And Then Some Other Stuff Happened

A bit overdue... but here we go!

The Sunday before last, I went to a service at the nearest church to College Gardens, Fisherwick Presbyterian Church. This is, apparently, where the exchange students go. There were a lot of non-Irish and international people there. Two American college grads, over for an internship, showed me around.

It's a pretty building: lots of stone and stained glass. The service itself reminded me of Montreat Presbyterian (if Katie reads this). I liked the sermon. It was on the parables of the Kingdom of God from the Gospel of Matthew, and the part I remember best was when the minister was on the Parable of the Weeds (as in the NIV):

The Parable of the Weeds

 ²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
   ²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
   ²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
   “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
   ²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

(from http://www.biblegateway.com/, because I'm too lazy to type it up myself.)

Which he explained as being God's reminder to us to tolerate our differences because we, the servants, can't always make good judgements about what's good and what's not... by trying so enthusiastically to weed out the bad, we ruin the good. Only God can always tell the difference.





The windows were too high for tiny me to take good pictures of... but here's something a little lower. Both the churches I've been in so far are decorated this way, very beautifully.


There was a lunch for everyone after the service. This was soup and sandwiches. I'm still in awe of all the substances the British put in sandwiches. There was chicken and stuffing, ham and cheese, cheese and grape, possibly red pepper, etc. and those were the ones I could identify. I tried one of each anyway.

After church I went back to the house, where Maureen and Jessica (a post-graduate education student from Canada) where deciding to go to the City Centre. I joined them and we went to the bus station. Somebody had gotten angry with the bus, or something, last night:

So it was a tad bit difficult to read the schedule. But we caught the right bus, and got to the City Centre, where we went out to eat, and walked around looking at City Hall and its statues.

The Crown Bar

Maureen and me in the Crown Bar

Jessica in awe of the lovely old windows



The sticky toffee pudding, which you MUST TRY if you go, because it's delicious.



Queen Victoria, just generally presiding.

The Titanic Memorial

Soon: the Ulster Museum, the Giant's Causeway, food (clearly the most exciting topic of all), the library, and more, and more...