Lest I forget...

In case I never told you this, here are my priorities for being here.

1) Learn to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

    (This includes expression of that love through serving others.) 

2) To figure out what's next in my life...

Please remind me of that if you think I'm forgetting (or even if you don't...). 

Thanks! 

Caught the cooties again...

I'm sick. Boooo! I've got a cough and a stuffy nose and sometimes a headache and a tummy ache... grrrrrr...

But I'll be fine. Pumpin' the echinacea again... and I think I'm going to nap.

In other news, we have a base Christmas party tonight. :)
(Don't worry, we'll also celebrate on the 25th with those who are in town.)

I'm really behind on responding to emails.

Thank you all for your patience. I am way behind on responding to emails. I've read at least part of most of the emails I've received in the last week and a half (because I have a phone that I'm able to check email on), but I owe lots of people responses (because it's a pain to try to type an email on a phone). Sorry for the delay. Thanks for emailing me! I'll catch up! I really will (but not tonight because I have to go sleep...).

Much love!

Some vegetables have different names here too...

Eggplant = Aubergine
Zucchini = Courgettes
Cilantro = Coriander

Myers Briggs - ISTJ

During Lecture Week #3, we covered personality and identity. Part of that was looking at the Myers Briggs personality preference assessment. The week was quite interesting, and SO INTENSE emotionally and spiritually. There was much introspection, and it was so easy to pass emotions from one to another (especially the exhausted, sort of negative kind). However, we're better now (moving from "storming" to "norming" I think), and I think it taught us a lot about how to relate to and understand one another.

My personality profile is ISTJ, which stands for introvert, sensing, thinking, judging. I don't have enough space, time, background, or willpower to explain all of what that means at the moment, but you can Google it if you'd like. The thing I remember most that I read about people with my preferences is that we tend to be rather dependable, and have a very strong sense of duty. Yep...

Thanksgiving!

You may or may not know that Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday. I really enjoy spending time with family and friends, and I have so much to be thankful for!!!!

Almost every Friday evening, we have a "Community Meal" at An Cuan. It starts with a liturgical prayer of thanksgiving, and is followed by a meal with all of the students and staff here to live and/or work at the base. We usually have some lovely guests as well. On the Friday after America's Thanksgiving, we celebrated together by having a traditional American turkey dinner for our community meal together. We went around the room and shared some of the things that we're thankful for, and enjoyed wonderful food and fellowship together.

I was struck by the diversity of nationalities represented at our tables. There were participants from the U.S., Canada, Northern Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Palestine, England, Argentina, Brazil... and probably a few others. I think it was a simple picture of what Heaven will be like. Some of this week's teaching covered the banquet described in Isaiah 25. Check it out. Wonderful.

Happy Weekend!

Here is a picture of some pretty flowers at the Botanical Gardens in Belfast. 

They remind me of Christmas.

This past weekend, I was blessed to be visited by this wonderful lady!

We spent Sunday together in Belfast.

Here's proof that we were together... (at the Botanical Gardens!). 

Here's proof that we were in Belfast. Christmas Market = MADNESS... but brilliant. 

(The word "brilliant" pretty much means "awesome" or "great" here.) 

Here's what the Christmas Market looks like at night.

We had dinner in a pub.

When we left the pub, the streets were almost EMPTY. It was CRAZY! 

They'd been BUZZING with people when we went in. 

And for serious, we weren't in there that long. 

While we rode the bus back to Rostrevor, it started snowing! 

Here's the view of the snow on the mountains from the front of my house on Monday morning.

(There was a lot of fog too.)

I am so BLESSED to live in a world where a friend can travel across an ocean to spend time together,

to have a friend who would and could make the trip, and to live in such a beautiful place!