Julie's Semester in Ireland: Missio Dei

This weekend I went with 3 other people from my CU (Christian Union) to Missio Dei in Maynooth. Maynooth is near Dublin, for those of you that are wondering. Missio Dei was so awesome. We got to meet tons of other Christian students from all over Ireland, and it seemed like a large number of them were from Northern Ireland. It was really great to be able to spend the weekend with people from all over Ireland.

So me, Katie (from Oregon), Nathan (from Cavan) , and Declan (from Galway) got the bus on Friday from Galway to Maynooth, and it took us about 3 and a half hours to get there or something, I really don't remember, I made that up, but I think that's right. So we got there and had to find our way to the campus, which wasn't bad because a) Nathan had been there already and b) it was right around the corner. So we got there and we checked into our rooms which were in the coolest building ever, and then Nathan ran into some of his friends from Limerick and we went to pizza with them. We had to walk and eat the pizza at the same time, and we finally got into the first lecture. The main speakers name was Ken Simpson and he was from Australia. We read the book of Amos and discussed missions. God's mission, our mission and our convenant with God. After that it was pretty late but we stayed around and talked to some people for a little bit and then went to bed.

The next day (Valentine's Day) we all went to (free!) breakfast, and then started our day with another lecture from Ken. After that we went into our seminars. The seminar that I took was God in the World, where we discussed Missions in the 21st century, creative access countries, and other issues pertaining to missions. It was really cool and really informative. After that we had (free!) lunch, which was really good sandwiches. So me, Katie, Declan and the Limerick people (Angela, Aisling, and Hannah) went for a walk around Maynooth. It was fun to get off the campus and explore a bit. So we walked around and tried to walk to an organic market, which I guess in Maynooth just means "shed of vegetables", because that's what it was. So we walked down by this river thing, and then back up to campus for our second round of the seminars. Then we all met up outside again and all the Galway people and all the Limerick people went to get Chinese for dinner. It was really fun, and the food was good. That night we also had prayer night. There were a bunch of different stations set up based off of each of the seminars, and we went around to each and said prayers at each station. After that I hung out with the Limerick girls for a little bit and talked to them, but then I went to my room and listened to my iPod for awhile.

The last day (today) we all went to breakfast, checked out of our rooms, listened to a panel discussion, had our final lecture and then we had some tea and coffee and biscuits. Once it was over the Galway people and the Limerick people went into town for some lunch. Katie had left earlier so that she could make it back in time to see Bishop Tutu speak back at NUIG. So me Declan and Nathan went to SuperMac's with the Limerick people and then caught our bus back to Galway.

So overall it was a really great weekend. I had a great time and I learned a lot. Now for pictures...only have a couple...also, they are not in order from the way the weekend went. Oh well.