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.