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!