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Thank you for all your prayer and support.

Dear Friends,

We leave tomorrow for the US. We fly out on Wednesday, the 25th June at 2pm Irish time (9 am EST) and arrive in Boston at 4pm EST. Please pray for safe travel. The exams are finished. Thank you so much for praying. We won’t know their results till mid August, when they will receive offers of college places.

Please continue to pray for Trinity Church in Lucan while we are away. Pray that the new people settle in well. We have had another new family come the last two weeks, just recently arrived from Estonia. They have four children, two teens and two younger ones. They will help bolster our youth cell. We had a youth party last night, with 16 people! As we have had 5-8 for most of the year, it was great to see the living room full. Our Sunday school is now up to around 60 children, having started with 11 six years ago.

We are so looking forward to being in the US, and to seeing and talking with many of you. It will be good to be able to tell you more of what has happened here in the last three years, and to hear your news!

PRAYER REQUESTS

Dear Friends, 10 May 2008

The big news is that we have booked our flights to the US. We fly into Boston on June 25th. We will spend a few days in New England then drive out to New York, where we will be for the month of July. Then we return to Maine in August, flying out of Boston on Aug 11th. In all we are there for six and a half weeks. We are looking forward to seeing many of you, and to seeing the sun, which barely put in an appearance in Ireland last summer. It is also essential that we raise our support level while there. It’s a compressed trip this time, squeezed in between State exams and starting college for Patrick and Julie. » More

March has been an eventful month here with St Patrick’s Day and Easter falling within the same week. Celbridge had a very nice parade this year, which even included a high school marching band from the US. Colm, Scott, and Phil all marched with the football (soccer) club. It was a nice sunny day, though cold. We were amazed at the size of the crowd- the population of Celbridge has really grown. There have been so many new houses built, and more planned.

We have both felt a need to refocus more of our time and energy in Celbridge again. One specific thing we’ve decided to do is to meet with other Christians living in Celbridge, who may be attending various churches around Dublin or Kildare to pray together for the needs in Celbridge. We have another couple living in our housing estate who are committed to kicking this off with us. We’ve planned the first one for the second Sunday evening in April, so please join us in prayer for Celbridge! » More

We hope you had a happy and blessed Christmas and New Year!

We had our Carol Service on Dec. 16. It was a lovely finish to a full, challenging, and rewarding year in ministry. As in the past few years, we had lots of visitors, mostly friends and family of congregation members, but also a few who saw advertisements in the local papers or a poster. Our friend Helen came, you may remember praying for her last year when she attended the Alpha course. We have been able to spend quite a bit of time this year in follow-up with some of the others who did the course, counselling or going through discipleship materials. Several of these people are now in cell. The marriage course finished up at the end of November. It went very well and everyone seemed to find it greatly beneficial. Youth cell is going quite well. The youth lead the entire service last Sunday (Dec 30). Patrick spoke again, this time on the full armour of God (Eph. 6), and Julie lead the meeting. Others in the group lead worship. The morning went very well, despite technical difficulties, which they handled well. Please pray for them. It’s encouraging to see them growing in leadership, and taking on more of the responsibilities in the weekly cell meetings.

It’s been a full year for us as a family, too. Patrick and Julie are now both in their final year of secondary (high school). They are studying for their leaving certificate (state exams) and also the SATs, and researching colleges and courses both in Ireland and the U.S. They have participated in lots of youth activities this year. Paddy had a very successful season in soccer playing for Belvedere, his last season in the Dublin schoolboys’ league. They finished by winning the league, the all Ireland Cup and the Leinster Cup, a feat never before accomplished by a single team in one season. He then went on to play for Kildare County under 21 team, and is currently playing rugby for the school. Besides studying hard, Julie is continuing her musical interests with piano and voice lessons. She also puts her baking skills to good use, to the delight of her friends and family. She has made birthday cakes for lots of her friends and brothers and sister!

Brian, Colm and Scott have all started swimming lessons, which they really enjoy. Brian is also attending a program at Dublin City University on Sat mornings for gifted children. He’s completed a math course and is hoping to do engineering next term. He’s also taking a typing class and an on-line computer course. He’s not always too happy with having so many extra school type activities, but hopefully it will help prepare him for going to secondary next year. He just turned 13 this week. Yikes! Colm is still enjoying school. He does very well and has made lots of friends. He loves playing soccer and his team is having a very winning season so far (which makes Coach Dad happy too!) Scott also enjoys football. He’s showing a lot of the same creative interests as Brian, and I never know what might be happening in the back garden when they decide to do a science experiment. Baking soda and vinegar explosions seem to be favourites! Sarah is full of imagination and fun, and amuses herself (and us) with her games. Current favourite is shop and she often lines up shoes on each of the stairs as her shoe store. She loves to dress up and loves seeing all her friends in church on Sundays.

Thank you for your prayers for us this year, and for gifts, letters, e-mails, and financial support. Thank you for being partners with us in ministry. May 2008 be a year of rejoicing and growing in Jesus our Saviour!

In His Love,

Phil, Martha, Patrick, Julie, Brian, Colm, Scott, and Sarah Matthews

www.philandmartha.org

EMMANUEL & ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL
PO Box 8000 Drawer 8123, Laurel, MS 39441 USA

Hi everyone,

Marriage Course

We are coming up to the fourth week in the Marriage Course. We have 6 couples doing the course this time. The sessions are going quite well; couples seem to be really talking through things together, and everyone seems to be getting a lot out of it. Next week’s topic is The Power of Forgiveness, so this could be a key week to pray for the couples. We are using a local youth center this time, and despite some initial hitches (i.e. no heating), it’s working out well now. Thank you for praying for the marriage course we ran over the summer. The entire course went very well, and all of the participants have said that it was hugely beneficial to their marriages. Please continue to pray for the present course, that it would a time of God working in the marriage of each couple.

Youth Ministry

We started off our regular cell meetings for the autumn this week. We are still a very small group, only six teens in the Lucan congregation. For the next few weeks we will be basing the Bible time on the passages taught on the previous Sunday morning. Pray for the teens as they think through ways of reaching out in their schools and communities. For three of the teens (Patrick and Julie included), this will be their last year in youth group. So do pray that it is a year of solidifying their commitment, and continuing to develop their gifts and leadership potential. Tomorrow night (Saturday) there is a Gala banquet for the teens in all three congregations, as a start-off event to this school year. Also, we are in the process of hiring a youth worker for the three congregations. Three applicants were interviewed this week. Pray for the right person to be hired.

More Ministry

Philip has been working with a few others on the development of the next Sunday Morning teaching series for the three congregations. They are also developing worksheets for cell leaders to use, to focus on the same passage for the weekly cell. The series is on the “I Am” statements of Jesus, and through these will touch on many issues in Irish society. The series will have a strongly evangelistic focus, contrasting the way of Jesus with what we often see around us in contemporary culture. Please pray that people will invite friends, and that they will hear and respond to the message of Jesus. Philip will be teaching next week on Jesus as the bread of life.

Martha attended a women’s conference last week with over a hundred other women from Trinity church. It was a good time of teaching, fellowship, and ministry, and very significant for many of the women attending. Philip will be attending a 2 day conference later this month in Dublin.

Overseeing the pastoral needs of the congregation continually stretches us, as we deal with such a range of issues and problems and difficult times in peoples lives. Pray for continual wisdom and insight from the Holy Spirit for us. Also as we try to reach out in our community. Our immediate neighbourhood was rocked last weekend by another tragic death, this time of a young mother of four. Please pray much for a lifting of the spiritual darkness over Celbridge.

Family

School and after school activities are keeping us all busy. It’s the final and most difficult and important year of school for Patrick and Julie. (They are in the same year in school now as Patrick did an optional extra year). Last year of home schooling for Brian as he will go to secondary school next year (jr-sr high). He also starts attending classes this Saturday at Dublin City University in the Centre for Talented Youth in Ireland. Colm continues to do well in the little primary school he attends, Scott is still home schooled, and Sarah teaches us all! Brian, Colm and Scott have started swimming lessons, Colm, Scott and Patrick are both still playing football, Julie is doing piano and has started singing lessons. And both she and Patrick are playing rugby at school (though not, thankfully, on the same team!)

Please do pray for our children’s health and safety. In the middle of writing this I have had to stop to bring Colm to the doctor as his asthma had been triggered by a cold and sore throat and the inhaler was not providing enough relief. Patrick has missed several days of school this week with sinus and sore throat. This time of year is very bad for asthma and colds here. Please pray that our overall health improves and that we aren’t facing into another winter of long bouts of illness.

Finances

You may be aware that the dollar as it its lowest ever against the euro. For us, every time the dollar goes down it is like a pay cut, as we get ever less euros for our dollar check. Please pray that our support increases if we are to continue in ministry here. Thank you so much to each of you who do support us faithfully, and who hold us up in prayer.

In the Love of Jesus

Phil, Martha, Patrick, Julie, Brian, Colm, Scott and Sarah.

Session 7 of the marriage course is on tonight. This the last session of the course, it is titled ‘Love in Action’. Tonight’s session is based of the best selling book ‘The Five Love Languages’ by Gary Chapman. Chapman says, there are five ways through which we can express love. These expressions are like languages that communicate love. Loving words, Thoughtful presents Physical affection, Quality time, and Kind actions. When we look at the life of Jesus, He showed love in all five ways.

It looks like we will begin a new Marriage Course on the 11th of September. This will be with a larger group of couples. We are hoping to have 10 couples attend the course this time. Please keep praying for Martha and I as we lead.

The marriage course resumed last Wednesday. The topic was “Good Sex” and how Sexual intimacy needs to be worked at and developed. In this session we enable each couple to communicate to each other about their expectations and disappointments and to recognise where they need to make changes. Next week we will have our final session ‘Love in Action’, before The marriage course party.

Welcome and thank you for visiting this site. If this is your first time visiting this site please check out our about us page and recent posts to find out what we have been up over last few months. We have included books we are currently reading and also some books we recommend reading. If you would like to comment on any of these books please do. We hope you will visit us often.

Greetings from one of the wettest summers ever. It’s just been raining nearly every day. Yesterday we woke, unexpectedly, to blue skies and sunshine, so we seized the moment and brought the kids to the beach, where we had a lovely day of finding crabs among the rocks, playing in the sand, and braving the waves in a cold Irish Sea. We only had to huddle in the car through one shower. It actually felt like summer!
A day like that makes you realize how much happier you feel, how much more positive your outlook on life when the sun is shining. It’s the same when we are living in the light of God’s presence. Yet in our busy lives, we often don’t take time to feel the sunshine kiss our cheek.
This year (and I mean the past ten months or so, the year really starts in September) has brought this forcibly home to us, as it has been one of our busiest ever in ministry. Speaking, running Alpha, leading cell, youth group, pastoral needs, leadership decisions, have kept us both very busy. Along with that has been school; Phily had a tough year of papers and deadlines in his masters course, and everyone else of course had an active school year as well. We’ve taken a little time off this month, so feeling a little less worn!
In June we started leading a marriage course with three other couples. The plan is to run through it as a taster with a few couples, then lead it on a larger scale in the autumn. So far it has been going really well, with all participants getting a lot out of it. With so many things pulling against marriages, it’s a great way to help couples build strength into their relationship.
Also in June, the youth group took part in Radiate, an initiative by Trinity and other youth leaders to involve our youth and those of other churches in reaching out to the city. They did clean-up projects, put on barbecues, painted, and had fun with the kids in some of the poorer housing developments (some of it in conjunction with Dublin Christian Mission). Patrick and Julie took part and Philip was one of the leaders. The kids all worked really hard and were brilliant with the children; which was the best part for them. Next year the plan is to run this again on a much larger scale, hopefully involving churches from all over Ireland.
This week the youth are helping run a kids club (like VBS) in Dublin. They are working with the youth from another Church, St. Mark’s, which is hosting the club, and a team of teenagers from Oklahoma. They run the club together during the day, then have dinner and fun activities together in the evening, so it’s a full week.
On Sunday our youth will be leading the morning service in Lucan, a first. Patrick will be giving the message, so please pray for him as it will be his first time.
We are trying to get our website up and running; we are still trying to figure out how to put pictures on it. You can check it out at philandmartha.org but remember it is still a work in progress. So if you have any recommendations/ideas please let us know. Philip adds brief updates, so you can keep up with what’s happening between these epistles. Thank you for standing with us in prayer and support.