Wednesday, Lucy started the day with women's cell and Micah went to the Root Soup kitchen to help out. He interviewed another trainee named Adam. You can learn a bit more about the team at their new website (http://rootsoup.co.uk/). Micah keeps adding new information so check it out often! In the afternoon, Micah was busy putting grants together for Root Soup and Lucy on those days seems to become his personal admin assistant! By the time the grants were put together and we finally finished working, it was time to do a bit of nothing!In the evening, Lucy went to a baby shower for a woman at City Church and Micah went to Bobby's to hang out and brew beer.
Thursday we started out by a trip to Ian's Bakery which is always a good way to start a day! Afterwards, we went shopping for the house before Lucy met Gosia (another assistant who is originally from Poland) for coffee. In the evening we went to Joy and Bobby's house for dinner. They made steak which was a special treat!!
Friday began as a normal day. Lucy was in the house helping the guys out in the morning and Micah headed to the allotment. But soon the day got a little crazy....Thomas stayed home from work in order to attend an awards ceremony with Matthew and since Thomas had told George (the bus driver) that he wouldn't be in...the bus didn't come for Jillian. Jillian was not happy with George. She wanted to have a 'wee word' with him on the phone. Friday is a short day at the centre anyway so when Jillian didn't end up leaving till 11:30 and was back at 2:30 it was a super short day! So after that fiasco was figured out, Lucy went home to rest for a bit before going back to the Ember at 2:00. When Jillian came back, Lucy helped her shave her legs, which made her show off her legs the rest of the evening. She wanted everyone to look and touch them! Such a funny lady! The day continued to be abnormal as the community headed to a retreat centre for a night away to begin to dream and plan for the next 5 years. The board of directors, the core members, the assistants and friends of the community all came up for the night! We we arrived at the retreat centre we had a yummy dinner before going to a meeting to reflect on the past ten years and dream about what we would like to happen in the next 5 years. When we were reflecting on the past, we all said how we ended up at L'Arche Belfast and it was amazing to hear all the stories about how God was in the process. After we reflected we moved onto dreaming. All sorts of ideas came out from a new community space, to a new house, to soup being sold to prayer happening across Belfast 24/7 to connecting with elderly people. After the meeting, it was time to hang out as a community. We all sat around big tables, fellowshiping and laughing together. Wonderful memories were made although we all stayed up much to late!
The bartenders of the night!
CHEEEEESE! (that is what Jillian is saying!!)
What a beautiful setting for a retreat centre!
Lyrics to 'Beautiful'
Beautiful, Beautiful
Jesus is beautiful
And Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life
Tenderly
Touching me
Making my eyes to see
As Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life
On Saturday we shared a lovely breakfast before praying together. After the prayer, a smaller group met to make the dreams into a plan, while others got to go out and explore the surrounding area. The two of us were in the planning group. The meeting had a facilitator and was really useful to look at what we do well and what we need to improve on before moving into things we want to achieve and how we will get there. It was a packed 3 hour meeting! Then the whole group had a 3 course lunch together before ending with yet another meeting. The entire community came back together to report back on what was decided in the morning meeting. By the end we were all pretty tired and ready to head back to Belfast (except Thomas who said that it was too early to go back!!). Saturday evening we did absolutely nothing which was perfect!
Sunday began with church. Lucy was in creche with the little kids which is always exhausting and so much fun! After church we spent the day resting again!
Monday began with prayer and a team meeting. After the team meeting we headed to city centre to do some shopping for Matthew and Thomas' bdays that are at the end of this week. It took a long time to find the presents we were wanting so after a quick coffee stop it was time to head to Peter and Jenna's house (the MMNers) for dinner. With Peter and Jenna we almost always have tex-mex food because we never get it here! It was a nice evening of connecting and eating yummy food!
Tuesday, Micah had another session of his course through the University of Ulster so he was away all day. Lucy attended a training on our policies about protecting vulnerable adults. Afterwards, Lucy was in the office all afternoon typing notes from the meeting over the weekend, responding to tons of emails and processing apps. Tuesday evening we headed to the Ember for dinner before preparing a bit for Lucy's parents arrival!
Wednesday was another day in the office. Micah had a meeting in the afternoon with Invest NI who gave him a lot of pointers about how to get more grant money. Lucy then went grocery shopping for her parents and we both cleaned the house! After going to dinner at the Ember, we headed to cell group. By the time we were back from that it was bed time!
Today is the day Lucy's parents and little bro arrive! They should be here around lunch time! Lucy has spent the morning preparing the rooms and Micah had a meeting this morning to get advice on putting governance in place for Root Soup. The afternoon will likely be spent resting and walking around the neighbourhood!
Please keep us in your prayers the next few weeks as we travel in Scotland, England and Ireland. Safety in travel and maybe a bit of good weather would be big prayer requests right now!
No comments:
Post a Comment