This blog is becoming a collaborative effort! Tonight as we chatted in the Great Hall, Deirdre asked me if I was going up to blog. I told her there all I had for today was the wonderful visit with Cynthia. She disagreed…there IS more!  SO…..

This morning Bebe and I were doing our own thing while Deirdre worked on the Tesco order and some menu planning. I was up in the flat catching up on my Gospel reading and doing some much needed financial reconciling and a bit of tidying up my bedroom. I heard the doorbell ring a couple of times but knew there were three or four people downstairs. When I came down later, Deirdre said I had ignored the bell when Leonard came for his tea and biscuits. Oops….well, someone else visited with him today!

Bebe and I had a lunch date with Cynthia Swavey at 1 pm. I needed to stop at the chemist (drugstore) so we went in early. I am out of omeprazole, an OTC medication for acid reflux. I couldn’t find it at Gordon’s so I asked the clerk who got the pharmacist. In this country that is a prescription drug! Now I need to see a doctor so I can get a prescription.

We went on to Café Crème and ordered coffee while we waited for Cynthia. She came in minutes later and suggested we order lunch. She had had a late breakfast and would just have coffee with us. Bebe had coureggetes soup (zucchini); I had a toastie.  While we were eating, Bebe pointed out the window….yep, there was Leonard!! We’ve come to expect Leonard sightings in Newcastle!!

The three of us chatted and chatted and finally at nearly 3 pm we moved to Cynthia’s home.  She and Ewelina (former Murlough House intern, now a clerk at Café Crème) both share the house with Irene. It’s a beautiful townhouse style with two sitting rooms, a hallway, circular stairway and a kitchen downstairs and four bedrooms and baths upstairs. The front yard is postage stamp size, not literally but actually probably only about ten feet from the front door to the sidewalk wall. The back yard or garden, however, is incredible!! It is perhaps 35 ft. wide and 125-150 ft. deep. There are little paths in among the flowers, herbs and vegetables. Just beyond the back wall, the Mournes begin….yes, the mountains are just there! The view from the kitchen is amazing. I had left my camera on my dresser so I have no proof of this fantastic view. That means I will have to go back! The mist on the mountains, the garden, oh my!! Beautiful. I was smitten!

Cynthia prepared herbal mint tea and shared her birthday cake with us…the one that Richard made with the marzipan icing!!The fruitcake was excellent! Cynthia wrapped up two pieces so that Deirdre and Richard could have a piece. Our visit went on until it was beginning to get dark, 4 pm.  

Back at Murlough, I made coffee and served Deirdre her cake. Richard was eating supper but joined us for some conversation and tea with our coffee.  Lesley Lockhardt came in to see Alasdair. Lesley is the contact person in Belfast for the street ministry. After their meeting, Lesley joined us women for conversation. We had a good conversation about the work in Belfast. There are plans to do more outreach so that relationships can be built and maintained with these who so desperately need the Gospel.  Lesley and Deirdre know each other from ministry on the Northwest 200…which is a motorcycle event that draws over 150,000 people in May. I'm just learning about that one. Deirdre has been on teams to that for some years.

The One2Four will be Wednesday so Deirdre is in the midst of that! I asked about the speaker thinking I might make a table favor to go along with it. Deirdre called Alan Dumigan who asked if I could also make an RSVP card for the December event so we can plan accordingly.  After I went up to my room, I worked on Publisher for a while to get part of that done! Tuesday will be busy….cooking (well, following Deirdre’s instructions!) and preparing for Wednesday! Bebe has a meeting with Kairos in the morning and Deirdre has a meeting with Alan and Sarah so I'll be free to do the favors and print the cards and get the fliers in the mail for the Christmas dinners.

All in all, it was a lovely day. It wasn’t too cold, although the sea was full of whitecaps; there were lots of interactions and opportunities to encourage people.  And sometimes that is the most important part in ministry…encouraging others who are “on the ground”.