Good-byes and Moving

Some of this was written two weeks ago before we moved. Sorry there are no pictures this time - we have not got our camera cable out of its box yet!!!!

Today has been one of the most emotional days of my life. Today was the day that we had to have our official leaving thing at church. It was a lovely time with some of the most lovely people we know - I guess that's why it was so hard. The Staff Parish committee had arranged a pot luck for us. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is basically when everyone is invited to a mean and they have to bring with them a dish and we basically enjoy a wee bit of everything. I have to say it is one of my most favourite things in the world to do - food is good!!!! We also had a good turn out and thus had lots of delicasies to try out. After the eating Renee MC'd the rest of the proceedings. She started out by inviting Juni Scott to the front. he had something that he had made for me and she wanted to present it to me. I was extremely surprised as Juni is a man that I only know a little bit. He is an artist and he had done a portrait of me for us to take home. The guy has not even done a portrait of his wife - I suppose it just touched me a lot that he would take the time and go to the expense to do that for me. After this Renee had a couple of presentations to make to me - someone had stolen my name from my office door through the week and today it turned up. They had taken it and put it on a presentation plaque - it is beautiful. We were also given a couple of prayer shawls - one for us and one for Eva. The prayer shawl ministry is where some people of our church knit these shawls and pray for the people they will be given to and as we hand them to people and they wear it, they can know that they are loved and being prayed for. Now we can know that we are always loved and always prayed for by the friends and family we have at First United Methodist Church. After these things were given, Renee opened the floor for people to come and say something. Over the next few minutes Margaret and I were moved beyond measure as people young and old came forward to say something cool to us. I am sure that I have said something about this before in the blog, but I am unashamed to repeat it. First UMC has shown us what it means to live in a community that is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. Wherever we go and whatever happens in our lives we will always carry the lessons of love that they have shared with us.

It was not just today that was emotional - the weekend has been full of moving stuff. We were given another party byt our youth on Frriday night. This was a cool time for just us and the youth group and we spent the evening dancing and singing karaoke - they totally organised it and arranged the coolest meal for us. We requested that it be semi formal and so all of us were dressed up and looked well hot!!!!! Everyone looked so cool and we had a great time.

This week we had memorial services (funerals) for the two people that whose passing I mentioned in the last update. Last Monday we had the service for Gus Garcia and then yesterday morning we had the service for Dr Dee Morgan. Both services in their own right were absolutely fantastic. They both intentionally acknowledged the neccessity for grieving and the fact that we experience pain and sadness when we lose people. But (and there is always a big hairy butt!!!!), as Christian people we have hope in that death is not the end, and these services were full of that hope. We really did celebrate this hope and though we miss Gus and Dee immensely, we know beyond doubt that they are suffering no more and that we will see them again. I was really touched by the services and was given a glimpse of what our funeral services should be. We have a hope that needs to be celebrated at these services and of that I am convinced that we should do just that.

All of the above was written just a couple of weeks ago. how things have changed since then. When I wrote it all I was telling you about all our good byes and now, it is almost a week since we started our journey home. It is now March 7th. We touched down in Belfast last Thursday. We flew in to some of the coldest weather that Northern ireland has had all summer. Flying over the west coast of Ireland looked more like flying over the North Pole, all we could see was very snow covered mountains that looked like ice burgs. In a way it was quite cool (no pun intended), I mean living in Florida it always feels like there is just one season and so returning to snow reminded me that there is more than one season. However, that is where the romantic view of it stops. It was bloody freezing as we walked out of the airport.

We travelled back to Margaret's home and spent a couple of days there with ehr parents. They live deep in the countryside in Northern Ireland and it was nice to be in a very quiet place for a couple of days. Jet lag wise, i don't know how we made it through that Thursday, it seems like we slept and then did some errands and then slept some more and then slept some more. In between we ate very well of course. margaret's mum is excellent in the kitchen and is also excellent at spoiling us by cooking us everything we wanted. Margaret's parents were so pleased to meet Eva - it was the first time they had seen her in real life.

After a couple of days there we have come back to Ballynahinch (pronounced Bal-na-hinch) to stop with my parents for a day or two. Again, the grandparents are just over the moon to get to spend quality time with Eva and we are still being extremely well fed by my mum - though I did cook last night!!! Since coming here we have not done much really. My brother and his family came up for dinner on Sunday. they were all a bit sick and they passed their illness onto Eva and myself. As a result, Sunday night was one of the most horrible nights of my life. I was up on the hour every hour from 11pm through 3am throwing up. I felt miserable. Thankfully it was only a 24hr bug and I am over it now, but truly I have never felt worse in all my life than I did on Sunday night and Monday morning. Eva also took the bug and was throwing up all over Margaret. Last night I was gave Eva to Margaret after holding her for a while and feeding her. literally just as I gave her to Margaret, Eva chucked everything she had eaten yesterday over Marge. It was funny in a 'she was not sick over me' kind of way.

On Sunday we went to my old church for worship. I love my home church. It was the first place I worked as a Youth Pastor, I had grown up there and many of the folks that still attend were the ones that taught me much of what I know about Jesus. But - and there is always a big hairy butt - it seems that their worshipping habits have not changed or moved on in 20 years since I was a boy. Everything was done at such a slow and pedestrian pace that the hour that it took seemed like three. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of the Methodist churches here in Ireland are like this. Now in saying that I could be forgiven for wondering why I want to answer the call to minister in Irish Methodism. But while the thought of the current trend of worship within Irish methodism is less than inspiring in terms of my engagement with it; the thought of being an agent and leader of something fresh and new in that context is extremely inspiring and exciting. as I said in a sermon a couple of months ago, there is always hope in every situation. There is much hope in the Irish Methodist church and I cannot wait to see how that hope is worked out.

Today we spent some time in Belfast running some errands and meeting some old friends. It was a good time all round and Eva behaved impeccibly as we dragged her around the city. Tonight we went to Stevie's house. Since the last time we were in northern ireland he has converted one of the rooms in his place to a prayer room. It is literally a mess with pictures, notes, maps, candles, bibles, books and much, much more. I have to confess that I was truly inspred by it. Evidently, Stevie spends much time in there praying and thinking things trough. We had also been to East Belfast Mission, where the congregation have taken out some of their pews in order to create a prayer room. Do you think that God is trying to say something to me here? Basically, I have been overwhelmed today with the call of the christian to prayer - the call on my life to pray. If there is something that any of us who call ourselves Christians is called to, it is to be prayerful in everything. Today I am challenged by my church and by my best friend to be prayerful, to take more time to listen to God. As Stevie spoke to me he kept saying that God was speaking this to him or giving him a message for a talk that was coming up. I am convinced that God is always speaking to us and I am convinced that Stevie is hearing with clarity because he is taking time to listen (though you are still too busy mate - slow down!!!) Next time you e-mail or talk to me ask me how my prayer life is and I hope that I will be able to tell you that since this day it has been changed.

I think that you have read enough for now. I will be back in the coming days with more. For those of you that pray, please pray regarding my application to Queens University. My beginning studies in September lies in their hands. please pray for God's will to be done and for Margaret and I to humbly walk in that.

Blessings