel/travail through life feeling we have not arrived yet for a reason: We. don't. belong. here.
St. Paul said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain...."   The cloth of life...

We have an uncle with leukemia, an uncle with mental illness; a young friend lost to leukemia, a young friend lost to brain cancer; Christian friends divorced, Christian friends doing all they can to avoid divorce. We are not exempt from the struggle: chronic pain and depression are dragons we have personally fought... There are greater beasts in the human story. It doesn't take a long meditation on the sufferings of the world (New Orleans, Haiti, Japan, 30,000 people dying/day from preventable illnesses)... for one's faith to feel it...the fading, the torn...the cloth of life...
A song by one of my favorite artists, Bill Mallonee (who I just regrettably missed in concert!) tells it pretty well:

"You can count on your charm or revel in your wealth
Improve your appearance or hope in your health
 But houses of cards tumble, and reputations fail
Marriages crumble, and interest rates sale
And there are no more heroes, and there are no rules of thumb
Criminals are pardoned 'cos there's no place to put them
Babies are torn because nobody wants them
And whales, canonized by some government program
We're blind men, sad men, dreamers with wishes.
Paralytics, lunatics and the back-street fringes
All find a place in Your home, at Your table
And You make them well 'cos You're willing and able

Still, in the darkness there's a candle you will see
And who knows when the sunrise will be?"   

 There is an answer in The Resurrected One. The answer is the Resurrected One. Through his rising, the cloth of life will be transfigured into the Garment of Praise. This is the miracle of all miracles and the bedrock of our Christian faith... We must believe in this Resurrection...not with our heads alone, but with our hearts.

We read an encouraging word this morning from our devotional Reflections for Ragamuffins. An excellent daily sampler of writings from Brennan Manning:

"Bizarre as it sounds, the ministry of praising God's goodness, wisdom, and love during times of pain and heartache is a beautiful expression of faith in action, a living expression of trust that "God makes all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to his decree." In his moving little book, Our Heavenly Father, Dr. Robert Frost writes, “There is nothing more precious to God than our praise during affliction. Not praise for what the devil has done, but praise for the redeeming power of our loving heavenly Father. What he does not protect us from, He will perfect us through. There is indeed a special blessing for those who do not become offended at God during adversity. Furthermore, we become a special blessing to Him!”

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
          Psalm 43:5

Love and Garments of Praise for the Resurrected One this Easter season,
Joey and Christy Rauwolf

Colorado!

Hello! It has been a good couple of weeks. We got to visit with our friend Andrew in Seattle who is also planning to be in Northern Ireland soon - it was great to catch up, play some tunes and dream about what God has in store as we all prepare to head across the sea.

Joey spent a week with his brother and family in Anacortes, Washington (too bad he didn't have a camera with him to take pictures of our cute nephew Liam and the beautiful walks in that area). 

Now we're both in Georgetown, Colorado, a beautiful little mountain town. We are spending our days as nannies, house-cleaners and cooks at our friend Kashia & Pete's house! We are just getting adjusted to being at 8500 feet - a big adjustment from being at sea level.   It has been great to see the Lord working here. Kashia is recovering from a spinal fusion back surgery very well and is so glad to be able to have her son Charley at home. Charley has adjusted to us quickly and is a joy to be around! 

Charley loves it when Joey plays his guitar 

Our niece Maya with Uncle Joey

The car we were using broke down for a week and just got fixed so we are glad to be an hour's drive from Denver where Christy's brother and family live! We had a great weekend away with them - snowboarding, skiing, swimming and enjoying each other's company. Thanks John & Naph for making this happen!

Enjoying Monarch Mountain with John and Celeste

Zane made an excellent smoothie for Aunt Christy

Maya, full of laughs.

So, we are blessed by the provision of the Lord for us to be here, and are staying very busy with the work He has for us here.  Still we are praying for His timing to bring us back to Northern Ireland and excited to hear about the new things happening there.  

Will be in touch, lots of love!

Joey & Christy

Meditating on this in our daily walk- 

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no partiality and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness."

James 3:17 - 18

Yes Lord!

Winter in Ketchikan

Ketchikan is a beautiful place. Thank God! We weren't expecting to spend the winter here, but is sure is incredible how His timing works. Joey has been working away building his guitar and it's looking great! He will be able to finish it in time to take it with us when we return to Northern Ireland. 

We're both working part time and busy with all sorts of things in the mean time. This weekend we just got to enjoy SE Alaska...a beach fire at Refuge Cove, hiking to Perseverance lake, and going fishing for king salmon.  It is incredible just to stop and look at all the designs the ice makes on the trail, and to enjoy the beauty of the ocean. We love it. So we are choosing to be thankful for this time with family and friends, time to get prepared to go overseas again...to be grateful instead of wishing we were there right this second. It's a gift. 

The way things look right now, we hope to head back in the beginning of March. He knows. Blessings to you all on this fine day! Joey & ChristySaxman Tribal House in the snow

Cold blue days light up the mountains

Look at that spectacular guitar...

We had a great time yesterday visiting with a group of Korean pastors who are on outreach in Alaska. They are such amazing pray-ers! :)

Joey is working away building his guitar and it's looking amazing!

We're both working part-time and haven't heard a word about our visas!

It's a crazy SE Alaska day - sideways rain! Yay!

Beautiful prayer (Buechner)

"Thou Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, be born again into our world. Wherever there is war in this world, wherever there is pain, wherever there is loneliness, wherever there is no hope, come thou long-expected one, with healing in thy wings.
     Holy Child, whom the shepherds and the kings and the dumb beasts adored, be born again. Wherever there is boredom, wherever there is fear of failure, wherever there is temptation too strong to resist, wherever there is bitterness of heart, come, thou blessed one, with healing in they wings.
     Saviour, be born in each of us who raises his face to thy face, not knowing fully who he is or who thou art, knowing only that thy love is beyond his knowing and that no other has the power to make him whole. Come, Lord Jesus, to each who longs for thee even though he has forgotten thy name. 
Come quickly."
                          Amen.


joyous new year to all!
We're in Alaska, on hold, in HIS timing, waiting for our visas to return to N. Ireland... praising and thanking Him for His faithfulness this year as ALWAYS!
Joey & Christy 

The Sacred Season - excerpt by Brennan Manning

Once a year the Christmas season strikes both the sacred and secular spheres of life with sledgehammer force: suddenly Jesus Christ is everywhere.
For approximately one month His presence is inescapable. You may accept Him or reject Him, but you cannot ignore Him. Of course He is proclaimed in speech, song, and symbol in all the Christian churches. But He rides every red-nosed reindeer, lurks behind every cabbage-patch doll, resonates in the most desacralized "seasons greetings." Remotely or proximately, He is toasted in every cup of Christmas cheer. Each sprig of holly is a hint of His holiness, each cluster of mistletoe a sign He is here.

For those who claim His name, Christmas heralds this luminous truth: The God of Jesus Christ is our absolute future. Such is the deeply hopeful character of this sacred season. By God's free doing in Bethlehem, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Light, life, and love are on our side.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel" - which means "God with us."

Matthew 1:23

Thanks be to God!

The meeting at YWAM Rostrevor went really well! We should know within a week about going forward with applying for our visas. Thanks for the prayers everyone!

This weekend, we are having a yard sale so we've been spending time getting ready for that.

It's snowing in Ketchikan and the beauty here is astounding!

Blessings this Thanksgiving!
Joeseph & Christy

Good blessings from the Lord today - He is clearly speaking His favor about where we are heading...being a part of His Kindgdom means learning not to trust in wordly riches, but in Him! We are definitely growing in this! We are excited about what He has called us to do in this next season!

In the middle of the night tonight (Alaska time, YWAM in Rostrevor is going to have a meeting with the Home Office concering being approved to issue good visas for missionaries (including us). Please pray for this to go well and for God's will to be done!

J & C

 "O that we would so love the gospel and have so much compassion for lost people that tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword and gun and terrorist would turn us not into fearful complainers, but bold heralds of good news."
John Piper (Finally Alive)

Alaska welcome

Alaska. On the Island again. We were welcomed wonderfully at 1:30 in the morning by Christy's Dad who came down to meet us at the ferry. Our friends called us to invite us to lunch immediately the next day and then we spent a couple hours with Joey's Grandma and had dinner (halibut!) with Joey's family. Great to see everyone and go to Goodnews Fellowship today and reconnect with the brothers and sisters we love!

We start work on Tuesday.
Joey at Tongass Construction
Christy at The Point - a lovely gallery, yarn, art shoppe and cafe!

We are still wanting to be in Northern Ireland by December so all the moments here are precious. We enjoyed seeing our family in Oregon and Washington and are so thankful for them!

Joey's Grandma gave us this quote on our arrival - thought it was good:

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." -Mark Twain

God has been so good to us and brought us this far - we are thankful for His infinite goodness and grace...
More soon -
J & C