Start of the Adventure
Groomsport Presbyterian Church; my view walking to work in the morning.
One month ago today, Mary Erin and I arrived at Belfast International Airport after about 20 hours of travel from Kansas City. We were tired and jet-lagged, and I know I was more than a little apprehensive about what the coming year would bring. Even when I moved from Missouri across the country to Princeton, New Jersey, I always knew in the back of my head that if things got bad enough, I could always just get in my car and drive home. Now, for the first time in my life, I was in a place where that simply wasn't an option. As we gathered our bags and went through customs, I was wondering what I had gotten myself (and Mary Erin) into. On the other side of the checkpoint, however, was a member of the congregation waiting to welcome us to Northern Ireland. She had a huge smile on her face, and didn't seem phased at all by the number of bags we had between the two of us. By the end of the day, she had given us a tour of Belfast, Bangor, and Groomsport, got us setup in our new house, and invited us over for dinner with her family in their home. While I was still exhausted, by the time we went to bed that night, I knew we at least had a few people excited to have us in Groomsport!
This past month has been quite lovely; we have done some traveling, started to meet people at church, started to figure out life in Northern Ireland (especially the driving), and I have officially started my ministry in Groomsport. I'm going to try and hit the highlights of the past month in this post without making it overly long; so if you want to know more, just ask!
Daily Life
Some of the biggest challenges of adjusting to life here in Groomsport have come from the smallest things; things that we tend to just take for granted. The typical example is driving. Back home you just take for granted that you know the rules of the road (even if in some places people seem to just ignore the rules - Jersey, I'm looking at you!), and that you don't have to think overly hard about what direction to look, or what lane to pull into. Here the signs are different, the roads are frightfully narrow, not to mention the fact that everything is on the opposite side. It has taken me the better part of a month to teach myself to look in the correct place for the rear-view mirror. However, there is so much more than driving. It shows up in conversation; just what does someone mean when they say, "Just pop over 'round tea time" (Evidently it means about 6pm, and may include a meal) or, "I'll meet you at half 2" (That would be half PAST two, and might include tea). Of course shopping is fun too. Not only do you have the whole "everything is called something else" challenge (fries are chips, chips are crisps, cookies are biscuits), but there are whole ranges of things that don't seem to exist (take saltine crackers for instance) while there are whole aisles of the shop filled with things that I don't quite understand; for example, what do you do with "Brown Sauce"? However, being in a place where everything is new has its advantages. One of the biggest in my book is that even the most ordinary things, like shopping for groceries, become an adventure.
We have the joy of living in a very interesting and beautiful part of the world; I thought it might be helpful for some folks to be able to get a visual of just where we are, so below is a map. It shows where we are, along with pointing out some of the places we have visited so far. After the map is a quick description of where we are.
Map of our corner of Northern Ireland, Groomsport is noted in blue, as is the Scottish coast for reference. The items marked in green are places we have visited this month.
Above is a map of our corner of Northern Ireland. Groomsport is a small village, located just outside the larger town of Bangor. We are located on the small outcropping at the tip of the blue arrow. For reference, it takes about 10 minutes to drive to Bangor, and about 35 to drive into Belfast. The places noted in green are places we have visited this month; I will talk about them more later in this post.
View from my desk in our bedroom; the building across the way holds the church halls, and is where most activities other than worship occur. If you look closely, you can see the far side of the Belfast Loch in the distance.
From our window, we look out over the sea. We can watch the ferries going in and out of Belfast harbor, and on a clear day we can see the Scottish coast (which is to say, we don't often see the Scottish coast, as it is often overcast or rainy). Across the street from our home are the church halls; this is the building where most of the church activities other than worship occur. Just past this building is Groomsport Harbor. Formerly home to a small fleet of fishing boats, most of the traffic in the harbor these days comes from sailboats and seagulls. Along the edge of the harbor is part of the North Down Coastal Path, a 16 mile trail that follows the coast. Luckily for us, the part of the path near our door travels through a lovely park, dotted with benches that make for a great place to sit and read when the weather is nice. Below is the view from a day or two ago as I was doing some background reading for my first sermon.
View from one of the benches along the path. You can see the pier on the right of the harbor, and the ferry headed to Scotland in the distance.
Church Life
View of the front of the sanctuary at Groomsport Presbyterian Church, as seen from mid-way back in the sanctuary.
The congregation at Groomsport Presbyterian Church has welcomed both Mary Erin and I with open arms from the first time we walked in the door. It is a healthy church, serving about 450 families. While the majority of the congregation is older, they are active in providing leadership to community youth programs (similar to the Boy and Girl Scouts), and have active programs for youth of all ages. One of the really impressive things to me is just how much is always going on. There is hardly a day where there isn't at least one activity, if not two or three, going on at church. From Bible studies to badminton, this is a VERY active group.
View of the sanctuary from the pulpit.
While we have been overseas for a month, this is just the end of my second week of official work at church. This means that I am still getting my head around what life will look like ministry-wise. The general sketch, as I know it so far, is this. My main responsibilities include pastoral care (this past week I did about a dozen visits to parishioners, either in the hospital or at home), preaching (my first sermon is a week from tomorrow), helping with the youth programs (they have a Sunday night "coffee bar" group for teenagers), and sitting on the Kirk Session (the church leadership council). I have no doubt that as the year goes, the list of what I am doing will continue to grow.
A Few Adventures
Of course, you can't travel to another country and not have an adventure or two along the way! While my schedule at church (and our bank account) doesn't allow for as much travel as would be ideal in a perfect world, we are trying to squeeze in a few trips while we are here, not to mention some time exploring the beautiful area around us.
Before I began work at church, Mary Erin and I spent a week in Belgium and the Netherlands. It was an excellent time for us to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life for a bit. We also had our fill of amazing chocolate! For me, one of the highlights was the beautiful churches that seemed to be around every corner. There is something amazing about sitting in a centuries-old church with beautiful stained glass all around. Some of the best church exploring was in Bruges, a wonderful town in Belgium. Among other things, I saw my first "official" relic at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. All of the churches we visited requested that you not take photos inside; so you will just have to imagine how beautiful they are.
The rest of our trip was filled with canal tours, a chocolate museum, visiting a friend of Mary Erin's, and quite a few good meals (not to mention quite a few delicious Belgian waffles!). Below are some photos from our adventures in Belgium.
Most of our exploration, however, has been in Northern Ireland. Two of the places I will highlight for you have been our visits to Mount Stewart and to Tollyhome Forrest Park.
Mount Stewart is an estate with attached formal gardens. While the estate home was impressive, the gardens and walk were the gem for me. Through winding walks, you can explore dozens of beautiful areas of flowers and plantings. This is a gorgeous area, and we were lucky to tour it on a clear day.
Tollyhome Forrest Park is located in the foothills of the Mountains of Mourne, the tallest mountains in Northern Ireland. When we visited, the peaks were not visible because they were up in the clouds. However, this didn't diminish the beauty of the Forrest Park. Located on a former estate, this park was once a private residence. It has now been turned into over 100 acres of preserved forrest with miles of beautiful hiking trails. After a picnic lunch, we spent several hours hiking along a beautiful river through a forrest that was, at points, almost magical. After that walk, I am not surprised that the authors of Narnia and Middle-Earth both came from this part of the world.
In addition to these day trips, we have gone on several beautiful drives along the Mourne Coastal Route; a road that follows the coast from Groomsport to Portaferry and further south. The winding roads are quite a fun drive, with amazing scenery on top of it.
Well, hopefully that gives you an idea of what we have been up to this past month! Like I mentioned earlier, if you want to know more about anything, don't hesitate to ask, either in the comments below or by reaching out. Also, we would love to know what is going on in your life, especially by snail mail! If you would like to know our mailing address, just drop us an email and we will send it your way. It (evidently) isn't all that expensive to send a letter.
Until next time,
Peace