On Wednesday we went to a wee bakery down the road for some delicious doughnuts and coffee/tea. Afterward we began the process of buying the essentials for the Ark which is quite an overwhelming process. We went to Ikea, Homebase (a home improvement store), and Harry Corry (a home furnishing store). After returning from the stores, we were prepared to begin to paint our bedroom since the landlord was being cheap, but since Micah complained about how long it would take and that it would delay us moving in, the landlord said his painters would do it for us. Yay for a professionally painted room! (Note: we still haven’t moved in.) The evening was spent babysitting Scott and Megan’s youngest 2 kids: Aodh and Octavia. We enjoyed dinner and a trip to the park! A good end to a busy “rest” day!
Thursday we were back in the office. Lucy spent a lot of the day preparing for a group of 26 Eastern Mennonite University Students and 2 leaders to come volunteer for a couple hours the following Monday. Micah was in Dublin visiting various social enterprises with a local mentoring group for beginning social entrepreneurs. The evening was obviously spent watching the World Cup!
Friday, Micah came over to open the Ark so the movers could bring in the kitchen appliances as well as meet with the landlord. Soon enough, the movers were bringing in a HUGE industrial size fridge with an ICE MAKER! The real kicker was it was used. After they finished Micah gave Maria a call and told her the progress/problems. Maria was furious. After all of the landlord’s penny pinching manoeuvres, the fridge was the last straw. Immediately she began looking at other rental properties in the area before calling the landlord and telling him that if he didn’t give us everything we wanted we would move out. The landlord said he wanted L’Arche as tenants and would replace the fridge as well as meet Maria’s list of demands including painting and recarpeting of the whole house!! Micah then had a meeting in the morning with an assigned mentor through the social entrepreneur support group. In the afternoon, he headed up to the allotment with Matthew and Cami. They finally brought back strawberries!! Lucy rested in the morning and in the afternoon was present in the Ember. We enjoyed the USA vs. Slovenia and England vs. Algeria games that lovely day!
On Saturday we celebrated Matthew! For his birthday, L’Arche gave him one day out of his choice. He decided to go bowling and have a barbeque. It was a great day and was a lot of fun to see the core members in a new setting! We have been having beautiful weather here in Northern Ireland and the day of the barbeque was no exception! It was a perfect day to be outside even though it was kind of like eating in a construction zone since the grill is in the back garden of the Ark and it is a MESS!
Sunday, we went to church. After church, we met Mark, one of the leaders of the EMU group and a family friend from Hesston. It was a good time of catching up for Micah and Mark as well as a good time to hear about the group and just chat. The rest of our “rest” day was spent preparing for our group of volunteers the next day. We bought lots of groceries including lots of packs of 12 pence sausages, and additional cleaning supplies.
Monday was a crazy day in L’Arche Belfast! The morning began by welcoming Scott and Jenny back from a week retreat in France followed by food preparations for lunch and last minute runs to the home improvement and grocery stores. Soon enough, 26 EMU students and 2 leaders were waltzing into the Ember living room to be greeted by Maria. She then talked to them about L’Arche and the new projects in North Belfast (like Root Soup). After the talk, and tea and coffee, we all rolled up our sleeves, split into 4 groups and got to work for 2 hours paintings, cleaning, weeding and packing up. It was amazing how much work they accomplished in such a short amount of time! They were truly a God-send at such a hectic and work-filled time for L’Arche. The Ark for example went from a complete mess to the beginnings of a home. We are so thankful for their willingness to work unexpectedly on their trip. (FYI: we have already connected with Hesston College and EMU in our 3 months here...we are expecting Goshen, Bluffton and Bethel to come to visit as well!) After the volunteers left and we cleaned up, it was time to do nothing for awhile!
Tuesday, we had our weekly team meeting followed by a day in the office. Micah had a meeting with East Belfast Mission (a social enterprise). Lucy had her last day as a co-volunteer coordinator! Faythe is heading back to the States soon to spend time with her Grandmother who is sick, so she is making her last week in Belfast work-free. We had dinner in the Ark with Thomas! It was nice to not have to go out to eat. Most people go out to eat for something special; we think it is special to get to eat in our home again!!
Wednesday, we began our rest day with a trip to the bakery for doughnuts. Afterwards we spent time cleaning the Ark. Although “cleaners” came, it is still quite filthy. Their main job was to prep for painters. So we scrubbed our bathrooms so they are again usable. The afternoon was spent watching the USA and England games. We saw Tony, Joel and James (three friends from Goshen) on BBC coverage of the USA game!! Pretty crazy! Go USA for winning the pool! The evening was spent picking up some odds and ends at the store.
Thursday, was a busy day in the office. We did everything from paperwork to emailing to moving the office from the office to the bathroom to prepare for the carpeters to come on Friday. Thursday afternoon the movers came to take Henri and Lesley’s office down to Maria’s old office just down the road. It was quite a day. Thursday evening, we headed over to Maria’s to water her plants and have a frozen pizza. She was out of town for a meeting and we needed to escape the craziness of community for a bit.
Friday was another day of madness. This was supposed to be the day we moved back into the Ark, but alas it did not happen. The tiler did not show up for the kitchen backsplash, the boiler has not been inspected, the front door lock hadn’t been fixed from when the fire brigade broke in, and the door frame close to the fire had not been put in. So Scott spent a bit of the morning on the phone with the landlord, getting him to finish these tasks as well as figuring out where the carpeters’ money was since they were expecting to be paid. Micah also had a meeting this morning with his mentor for the social enterprise before heading to meet with a funder. Scott and Micah headed up to the allotment in the afternoon with Matthew, Cami and Makiko (their numbers keep growing!). Once the core members got home from work, Lucy headed down with Jillian, Thomas and Larry to the Parador to sadly pay for yet another week. Although the people at the Parador are very nice and the accommodations are adequate, we are ready to be home! The best part of the day was when the garden crew came back with pounds of strawberries!! Yummy!
Saturday we were present in the Ember. The morning was passed with household chores and morning routines. In the afternoon, Thomas was keen to place a bet on horseracing. It is a fond childhood memory going with his father to the bookies so once in a while he places a large £1 bet on a horserace. Yesterday he bet £1 on horse #1 at 25:1 odds. Little was expected from anyone but Thomas, but sure enough about halfway through Premio Loco charged to the front and won Thomas £25, which he used to buy a round at the pub later that evening during the USA game!
Today, we went to church. Earlier in the week we had our 3 month check-in with Faythe and she had suggested we make some friends outside of L’Arche. We had told her that we were thinking about joining a cell group at City Church and she strongly encouraged us to pursue it. Today after church the woman sitting next to us introduced herself and after chatting for a wee minute and finding out where we worked, she told us she was on the founding board for L’Arche Belfast. After chatting more she asked if we were interested in joining a cell group to get to know more people at church. She then introduced us to an Elder who happened to be sitting right in front of us. It just so happens that the group he is in meets just blocks from our home on a night we are free. We think God wants us to make friends too. For lunch we went to Little Wings, an Italian joint, for Gosia’s birthday. It was a great little place with lots of character. In the afternoon we watched Germany destroy England but enjoyed some cake and ice cream while watching it. The evening was spent trying to find hostels for Micah’s family. Today was the first day in a long time that we have felt a full rest day!
It has been a trying and full couple of weeks. The Ark is nearly finished (for real this time), and community holiday is nearly here (6 days till we depart!). Although it has been an exhausting experience, the end really is in sight!!!
Matthew Bowling
Larry Bowling
Spectacular EMU Students
Updated Picture of the Allotment...Aka Micah's fav spot in/near Belfast. There are strawberries in the near, front left and back left raised beds. Potatoes in the middle left raised bed. Raspberries in the back and peas in the middle right. Things are looking good!
Gosia's Bday Lunch!
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