Catching Up From Saturday & Sunday

We've been very busy, so I have some catching up to do with our blog. Saturday morning we arose to a beautiful reflection of the sun off the mountains in the distance with a border of low hanging clouds above. A bird was flying around enjoying the nice morning as well. We all had to get up early that morning so we could have our devotions before William arrived to direct us in packing up, cleaning up and departing from Urglin Centre where we had spent our first week. After we dropped our luggage off in Athy, we drove up to Newgrange & Knowth (neolithic tombs) in County Meath near Drogheda north of Dublin. Newgrange is aligned so that on the winter solstice the rising sun shines through the light box at the opening of the tomb and illuminates the far end of the burial chamber in the back. At Knowth it is aligned so that the setting sun on the winter solstice does the same. (Remember, these are 5,000 years old - 500 years older than the pyramids and 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.) No photos could be taken inside Newgrange, but we did take a group photo outside with the tomb in the background. The two ladies on the left end were Germans who misunderstood my motion for them to pass before I took photo for an invitation to join us in the photo. They smiled and jumped in on the end and we laughed and just went with it. After Newgrange, we went to see the tomb at Knowth where the artwork is very impressive. We could not go down the entrance because it was not safe, but we could photograph down the tunnel. It produced a nice effect in the photo. We didn't have any extras joining us for the group photo. We returned to Athy and after a little time at the youth centre where computers and wi-fi connectivity is much more plentiful (your youth will have no excuse now for not keeping in touch), we went to our host homes. We didn't have to get up as early on Sunday. We went to church in Athy and then handed out flyers in the estates around the area to let them know about the kids club. Afterward we had a barbeque and a special service for host families and others we served with. The best part was getting to see Sandra Workman who has not been able to get out because of her cancer. She was feeling well and had been resting up to be able to join us for a couple of hours today. It was so good to see her! We presented her and William with a photo book entitled "In The Footsteps Of Paul" which shows beautiful photos of the places Paul lived and visited and tells interesting details about those places and what occurred there. We all made the most of our time with Sandra. After she had to go, we took time to catch up on our internet communications and then returned to our host homes early. Tomorrow (Monday) will begin our ministry here in Athy. Please pray that the turn out and the interaction will be good for both the kids clubs and the youth programmes in the evenings. Thank you!