Day 9 – May 18 – Sunday: Dublin to Belfast and points in between

Click on images for enlarged views.

The ultimate goal for the day (besides getting into our hotel in Belfast) was to be in Ballynahinch before 7 p.m. to attend services at the Baptist Church there, where the choir from John Brown University would be winding up its 2-week tour of N. Ireland. Our intermediate goal was to attend services at a church in Newcastle on the way north, and after some discussion among the members of the group and “Googletations” to determine addresses and service times, it was decided we would try to make it to the Baptist Church in Newcastle for their 11 a.m. service.

We passed by more rolling fields, and hawthorn hedgerows in full bloom.

Abbie and I were probably the only ones in the car whose eye was caught by this road sign:

What caught everyone else’s attention was the flock of sheep headed for the “Playground”. The boy saw us stop to take pictures and turned to wave for the cameras. But why did the sign strike us as odd? The word “cabra” in Portuguese means “nanny goat”…and all we saw were sheep.

Newcastle

We did make it to the church in plenty of time.

In fact, we went in and sat down for about 15 minutes to wait for the service to start. I had been seated a couple of minutes, and I felt a tap on the shoulder. The couple behind me asked, “You’re from Madeira, aren’t you?” They remembered us because they were in our church in Funchal on Easter Sunday and heard our choir sing a cantata!

It was Youth Sunday at the church, and the young people had various activities, followed by a guest speaker who basically addressed the parents and grandparents regarding the Biblical principles for raising children. The service was a blessing to us, and it was followed by another blessing: the church was having a potluck dinner that day and the people insisted that we stay and eat with them. There were 10 of us, but true to our past experiences of church potlucks (I speak as a Baptist) there was plenty of food, and the 10 of us didn’t put a strain on the food supply.

There does seem to be a strain on the supply of pastors, however. As the church sign indicated, the church has no pastor, and hasn’t had for a couple of years, I believe. The pastor at the Ballymena Baptist Church, where we attended the previous Sunday, has only been there 6 months, after the church had gone 6 years without a pastor. Someone in our group heard that there are 120 Baptist churches in N. Ireland, and 40 are without a pastor. I remember hearing a similar statement about the Baptist churches in Ukraine when we were there in 2005.

Newcastle is on the coast, so we spent an hour or so walking up and down the boardwalk. It was a sunny day (although not particularly warm), and the shops and arcades were evidence that this a popular summer resort town, where people came to enjoy the beach.

Even on a rather cool day, because the sun was out, the locals were out enjoying the beach.









Abbie and I reflected in the metallic ball, with the beach behind us.

From Newcastle, it was a short drive to the Tullymore Forest.

A forest of one? No, but this tree (above) stands by itself near the entrance to the park. (Below) Some of the trees in the park grew in grotesque shapes. This one ended up threading one of its branches between the fork of another branch.

The rhododendrons tended to be large (above), and the flowers prolific.

The manna ash was covered in these bunches of blossoms and the perfume was so strong, it was almost overpowering.

Here was another of those mystery plants we ran across almost the first day in Ireland, which we found out later is called Pieris formosa.

We could have spent a lot more time exploring the trails through the forest and along the lakes, but we had an appointment to keep: we wanted to get to Ballynahinch early enough to get good seats for the choir performance. By the time we got to the town, we had time to park in front of a Subway, dash out and get a sandwich to go, and dine leisurely in the van…in 5 minutes. Talk about fast food! As we drew near the church parking lot, Abbie had a vision of this food coming back up so we could chew it again properly… “the way cows do it.” All went well, and no Subway sandwiches resurfaced.

The JBU choir ended their program with their signature rendition of A Mighty Fortress is Our God. After the experiences of the past week, we would add that He is not only a Mighty Fortress, but a Glorious Creator.