Lisburn, N. Ireland

It has been a while since my last posting, and life has been busy. Emily, Steve, Colette and Jacques flew to Paris on the 12th, and we joined them there that afternoon. We were together for three days, taking in the sites and sharing two very small hotel rooms just off rue de Cler, a small but very French walking street. The first day we all took a long boat ride on the Seine and the next day Emily, Steve, Jacques and I walked the major sites of the city center while grandma had special time with Colette. Then we all went to Versailles, though grandma and grandpa returned early with Colette and Jacques, while Emily and Steve toured the great palace. The weather was cool but clear, just right for our purposes, and the crowds were not great. The visit was wonderful, the length just right, and Emily and I were able to get the third in a series of dad-daughter having coffee in a Parisian café—the first when she was 1, the second when she was 11, and this time when she is 35.


Next we all flew together to Dublin, picked up a rental car, and headed back to Cahir, where we spent the next week and a half. I continued to lead services in Cahir and Fermoy, plus a men’s gathering in Cork, and a wonderful evening with Carlow friends, and the family joined in. We had lots of walks, several tourist mini-trips, and special one on one time with each other. Steve found a gym just around the corner from our home and Emily found a park, while Colette and I did several morning walks which included coffee for me, a cookie for her, and chances to visit the cattle and sheep market on the way into town.

Sunday the 25th, after the services in Cahir and Fermoy, we all headed north, with an assist from David Bruce who picked part of our troupe up as they returned the rental car at the Dublin airport. We are now in Lisburn, enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the Bruce family until the Contents fly back home on Thursday. Yesterday we even made it to Bruce's seaside caravan in Donegal, on the west coast of the island. Nancy and I will head back to Cahir that day to enjoy a last gathering with new friends from the Fermoy church, then Friday we have our last prayer time with Cahir people and Saturday prepare to vacate our Cahir home in advance of our leaving for Albania on Sunday—after attending the services at Adelaide Road in Dublin.



In other words these past several weeks have been full and rewarding. We have deepened our love for the people we have been sharing with here in Ireland, and revisited some we have shared with in the past. We have had wonderful times together as a family, particularly with the little ones who grow up so fast. And we have seen more of this beautiful land. At times over these past weeks Nancy and I have turned to each other in amazement at the wonder of the gift of the people, places and experiences God has been giving us. And we marvel at how he works our being blessed by others together with the sense of our being a blessing to others. As God weaves the fabric of life into a pattern, it is wonderful when the two happen together—when we offer what he has given us and we receive what he has given to others. That seems to be the way he has designed things, and for that we praise him!

Cahir and Fermoy, Ireland

After a great month of cycling (almost 1200 miles) I met Nancy in Dublin and we are now together in Ireland. We have been given use of a house owned by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland and minister to two churches--one in the town where the house is located, that is Cahir, and the other about 30 minutes drive away in a larger town called Fermoy. Both are in the south-west of the country, with Cork being the closest city.

My responsibilities include preaching and teaching a Bible study in each church, but I also come along and do whatever I can in their prayer meetings and a children's club in the larger setting.

The attendance at Fermoy this past Sunday was about 20 adults, at Cahir it was 4. There is a church worker (non-ordained) who oversees the work of the two churches and they have just been given leave to call a minister to replace the one who left a year ago.

My first week here really opened my eyes to the difficulties faced by the Presbyterian church in the Republic. I had served 2 other churches here on 2 other occasions, but they were in Dublin which is so cosmopolitan that it does not reflect the difficulty of the rest of the, mostly rural, Ireland, and Carlow, which had a fair number of people with northern/Protestant roots plus some immigrants whose faith was birthed abroad. Outside of such areas, in places like I now serve, while many may not practice their Catholicism it is deeply ingrained in their entire psyche, family life and community. It kind of reminds me of Mexico, only there is a large enough Protestant witness in Mexico now that it is not so counter-cultural to be one, whereas here it is...

We have already gotten to know a few people and really appreciate them, their stories, and their faithful witness. Just today we spent the afternoon with a local farmer who produces organic beef. His lands and herds are a model for the whole country, and the brief introduction just about convinced me that organic is the only way to go!


Another man in the church is a dairy farmer and times are extraordinarily difficult. The mass production of dairy products in the United States plus the world economic crisis that has led to a decline in demand in places like Nigeria has had a direct impact on this dairy producer in Ireland...Because of it he is paid 20 euro cents per liter for milk which costs him 25-26 euro cents per liter to produce. And he can't just turn off the production and wait for better times--cows don't work like that.

And in the midst of all this there is the deep faith of these people. Trying to live out their trust in Christ in the midst of a difficult cultural setting and hard economic times. I think I will learn much from them--I pray they will be encouraged and learn a bit from Nancy and me...


So far we have managed to have wonderful trips to both Carlow and Lisburn, seeing people we met there and sharing in worship at the churches we have served. We also have visited the far west coast, and stayed in a B&B at one of our favorite places, the Beara Peninsula...

Cahir is beautiful, with a wonderful river and a Swiss Cottage built by nobility as a day away playhouse.