As part of your journey try reading about St. Patrick today! What a great story of how God can use our circumstances for His glory! I first learned the real story in college when we read The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter. That's a great book too! It got me really interested in Celtic Christianity.

Patrick of Ireland
...was not Irish. He was a British Celt, first enslaved in Ireland as a teen, later a missionary to Ireland.
...was not necessarily the first missionary to Ireland.
No one knows his birth or death date. 17 March is traditionally considered to be one of the two, but there is no documentation for this.
The only documents about Patrick are his Confession and a letter he wrote to Coroticus.
There were never snakes---or other reptiles---in Ireland for Patrick to chase out.
Patrick predates the Roman Catholic Church, and was considered a "saint'' before the Roman church created its canon of saints (and added him to it).