Dear VGBC Family!
I wanted to write and let you know about some of the amazing things that happened to Caroline and I during our trip that you sent us on to Ireland for three weeks to support Grace Baptist Church while Mark and Lona Webb were here in the United States. Below you will be able to read incredible stories of amazing opportunities, and will have plenty to join us in praying for. I will include an update on the church also, and ways that we can pray for them. THANK YOU so much for being a part of this journey with us through prayer and encouragement, and know that the church in Killarney sends their greetings, and even prayed for us as Pastor York and his family transition to our church. So without further adieu, here is more of what Caroline and I experienced while in Ireland. If you would like to watch a video also talking about the trip you can find that by clicking here as part of the @yetiwillrejoice podcast.
In general we really enjoyed the country itself. It was so green and beautiful. We had the privilege of visiting a couple of sights including several castles, and an abbey that was really interesting. I in particular am fascinated by the history and architecture, and it is amazing how many centuries ago some of these structures were built. But it is not for the sights that we went across the ocean, it was for the people, and they are far more beautiful as they are created in the image of God, and here is some of how we got to interact with them.
Upon arriving in Ireland we quickly ran into issues traveling. About an hour outside of Dublin our rental car broke down. Add on top of that that they drive on the other side of the road, we had gotten a stick shift, and we were tired after the flight, and our journey started off really great. I can drive stick, but after driving manually with mostly motorcycles the transition to a car, while also being on the opposite side of the car than we are used to, was an adventure.
All of a sudden while we were on the highway it started acting up. We took a turn to get onto another highway and while at a roundabout it died. It just wouldn’t move. We were there for about 45 seconds, blocking all of the traffic trying to get on the roundabout, and several people came up from behind us to see if they could help us. We got it to move, but did not trust it so we pulled off and parked in front of someone’s house. I turned off the car and decided to call the rental company place. However, we were in front of someone’s driveway and so I wanted to move, and the car wouldn’t move…. At All. I couldn’t get it in neutral…. Nothing.
The clutch had clearly died, we were in front of a random family’s house, and my phone was not calling the company. Fortunately Mark Webb was awake and was trying to help us get a hold of the company, we just needed the country code, all while the owner of the house came out to ask what we were doing. I wasn’t able to speak with her well since I was on the phone now with the rental place and she went back inside. The rental place told us that they would bring us a new car, and we switched to an automatic (which was the right move, their roads are so narrow).
After getting off of the phone I went up to the house to speak with the owner better. She was worried about possibly needing to leave, but was very understanding and then asked if we needed anything. I replied that we were fine, and that their graciousness was kind. I went back to the car and waited. They told us it was going to be a while, but were not able to give us a good time frame. We were planning what to do next when again the door opened, and out came the lady with her grandson with two cups of coffee for Caroline and I. This is when we first learned that the Irish like everything HOT, like burn your stomach kind of hot! But this was an incredibly kind gesture. A little while later her husband came out and recommended a couple of nearby restaurants, and then they proceeded to call the rental company several times to try to get them to speed things up on our behalf, not because they wanted us gone, but because they wanted to help us.
We did go to dinner, and long story short, it took roughly 6 hours for them to bring us the new car, and I don’t know how much longer after that to tow the one away that had broken down. The car we were using was several years old and had over 90,000 kilometers on it, which is about 60,000 miles. And the clutch died. They told me that they might hold us responsible for the clutch replacement, which I would fight, but when we returned the car they deemed that we were not at fault. After all of that we decided the best thing to do was to stay in a hotel for the night. We did, and the next morning felt refreshed and ready to hit the road.
I did not start my report with this story though just because it was an adventure. What happened next set the tone for the entire trip, of which in a later section entitled Gospel opportunities I will tell many stories of opportunities that we had to share the Gospel. After we left the hotel in the morning I wanted to go back to the house and thank the kind couple for their hospitality the day before. Both were home when we arrived, and we not only had a wonderful conversation, but we were able to share the Gospel with them. They were Catholic, and do seem to love Jesus, but as will be shared later it is not clear if they have a relational faith with Jesus, or practice the Catholic rituals (we can fall into that same trap). But we got to share what the Gospel is, and encouraged her to read her Bible, and introduced them to the Bible app on the phone. Who knows what this encounter may do, but the Word of God does not turn away void, and if people start reading the Word, God will do an amazing work.
Caroline and I were so blessed to be able to spend three Sundays and additional time with people in the church throughout the week. The environment that they are in is one that is lost and very spiritually dark. Here is some information based on our experiences, and what we gathered talking to the people in the church. You have a large portion of the population currently, especially in Ireland that hate the Catholic Church.
There were scandals that were uncovered about a decade ago specifically revolving around the Church taking women who became pregnant out of wedlock and were basically enslaved by the church for forced labor. Many died under these conditions and were placed in unmarked graves and it was not made known how many were impacted by this until the graves were recently found uncovering the scandal. Apparently they would also take the babies often, and put them up for adoption in the US without parent consent, and make a profit in this process. Needless to say this created so much anger towards the church that many want nothing to do with the Catholic church. Caroline and I actually met one of the babies who was impacted by this in the 70’s and her story can be found below.
Those who are in the Catholic church, for many it is more cultural than anything else, you go to mass, that is what you do. Even of those that are in the church, there is a complete lack of Bible literacy or knowledge. Ann, one of the members of the church put it this way “it is like being in a dry desert, and the Word is the only thing that can quench your thirst, and they don’t offer it.” Ann grew up in the Catholic Church, and her and her husband Patrick left and are some of the founding members of Grace Baptist Church.
No matter how they identify religiously many Irish see Protestants as the enemy. Through centuries of conflict with the English in what they view as a Catholic Vs. Protestant war that has seen action in parts of Ireland as recently as the 1990’s as the Catholic IRA nominally were fighting for the rights of Northern Irish Catholics would regularly commit acts of terror that the Irish call “the Troubles”. It was still talked about so much by the people, and many of them still view Protestants as the enemy.
So when the people of Grace Baptist Church invite their friends to Church functions that are not with the Catholic church, it is received with skepticism and fear. This is something that is changing, and pray with the GBC that these walls would continue to come down as people become more receptive to the Scriptures in particular.
Among this backdrop we came here with two goals. 1. To encourage the church in their faith through the Preaching of God’s word. 2. To encourage the Church to take a proactive role in leadership in the Church itself. The people in the church are abundantly gracious, caring, and giving, but there is not any serving in official leadership roles. This is something that Mark asked me to preach on, and so I did.
Week one I preached from Acts 6:1-7, and the establishment of what is likely the office of Deacon. Here the early church recognized the need to address something that was happening in the life of the Church, specifically the Hellenist widows being ignored in the daily distribution, and how the church nominated people to meet the physical needs that were present. Week two I preached on Spiritual gifts from Ephesians 4:1–16. I sought to encourage the church that all who are in Christ have been gifted by the power of the Holy Spirit to impact the church. That the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in them, and that they are essential for what God is doing in the building of His Kingdom. The final week we were in Ephesians 6 and talked about Spiritual Warfare, and the armor of God, going through each of the elements listed and talking about their importance in the life of a believer.
These are clearly short summaries, and you all know that I preached long, but I do truly believe that the church was encouraged by this, and it would seem that at least one person plans on stepping up into official church leadership. His name is Godfrey, and I really enjoyed being able to build a relationship with him while in Ireland. Pray for him, and Patrick, who is another one praying about an official church leadership role.
Beyond Sundays we got to enjoy Bible Study with them on Wednesday nights, and talk about Exodus 29-31. This is where they were already studying, and asked if I would be willing to lead the two Wednesdays that we were there. It was nice that we had just finished our study in Hebrews with the College Group, which talks extensively about some of the ceremonial elements of the Law, which was a major part of the chapters studied. I was encouraged and impressed with the Church and their Bible literacy given that all of them shared that they started at basically 0 coming from the Catholic church. Even just this was a great reminder to me of the incredible fruit that God is having among this body of believers, and how Mark and Lona have done a great job discipling their flock.
There is more that I could say, but here are some ways that we can be praying for GBC.
I want to share some of the more memorable stories with you from our time traveling. It was amazing the opportunities we had to share the Gospel, and I want you to be encouraged, and emboldened also to share your faith. You do not have to go across an ocean to find the lost, so be encouraged by some of these stories.
The Tuesday Walking Group
There are several walking groups that Mark has joined to try and build relationships. One of those groups I got to join and go for a beautiful walk through one of the National Park trails right there in Killarney. While walking the topic of Charlie Kirk came up. It was actually talked about a lot, and gave us several opportunities to share the Gospel. As part of the conversation there was a Buddhist (surprisingly a common religion that we ran into), a devout Catholic, an atheist, a half Catholic and half Protestant, and me.
While talking about Charlie Kirk, the Buddhist asked “wait, wasn’t he a fundamentalist though?” I replied with “yes, he was, depending on what you mean by that.” “Like he believes that Jesus alone is what allows us to be saved? Wait, are you a fundamentalist?” From there I had the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel, about how God created everything as good, and how we ruined it with our rebellion, and that by faith in Jesus we are able to be made right with God.
The Atheist came up to me after and said “I don’t care where I go when I die, as long as I am happy while I am here.” This was an interesting comment, and one that really broke my heart, but either way she heard the Gospel.
I proceeded to continue to talk to the Buddhist woman for another 30 minutes. She was a Buddhist in as much as she was younger and rebelling against the faith of her parents that was abusive. For her, Buddhism is more about spiritualism and moral relativity, and not following the teachings of the Buddha, but still not a follower of Christ. I was able to encourage her to not let her past impact her view of who God is, and encouraged her to read the Gospel of John. She said that she would actually, and Lord willing that will bear fruit. Please pray for her as she recognizes that there is truth, but is wrestling with other things currently.
The devout Catholic, though thankful for what I shared, was clearly concerned that I was not under the authority of the Catholic church. She graciously invited Caroline and I to a Catholic Mission that was happening that week in Killarney, think our revival meetings. They had outside speakers and made a big deal of it in the city. We went to a night, and it felt more like a Charismatic Non-denominational church would here in the United States specifically with the use of lights. It was interesting being in this old, beautiful Catholic cathedral with LED lights lighting the pillars. The “message” was only a motivational speech, and did not use the Word at all, but it was interesting.
The final man, the half and half is a man named James, who actually goes to the Bible Study on Wednesday nights. I asked Mark about where he is in his faith, and Mark doesn’t know for sure. He said nothing during this conversation, but interestingly it was the most quiet that he was on the whole walk. Pray for James and his walk with the Lord.
I don’t know what fruit will come, but the entire walking group heard the Gospel, and has connections to get connected to the Church as the Spirit moves. Be praying for Mark as he will Lord willing have more opportunity to interact with them and share truth.
Dinner with Ruslan and His Wife
Ruslan is someone who has become my friend since we were here last time with the Youth Choir Kids. Ruslan was our Bus Driver. Our students made a HUGE impact in his life, and his wife told us that he cried when we left. I reached out to get together this time, and simply said who I was just in case, and he responded “I know who you are, I could never forget you guys.”
Ruslan is from Bulgaria. He grew up culturally Greek Orthodox, but not religious in practice. His wife grew up Catholic, but is a bit indifferent now, kind of. Through the course of the conversation the history of the Soviet Union, and its role in Eastern Europe came up. One thing led to another, and as you can imagine we started talking about the Gospel. It was clear that his wife has a thirst for something, even though she doesn’t know what that is right now. She brought up that her mom is frustrated with the Catholic Church, specifically over the lack of use of Scripture, and I encouraged them to go to the Church and Bible Study.
During the course of the conversation not only did we talk about the Gospel, but also the historical and religious differences with the Catholics, and Protestants, and to a lesser degree, Greek Orthodox. The conversation concluded with Ruslan downloading the Bible app with the intention of listening to it while he drives, and Lord willing, he will come to know Jesus through God’s word.
This story is a perfect example of how much of an impact we are able to have with the long term relationship with Killarney. Our students and the way they conducted themselves gave Caroline and I the direct opportunity to share the Gospel with Ruslan, his wife, and maybe her mom all from a trip a year and a half ago. These are also not the only people that we talked to that remembered us from our trip last year, as our students had a profound impact on the community.
This conversation was also the first time in either trip, where it seemed like there was an openness to the reading and focus on scripture from someone who grew up Catholic, and it was not the last. But it seems to me that there is a growing cultural willingness to listen, and explore the Gospel now that is a newer shift, and Mark told me that he senses it also, so pray for fruit to come from that.
The Claus Connection
In this next section I will get to share about how we got to share the Gospel with many people all with one random connection, and the progression of a story that I think is pretty powerful to see how God works. Claus is someone who works at a hostel called “The Black Sheep” which is where we stayed with the choir tour kids when we went in the Summer of 2024. While we were staying there, he and I developed a friendship, and became pretty close. He is from Brazil, loves music, and thinks that I look like Chris Pratt, and calls me Mr. Pratt.
This time around Caroline and I were at a coffee shop, and I saw him, so I told Caroline that I wanted to go say hi before we left the shop. He was with someone, so I wanted to wait until they were leaving. I looked back a couple of minutes later, and they were gone. The next day Caroline and I went to Belfast to meet with a Pastor friend that I met at a leadership conference, and he serves at a church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We went by bus to Dublin from Killarney, and then by train from Killarney to Belfast.
(Extra story paragraph) While on the train on the way to Belfast we sat with a couple who had accidentally gotten on the wrong train, were from Chicago and “weren’t very religious” and we got to share the gospel with them, and just be kind to them, as it was clear especially from the wife that she just needed friendship, even if it was brief. She has two young twins at home, and this was the first time they were away from them for very long. Our time in Belfast was great, and meeting with the Pastor and his wife was fantastic, but it is what happened after Belfast that is part of the Claus connection story.
We got back to Killarney really late the day we traveled back. Like around midnight, and we had to walk back to Webb’s house which was like a 30 minute walk. I had fallen asleep on the bus, and Caroline woke me up at the Killarney stop. I started to stumble out of the bus, and as I was leaving, I accidentally kicked the leg of the only person who was left on the bus. Low and behold it was Claus! My kick woke him up, fortunate for him because it was the last stop, and he looked at me confused and barely awake. I too was mostly not awake, and it took me a minute to see who it was. He recognized me, and invited us to come and see him at work the next day.
That afternoon Caroline and I went to The Black Sheep. Sure enough Claus was working, and he was not working alone. I got to say hi to my friend, but I also got to meet a girl named Jasmine, who had only been working at The Black Sheep for a few months. Jasmine was a former Muslim from Morocco. We got to spend some time talking about religion, thought, philosophy, and ultimately I got to share the Gospel with her, and encourage her to read the Gospel of John, as an eye witness to the actions and works of Jesus. I showed her how she could install a Bible app on her phone, and who knows, but Lord willing she will read it.
After Jasmine and I finished talking, Claus invited Caroline and I to go and listen to him play music at a hotel on Saturday night. That was our last night in Killarney, and it worked out for us to go. I didn’t know this until I got there, but it was a super fancy hotel, and Claus was wearing a tux, and playing a grand piano as the live music for the dinner. I showed up in crocks and a hoodie, which is right on point for me. Caroline and I sat down at our table, and enjoyed it greatly.
After we finished eating, I saw an older woman look at me and then at Caroline out of the corner of my eye. After looking at Caroline, she just says “hi” with a sweet smile, and that started about a 2-and-a-half hour conversation that we were able to have with her. It mostly started with politics. They seem to talk about American Politics more than we do over there, which I find interesting, but it quickly evolved into more important conversations.
Randomly in the conversation I branched off and was talking to the husband, and Caroline was talking to the wife. He and I started talking about Christianity, again after talking about Charlie Kirk, and he was thankful for Christianity as far as it has improved the morals of the western world, but does not believe in “that redemption stuff”. I start to ask him about biblical morality, and about how it comes from Jesus “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” but how that same man said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.”
We talked about the concept that Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord. How since he claimed to be God, he had to either be out of his mind, lying about who he was, and what he was here for, or truly was who he claimed to be. That does not leave much room for just a social, moral Gospel, but for repentance and total faith. Our conversation did heat up a little bit, and again he claimed that he did not see why it was necessary to believe in the other stuff. Very much so picking and choosing what of the teachings of Jesus he wanted to believe.
While that conversation was at its climax, the wife looked at me, and at the perfect time just asked “where do you believe we go when we die?” So I shared the Gospel with both of them, that we will be judged, and we will either be judged for our sin, and seen as guilty, or we will be seen as righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and having faith in him. While talking about this I quoted something from the Apostle Paul, and she looked at Caroline and said “I love Paul…. I guess I am a bad atheist.”
Here is the problem though, I don’t believe that she is an atheist at all. I believe that she was just really hurt by the church, and blames God, and I am praying that God will help her see the truth despite what she has experienced. You see, the conversation ended with her telling us about how she was one of the babies that was almost adopted to the US under the same scandal mentioned earlier. Her mom was sent to one of these convents, and the only reason that she stayed in Ireland is because her Grandma came and adopted her before she could be sent to the US. Additionally, there were other elements of abuse that she endured in the name of the Catholic Church.
As the restaurant was closing we wrapped up our conversation. They hugged us, and thanked us for being their friends. We invited them to church the next day to hear me preach, and sadly they did not come, but we did encourage them to go and read the scriptures for themselves, and that there is a God in heaven who loves us, and revealed himself to us through His word, and through His son.
On the back end of the trip Caroline and I had the opportunity to go to Scotland and see some cool things there. It was less green, but we did get to see some highland cows, so that was cool! While we were there we stayed in a hostel style Air BNB thing where you have your own room and bathroom, but you shared the kitchen with the other rooms. While we were there I got to meet a couple from Florida, two girls traveling through Scotland, one from Germany, one from France, another couple from France, and a girl from Belgium, the French part.
By God’s grace, I got to talk to each and every one of them about the Gospel. The couple from Florida were believers who serve at a Baptist Church in Florida, and we got to talk about our experience that we had in Europe, and I got to encourage them in the Gospel. For the others, I got to share the good news of Jesus, in which a few of them had never even heard the Gospel before.
Summary from the Trip:
Throughout the whole trip, it felt like non-stop opportunities to share the Gospel with people there, and encourage them. It was amazing to see how God opened so many doors through American politics, and through the Charlie Kirk assassination. So many people were open to not just listening, but engaging in conversation about the Gospel, and seemed to have a desire to seek what is true, and I got to point them to scripture, and truth revealed from God.
During my time having done two trips to Ireland, I feel like I have learned a lot. Some about the culture, and people, but most importantly about the way that many of them view religion. Right now I would strongly echo that Grace Baptist Church, and the Webbs are on an Island. They are in a very low reached area, and need our prayers. There are either those who believe that their religious works will save them, or those who hate religion all together. There are some who believe in Spiritualism, but not in the Lord who made all things.
But I also learned that I believe that the Holy Spirit is doing something in the area. This time while being there people seemed way more open to having conversations about “religion” specifically Jesus Christ. There was an openness to people going and reading their Bibles, that we have not run into, and even Mark made a comment to me that he has noticed that more. We can not only join with our partner Church in Ireland, and pray that they would be encouraged in an isolated mission field, but that they would also have BOLDNESS to preach the Gospel, and reap the harvest. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. God is the God of the harvest, and just like we are seeing a Generation here that is turning to the truth, I personally believe that this generation is going to have a global shift towards the Gospel, and we are already seeing that in the US, and the UK, and Iran, China, and Lord willing, Ireland.
Pray for Mark and Lona, that they would be strengthened to return home and faithfully do the work of the Ministry. Pray for their church, to mature in joining in the work of the ministry even more. Pray for fruit from those who heard the Gospel, and were challenged to read their Bibles. Pray that God might do a work in our day that we would not believe, and know that it was clear and evident that God is moving in Killarney, and we get to be a part of that not only now, but into the future if the Lord wills!
In Christ,
Brandon Anderson
