Louckses in Northern Ireland: 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!