One Year in Ireland

I can hardly believe it, but exactly one year ago today our family arrived in Ireland!

And what a year it has been…

We settled in to a new home and had to learn things like how to get hot water and turn on the oven. We’ve adjusted from a hot, dry climate to a cool, wet climate. We’ve navigated through round-a-bouts and gotten used to driving on the left. We’ve drank more tea in the last year than in the previous 30 years combined.

We’ve seen our oldest child start school – and welcomed our youngest child into the world. We celebrated 10 years of marriage together. We’ve had a few visitors from home (and would love to see more). We’ve made lots of new friends and missed lots of old friends.

We’ve been challenged in our faith and forced to examine what we believe and why. We’ve been disappointed at what seems like a lack of results. At times, we’ve questioned if what we are doing is making any difference at all. We’ve prayed a lot. We’ve cried a lot. We’ve grown closer to God.

We’ve shared our faith with dozens of people. We’ve walked in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. We’ve walked 75 miles with a wooden cross. We’ve reached out to the community that we live in and helped meet needs. We’ve seen God speak into the lives of people here in amazing ways.

We’ve watched God provide for us time and time again. We’ve learned that being totally dependent on God is the best place to be.

Through it all, we’ve thanked God for using you, His people, to allow us to be here – striving, sharing, and serving. It is truly such a privilege – and we are both humbled and grateful for your partnership.

We have now reached the half-way point of our initial 2-year commitment to OM Ireland. Please continue to pray for our family as we begin to seek God’s direction for our next steps. That could be here in Ireland or perhaps somewhere else – we don’t know yet.

One thing we that we do know for sure is that we will follow wherever He leads.

Every Blessing,

The Bryant Family