Today marks one month of being here in the UK. I can hardly believe it has been that long! The Lord has put many things in our path and taught us many things over this past month that I would like to share with you now!
Harrison was offered the job down in Saintfield! This has been a huge blessing! However, unlike America, things work slowly here. Very slowly.
We are still living up in Portrush with Judith. Fortunately, her sister Catherine has let us stay here in their parent's old house that she owns. Catherine lives in Belfast but comes up to Portrush on the weekends and was happy to let us stay here so that there is someone looking out over the place during the week. It has been quite nice to have, as the British would call it, a "wee" bit more room.
The pastor down in Saintfield thankfully has wonderful connections and was able to line up a house for us to view this week that is owned by an elder of a neighboring congregation. Saintfield is a very small village, it has a population of about 3,300. It is a very nice town and has all of our neccessities within walking distance, but you can imagine that finding places to rent do not pop up every day.
However, yesterday we went and viewed the house and LOVED it. Since we are so far away up here in Portrush we will sign the papers the day that we move in. As of right now, it looks like that will be Saturday the 12th. I didn't bring my Ipad with me when we went down there so I didn't snap any pictures but I will do so when we get moved in. However, I did find a great photo online of the front of the row that the house is on and it is right here:
The house that we will be in is just off to the right of this photo and has a dark green door. These homes were built in the 1800s and have 18 inch think stone walls! We have pushed our move in date off a week, because alas WE HAVE NO FURNITURE. Okay, I'm done panicking.
We have a few leads from folks up here in Portrush and we hope within the next week we can scrape some necessities together without spending an arm and a leg. I read about a used furniture shop down in Belfast that also delivers and I hope to check it out next week. You don't realize how valuable delivery services are until you are without a car.
That is a huge prayer request right now. We will need a bed, table, couch, and washer as a bare minimum to get started. We will also need some sort of wardrobe or chest of drawers, because most places do not have closets here.
The washer is the biggest concern right now, because it looks like it'll be our biggest expense.
The Lord has really blessed us with our time here in Portrush. I go back and forth between feeling sorry for myself because I am jobless and getting very anxious to get settled so I can finally find work and being quite happy about that fact that for the first time in a long time I am an enjoying some type of vacation.
We are going to have a hard time leaving Portrush. Within this last month, we have made great friends at the church and have been faithful attendees to the morning and evening services here at Portrush Presbyterian and even to their mid-week Bible study. They have been so wonderful to us and have taken it upon themselves to make sure that our move down to Saintfield goes as smoothly as possible. I had talked about in a previous post about the body of Christ and I am so happy to have expanded my circle of those whom I love dearly in Christ and know that I will spend eternity with.
Here are a few pictures I snapped today as I was walking from the house into town to run some errands:
You can see why this will be hard to leave! The population of Portrush is listed at about 6,400. However, this town is very much a summer town and during the winter you will see much of the same familiar faces.
Harrison and I have learned so much about hospitality while we have been here. The people here in NI are just so welcoming. Desserts are never store bought and eating out is a treat you do just every so often. We are looking forward to getting into our own place and putting a lot of these things into practice.
It is getting quite late here and I need to turn in for the night, but there is a short update for you. I hope to update again soon. However, I am unsure how quickly we will be able to get internet in the new place.
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. We truly appreciate all that you have done for us.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Sarah