Life has been manic in the last number of weeks since I updated and this solely is my reason for not getting to it until now. If I had been wise I would have updated as I went along but I wasn't so now you are going to get it all at once.

Well the first thing I need to tell you about was getting to see U2. To put it mildly, they were amazing. I have never experienced such a show of complete audio and visual pleasure. Not only were U2 completely musically tight, but their light and visual show was simply stunning. ouor evening was not without drama though. Margaret, Alan, Roy and I left in good time from Roy's house to get down and have a bit of fun before the gig. Unfortunately we came upon a bad accident on the Turnpike and moved about 4 miles in one of hour. Sure the craic was great, but we started to get anxious as we began to realise that we could miss the 7.30pm starting time for the gig. Right in the middle of all this traffic, a large 18 wheeler truck attemtped to bully his way in front of me. He picked the wrong day to try that...I stuck to my guns as he edged closer and closer into my space and towards my vehicle. I am not joking when I say that just at the point of the trucker giving up and letting me win, the front of his truck must have been about half an inch from the bodywork of my car on the passenger side. Margaret and Roy did seem a little alarmed that I appeared willing to sacrifice them in the name of traffic victory, but all of us were glad not to be sitting behind the big guy when all was said and done. A few more incidents later we arrive and were walking into the arena at 7.26pm. U2 played everything I wanted to hear from them, except Yahweh from the new album. I left feeling that I had done one of things on my list to do before my life ends. It's always good to accomplish those things.

Later on that week, I departed from Port St Lucie to take a group of youth to Alabama for a mission/aid work trip to help some of the victims of hurricane Katrina. Little did I know what we would achieve and what a great work God would do in my heart and the hearts of those that I took with me. This was a unique mission experience for our church. it was the first time that a group of adults and youth have travelled together,on mission to work on the same projects as part of the same team. After my summer mission trip to Mississppi this year, it became a real hearts desire of mine to see something like this happen - adults and youth changing lives and having their lives changed by simply showing up and serving those in need in the name of Christ. It was an outstanding success on a number of levels.

We worked for one family in Bayou Le Batre. This small fishing town sits right on the gulf and the people of this area experienced major storm surge as Katrina made landfall at the end of August and the house we worked in was flooded to about 5/6' above the ground around it. This water left damp and mould everywhere and so our mission was to mud the house out. To mud a house out is basically to gutt it and that was what we did. We completely took it apart and left nothing inside but the 2x2 framing. i was encouraging the team to not look at what we were doing as tearing down, but rather to consider what they were doing to be part of the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. We had a lot of fun and in just about 2 days of work, our wee team completed the work.

Another part of our work in Bayou Le Batre was to go to a warehouse in the town where supplies where being stored and to sort them out and pack them and make them ready for delivery to the people in Mississippi who had it much worse than those in Alabama. Again our team was magnificent and we knocked this job out in an afternoon and had a truck ready to go with supplies the next day. We would accompany the truck.

Where we were headed was a liyttle town called Pass Christian in Mississippi. It lies about 10 miles west of Gulfport and about 60 miles east of New Orleans. If you have any geography at all of the Gulf coastal region, you will know that this was going to be a majorly affected area. And you would be correct. Out of 2800 home in the town, 2600 were wiped out - and I mean wiped out. As we drove through the town on our way out it was like something you would expect to see in Baghdad rather than the continental USA. Whole houses knocked to the ground and now nothing but piles of rubble; vehicles over turned and left to rot on the side of the road; a church graveyard where the water had softened the ground so much that the caskets and bodies within them had risen to the top and now lay there for all who drove past to see. The was easily one of the most horrific sights I have seen in my life. The place we were working was a small distribution centre in the town. It was basically an area of open land where makeshift tents had been erected with massive advertising tarps where people could ome and get the supplies they needed to continue their survival. The guy that ran the operation was called randy. He was apparently an extremely wealthy man who had lost everything in Hurricane Rita and was so moved to get of his ass and do something to help the victims of Katrina. He was a cool guy and we became just a few of his growing army of rangers (www.randysrangers.com) Our work was to unfold and reroll these massive tarpaulines so that randy could set up another, bigger distribution center for the area. To be honest we wondered what we were doing as we worked away at the stuff, but it turns out that another centre will cater for thousands in the recovery process and I am proud to say that our team played its roll in helping those thousands.

The impact of seeing these things and doing something about it was amazing. The whole team experienced something special within us as we answered the call to be the hands and feet of Christ. Not only did we do something practical to help these people in need, but we also took every opportunity to minister to everyone we could by praying for them or simply listening to them. It was a fantastic trip and the team was one I was proud to lead.

Upon returning, I fell straight into Thanksgiving. Over the course of the holiday weekend Margaret and I managed to be present for and eat three turkey dinners - all of which were scrumptuous. We ate at church early on the Thursday at the community meal we have been a aprt of every Thanksgiving since we moved here. Then we went to have dinner with our friends the Skinner's and we had a wonderful time. That was enough for Thursday and then on Friday we had Thanksgiving with John, Renee and Megan at their house (John and Renee celebrate on the Friday as they sponsor the church meal on Thursday)

After all the eating we travelled to Gainseville, Florida to see the University of Florida take on the Florida State University in the big American Football game. Ron and jen are avid and passionate fans of the UF gators and so they have been on at us for ever to try and get to a game with them. I am so glad it worked out because it was a completely fun experience. The Americans simply know how to put on a day out for everyone. We got to the arena at 9am to set up the Tailgate Party. Simply put, this is where you set up house for the few hours before a game to get yourself and your friends in the mood. Back home on big game day in Dublin, we go to the Horseshow House to do this. in America they have the weather to bring the bar and snacks with them in the back of their car. nopt only this though, but we also had with us a TV sattelite system so we could watch the prematch stuff on ESPN. The whole reason we get there so early is so that we get the space with the power outlet in the car park. It was a lot of fun anbd the game was even better with the Gator's running out an impressive victory over their rivals. I enjoyed it a lot and will post some pics for you.

Tuesday after the Holiday weekend, Margaret, Eva, Ron, jen and I headed out to Las Vegas for a few days. I had been planning a surprise for Margaret's birthday and as I was talking with jen about my thoughts, she said "Why don't we go to Vegas?" To cut a long story short, this is what we did and from Tuesday of this week until Friday, we spent time in Sin City. now in America they have a saying; "What happens in vegas, stays in Vegas." I think it is fairly safe to share our experience with you and show you somoe pictures. Firstly it should be said that visually, the city is amazing. Full of lights and sounds like you will never see anywhere else and the most vast and ornate hotels in the world. We really had a lot of fun just walking in and out of the hotels and seeing what they were like. We saw Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, Treasure Island, The Mirage and the Bellagio. there were so many more to see and experience but we ran out of time. They were all stunning in their own right. The casino's were good entertainment for a while but Margaret and I were having no luck in them at all and soon gave up hope of returning to Florida as millionaires. The highlight of my experience was sitting down and getting to play texas hold'em in the hotels poker room. I love to play poker and love watching it on TV also and so to get the chance to play at a casino table in Las vegas was something special. Even more special was that I was getting good cards and I did okay out of it. He he he!!! We also got to see a spectacular light and laser show on Fremont Street which is Old Town Vegas. Te funniest thing happened here. We were standing there enjoying each others company when a group walked towards us and stopped about 10 feet in front of where we were. They huddled together as if to pose for a group picture. Upon seeing this the juvenile in me came out and I quickly told Margaret, Ron and Jen to turn around and get ourselves in the picture, and there we were standing on our tip toes grinning like Cheshire cats for some random victims picture. The best thing though was that some other bloke on the street said he would take the picture for the group and so the group all had their backs to us and had no idea we were in their picture. It may not seem as funny to you now as it was to us then but it was absolutely hilarious. They will not know what we were doing until they get their film developed and we will never see the pic - but it gave us a huge laugh.

One more thing I should mention is my amazing daughter. you would think that travelling with a six month old to las vegas was nuts, and normally you might be correct but not in the case of my wee girl. Eva was so well behaved through four flights and though all our carting her around. In fact, everytime we were on a plane or eating somewhere, the people who were sitting around us all commented as they were leaving on how well she was behaved. We were both so proud of her everywhere we went. Funny story though - on fremont sttreet we met this young family with a 2 1/2yr old and 9month old twins. we got talking and were having a laugh about how small their babies were born and how huge Eva was born. It turned out that my 6 month old daughter weighs the same amount as their 2 1/2yr old - we could not believe that when we said it.

So now we are home and my vacation is almost over. I am left with amazing memories from the past weeks and I am thankful for all of them. Today in particular, I am also thankful for my family.

Enjoy the pics.