it is late and i am tired...

hey to all friends and family!!! ok, so it's been a few days and i wanted to give a brief update of what has been going on here, so here is the story:

all of the kids have been out of school for a week for easter and most are still out of school for this upcoming week. this has given us tons of cool chances to hang out with them. though we haven't had any of our normal clubs this past week due to the holidays, we have seen the kids more because we all are free to hang out. several girls have been coming by the house nearly every night and have asked all of us our testimonies, and continue to come by.

on tuesday, john and i took three boys from the estate-luke, connor, and tully-to go to an indoor climbing wall in belfast for the day. we went with mark and russell and it was a great time and the guys really loved. we really enjoyed having such a cool activity to do with them, and are going to try to plan many more, even going on outdoor trips when the weather is nicer.

after our friends matt and jamie left on easter, we had a brief visit this week by some of john's family. his sister and brother-in-law and brother all came and stayed with us for a few days, and it was a real treat to see them and get to hang out.

our good friends from Hillside, Robin and Heather, have bought a special channel on their tv during march madness so that we can go over to their house and watch the NCAA tournament! this is super exciting since it is a big thing that we have missed from home right now. all the games are actually shown live, and so are in the middle of the night. the last two nights i went over to their house around 11 or 12 at night and stayed up till around 5am watching the games...last night the others joined me. although i am quite exhausted, it was well worth it to see UNC advance to the final four! go tarheels!

finally, me and john are heading out tomorrow afternoon to get a few days of holiday. we are meeting up with his brother who lives in scotland, and we are all going skiing and snowboarding in the french alps for several days! i am sooo excited about this, since it has always been a life goal of mine to go boarding in the alps. and they just got a meter of snow this past week! pray that we are safe and dont get hurt!

well, thats most of what has been going on. our time jumped forward an hour last night, to catch back up to our normal time difference from the states. the weather has been slowly getting better over the past week or so, and we are really hoping that april will bring us much more sun and blue skies, free from rain.

well, i gotta go pack. we love you guys tons! and miss you all! oh ya, and why does no one ever really comment on elizabeths posts? we were wondering that and i told her i would ask/chastise...thanks to will and pat for their comments on hers...we love comments, so please leave some love and encouragement!!! Praise the Lord for his faithfulness! Read John 15 this week and let these words dwell with you as you go throughout your days.

until next time,
Dwight

Pictures!

Saint Patrick's Day parade in Belfast

Reegan Lynn at the Easter Community Service.  Her mom, Amy is a good friend of ours and 'posed' Reegan for this picture.

The boys have found a new hobby - playing video games on the internet.

Happy Easter!

Our internet went out again!  We're not sure what happened, but it is up and running again.  The past few weeks have been pretty busy.  We helped with an Easter Community Service at Ballyloughan.  The St. Bridget's Primary School choir and the Dunclug Primary School performed.  We had a great time hanging out with members of the church and some of our friends from the community.  Erin was adopted by some kids to play follow the leader and ran around with a line of kids dancing behind her.

Matt Francisco and Jamie Simpson left this morning after a 10 day visit.  We loved having them here and especially loved their gift of The Office season one dvds.  There was a good bit of sightseeing done over the past few days and a rented car, which was actually returned in one piece with no injuries.  

We helped Lorriane with a program for the first year class at Dunclug College last week.  This was the end of a course on relationships she teaching at the school.  We each had a table of kids we led in discussions about bullying and other various topics.  It was fun to interact with kids who live in other areas as well as some we already knew.

We also got to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Erin and Matt went to Dublin for the day.  John, Jamie, and Dwight climbed Mt. Slemish (the legend is that St. Patrick tended sheep on Mt. Slemish and drove out all the snakes from Ireland, but according to my 8 year old friend Lauren, that is impossible).  Every year there is a pilgrimage up the hill.  Our friend Paul and I went down to Belfast to watch the parade which displayed lots of asian styled costumes and a good bit of reggae music.  We met up with Dwight, John, and Jamie and walked around the city for a while.  The weather was amazing so we all took advantage of the chance to walk around without rain jackets.

All the kids are out of school for Easter holidays - the Northern Irish version of Spring Break.  All of our activities were cancelled this week and we are looking forward to hanging out with bored kids during the day.

The next few weeks will be different as we have visits from John's family and my sister, the boys are going snowboarding, and Erin and Dwight are going home for a couple weddings.  Our time here is quickly coming to an end.  Pray that we will make the most of the next couple months and take every opportunity presented.

this is good stuff if anyone cares to read it all....

well, i would just like to start this post by announcing my jubilation over the massive game last night! in case anyone doesnt know, UNC beat Duke last night for the ACC regular season title. yes, the game was on at 9, which means it started here at 2am, and yes, i stayed up until near 5am watching the live updates on sportsline.

in other news, the weather this week has been very fickle, raining one moment, then clearing up for a moment with a wee bit of sunshine and blue sky, then rain, then a downpour of hail for 4-5 minutes, then rain, then snow (we woke up the other morning with an unexpected layer of snow covering everything, though it melted within hours). you get the idea. it does that about 20 times a day. but mostly rainy, im afraid...and very windy. this makes it a bit difficult to be outside with the kids, though i do feel that it is improving, albeit rather slowly. so, john and i were able to play football on the courts with some of the boys this past week, which was a fond memory of this past summer, and a hopeful view of weather to come.

the tuesday afternoon club this week went fairly well, with about 7 guys and 5-6 girls, our typical numbers now. both groups can particularly rowdy, though, especially when it comes time to do the devotional part, so pray that the kids will calm down and pay attention to the lesson. pray that the spirit will work on their hearts and make his truth from his word come alive to them, as many of them are not christians.

i have had several encouraging encounters this week, as well, specifically at the gym. since i have been working out most mornings at gym near here, the Lord has really provided some cool opportunities to develop some new relationships. i have met many believers and have been very encouraged by simply seeing that the Lord does have other people of his in this needy area, and to see them regularly and share with them. I have also met a few others who are not believers, but whom i have been able to go a bit deeper with in our relationship. one guy is named Eamonn (pronounced Ayman) and is a 42-year old man who is married, has kids, and is school and town bus driver. However, he loves intense skateboarding, rock climbs, surfs, has a shaved head, earrings, tattoos, and acts quite young. for some reason we have hit it off great and work out together a lot. though he is very turned off to "religion" and insists on having no part of it, he seems interested enough to discuss the subject and seems "timidly interested" (if that makes sense) in my views. i have previously suggested hanging out sometime over coffee or lunch/dinner, but he has seem noncommittal. recently however, he has several times suggested that we go out for pizza and this week, he gave me a lift home during which we discussed some of my "Christian views", and then exchanged numbers, so as to get together for pizza soon. please pray for Eamonn and that the Lord would sovereignly appoint more opportunities for us to hang out, maybe at dinner soon, and that the Lord will give me the wisdom on how to best speak the Truth in love, because he is quite cautious and cynical about anything resembling "religion", though it is clear he knows nothing of Jesus. One other person I have built a relationship with is names Byron, who is a personal trainer at the gym. Byron is the uncle of one of the boys that we are friend with in Dunclug named Rory. Byron has always been overly affable in gym, daily giving me pointers and help. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and moved back into the Dunclug with his mom, who lives near us. We have invited him over for dinner and he is supposed to come next Friday, so be praying for him, as he is not a believer, either.

lets see...not a whole lot else has been going on...we have our bible study tonight with the youth from Ballyloughan and we are taking them to a monthly worship gathering for late teens to young adults, which we have heard is very good. we are excited about that. and erin is an aunt! yay! her sister had a baby this week, so that is exciting, but hard to be away for...so pray for aunt erin. this friday, matt francisco (erin's boyfriend/me and john's best friend) and jamie simpson (john's girlfriend) are coming to visit, so we are excited about that too! thanks for all of your prayer and support you offer! please keep praying for us and the people here...and feel free to lave encouraging comments, we like those!

until next time,
unashamed Carolina fan in a land where no one knows or cares,
Dwight and Co.

here are a few extra pics to spice up your day:

this is the picture we used to promote the afternoon club for boys in the estate





this is the four of us on the London Eye, just before Christmas




this is an unnecessary picture of john in a wet-suit...an awesome wet-suit...

friends....

We got to spend some time with Mark and Jacqui this week and meet the newest member of their family, Jonathan Mark.  He is tiny.  He was born a month or so early and is a testimony to the power of prayer as he and Jacqui are both doing well. We had a great afternoon catching up with Mark, Jacqui, and their five year old Katie.  We watched dvds of the boys rock climbing, Mark skiing, and their trip to the Canary Islands. 

We had dinner with Norman and Bobbi Murphy, a couple UCF met several years ago.  The entire evening was refreshing and encouraging as we caught up with these friends and picked Norman's brain about missions.  Pray for their family as they travel to visit their son and daughter-in-law who are missionaries in Peru.

On Sunday night, we met with a few kids for our community Bible study.  It was interesting as the conversation topics shifted throughout the evening.  We talked about drugs, death, poverty, and our purpose in life.  Pray for the kids who came: Anna, Danielle, Luke, and Tully and for us as we plan for this time and spend time with these kids.

Please pray for our friend Paul as he interviews for a new job on Friday, 7 March.  This new job will change his work schedule and allow him to be free in the evening and weekends.  He has a great attitude about it and know it is in the Lord's hands.  In fact, I have learned that he has a better attitude than I do about pretty much everything.  We are all very thankful for his friendship and his example of truly trusting in Christ.

And last but not least... Manchester United beat Lyon 1-0 last night!