After an incredibly busy but satisfying first few weeks of May we were off on our adventure. Jim and Kim Vanwinkle, and I left on a sunny Saturday evening for Ireland to join Brenda, who had been ministering the 2 previous weeks in Northern Ireland, Dublin, and Cork.
Our flights all went well though we did get our exercise in the San Francisco airport making sure to catch our connection. But after that we were greeted with the luxury of seats with extra leg room on our 10 hour jaunt to London. The flight went quickly and I, who never sleep on flights, slept surprisingly well. It's safe to say that the trip was off to an amazing start I, myself surprised at the ease and safety I felt.
We arrived in Dublin at around 6:00pm on Sunday evening. After my first experience of driving on the terribly signed, narrow roads of Ireland we all slept extremely well, staying in Dublin for the evening. The next morning after my first Irish Breakfast which was delicious and included some delicious baby mushrooms I'm going to try to replicate, we were off to explore some of Dublin after an amazing time of prayer and preparation for whatever God had for us in this amazing land.
First we went to the Book of Kells at the Trinity College Library. The book of Kells is a hand-copied Bible scribed by monks in Ireland years ago. It made us all think: "How much do you have to love God, and love the word of God to painstakingly hand copy it and decorate it word-for-word your whole life? It was an amazing sight, indeed, and was just one of the many symbols of the rich, deep heritage the Irish have had with God in the past we got to experience. We were excited to be used in awakening that heritage, excited that God would allow us to be in a land that He longs for so much to come back to where they were, and go even beyond that in their passion and pursuit of Him.
We also got to go to an old church that they turned into a restaurant in the heart of Dublin. At this church, Wesley preached during the reformation, and Handel himself practiced the Messiah on the organ here.
The best part? We got to get right up to it and touch it. This was an amazing experience for me. To be in a place of such history, and to 'pull' a little on the anointing left there by such profound men.
On our way out of Dublin we stopped on the side of the road to get some Dandelions, we used them a lot in prophetic acts all over Ireland, I'll share more on that later perhaps. Anyways, when we pulled off, we looked back and had a gorgeous view of Dublin. You could see the ocean and some of the city, and a huge thunderstorm beginning to move in as we looked back over it. It was an amazing sight. We happily agreed with God that His rains would cover Dublin and His presence would stay there and envelope the whole town.
A few miles later, as we were trying to find a B&B following the terribly marked roads of Ireland, we came upon a huge double rainbow. It was amazingly beautiful. Brenda had earlier had prophetic words about watching the skies to see that you're on the right track, watching for rainbows and also that she would receive a 'double portion.' We, again, were on the right path and were so happy to be met with such a sign and hug from God.
From the very first day, I was almost dumbfounded that a place could be so beautiful. Almost painfully beautiful. It is extremely apparent that God has marked this land. The air is cleaner than everywhere I've been before, the weather milder. It's almost impossible to set foot on the soil, or look at pictures and not fall in love. We were ready to see what God held for us in the rest of this extremely experimental trip. We felt blessed and satisfied as we turned in after our first day of praying in Dublin.
That evening God gave me a vision of the wealth and resources of Dublin (it's a very wealthy city and Ireland is not a wealthy nation) being unlocked into the rest of the nation. I saw all of the huge banks we had walked by earlier that day getting a huge key inserted into them and the faces of the buildings swinging open, the money and resources being dispersed to the rest of the nation. Before we left California we prayed often for the nation to prosper. I'm believing that it will.
Our B&B sign, on the evening of night 1.
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