Canada Day came early

We chuckled all through supper as a Joni Mitchell CD played in the background at the restaurant--how's that for a welcome for Saskatchewan folks? Then we came home and watched one of the movies that former renters had left behind--and laughed when the credits rolled: it was filmed in Burnaby, BC!

Well, you made it

(Our family has a favourite story that ends with the phrase started in the title of this post. I won't complete the phrase here.)
My thesis defense went very well--I received a clear pass, something I never would have expected. Thank the Lord for his mercy and for many, many faithful friends who have supported me in prayer.
To celebrate, we went out to a wonderful restaurant just a few minutes' walk from our NI home away from home.
Gwen has been calling everyone she knows and congratulations have been pouring in.
Again, we are so blessed!

We are so blessed

We can't begin to recount all the wonderful ways in which God has shown his faithfulness to us--not only in this latest adventure, of course, but that's what's taking our attention "at the minute" (as the Irish say). By no means least is the blessing of good friends old and new. Specifically, I have received incredible support from those who know that my thesis defense is tomorrow. I told Gwen that if my success depended on the number of people praying for me, I would breeze through!
Thanks so much to all--I will post an update in about 24 hours.

A weekend with good friends

Some 7 years ago we first met folks from Northern Ireland who have since become dear friends. This past weekend we were again blessed with their kind hospitality, and we enjoyed the amazingly good weather together, touring favourite spots on the North Coast and discovering some new ones.

Back in Ireland!

After some adventures in air travel, we have arrived in Ireland and settled back into life in Lambeg for a short time so that I can go through my PhD defense (viva) on June 9 at 10 am.
First, the travel adventures: we got to the Saskatoon airport shortly after 4:30 am for our early morning flight and checked in, but our hearts sank when the attendant pointed out that our passports were expired and voided! Somehow, we had picked up the wrong ones; the current passports were sitting in a drawer in Caronport, 2.5 hours' drive away. What saved us is that we were flying to Montreal so I (Randy) could attend the CETA (Canadian Evangelical Theological Association) conference en route to Ireland. Gwen went back through security and got her luggage and then drove furiously to Cport to retrieve the passports; then she flew the next day to meet me in Montreal. (When she picked up her luggage, she realized that the handlers had taken off the piece that held the clothes I was planning to wear to the conference, so she managed to get an Air Canada employee to sprint to the plane and get them to me just before the plane's door was closed!)
Now, about settling back in to Lambeg: our neighbour, Nan, had said that the house we rented four years earlier was now empty, so we contacted the landlord and he graciously allowed us to use the house for the time we are here. Friends and neighbours have spoiled us again, making sure we had enough in stock for evening tea and much more.
A few things have changed--the kerbs are all one (drab) colour now and the neighbourhood children have grown a lot--but we were struck with how much everything is just as we left it. In fact, pictures we hung on the walls of the house are still in their place and a tear-off calendar we left behind still displays the date we left!
Yesterday we met up with my supervisor and got some business done at Queen's (including finding the location of my viva), we toured the Ulster Museum, which had closed for renovations the day after the last time we went through, and we strolled through the Botanic Gardens & shared a Flake ice cream cone from a Mr. Whippy wanna-be. We then took the train back home and visited at the Parkside nursing home & shopped in Lisburn, getting home footsore, weary, and laden with some of the favourites we remembered from before (such as black currant jam).
Today, we went for a (not so wee) drive with Nan and Tom, going from one restaurant to the next, so the long walk yesterday was all for nought in terms of calories burnt. Not only that--there are butter & cream & Stilton in the fridge, so . . .
All in all, it's wonderful to be back.

Finally - Swimming in the North Atlantic!

I thought that I should report back to you to tell you that I finally got to swim in the ocean. While we were up at Portstewart we met a friend and her children down at the strand. We played in the sand and then her 8 year old and I went and splashed in the ocean waves - the weather was not warm but at least it wasn't raining!

No time to write a blog

We have been very busy with company - that is our excuse for the lapse in blog entries. We just returned from a week stay in Portstewart on the north coast. For part of the time we had company so we rented a car to tour them with Derry, Donnegal and all the tourist attractions on the North Coast. When we were at Dunluce Castle we were treated to a group of experts in medieval fighting and got to try on armor and experience professional jousting.
On Monday we had to take company down to the airport so our mode of transportation back up was the train/bikes. We took the train to Portrush and biked to Portstewart and then today we biked to Coleraine and took the train from there. Jen arrives tomorrow morning - so exciting!

I Saw three ships come sailing in

Our last couple of weeks have been so busy that it has seemed like a blur! I didn't want to forget to tell you about going to Belfast Maritime Festival. We went down to the harbour to see a number of tall ships which have been used if filming movies like Saving Private Ryan and Shackleton's adventures. The sister ship to the Titanic was also there along with a ship doing an reenactment of the ships used to send the Irish to America during the potato famine. We had coffee and great desserts on a Danish tall boat and were full of samples from the food marque - even had homemade bramley apple ice cream. We took home great cheeses and a loaf of Guinness bread (made with 27% Guinness) I will miss living so close to the sea!