July 6th - 11:00 PM For those of you on 'baby Jones' watch, it looks like the precious little ones' arrival 'has been delayed'! If you don't know what I'm talking about go back and read yesterdays blog entry to catch up. . .

As of mid afternoon Andrea is back home because the contractions seemed to have slowed or even stopped for the time being. She has a wonderful attitude about the whole thing as she knows that God is in charge of these things, but still, it's hard to wait when you are all geared up and ready. She is feeling tired but fine - I know, I know . . . that's easy for ME to say!

The actual due date is not until the 9th, but we were all sure - including her doctor, that the new arrival was going to be early. So, even in new births we must keep our motto in mind - "assume nothing"! At any rate, we are now all practised up getting from our house to theirs in under 30 minutes.

Thanks so much for you continued prayer support for our wonderful teammates as we are on full scale 'baby watch'! Mark, Andrea, Grant, Luke and Aislinn Jones are looking forward to sending lots of new baby pictures very soon. Over and out . . . for now.

    4:13 am, 4th July, 2008 - the phone rings and one of our teammates, Mark Jones, is calling.  Andrea is having contractions that are hard and sustained about every 15 minutes.  Time for Kathy and I to jump out of bed and begin the 30 minute trip to North Dublin!  We have been waiting and waiting for this call - we knew it would be in the middle of the night (isn't child birth always in the middle of the night?), and we are especially excited that today is the 4th of July.

    Mark and Andrea have three other children and we are being 'fill-in' grand parents until Andrea's folks arrive on the 12th.  The last couple of weeks have been filled with wondering 'maybe tonight will be the night!'.

    4:55 am, we arrived at the Jones' house.  Everything  seems ready to go, contractions are now every 7 minutes and very hard.  At 5:30 am Mark and Andrea leave for the hospital, not far away.  Kathy and I are ready for the kids but it's still a couple of hours before they wake up.  So we nap a bit; then, around 8:00 am Mark shows up at the house again - whoooaa, what are you doing here?  He explains that in Ireland, visiting hours for fathers is strictly 8:30 am to 9:30 pm - so he was told to go home and plan to show up again around 9:30 or so.

    5:07 PM - well it now almost 12 hours later and not much has changed.  Mark and Andrea are still in the hospital waiting for something 'serious' to happen.  In the mean time Tom and Karen from our sending church in Kentucky have arrived on holiday here in Dublin.  So they are coming over for a BBQ while we wait!  Mark and Andrea won't be here, but that's no reason to waste a perfectly good 4th of July evening, now is it!  The kids, Grant, Luke and Aislinn, can tell them all about it later.  Maybe the wonderful aroma from the grill will start something in the labor ward! Thanks for praying for the Jones family!! 

   Mark looks a bit concerned, but  Andrea and Kathy are both doing great!

This week I've asked Sarah to share how God has been at work from her perspective . . .

Before I moved to Ireland a friend reminded me that God specially designs us for the ministry (life) He calls us to.  It's also been said many times that when God calls He also enables.  Since moving here, I've found (once again) that these sayings are true.  While many things have been stretchging (like helping with the kids basketball program when I havn't an ounce of athleticism in me =), God has overwhelmingly proven Himself faithful.  Those of you who know me know that I thoughly enjoy drinking tea and going to cute little coffee shops.  In light of what is written above, should I be surprised that God has allowed me to build numerious friendships in the relaxed atmosphere of a cafe?  I am truly, truly grateful for the many new people God has brought into me life in these past few months!  Some of the girls I've met with are already followers of Jesus and are an encouragment to me as sisters, others are perhaps counting the cost of what it means to follow Christ.  Either way, I'm so blessed and challenged by the opportunity to "be Jesus" to them.  It is so very clear to me that God is on the move in this country for His glory!  Keep praying!