Wooly tights and umbrellas.

...Meanwhile in a small village in Northern Ireland.  I have finally moved out, and this time it feels real.  I have a slight fluttering in my stomach that tells me that this is it, I am doing LIFE.  And I love it! Ireland is beautiful, it's green and rainy and I feel as if I should always have a pint of Guiness in one hand?

I'm classed as a 'foreign student' here so I get to live on the small bible college campus.  Not everybody has moved in but so far I share 'home' with French, English, Americans, Pakistani and there's a guy from Cosovo, I think?  There has been so much meeting and information I can hardly remember, but the important thing is that everybody seems lovely.  My college is a 5 minute walk from the center of the tiny village of Dunmurry and a 10 minute train ride from the city of Belfast. I popped into Belfast yesterday with a group of new students and went off alone to find Queens University where I will register for classes Tuesday.  So far everybody I've met here is doing the Cumbria Theology course so I'm hoping to find some Queens friends soon. But anyway I let myself be a tourist for the day and enjoyed the freshers events in the Botanic gardens, had the biggest crepe i've ever seen and generally looked around.  Just when I was getting tired and feeling a little alone I bumped into the group I had come with so travelled back to the college with them.  I think that's what I'm looking for this year, a balance between an awesome support network of friends that I can genuinely love, and alone time to study, listen to the Lord and just hang out with myself.

So in search of this balance I went off to church by myself this morning.  The other English girls went to the local baptist church but I felt a draw to the village Presbyterian church (http://www.dunmurrypresbyterian.org/welcome.htm.)  Despite the fact I can hardly spell the word, I have no experience of this denomination, so I thought why not!? Well I was a little nervous when I walked in behind a man in a suit but all was fine.  It was more formal than WBBC, less formal than the Church of England services I would attend through school; but I can appreciate hymns so that's fine with me. The Reverend was considerably younger than the majority of the congregation and he used a clip from Harry Potter to illustrate his point...so I'm pretty much sold haha. But he welcomed me afterwards and was really lovely, as were several really sweet older men who swept me into their conversation.  Everybody here is incredibly disappointed that I don't have a geordie accent and I'm running out of explanations that don't involve the term 'private school' haha.

But anyway I walked home (in the rain) with a smile on my face because its all new and I think I can really see myself there.  I can't help myself but keep telling the Lord, 'I love you' and I have a feeling he is taking great joy in my acknowledgement that I can trust him and that he just might know what he's doing.

So the fun begins tomorrow when orientation weeks starts and all the other students arrive.  I have a feeling life is about to get very busy.  Wednesday we head out to the Mourne Mountains (I'm told this is where C.S.Lewis was inspired to write the Chronicles of Narnia?) for a sort of retreat, so I look forward to that.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taken the time to text and find out how its going.  All prayers are greatly appreciated...I'm fully aware that this is only the beginning!