Belfast, Bray, and Birthday Blessings

Oh my goodness, it's been far too long since my last update!  I do apologize for the delay.  Things have gotten so busy here, and Chrissy and I were in Belfast, Northern Ireland all last week helping out with a youth organisation called Youth Initiatives (YI).  They celebrated their 20th anniversary and had a big conference on Thursday with a bunch of youth workers from all over Northern Ireland.  Chrissy and I did a lot of prep work for that.  We printed name tags for everyone, photocopied handouts and brochures, and stuffed folders.  It was a lot of little tasks, but it felt good to be able to lighten the load for some of the YI staff.  The conference went very well and there was a show afterwards by a group called Crosslinks.  Crosslinks is, according to their website, "a cross-community, cross-cultural arts-based youth project that seeks to break down barriers and address misconceptions pertaining to race, faith, culture, and community."  They're a group of 14-18 year olds that meet once a week in Belfast and do music, dance, and drama workshops.  We saw their show once on Thursday night after the conference, and a second time on Friday night after the YI 20th anniversary dinner.  It was really nice to kick back and relax and see a good performance after a busy week.  Oh--I almost forgot!  In Belfast there's a place called Clements!  :)  It's a little coffee shop and cafe.  I was so excited to see it, I just had to get my picture taken by the sign!

Pretttyyyy cool.  :)

Last night Chrissy and I had dinner at the Fletcher family (from the Community of Nazareth)'s house.  We had a delicious meal, a wonnnderful ice cream cake (with a few candles for my birthday), and some seriously good hot chocolate made with the best Belgian chocolate.  Mmmm!  We also enjoyed getting to know the family a little bit better and laughing over a silly game of Munchkins.  Unfortunately I was a bit too tired from our trip to Belfast to fully participate.  It was still fun though.  Thanks Ciaran and Els for hosting us and for showing us the silly side of your family!  :)


I'm nearing the end of a 30-day devotional challenge called Thirsty.  I mentioned it a short while back...it's a really great book that I picked up at a Christian book store here, and it's been a great part of my personal prayer life for the past couple of weeks.  I really love the writing prompts...they've given me some really interesting things to write about in my journal.  One day it asked me to list some people who I knew that didn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and to then write down ways I could personally influence their lives.  This made me really think about the people I've come across or become friends with, or even people in my own family, and it challenged me to think of ways I could bring them closer to Christ...even if that meant just loving them.  The prayer prompt was asking God to reveal people to me who need to know His love and hear His message.  I prayed that God would help me to pray for those I don't know that need to know Him...that through my prayers they would come to a revelation of God and the plan He has for their life.    I'm on day 25 now, so I only have 5 days left.  I wish the challenge was longer than 30 days, because I've really enjoyed it.  I've had some sweet conversations with the Lord and He's revealed some great stuff to me.


Going backwards in time a little bit---last weekend (on Friday 11-11-11) we were invited to a wedding for Paddy & Michelle, a couple in the Community of Nazareth.  Their wedding was really nice and I loved the church we were in!  Here's a picture:

Holy Trinity Church in Ratoath, Ireland

Gorgeous, huh?

There's the bride and groom...Michelle and Paddy :)

I had a blast at the reception...I hadn't danced in a while, so I danced the whole time and loved it.  The party went on quite a long time...much longer than American weddings, for sure!  We left the place at about 1am when the live band ended their set, but the dj was just getting started as we walked out the door.  I couldn't believe it!  I'm glad I got to experience an Irish wedding.  :)

Chrissy and I had the Saturday after the wedding off, so we went out to do a little sight-seeing.  We went to a place called Bray Head and did a cliff walk.  Here are some pictures from our adventure (more on Facebook)...

Bray Head

A view from our cliff walk

We didn't quite make it to the top, but this was close enough...

What a pretty sky on the way back down!  :)

Okay...now back to present-time.  My 23rd birthday was today (November 20th), and although it was wonderful, it was a little sad.  Last night just after midnight, it struck me that it was my birthday and I wasn't home with all my friends and family.  I teared up a little bit, but Chrissy came to the rescue and read me my favorite childhood book, Lily Pig's Book of Colors (which of course I brought here with me!).  This cheered me up significantly...it's amazing what a silly story can do.  I think Chrissy's expert narrative skills did the trick.  :)  Anyway, today was really nice.  I got to help with music ministry at the community prayer meeting this afternoon, so that was fun.  Playing guitar and singing for worship is one of my favorite things to do, so I was really blessed with the opportunity to do it on my birthday.  After the prayer meeting a couple of girls (the only two near my age) took me out for ice cream at a place called "Bits & Pizzas".  I got a realllly yummy chocolate sundae:

Soooo good!

Leah, me, and Rachel at Bits & Pizzas :)  Thanks ladies for making my birthday special!

When I got home, Peter and Ciara had prepared a delicious dinner per my request.  I asked for chicken with pesto, and mashed potatoes.  They made just that and it was wonderful.  It was really nice to have everyone home for dinner as well.  

Leanne, me, Stephen, Joe, Paul, Ellen, Chrissy, and Ciara

We had to have one with Peter too!  Aren't we a good-looking family?

Some of them made me birthday cards, and I got a couple of gifts from Ellen and Peter & Ciara, so it was really nice.  During dessert time, they did the "Mahony family birthday tradition" of honouring, and they all went around the table and said something to honour me.  It was nice to hear such kind things.  :)

A scrumptious chocolate cake for dessert!  Thanks Ciara!

Thanks all for reading this awfully long post!  Some more thank-you's are in order:  Thanks for all the birthday blessings I received via Facebook or email, thank you to everyone here in Ireland who participated in making my birthday special, and thanks for the lovely Skype calls I had this evening with Jennifer & Sittie, my parents, brother, & grandparents, and my "sister" Ashley.  You all made my evening so special!

Coming up:

Day off "work" with Chrissy tomorrow (Mon)

Irish-American Thanksgiving Celebration with the Johnson and Ascough families (Thurs)

Irish-American Thanksgiving Celebration with the Mahonys (Sat)