Donaghadee and Donard

Sunday:

One thing I was excited to see on this trip was Andrew preaching in his home town. He is a busy guy, with many churches asking him to speak, so he gave us directions to the church he would be speaking at on this particular Sunday. 
Churches start much later than at home, so we got to sleep in and take our time getting ready. The gps took us to the church which was located in a small coastal town called Donaghadee (hard to spell, fun to say). It was a very small congregation but they were all extremely friendly as most people are here in Northern Ireland. Andrew did a wonderful job preaching and I am really looking forward to hearing him more at biblestudy this year. After church, he invited us to his house for lunch (or dinner as they call it here) so I offered to ride with Andrew and my dad would follow in the rental car. I walked up to Andrew's car and was waiting for him to unlock it when Andrew just looked at me, shook his head, and said, "Jill." For a short second I was confused, but then looked down and noticed I was standing by the driver's door! We had a good laugh, switched sides so HE could drive the car, and went to his house for lunch. 
Another thing I have really been looking forward to is meeting Andrew's family. I've heard so many stories about them and now I get to meet them in person. All three of his brothers are gone at the moment, but we had a lovely lunch with his mum and dad. :) They are both so friendly and hospitable and served us meat, potatoes, veggies, and Yorkshire pudding, with a delicious dessert (pecan something that tasted wonderful!). We adjourned back into their living room and kept talking over tea and coffee. Andrew's dad, also named Stephen, mentioned that he'd heard we sing! Everyone pointed at me and he asked if I would be willing to sing a song at their evening service. I haven't practiced or sung since Germany, but I've been dying to sing and didn't want to pass up this opportunity to help out. I decided to sing "O Great God" by Bob Kauflin (sovereign grace music) because it's a great song, I had sung the first verse as a solo at grace a couple months ago, and mom could figure out the accompaniment pretty easily. 
We drove over to the church early so we could figure out and practice the song before church started at half six (their way of saying 6:30). The church building is very nice, with great acoustics, and modern technology. When people started showing up, they were so welcoming! Church began with some hymns and worship songs, a quick interview for a woman's biblestudy, then they did announcements, welcomed our family, and it was our turn to do special music. I was really nervous walking up to sing, not because the song was hard, but just because my voice isn't very strong at this point. I prayed, and since the song itself is a prayer, I was soon focusing on the words more than on my nervous thoughts. I loved singing in that church and thought it went well considering the circumstances. If you haven't heard the song before, you should look it up and listen to it because it's such a beautiful prayer. 
We heard another wonderful sermon by Andrew's dad. This is really the first Sunday since leaving the US that we've heard anyone preach (in english anyway) and it was so spiritually refreshing! 
After church, the Currys (Andrew's family) invited us back to their house for tea which turned out to be tea and coffee and supper (tea sandwiches and cookies). They are such a lovely family and we had a great time getting to know them. So after being fed, both physically and spiritually, we eventually said goodnight and headed back home. 

Monday:

I slept in til 9:30 then decided to get the day started. Andrew came over at 10:30 just as I was beating Peter in a game of pool. While waiting for my dad, we decided to play team pool: Peter and Stephen against Andrew and I. Andrew and I took the lead at first but started missing a lot, and Stephen was making a lot, so we lost our lead. But just at the last minute, we managed to pull ahead and win the game! 
By this time, everyone was ready so we took off toward the Mourne Mountains. We parked our cars at sea level in a town called Newcastle. Then we set off to climb Donard mountain which is the tallest mountain in Northern Ireland! About 1/3 of the way up is a stone igloo that looks kind of like a hobbit's house. We stopped for lunch while admiring the views and trying not to get bit by all the small bugs flying around (mission unsuccessful there, but they aren't big bites so that's good. In fact, I just checked my arm for the bites and they are already gone!). The rest of the hike was climbing lots and lots of steps. Just when you thought you were getting close, there was a bit more to climb. At the saddle, which is the are just between two mountains, runs a long stone wall. It looks like a random stone wall on a mountain, but apparently they run all along many of the mountains and were built to help navigate people through that particular territory. While the rest of us climbed next to the stone wall to the top of the highest mountain, Peter decided to climb up the mountain on top of the wall! :) he made it and so did we. There were beautiful views from the top!... at least the ones that weren't covered by clouds. We took some pictures, then started heading down by way of chasing the sheep on the side of the mountain. Peter really wanted to get close to one and it was quite comical to watch him try. 
From the saddle, we met up with my mom who asked if we had seen dad! (we had sprinted ahead of them earlier on cuz they weren't feeling too well today and weren't sure how far they would make it.) We must have missed him while we were chasing sheep. Oops. He figured it out and came back down. From the saddle, we climbed back down the mountain, mostly jumping from rock to rock which gave your brain exercise too because you had to calculate where to jump to next. :) 
Accomplished and tired we all reached the bottom and rewarded ourselves with ice cream. Apparently ice cream is popular here (people will grab an ice cream and coffee quite often) so Andrew took us nearby to a good ice cream shop where he told me I had to try the Pooh Bear flavor. It's "honey comb" (pooh's favorite flavor, of course) mixed with caramel and other goodness. It was delicious. 
On our way back home, we ordered take away Fish and Chips to eat back at home. I have been craving this meal and it was the perfect dinner after our big hike! Sooooo yummy! 
After dinner, Andrew left, Stephen, Dad, and I watched part of the 2nd Lord of the Rings, and Peter learned how to play rugby outside with the boys from the house right next to us. 

Today was such a nice day! The weather held out for us and now I can say I've climbed the tallest mountain in Northern Ireland!! :)