goodbye mullartown house

Today was our last day at Mullartown. We got the place all cleaned up, vacuumed, and waxed. We deleted all our stuff from the Widman's computer and put their furniture back in the right places. And we cried a little bit...in our hearts anyway.

Yesterday we sang in the evening service at the Annalong Presbyterian. It was really a fun time and I don't think anyone was offended that we decided to just wear jeans. I hope not anyway. So I guess we just had our audience wrong; our niche is old people in ties and uncomfortable shoes. :) We also had some good times saying goodbye to our friends. We've made some good ones--as much as one can in three months of not being around much, anyway.

So tomorrow we turn our eyes to Dublin and then Cork, then we set our faces like flint towards Shannon, Boston, Chicago, and Muncie at last. We'll try to post again before we leave, but no promises. After we get home, though, we'll keep posting our thoughts and reactions. We have a lot to pray through. Thank you so much to all those who supported us financially or by praying for us.

Mark

N.Irish phrase of the day: "Safe home." = "Have a safe trip home." We've been hearing this a lot lately. So sad.

thanksgiving giving giving

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

So yesterday we met with Tommy Nelson, the Northern Ireland representative for World Gospel Mission. He was almost immediately trying to get us to go teach music at their Bible college in Kenya. These Mission Agency guys are really salesmen, whether they mean to be or not. I think they're just that excited about what they do.

After that we went to a big Thanksgiving shindig at the Oasis, which is an old pub that John Moxen (of Project Evangelism and Murlough House) was given and recently renovated into a coffee shop youth outreach. It was fun and we got to see Erin and eat pumpkin pie (well, actually butternut squash pie, but it was close enough).

After that we played music for their youth outreach and it was pretty rough. I think the kids were bored out of their minds to be honest and I tried to talk too much which didn't help. It's kind of humbling to know that we're not "cool" anymore (or maybe ever...). I guess the way you learn is by being bad at something for a while though. We're not giving up.

So that's us. Cheers.
Mark

Embarassing moment of the day: Last night they made all the Americans stand up and sing this song about Ireland to the tune of "America the Beautiful". It was awful. The song lumped Northern Ireland and the Republic together (which can be very offensive in the north), but after the last verse some of the Americans decided to sing the first verse of the real American song. If no one in the room was offended it was a miracle. Hopefully there were no Orangemen in the crowd. It was desperate.

genesus and exodus and numbers

We had a great time on our latest round of visits. The meeting with our accountant friend went well. Aside from being a great chap, he was very helpful and gave us some good input. After that we drove north and west to the little town of Buncrana, where we met Mike and Aster Mullins of Operation Mobilization. They are doing some really neat things up there. They have a big red double-decker bus that they take around and do Bible clubs and stuff for the kiddo's. They're also really neat people. Mike is so enthusiastic about everything that I think he could sell anything. We enjoyed talking with them and meeting their team. Those four couples make up the only evangelical church in Buncrana. That's pretty wild.

On Wednesday, Mike took me along with him on a visit to the Exodus, a "Christian nightbase" for young people in Coleraine. It was really slick. They have bands playing every Saturday night and all kinds of kids come in. They do classes similar to the Alpha Course, and they also organize lots of summer missions trips for the kids that are interested. It was pretty neat to see. I took a bunch of pictures which are on the online photo album.

I feel very priviledged to have been there. It was neat to see the Exodus, but also neat to listen in on the conversations in the car ride of over an hour. The reason for the visit was that a wealthy businessman in Buncrana is opening a similar kind of keep-the-crazy-kids-from-boozing-their-brains-out center for youth to hang out. He wanted to talk with the Exodus guys about a partnership for the purpose of getting EU grant money. It was fascinating, though, because he is a staunch Catholic and very suspicious of anything that's not.

So there's that. We're wrapping things up here. Cleaning the house and getting ready to pack our things. On Tuesday we're heading south for some time in Dublin and then Cork before making our way back to Shannon for our flight on Saturday. It will be bittersweet.

Mark

Taste-of-home of the day:
We didn't expect it, but it happened. Like a thief in the night.

one year ago...

On Sunday Ange and I celebrated a year of marriage. A good year. A couple of our friends had us over for lunch and we ate too much and had some craic. It was fun. After that we went to a prayer meeting at the Christian Renewal Centre, which was very powerful. It was a little different than most of our experience, but it has stuck with me over the past few days. I have seen a grown man kneeling on the floor and genuinely weeping over his country, asking God to change it. Lord, I pray that I could care about anywhere that much--this country or my own. Or how about my own neighbors as a start?

Anyway, we also had some beautiful time together to celebrate. Yesterday we put on some Sufjan Stevens and just started driving, ending up at a great little beach right by a prime example of today's "Northern Irish word of the day." We had a little picnic and walked on the beach. It's funny because we talked about going to Ireland for our honeymoon, but decided to do something simpler. At the time we said, "maybe we'll go for our anniversary..." Little did we know. Little did we know.

So in a few minutes we're off to have lunch with an accountant friend. We're hoping to bounce some of our ideas and the church's ideas off him and see what the practicalities might look like. Probably if he says "agh, you're mad!" then we'll know they're God's ideas. :) After that we're going to visit Mike Mullins who is working with Operation Mobilization and doing some cool stuff. Should be a good time.

We love you all and we'll see some of you in a week and a half. God bless.

Mark

N.Irish word of the day: caravan park = luxury trailer park. This is the funniest thing to me. Many people hear own trailers in these caravan parks, usually located close to the beach. In the summer, they may come down for weeks or months and live in the trailer. Actually, it doesn't sound like too bad of an idea. It's like a cheaper version of a summer home.

meetings and greetings

We've had a good couple of days here and had some exciting conversations. On Monday we had breakfast with a guy who felt that God was leading him to open a music school in Lisburn. It's done really well and he's looking to help other people open similar schools in other towns. He was an idea guy, really fun to talk with, and gave us some interesting things to think over.

After that we drove to the Belfast International Airport and flew to Bristol, England (gotta love EasyJet) to meet the UK director for Bible Centered Ministries. BCM is the organization that owns Mullartown House, so we wanted to meet our bosses and learn about BCM and what they do. It was a good time and we enjoyed them very much.

This morning we had coffee with Keith Neill, who is the youth pastor at Lisburn Cathedral, an Anglican church. We were refreshed and very encouraged by the things they are doing. They have a nightclub for youth called Fusion which attracts a lot of the goth kids in town. They also do pub ministry when most Protestants won't even go near a pub. On the whole, they're just really progressive and open to whatever they see God doing.

So there's that. We've posted more pictures on the photo site if you haven't found them yet. God bless.

Mark

N.Irish word of the day: mangin' = nasty; Pronounced like "hanging." Example: That milk is mangin'. I think it's starting to curdle. Noun form would be manger; as in "Girls are mangers. Some of them didn't shower all week last summer at camp."

soon and very soon

Another good week under our belt. We met Ange's parents at the Shannon Airport and then drove down to the village of Tralee. It was beautiful and we heard (and participated in) some great traditional music. The next day we toured the Dingle peninsula and saw lots of ancient huts and forts. We also saw some "unreclaimed land" - land that had not been made fertile by removing the rocks. It's amazing how rocky the terrain used to be. It occured to me that we have no idea of what it would be like to work on one field for one's whole life, gradually taming it and making it useful. It makes the Irish bitterness towards the English seem a bit more understandable. What would it be like if my father or grandfather poured their whole life into a plot of land, making something out of almost nothing, and then some foreign power came in and gave that land to a rich foreign man.

After Dingle we drove to the Rock of Cashel and then on to Kilkenny Castle and Glendalough (an ancient monastic site). That one was interesting too -- what was once a vibrant community of Christians is now literally a huge graveyard where people fight to bury their loved ones near the grave of a saint (Saint Kevin). Ironic, I think.

This weekend has been fun. Lot's of little children running around and leaving doors open. I wrote a song for the weekend about 1 Samuel 16:7 - "Man looks at the outward things but the Lord looks at the heart." It was a fun challenge to write a children's song and then teach it to them. I hope it was as fun for the kids...

Anyway, we now only have three weeks left!!! What in the world?!? Pray for us as we try to squeeze every drop from these last days. We love you (well, most of you, probably).

Mark

N.Irish phrase of the day: "Flip! That's a brave distance!" = "Wow! That's a really long way!" One of the girls at camp said that about the distance an ambulance would have to drive to get to our village (24 miles, about 45 minutes). I thought it was hilarious.

junior teens weekend

I can't believe it's already been another week. Four more and we'll be sitting on our couch in Muncie eating Papa John's pizza and drinking a frozen Coke. We've had several good meetings this week. On Tuesday we drove over to Murlough House to visit the other girls from our church. While we were there we started talking to John Moxen, who runs the place, and ended up staying for a good chunk of the afternoon. He has a pretty unique perspective and it was actually really encouraging for us, apart from being good information for the trip.

The next day we had lunch with Hadden Wilson, who was a pastor in Ballynahinch for 15 years. He and his wife Betty are wonderful people, who were also very encouraging. Then we drove to Lisburn to turn in our beloved rental car. While we were there we walked around the downtown area a bit. It's a cool town.

This weekend was huge and crazy. We had 61 kids (12-16 years) from the summer back for a reunion weekend. They had a lot of fun (including kicking a soccer ball through one of the dorm windows) and we did too. I got to play bass in the worship times, which was a blast.

Ange's folks will be here tomorrow so we're going to go meet them in Shannon and have a few days of touring in the South. Then it's back to camp for another reunion weekend with the younger kids. On the whole, we're in good spirits. We'll miss this place, I think.

Mark and Ange and Tigger too!

N.Irish word of the day: raking about = clowning around. Usage: There'll be plenty of time for raking about this weekend, but pay attention for now.

north coast and donegal (updated)

Hello, long lost friends. Happy All Saints Day. We all made it through Halloween, which could be saying something over here. People get crazy and break stuff and shoot fireworks all night long. It's pretty wild.

We've had quite a week. On Wednesday we rented a car and drove to the north coast. It's one of the most beautiful areas on this island and home to such attractions as the Giant's Causeway, Dun Luce castle, and Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It was supposed to be rainy the whole week, but we had almost nothing but sun every day. We stayed at a great little B&B in Port Ballintrae called The Manor House. I would highly recommend it. Good food, clean, comfortable rooms, and it's only a few miles of beautiful coastline to walk to the Giant's Causeway. Check out the photo site to see it all.

We found a Baptist church up in Port Stewart that is doing some cool stuff. They bought a pub/nightclub and built their new church building next to it. The night club was converted into four little chalets that they rent out to tourists and use to house missionaries. The pub is not operating as a pub anymore, but they left it pretty much as is and use it for community events, youth stuff, and small group meetings. During the world rugby finals they had breakfasts every morning to watch the game and eighty men came, half of them non-Christian. We thought that was pretty cool and we were encouraged by our visit.

We didn't have a camp this weekend, so on Friday we just kept going west into Donegal, which is actually part of the Republic. It's a wild and beautiful place where you still hear people speaking Irish (Gaelic) on the street. Supposedly, it's also one of the best places for traditional music, but we didn't get to find out because both nights we were foiled in our attempts. Bummer.

Now we're back at the camp gearing up for the two biggest weekends we'll have. We're nearly two-thirds of the way through the trip now, which is both exciting and terrifying. We will certainly be glad to get back to Muncie but we will also be sad to leave, I think. We were reading in Acts 14 today about Paul and Barnabus returning joyfully to Antioch "having completed the work which they were entrusted to the grace of God to do." I pray that like Paul we could finish well and come home with no regrets.

Mark

Amazing fact of the day: Ange is one of the best left-side drivers I know. I couldn't drive because I was too young, so she had to do all of it and she took right to it. She never once turned into oncoming traffic or anything scary like that. I was quite impressed.