It's been a while...

Dear Blogger World,

It's been about 3 months since I've blogged! Whoopsies. You'll be glad to know the silence was because we were getting into our new life in Northern Ireland and were focusing on reality rather cyberspace...I'm not dissing you though, don't worry. I've missed jotting down random thoughts and publishing them in pink.

So much has happened, it would be hard to catch up with you on everything but the main things are...

* We are still really enjoying Portstewart Baptist. Dad's really found his niche and it is so good to see him so comfortable up in the pulpit. His preaching has continued to be very Gospel-centered and challenging, and people here are really enjoying it. Mum's become the chairwoman of the Ladies' ministry at the church, which she is really enjoying - they are carrying out an 'Extreme makeover' as one of their events next month! Kiki's become involved in the Sunday School and the kids love her; she also stood up and did sign-language last Sunday night as part of the worship. I've become involved in the worship team, which I'm really enjoying, I've led a few times now and am becoming more comfortable with it, the change in the size of the church is quite daunting, as well as not knowing how people will respond to a certain song or aspect of the service!

*Kiki is at Ballymoney Technical College studying Child care. She is enjoying it and comes home with interesting facts (such as, babies up to 6 weeks old can apparently breathe underwater!).

*Mummy is now blogging: www.coastalreflections.wordpress.com. Check it out, she is very insightful :)

*I am now at Queen's Uni in Belfast, studying French, Ethnomusicology and Psychology. I'm really enjoying the course, having such a mix of subjects has made my time here so far really interesting! The people are lovely, I am staying in halls of residence, so I'm on a floor with 11 others (we each have our own bathroom, thankfully!, and we share a kitchen/lounge). It's been fun cooking for myself, I also love having others round for dinner...by the way, Mexican goes down well with everyone. There's a nice feeling of familiarity in the hall, which is great to be able to come home to after lectures of 200 people! Belfast is a really cool city to be living in, I wasn't sure what to expect but there's a great 'buzz' about the place, lots of gigs and shops and cafes and interesting people. Also, the Christmas lights are popping up around the city! Woo! I get to come home every weekend, which is lovely because I really miss my wee family :)

*We are going to Geneva this weekend!!! Friday morning is our flight. Can't wait to see everyone again. It will be so good to catch-up. If you're a Geneva person reading this, please send me a message so we can see each other! Would love to see as many people as possible :)

That's about it...I'm going to try to keep this up more regularly so I don't have to write catch-up blogs!!

ps: my camera died at the end of the summer, so no pics...but Mummy and Daddy have got me one for my birthday (20 on Monday!!:)) so surely some new pics will be up soon!

A broken world that is breaking our hearts...

Just watched the news about what happened in Omagh yesterday... I had seen a headline on a street paper about the 'Omagh Inferno' which I just thought was a sensational title, I hadn't realised that behind it was such a tragedy. A family of 7 burned to death in their own home, which police now say was set on fire maliciously. The family was made of a mum, a dad, a 13 year old, a 7 year old, a 4 year old, a 19 month old, and a 9 month old...who are all said to have been murdered. Such an unbearable thing to happen...had it been an accident it wouldn't have been any better, but it mightn't have caused so many questions about our human race, we are all looking for the answer to the question of who would do such a thing? why would they do it? The pain that the family's friends and family must be atrocious...suddenly a whole piece of their life's puzzle is taken out, all at once, 7 loved ones vanished into mortality. This reminds us of the frailty of life, of the battle within every man that can end up in carrying out the unspeakable...we are living in a broken world.