SUNSHINE!

Saturday, May 15 we were present in the Ember for part of the day. Micah went along with Thomas, Neil, Sharon and Larry to a Special Olympics track race at army barracks in Lisburn. It was fun for him to see Thomas doing something he is passionate about. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and catching up with the community.

Sunday was another day in the Ember. The two of us made a brunch for the community: pancakes, eggs, bacon and fruit salad. It was a real easy lazy Sunday. In the evening, Micah went to Holy Grounds to hear Thomas give a talk at his church service. He talked about his life growing up and then life now in L’Arche.

Monday was a rest day for the two of us after the team meeting. Afterwards we ran errands to get food to replenish our stock after our vacation and because we were having guests over throughout the week. When we returned, a meeting to plan a future event was sprung on Micah. He had not checked his email since returning from holiday and we were glad that we had come back in time for him to participate. After Micah’s meeting it was already time for dinner. The evening was spent on household projects such as fixing light switches and replacing light bulbs and before we knew it the day had passed.

Tuesday we were had a formation meeting in the morning. It was Thomas’ reference meeting. In a reference meeting the team discusses the gifts and challenges of living with Thomas and then brainstorms ways to help him to continue to grow in the community. After the meeting we both got to work in the office. After a week away from office work, we had many emails to respond to and projects to catch up on. Soon after work we were busy in the kitchen, Faythe, James, and Thomas came over for dinner because James told Thomas that he was leaving at the end of July and that Lucy would be his reference person then. To be a reference person means that if Thomas needs to talk about something he can know who to go to, if he needs new clothes or a doctor’s appointment, Lucy will make sure it gets taken care of. It is not a big responsibility, but precautionary measures to make sure the core members’ needs are not overlooked.

Wednesday was another rest day; we did some cleaning around the Ark, ran some errands, and got some delicious pastries. In the evening we had the honor of Larry joining us for dinner. The Ember was a busy day with lots of activities, and Larry does not tend to like to ride along, so he came down for dinner and to watch some TV.

Thursday we were back at work in the office. Micah and Maria work on an application form to receive guidance and support from corporate companies. Lucy answered MANY email enquiries about our one September opening. It is going to be a busy couple weeks of interviewing. After work, Micah went to coffee with one of the board members to discuss the business side of Root Soup. The evening was spent enjoying reading and drawing.

Friday, Micah was at work in the garden allotment. He and Scott pulled weeds, picked leeks, onions and rhubarb and mowed the grass. Lucy was present in the Ember from 2-7. When Jill got home from the day centre, the two headed up to the local shopping centre to pick up a few groceries, a new coloring book and a cup of coffee. It was a lovely sunny afternoon for a walk. Afterwards the evening was spent cooking dinner, coloring, dancing and enjoying cups of tea.

Saturday was probably the most beautiful day of weather we have experienced since coming to Northern Ireland. We were able to soak in the sunshine in our back garden and drink tea and read and draw and truly relax. It was a glorious day of pure leisure. In the evening a few of the other assistants came over to our home to watch the Champions League Final football (soccer) game.

Sunday we were present in the Ember all day. In the morning, we met the newest assistant from Japan, Makiko. She arrived on Saturday evening and is staying for one year. Lucy was planning to attend church with Jillian on Sunday, but her father phoned to say that he wanted to take a drive with Jill and would like one or two assistants to join them. So Lucy and Micah went along and drove along the Atrium Road that follows the North Coast up to Ballycastle. We enjoyed a walk out to a lighthouse, lunch in an outdoor café, driving by the sea and many beautiful views from Torr Head. It was a wonderful day with Jillian and Larry (Jill’s dad) and a great way to spend another sunshiny day in Northern Ireland. Once we arrived back at the Ember, we were had our weekly Sunday evening prayer and then sat out on the front lawn to enjoy the cool evening breeze.

Monday we had our weekly team meeting. Afterwards, Micah headed to a meeting with Maria to look at possible locations for the “Soup Shanty”, an event in October to kickoff Root Soup. Lucy spent the afternoon cleaning and reading. In the evening, the two of us enjoyed cooking ourselves some delicious groundnut stew.

Tuesday started off with a morning in the allotment. For our team formation we had a workday pulling weeds on the paths. Micah and Scott were grateful to have the eight extra hands pulling weeds. Afterwards, a core member and assistant from L’Arche Dublin who were in Belfast for the day came to the Ember for lunch. We enjoyed a nice lunch with them, before heading back to the Ark. Typically on Tuesdays, both of us work in the office, but tomorrow we are heading down to Cork because Lucy and Faythe have an assistants coordinators meetings and Micah is helping with the driving. So, Micah worked a short day and Lucy did not work today. The afternoon instead was spent preparing for the evening. Tonight was the goodbye prayer and party for Anna who leaves on Thursday. So we had a costume (called formal dress here) party and barbeque. It was a lot of fun and you will have to check out the picture of Jill below!

It has been a very low key week in many ways, but we are moving into a busy time. Today started the craziness of goodbyes, meetings, many interviews of potential assistants and of course THE WORLD CUP!! So we enjoyed the calm of the past weeks and will seek the calm moments in the weeks to come!

Thomas running at Special Olympics Meet.

Jillian walking out to the lighthouse.



Picture of the lighthouse

View from Torr Head

Jillian and Anna at Anna's goodbye prayer and party.

Lovely Jillian in her "fancy dress"

Amsterdam

ATuesday, May 11 we headed to Amsterdam, Holland to see Ana (Micah’s sister) sing on choir tour with Hesston European Chorale. We arrived in the airport in the Netherlands at about 5:30 and took a train to downtown Amsterdam to find dinner. Following a crowd of people onto what seemed like the only way across a canal; we boarded a ferry and went along for the ride. The ferry was loaded with 50 bikes, 10 mopeds and 5 foot-passengers. Once across we started walking into the neighborhood of small houses soon to be very confused on where downtown Amsterdam was located. Micah after looking at the map, asked a Dutch teenager where we where and we had cross the wrong canal and we walking north away from downtown. Oops! So after walking back to the ferry, across the canal, through the train station, we arrived in downtown Amsterdam to find more bikes than people, rubbish piles almost as tall as Lucy (later we found out there was a strike) and almost no traffic noise because of all the public transportation! We then found dinner at a delicious pancake house and had some savory Dutch pancakes. Micah had a lamb scharma pancake and Lucy had a goat and feta cheese pancake. Yummy! Next, we found the bus to Aalsmeer, a nearby town, were our gracious hosts, the Maarsens live. As we were tooling along on the bus, we weren’t seeing our stop on the display screen, Micah asked the driver and he said the bus doesn’t go to the stop and we would have to take another bus to get to it. So we hopped off, feeling pretty bad because we were going to be late for Marye to pick us up. But walking to the next stop, we heard our names being called and there was Marye. We had hopped off at just the right spot! That was a good ending to a day with a lot of walking!


Instead of parking garages for cars they are for bikes!


Rubbish Strike at work!



What a back yard!



One of the many canals!

On Wednesday we were treated to a lovely Dutch breakfast after waking up. We had good seedy bread and sweet bread, homemade jam, and amazing cheese. After breakfast, Marye took us to the airport to meet the choir. As we were driving to the airport we saw their plane landing! Upon finding their Amsterdam contact person, we were warmly greeted by Drew Nussbaum, the brother of one of Lucy's college housemates. It was a nice surprise to see him since he is living near Amsterdam! Once they emerged, we were glad to see their tired but safe faces! It was so good to see Ana in Europe! From the airport we headed to the hiding place of Anne Frank during World War II. It was quite an experience to walk through the building after having read about it throughout our school years. It gave us a really different understanding of the space where they hid for 23 months. After the museum we found lunch with Ana at a little sandwich shop and then headed to Zaanse Schaans Open Air Museum with the group. It is a museum the depicts life in the Netherlands in the late 19^th century. We saw wooden shoes and cheese being made as well as traditional wind mills at work. We only had a brief time there but we managed to squeeze in another dose of Dutch pancakes on Micah’s mothers demand and Ana’s benefit. From there we headed into Haarlem another town outside Amsterdam where the Hesston Choir sang the next day and was picked up by host families. Marye picked up Ana, the two of us and another choir member. Marye dropped the three Louckses off at Jo Groeneveld’s for dinner. Jo and her late husband Dick hosted Micah’s dad for a year in the 70s. The Groenevelds own green houses which Randall worked in. They have been passed onto one of their sons now. We enjoyed a delicious traditional Dutch dinner with both Jo and Arie (one of Jo’s sons). We had soup, chicken, potatoes, and many different vegetables. We were all quite full at the end and had learned some new stories about Randall that he would have kept to himself. After dinner we headed to see the place where Randall lived and worked where we met Gert, Jo’s older son, who now owns the green houses. The green houses have changed and upgraded many time since then, but it was still good to see the kind of work that Randall did. After leaving the green houses, Arie and Jo drove us around Aalsmeer before taking us back to the Maarsen’s.

Cheese being made!

Wooden shoes being made!

The shoes didn't quite fit...

Windmills.

Ana, Arie, Jo and Micah in Jo's house.

One of Gert's greenhouses.

Gert showing them the ropes.

Micah sad that he can't work in green house.

After another delicious breakfast, Marye took all of us to Haarlem to meet the choir bus. From there we went into Amsterdam. The plan for the choir on Thursday was to go to a museum and then head back to Haarlem to practice, but we decided to skip the museum and explore the city a bit. We went to a flower street market and looked around. Then we attempted to go to Singelkerk, a hidden church at one point with the largest Mennonite congregation. It was closed due to Ascension Day, a national holiday. So sadly we were only able to see the outside, but Marye told us it gives us a reason to go back. Afterwards we wandered around and eventually had lunch in a café. After walking around a bit more, we caught a train into Haarlem. On our walk to the Mennonite church where Ana was singing, we saw the bus pass. It is amazing how much quicker public transportation is in Holland! We left at 1:15 and got to Haarlem at 1:30. They left at 12:30 and got to Haarlem at 1:30! For us, the afternoon was filled with hearing the choir practice and watching their performance. We were impressed by the choir’s ability to perform the day after they arrived in Europe after a day filled with activity. They did a magnificent job! After the performance, the choir headed up to the North Sea, but we had had enough of the cold weather, so we went back to the Maarsen’s. We enjoyed spending the evening with them and then had a once in a lifetime opportunity. Arie the evening before offered to take us onto the floor of the world’s largest flower auction while he delivered his flowers. He picked us up after he had cut and arranged his flowers for delivery at about 10 p.m. and we headed to see his green houses before heading to the auction hall. The building for a long time was the largest building under one roof. Even though that is no longer the case, it is still a huge building! We were told it is about 2 miles long by 1.5 miles wide. Each day flowers from all over the world are delivered and the next morning auctioned off to company buyers worldwide. 48 million flowers and plant per day go through the auction hall. After his trailer was unloaded, he took us around to see different parts of the floor and lots of the flowers. Many of the flowers looked fake because they were so beautiful and perfect. It was an experience that we will not soon forget!

Street Flower Market

Outside Singelkerk.

Hesston College European Chorale.

ANA! (in the back)

Arie's flowers waiting to be unloaded at the auction.

Gert's flowers at the auction.

Friday morning was another early morning. We headed back to the auction hall for a visitors tour to see the buying side of the auction. The hall was a lot more alive in the morning and people were zooming all over the place on scooters pulling carts of flowers. It looked like an organized mess. The morning meant a lot more since we had been behind the scenes with Arie the night before. After finishing the tour we caught a couple buses to Keukenhof, the world’s largest bulb flower garden displaying the beautiful flowers of Holland. We spent the next hours walking around, taking pictures, and enjoying the beautiful flowers and colors. It was then time to catch a bus back to the airport and fly back to Belfast. We arrived back in the evening and were picked up with a warm welcome by Sharon, Thomas and Jillian. It was a nice welcome home!

A view of some of the flowers either waiting to be sold or already sold.

One of the auction rooms. This one actually showed flowers still. Some only show a picture and people just buy from the name of the grower.

Among the flowers.

Beautiful.

Lovely.

Our first holiday was a nice combination of relaxation, spending time with people, touristy venues and flowers! It was so nice to have such a warm welcome by the Maarsens and Groenevelds as well as the Hesston Choir. We enjoyed our time in Holland, but are glad to be back with the community in Belfast!

Sorry about the quality of the video. We were in the wrong spot for the trio so there is some handing off of the camera and it had to be really compressed to be iploaded. But the trio and choir sounds AMAZING!

Goodbye Naomi

Sunday May 2 we were present in the Ember. This was one of the few rainy days recently in Belfast. So we were trapped in the house for a long Sunday. The two of us enjoyed cooking fajitas for the community for lunch. The only way we get Mexican food is by cooking it ourselves! We passed the rainy day painting, cleaning, baking, talking and listening to music. Due to changes in routine from Jillian, she had a tough day. It was hard to find anything to pass the time that made here happy. When she became bored with an activity, she would let Lucy know with challenging behavior. It made it a trying day for Lucy in the Ember. The evening cleared off so we could enjoy some brief walks with core members before settling in for the night.

Monday was marathon day!! Almost 19,000 people participated in the walk, marathon, fun run, and team relay (where L’Arche participated including MICAH!). Micah headed out to catch a bus to his spot at about 8:15 a.m. even though he didn’t run until about 11:30! Micah enjoyed the 5.3 mile run along the Belfast Lough. He ran it in 41 minutes!! What a speed demon! Lucy was present at the Ember so she headed down and made a picnic lunch for the community for after the marathon in the park and worked on food for the barbeque to celebrate in the evening. Thomas finished the last half mile of the race with Scott so those of us in the Ember walked down to the meeting point. We did not anticipate how quickly the team would run and were a little late, so Scott had to run back to get Thomas. After 20 minutes of searching, Thomas and Scott finished the team relay in style…Thomas really going “quick quick quick”. The team time was 4 hours and 25 minutes (so if you subtract 20 minutes of search time that right at 4 hours!) Good work team!! The evening was a celebration spent around the barbeque at the Ark. We enjoyed sunshine, burgers and community. It was a great reward after a long day! After the barbeque wrapped up, most of the community went to a local pub to start the send off for Naomi who left on Friday. Jill is usually goes for a bath and then to her room right after dinner, but this day decided to come out with us and was in fine form! She was all smiles and held hands with Thomas the whole way down to the pub. It was great to see the lovely lady that Jill is most the time.

Tuesday we had our team meeting. Then the two of us worked in the office. Lucy began to rework the volunteer application and Micah worked with Maria on the exact direction of Root Soup. The evening was another celebration. We had Naomi’s leaving prayer and party. At a person’s prayer each person says what they enjoy about the person and then their hope for the person. Then it was onto the party. Naomi wanted lasagna for her leaving meal. It was really good! Naomi is a big fan of going to concerts so the community put on a gig for her. Everything from poems to the Canadian National Anthem to skits was done in honor of her time as part of the community.

On Wednesday we had a rest day. We passed the time running errands, pulling weeds and relaxing. Micah went with James to watch Tottenham qualify for the Champions League next year!! The evening was spent hanging out in the pub with Naomi and all the core members and volunteers.

Thursday it was back to the office for both of us. Lucy and Faythe had an exit interview with Naomi and then Lucy had the last phone interview with a potential volunteer for September. It was the first phone interview that she actually led!! So now it is time to start the decision making process!! Micah sent emails, organized papers and wrote letters.

Friday was the day of Naomi’s departure. Scott and Micah spent the morning working at the garden at the Ark. Then they headed up to the Allotment for the afternoon. Lucy spent the morning cleaning before trying her hand in the world of crafts. The evening was spent in the Ember. The evening turned into a craft night of card making, coaster making and drawing.

Saturday we were present in the Ember. Micah went to look at cars and buy a DVD with Sharon and Larry. Lucy went on a walk to Ormeau Park with Jill on a lovely sunny day. After dinner we went to support a fundraiser to help send May and Cross Links to the Holy Lands. Cross Links is a cross community group that brings together members from the Catholic, Protestant, Chinese and Indian communities. It was a concert at Common Grounds.

Sunday we went back to City Church and then had a picnic in Botanic Gardens. Then afternoon was spent truly relaxing at home. Congratulations Ana for graduating from Hesston College!!!

Today, we had our weekly team meeting. Then we headed to city center for some shopping. Shopping was productive but the bike ride there and back was a wee bit chilly. After returning home, we finished packing for our trip to Amsterdam tomorrow!! The evening was passed with dinner at the Ember and planting our back garden!!

We have now had our first L’Arche goodbye. It was a busy week with the activities surrounding Naomi’s leaving, marathon and preparing to see Ana and the Hesston choir in Amsterdam! We will update you soon with our adventures in the Netherlands (and with Dutch!).

Saying Goodbye to Naomi (2nd in from Left).

Assistant's Night Away

Last Monday we had our weekly team meeting where we discussed how the core members were doing, the upcoming marathon and the April birthday party. Then Micah and I went on a walk through Ormeau Park to enjoy the lovely weather.

On Tuesday, we learned all about fire safety in our formation. It was quite an exciting meeting! Then Lucy worked in the office in the afternoon and interviewed three potential volunteers and Micah worked on reading about other social enterprises. The evening was spent in celebration of the three April birthdays: Anna, Jill and Noah (Scott’s son). So we began by having Anna’s birthday prayer and then had a big feast of their favorite foods: chips, sausages, samosas (delicious!), and crisps. What a healthy meal! It was a good time of fellowship with the community together!

Wednesday morning we began the project in the back garden. Micah cut down a large bush and Lucy trimmed a Rosemary bush that had been growing wildly for a number of years. It is now drying in various closets around the Ark and Ember! At 12:30 all the assistants gathered for an “Assistants Night Away”. We went to Downhill, which is on the north coast. It is a quaint little town with a beautiful beach to walk and a cliff overlook. We had a lovely curry dinner and plenty of time to talk! It was a nice night away with the assistants. (Don’t worry Maria and a former assistant stayed with the core members!)

Thursday we arrived back from the north coast about lunch time and then had a doctor’s appointment! We will officially be on the National Health Service as soon as our information is entered!! Pretty exciting stuff since almost everything from Sudafed to prescription medicine and doctors visits are paid for. Micah continued to plug away at gathering information for Root Soup as well as developing a survey after we returned in the afternoon.

Friday, Micah was suppose to go to the garden but it seemed as if it was going to be a nasty day so Scott gave him more time to work on Root Soup. Maria told him to write a business proposal. (This was the first time Micah was on the schedule to work since Saturday…pretty tough week for him). Lucy had the morning off, she spent it cleaning and in the back garden pulling weeds. The house we are living in has been used for an office for the last few years, but no one has actually lived in it, so it has been a process to get it back to a point where it appears to be lived in! It has definitely taken some TLC and some elbow grease! Also, in the back garden, there is a sign in the garden that says “weed friendly garden”. Let’s just say that sign will soon have to go! We were present in the Ember in the evening. So we were over for dinner, walks with a couple of the core members and the project of putting Jill’s pictures into albums and taping them in so she doesn’t take them back out. All in all it was a good evening of hearing Thomas get VERY excited about running across the finish line in the team marathon on Monday!

Today has been a lot of walking so far! We walked down to St. George’s market and walked around there a bit. Then we went on to city center to run some errands. In city center today was Festival of Fools. We saw people putting on dramas, street performers, and our personal favorite, which was an act of a man juggling swords while drinking a beer off his forehead! Then we went back to St. George’s market for lunch (which was delicious!). Finally we walked BACK up to our home. So it doesn’t sound like much when it is written down like this, but it was a lot, but still a good day and we only got sprinkled on so that is a plus!

It is hard to believe it is already May…especially since later this month we will be seeing Ana (Micah’s sister)!! Each week seems to bring new and exciting differences and challenges, but yet we are in the comfortable environment of our community. Pray for Micah as he will be running in the Belfast marathon on Monday (only 5.3 miles since he is doing the team relay with other L’Arche assistants)!

We appreciate your continued support and emails. It is great to hear from you all!

Beautiful Flowers in Ormeau Park!

Rosemary drying in our closet! Lucy is so proud!

North Coast.

View from top of cliff at North Coast.

Dinner at Assistant's Night Away! Yum Yum!

Festival of Fools in City Center