Louckses in Northern Ireland: What a Week!!

After we blogged last, we found out that we would not be going to Cork. Faythe called to confirm on the 25^th of May that we had a car hired for the following day, but the person had been meaning to call to say that he did not have any automatic cars. This would be fine, but it left Micah as the only driver since Faythe doesn’t drive manual and since he had only been driving in the UK for a few days, a 10 hour trip did not sound too safe.
So Wednesday the 26^th turned into a day at the office for Lucy and Micah had rest. It was a fairly uneventful day since the next day, we were heading to a “best practice” meeting for starting the social enterprise. We met in a Loughgiel at a community centre that offers activities and opportunities for the village. After, we FINALLY made our way to Giant’s Causeway and the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. It was a rainy day that seemed to only rain when we were out of the car exploring, but nevertheless we enjoyed seeing God’s magnificent and crazy rock formation. When we returned to Belfast, we enjoyed a cup of tea with many members of the community to say goodbye to Anna who left early Friday morning.

Friday, Micah went up to the garden and Lucy was present in the Ember from 2-7. In the evening we went to a great ice cream shop on Lisburn Road and enjoyed the deliciousness with May, Jenny and Cami. Lucy found out the Smarties in this part of the world are made of chocolate, not what she grew up with. Sad but true.

Saturday we strolled down to St. George’s market to meet a fellow BVSer for lunch. It was great to catch up with a good chat. The afternoon was spent celebrating Thomas’ and Matthew’s (a friend of the community) birthdays. We all went over to Matthew’s house where his mom had prepared a FEAST of delicious food including savoury pies, ribs and delicious desserts. It was quite a party! The evening was spent hanging out at home, but the real adventure started after we had gone to sleep.

At about 12:30am Saturday/Sunday night we were awoken to the sound of a fire alarm going off. We have had issues with our fire alarms in the past so didn't think much of it right away. Micah got up and opened the bedroom door to find smoke rising up the staircase. After realizing that we would be able to make it down the 3 flights of stairs we called 999 (911) and waited with Kathy on the phone while the fire brigade came. We were able to put a pillow at the base of the bedroom door to minimize the smoke entering the room but it quickly started coming through the top of the door. Once the fire brigade arrived they broke through the front door and were up the stairs quickly. They immediately told us to come with them down the stairs, which was easy for them to say because they were the ones with oxygen masks. But we quickly made our way down the stairs holding on to the firemen and to each other. Once outside we were attended to by EMTs, Lucy was given oxygen and we were asked questions by the police. We phoned James who was staying overnight in the Ember and he came down to help and once we were treated we headed down to the Ember for a cup-a-tea. Firemen came down to the Ember and wanted to talk about the fire so Micah went back to the Ark to see where the fire started. It was the ice machine in the freezer. The ironic thing about it is that the ice machine doesn't even work. It melted the freezer and went down and COMPLETELY melted the mop and mop bucket sitting next to the freezer. After talking to the firemen and getting oxygen Micah headed back to the Ember where we went up to a bedroom they quickly got ready for us to try to get some sleep. After much processing and watching some tv to get our minds off the fire we struggled to get a wee bit of sleep.

We kept going back to "what ifs...". The main thing we kept going back to is the fact that we had originally left our cell phone downstairs in the dinning room. After watching a movie in our room Lucy needed to use the restroom and on her way down Micah randomly mentioned to get the phone and without questioning Lucy went and got our phone and we had it on our night stand. The thing is we never use our phone so we never know where it is. God was looking out for us!! Overall, we are SO grateful that we are safe and in good form. God was obviously with us!!

Sunday we were present in the Ember. We spent the day doing all of our laundry. All of our clothes reeked so Sunday was filled by washing them. The rest of the day was passed hanging out and re-gathering ourselves. We continued staying in the Ember overnight till Wednesday.

Monday was a bank holiday so the core members were off work. The project of the day was to redo the summer house in the front yard. The dream is to have a place to hang out in the garden, but we will see if the project gets finished and then if it gets used. Scott and Megan invited us over to dinner on Monday night. We were treated to a delicious burrito meal and the joy of spending time in their home. They went out for a date after dinner and Maria came over to babysit so we enjoyed chatting with her till Scott and Megan returned. It was a good relaxing evening.

Tuesday, before our team meeting, the insurance adjustors came to look at the Ark. It was decided that professional cleaners would be hired, the whole kitchen would be ripped out and replaced, walls would all be painted and most carpet would be replaced. After the meeting, Micah headed off to lunch at a burrito place with James and Neil and Lucy headed to the French Village (a cafe) with May, Jenny, Makiko and Cami. After lunch we did a bit of work in the office before going to Thomas’ birthday prayer. After his prayer, it has become Tuesday evening tradition for Thomas, and the two of us to have dinner together, but since the Ark was unusable, Thomas decided on fish and chips. We got take-out from a place just down the road and we enjoyed the greasy mound of food in front of us. By no means was our healthiest dinner, but it was quite tasty.

Wednesday we were present in the Ember. Micah helped Thomas in the morning and Lucy helped Jill. Micah went down to meet the cleaners when they arrived at the Ark. We had to move a few things around, but they got started ripping out the kitchen and it was dramatically bare by the end of the day! In the afternoon, we enjoyed reading in the sun and watching a wee bit of TV, this was soon interrupted by someone at the door. Lucy opened it to find Ross Weaver (a family friend and Goshen College student from her hometown). He had been in London with his family before he headed out for some travelling on his own and thought he would drop by. It was a nice surprise to see such a familiar face! In the evening we headed over to Maria’s house. She offered that we could stay there while she is away at a meeting till Friday. So we had dinner with Ross, Larry, May and Makiko at Maria’s, in her beautiful garden.

Thursday we enjoyed the sun in the morning out in the garden before heading into work in the office. Faythe worked a lot of the day at finding alternative housing for us since the Ark will probably take 2-4 weeks to repair. After a few people shut her down because of the 1 month contract, she found a couple of possibilities that we went to look at in the afternoon. The first was an apartment near Queen’s University. Upon entering, the smell of cigarette smoke was overwhelming so that one was not too appealing. The second option is a bed and breakfast above a pub just down the road from L’Arche. It was really clean and the people were really friendly so Friday we needed to call back to check on prices. Supposedly the manager may be able to “cut us a deal”. In the evening we took a walk wandering around trying to find Stormount, which is the Northern Irish Parliament. All we found was an old lady that was worried about a little lost dog in her neighbourhood. So we tracked down the dog and discovered its tags had no useful information. The dog was terrified of us and eventually ran away into someone’s garden where we could no longer help it. After returning to Maria’s we finished off the evening by lounging around the house.

Friday morning was again spent in Maria’s back garden enjoying the beautiful weather and sunshine. Micah called and talked to Peter at the Parador, the B&B pub down the road. Peter said that the regular price would be £1,500 for a month and then said he could give it to us for £900. Micah said that all they could afford to pay was £175 per week and given the circumstances Peter was willing to help us out. The only catch was that we cannot move in until Sunday. Shortly afterward, Scott and Larry came by to pick Micah up to go to the allotment and Lucy stayed back and relaxed. Larry came along for a couple of different reasons: first of all he hates to go to the cafe on Fridays, and secondly Thomas and James went to England for the weekend for a wedding and Larry didn’t get to go. So we tried to make up for it with a day off work and donuts. After much planting and weeding Scott, Larry and Micah headed back to Maria’s to pick up Lucy and left for the Ember where Lucy was present in the afternoon. Micah and Scott trimmed the bushes in the front yard and made the weekly trip to the manure pile. We just spent the evening relaxing and recouping from the week.

We have had quite the rollercoaster of a week, from the highs of the Giants Causeway, the North Coast and Thomas and Matthew’s birthday party to the lows of our house fire and what comes after. But through it all we have been extremely blessed by the support of our community here in Belfast and across the globe! Thanks for all the prayers and please continue to keep us in your prayers as another few weeks of transitions occur.