First Day in Ireland

I arose my first morning and went to shower but couldn't figure out how the shower worked. It is an on-demand system. I pushed every button and turned every knob but nothing happened. So I gave up, sponged off and headed outside for a walk down the lane to feed Joey, the donkey. The pigeons were cooing, the sheep were grazing across the road and the greens were SO green. Julie, the owner of the farm next door and a member of Jordan and Naomi's church happened to be walking down the lane. We fed the donkey together and rejoiced together over the Lord's work the day before on the bus. (She had heard about it at prayer meeting the night before.) The Lord came down as we shared about different things until we were both fighting tears and hugging each other for joy.

Breakfast was yogurt and fruit with blackberries Jordan had picked from the lane for me. For them it was Irene Rokeness Barker's homemade sweet rolls I had managed to get through customs. They were thrilled! What a joy to catch up with the children's lives and all the happenings. Every day the children practice their music. Nathanial on the piano and percussion and Anna Joy on the piano and harp. So therapeutic for me to hear live music by children again. I had that for about 20 years with Charles and Heidi's music. I miss it so much. Anna Joy and I grabbed a moment for me to teach her some improvisation on the piano. She is a fast learner!

Jordan and I went into his office and began to prepare for the trip to Latvia. We also are preparing for Sunday's service at his churches where we intend to share about daddy's story briefly and about the upcoming trip.

After lunch we took a walk to the sea. The children rode their bikes. We stopped at a little shop and Naomi bought me the famous honeycomb Glastry ice-cream made locally. This dairy farm used to supply Dubai airlines with ice-cream! I never tire of seeing the tall European buildings side by side and painted different colors. The sea was grey and relatively calm with hazy silhouettes of large cargo ships on the horizon. Oystercatcher birds were on the shore sporting their tuxedoes and orange beaks. On the way home I took pictures of wildflowers and chatted with Andy, a neighbor who was walking his dog. He and Naomi were talking about strimming their yard. "Strimming?" I asked? They pantomimed weed whacking. I laughed. They have a lot of different words for things over here.

Finished the evening visiting with Naomi's beautiful mum. And I asked how to use the shower. There was a string on the other side of the bathroom you had to pull to turn the on-demand water system on. Go figure.