Schlechte Aufarbeitung und Gruene Irland

Shinanigan's and Saurabh on the Atlantic Coast.

Me trying to be cool - you know Donald Miller wrote a good chapter on the problem with cool - probably good blog material for me in the future. And then to the right, what looks like a commercial for something uncomfortable like diarrhoea supplements or something. That's me actually contemplating God's faithfulness and blessing in my life. I'm listening to 'You Raise Me Up' by that other Josh, and that was probably my best moment on this trip. Thank you Jesus not only saving me, but then lavishing your favor on me. Below is an Irish concert we stumbled across in Dublin, there was Irish tap dancing and music. Notice the beer-holders on the mic stands - gotta love the Irish:)

Glendalough Field where Braveheart was filmed.

So our taxi driver, a crazy 80-year old Irish leprechaun, suggested we check out 'Temple Bar', a stretch of about 50 bars - the Irish, by the way, like to drink - I was definitely unique there.

***WARNING LONG BLOG***Es tut mir leid.
Okay, so I haven't figured out how to strategically place pics and comments. So that was about as organized as our trip. My colleague, Saurabh and I decided 2 days before our trip, that we were going to go to Ireland and London - not a good idea. We were gonna go to Rome, but there seriously were no tix left on Ryanair - the poor mans airline. We were supposed to fly out of 'Frankfurt Hahn' Airport at 10pm on Friday night. But we had to work late, and were deceived by the name of the airport, and the website so we headed in the direction of Frankfurt. This was entirely the wrong way. Long story short, we missed our first flight, which totally negated the "good deal" of 10 Euros. So we luckily were able to get on a standby flight on Saturday morning. Oh yeah the translation of the title: Bad Planning and Green Ireland - understatement on both accounts. So we get to the Dublin airport, and we decide to "save money" and try to take the bus to our hotel. Two problems: 1) Our last minute reservation for a hotel, landed us in a brand new hotel, in ..F okay the middle of no where, that no one from Ireland knew about or where it was (somewhere at the end of the rainbow) 2) Irish people, although extremely welcoming, kind, and wonderful, will give you bad directions or wrong directions rather than not give you anything or say they don't know. So with my gift of "sense of direction" - LOL - we got on wrong bus after wrong bus, and finally got to a hotel we were pretty sure was within 10 minutes of our hotel (after about 2 hours of acting out the hit TV show on ABC that ends in O-S-T). We ate some Irish food for lunch and then finally got to our hotel - via a taxi - and passed out. So we ended up spending the evening in Dublin. We actually had a wonderful time. We stumbled across this Irish 'private' show, literally through the back door, and nobody seemed to care. It was an amazing show. The Riverdancers were amazing, and the Celtic singers made reference to Elvis which I've notice I see Elvis signs everywhere I go - oh yeah could be because he was one of the most famous people ever, but don't tell Jedd that. So we went to Temple Bar and did some dancing and met some friendly people. Then we headed out for the green countryside. Did you know that Ireland is the only evergreen country in Europe?

It was beautiful, wunderschoen!! We went to Glendalough, where the fight scenes in Braveheart was filmed, and ran on the field like idiots. The air is so sweet over there, and at 2 in the afternoon it felt like 9 in the morning because of the cool, wet air. We took 8 billion green pictures, which you can ask me to show you sometime. We made it all the way to the Irish Atlantic Coast and that was probably my favorite time. It had been such a horribly planned trip that it was nice to just be with my Lord, sitting on the coast and knowing that those I love so much were right on the other side of that ocean. I think the older I get - and I'm 30 by the way, lordy - the more I appreciate things in God's amazing, extraordinary world. Like the ocean, I am seriously awe-struck by the wonder of the ocean. I think it's like, to me it's the same ocean since God created the depths, and it's like another universe down there - I don't know. God - you're the...God! If you've read this long, I apologize for the length, but it's been too long since I wrote last. Why is it that we as humans, or at least me, procrastinate on things that are good for us and that in the end we enjoy doing? It's like this human resistance again all that is good, healthy, and pleasing to God - not all the time. But take reading the Bible, for example. These last couple weeks, I've been feeling just not too spiritual and not really connected to the Spirit. And low and behold a friend of mine goes how's your Bible reading going? And I'm like, scheisse - sorry - come to think of it I can't remember the last Bible reading. And then when we're in the throws of being in tune with the King and His word, we are like how did I ever go through that period where I felt distance from God. Anyway just trying to stay transparent. So I did get back in the Word, and what a difference. Here's a scripture verse that really spoke to me: Hebrews 5:11-14 11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Well I love you all very much and miss you. You are in my prayers and thoughts. I gotta go and do my Elvis hair for a karaoke contest in Frankfurt, and I'll blog about London soon.

Bis Dann,

Joshua

PS - Isn't that a cool way to say goodbye - until then ? Which could totally mean until our Lord Returns - kuehl:)