MAP Ireland

Winter months in Ireland can be hard for me with a bit of seasonal depression but yesterday the sun was out as I walked to church.

When the service ended after church, as I was waiting for the people next to me to exit the aisles, I leaned over to a lady next to me that I hadn’t met and said, “how are you.” Then this lady looked at me with tears in her eyes. I thought to myself, “oh, no, I’ve caught her in a vulnerable position and I don’t want to embarrass her.” She responded telling me about how she liked the sermon and knew she needed prayer. Then asked if I was American. I told her I was and that I worked for an organization called World Harvest Mission and the tears just streamed down her face. “World Harvest!” she said. “I used to know Jack and Rosemary Miller. They were incredible people.” And in that moment I knew I was entering into sacred space in her heart, and that I was able to be part of it because of this man who I greatly admire but never met, the man who founded WHM. And then I had the privilege to pray for her.

I think it’s interesting when I was talking about the 3D dimension of this blog including the people who have gone before us, I would never have imagined a conversation like this. So thanks, for going before us Jack and Rosemary.

This lady told me that because I sat next to her, she was reminded of a verse that Jack had given her that had really changed her life. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Tim 1:7). And that verse spoke to me where I am in my life right now.

When I left church to get on the bus to head into city centre, I said to myself as the clouds gathered, “this is a rainbow kind of day.” That’s one of the beauties of living in Ireland. In the spring particularly, there are multiple rainbow sightings (so far no leprechauns!) But every time I see one, the magnificence is nothing less than the last time I saw a rainbow. And as I’m led into worship, I remember God’s covenant with Noah when he said “never again will I destroy the earth.”

So for the next 30 minutes on the bus I took intentional glances up from the pages of “The Reason For God” to search for the rainbow. And then, there it was over the sea touching the lighthouse at Howth Head. I looked around the bus to see if anyone else was marveling at the rainbow. I almost tapped the woman with the child in front of me to point it out to them. Look! This rainbow holds much promise and hope for me, and I want others to be amazed at it too.

Seeing this rainbow on this day was a reminder of God’s love throughout the history of the world. That what he promised to Noah has continued to me, that because I am his daughter, I am grafted into his covenantal love. And I am part of a big family.

So I praise God for his creative ways of telling me he knows and loves me, how he loves the people that we work with, and how he wants to spread this good news to everyone, as evidenced by a rainbow in the sky!

Becca Giles is from Charlottesville, VA and graduated from UVA ‘06. She participated in the summer internship ‘05-06 and moved to Ireland in May 2007 and is finishing her second year of the apprenticeship, through August 2009.