In the summer of 2012, our family sold or gave away most of our stuff, packed up the rest and moved to Dublin, Ireland with a desire to help start neighborhood based churches and missional communities across the city of Dublin.

…& now

This move was not something that we’d planned, but after a year of praying, listening, and discerning, it was clear that this move was the next step the Father had for our family.

So here we are…

a bit about our family
Liz & I first met as college students in Fredonia, NY, where Liz was majoring in Music (violin), and I was studying Human Resources Management. We were married in 1990 and have 4 daughters, Hannah, Erin, Brenna & Méabh, who all currently live in Dublin.

We live in Marino on the city’s Northside.

Elizabeth was born in San Francisco, California and grew up on Long Island. She served as worship pastor at a church we planted and led  Ithaca, NY for 5 years. She was part of the leadership team since the church started in 1999.

In addition to guitar, Elizabeth also plays violin, and viola, and teaches private lessons in Clontarf. Elizabeth has played violin in the Erie Philharmonic, the Glens Falls Symphony, the Schenectady Symphony and currently performs with the Dublin Co-Orch.

While in Dublin, most of her time is spent keeping up with Méabh, teaching violin lessons, and working to keep the family running smoothly.

I (Bob) was grew up in Chautauqua County in western New York, and graduated from SUNY Fredonia.

In addition to serving as the planting and lead pastor for a Vineyard church in Ithaca from 1999 to 2012, I started and led university ministries in Albany and at Cornell University. While in Ithaca, I served as a University Chaplain at Cornell

In addition to being a church planter, I am also the Director of Marketing for Communitas.

I still dream of playing right field for the Boston Red Sox.

Here a few other random facts about me…

who is this blog for?
Obviously the scope of this blog is somewhat limited. It is mainly about our family’s life in Dublin as we embed ourselves on the city’s Northside…but we also though in some thoughts about spiritual formation and church culture. As you might guess, this blog is written for family and friends who have been part of our lives and are interested in our new lives in our new country.

Hopefully anyone interested in Ireland or church planting will find it helpful as well.

looking for some background?
If you’d like to learn a bit more about how a family from Upstate NY ends up in Dublin Ireland, the following pages have some helpful information:

• This page  contains the original blog post where we shared what we were doing, as well as a video of the announcement as we made it to our church in Ithaca.
• Wondering why we want to begin communities of faith in Ireland? (part 1 & part 2), or more specifically, Why Dublin? or Why Clontarf?

bob’s contact info

As you may or may not know, Bob is the one who does most of the writing and site maintenance here. You can contact him using our contact page or follow him on Twitter or  Facebook.

finally…
As we have moved to Dublin, and prepare to begin this new community of faith in the Northeast section of this city, we are in the process of raising monthly financial budget.

If you’re interested in becoming one of our ministry partners. We’d love to chat. Contact us and we’ll set up a time!