A bit more on Dublin

Here's something cool that happened...

I was out walking the streets of this town last night...you know, past cathedrals, street musicians, pubs and the like...and I walked past a homeless man asking for spare change. I walked by him, got about 30 feet away, turned around and looked back at him, and just felt like the Lord wanted me to go show some compassion and buy him some food. I hesitated for a long time, but I ended up walking back up to him, asking how he was doing, and if I could get him a sandwich from the nearby grocery store. Anyways, I ended up grabbing him a sandwich, and a cup of tea for both him and I. I walked back over to him and we sat there together and just had conversation. His name was Paddy (how Irish is that for crying out loud), and he was 57. I talked with him about Dublin, and then religion, and I got his take on God. It wasn't really me witnessing to him, but I just got the chance to love on this bum.

So, after a while, a kinda tipsy guy stopped to give some change while Paddy and I where sitting on the sidewalk sipping our teas, and the guy (Rob was his name...26 years old) told us how people nowadays do a horrible job looking after the elderly, and about an incident he had today helping an older lady out. He was a pretty nice guy. I mentioned to him that I was planning on swinging over to Galway in a few days, and he got super excited because he's from the town. He ended up giving me some advice about what to see there. After several minutes, Rob invited me to a pint with his buddies and him. I was super excited about the prospect spending some time with some locals, so I went with him gladly, saying goodbye the Paddy.

From there, I went to a bar packed wall to wall and Rob bought me a pint of Guinness, my first in Ireland. It was such a treat. It was a little hard to hear in that bar at points, and Rob;s accent mixed with alcohol was a bit difficult to decipher at times, but I considered that the fun of it. So that's how my night ended. I walk back to the hostel later on and found myself crashing in my bed. Unfortunately, some german guys came in a little later and they were drunk and noisy. They were doing Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions while everyone was trying desperately to sleep. This was at like 3 in the morning. Also, there was a rather large fellow sleeping in the top bunk of a bed next to mine, and that man had a talent for snoring. He was a champ, but I was worried that he was going to suffocate or explode...one of the two.

The next morning, I walked down the street near my hostel to go to a Christian church I had seen the day before, and I ended up going into one that was much closer that I hadn't seen. I totally heard the worship, and went on in. It was awesome to get to worship with the Irish locals. They sang songs that I knew, and then the pastor gave a sermon on CS Lewis, and his life as a Christian, and how he became one. He gave it because of the new The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie, which is coming out soon. Afterwards we had more sweet worship, with the full band feel still (I really got reminded of home going to this church). Then I met a few people after the service, and we went an grabbed lunch together at this place, and I got some mexican...a burrito actually...but it fell short of my Mexican food standards.

Ok, this is getting long. But I met a girl in that group of young Irish Christian who told me about something called Paddywagon tours...or somthing like that. I'm pretty much changing my original plans now, and heading to every single part of Ireland and Northern Ireland now...all in a 6 day tour with a big group. It's going to cost a little extra, but I'll see every part of the country now...ending up back in Dublin on the 10th...where I'll go the airport on the next day and fly out. Here's the route I'm taking...starting and ending in Dublin I'm excited. But hey...that's all I got for now. Hope you all enjoyed this update! Laters