Happy Easter!

Wednesday 20 April began with Root Soup and women's cell. Micah is continuously amazed at the positive impact that Root Soup is having on the men that live in the homeless hostel. One of the men asked, 'When can we have a barbecue with the Root Soup family'. In the afternoon we both worked in the office. Micah met with a guy from Ardmore advertising who is working on a website for Root Soup. Micah isn't quite ready to give the link so you will just have a wait a bit longer. Lucy found out a volunteer that had agreed to come in May decided not to come. It is a bit stressful to find another volunteer in such a short time period, so pray for good candidates! Wednesday evening we headed to our cell group!

Thursday began the 'Holy Week' community activities. We all headed up to the North Coast to visit Giant's Causeway, have a picnic and do footwashing. It has been an annual tradition from the beginning of the community (minus last year when it was snowing on Holy Thursday). It was BEAUTIFUL day full of sunshine, good food and great people! Once we were back, we had ice cream for dinner with the community! YUMMY!

On Good Friday we attended a ecumenical service that began in Ormeau Park and ended at Jillian's church. Afterwards Root Soup catered a meal for us in the park. It was another wonderful day with lots of sun! Once we were back from the park we sat in the back garden and ate more ice cream before going for a run. Eating ice cream before a run is a bad idea just in case you didn't know!

Saturday was a day at the Ember for us. It was a pretty quiet day amongst the busy community days. The two of us headed up to Forestside with Thomas and Larry to do some errands. Then we made some yummy wraps for lunch. The afternoon was filled with lounging. In the evening we made delicious veggie burgers instead of our usual Saturday dinner of fish and chips! It was a nice healthy change.

Easter Sunday began really early with a sunrise service with City Church. It was held at the park around the Malone House, which is a old, big country house. We had a lovely service followed by some bacon baps! It was a good way to start the Easter day. After we went to Joy and Bobby's for some much needed coffee, before returning to bed for a few hours. Once we were a bit rested, we got ready for our Easter dinner. There were about 20 of us that enjoyed salmon, corn casserole, green beans, lots of different salads and LOADS of desserts! It was a nice way to finish off the Holy Week but we were glad when all the busyness was finished!

Monday was a rest day (which we were very thankful for!). In the morning we went for a 6 mile run! Woot Woot! Afterwards we went to get a coffee before going grocery shopping. In the afternoon we spent a few hours making lasagne for Makiko's leaving prayer (on Tuesday). After we were done, Lucy got a bit sick from a bad headache so it was pretty much straight to bed for her!

Today was another rest day. We tried to go to IKEA with Joy and Bobby, but alas the buses in Belfast are still on a holiday schedule so there were no buses going to IKEA in the morning. It is an interesting difference between Northern Ireland and the USA that businesses take holiday even when the could be making money. So instead we ventured to Starbucks. You can always count on the American chain to be open! This evening we had Makiko's leaving prayer. She has been in L'Arche for almost a year and is returning to Japan on Saturday. She has brought a lot of life to the Ember so it will be sad to see her go! After the prayer, we had a huge dinner and good fellowship!

It has been a busy week, but we have enjoyed the community time celebrating Holy Week. We hope that everyone had a chance to celebrate Easter and all that it means! (We will upload pictures of Easter in a few days...our computer is hopefully being fixed by a friend!)