Ireland Makes You Think
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personal testimonies
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO FOR AN ENLARGEMENT
In a corner of my mind, I seem
to remember having shared the Word one time in the city of (London)Derry,
traveling with our son, Dave, and that would have been the only time that I
preached in Northern Ireland. David lived in Cork and we went to visit him many
times and there was always opportunity to speak in churches there. We also went
through Northern Ireland from Scotland en
route to the republic. 
May 10th, I boarded a
RyanAir plane in O Porto, flying to Dublin. There, David Johnston waited for me
at midnight. He and his wife, Monica had invited me to Northern Ireland and
were my hosts for the week that I spent there. It was about three in the
morning when we vinally arrived at their home in Ballyhalbert, a village on the
east coast of the country. David and Monica have three daughters and a son,
Sara Louise, Naiomi, Abigail and David III. Make room for the possibility of having
misspelled those names… I´m not sure that I have David right :) It was a pleasure to be in their home. Sunday morning I talked about the cross in their assembly. I couldn’t go to the meeting in the evening, due to a bad stomach, put afterwards a nice group of young people came by the house and I spoke to them about things God is doing these days.
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| Elder and author, Noel, with his wife plus a Romanian family |
hour. Wednesday, we went to Larne to visit a Romanian family that I know very well. It was a shame that the husband had to be in Romania, so we didn’t see him, but various people came to their house to sing and listen to the word for a little while. Afterwards, we went into the city to a church, where I preached about “The Faith That Glorifies God”. Thursday, we were back in Ballyhalbert and I talked about Abraham and Isaac. Friday I talked to the young people in the same place about the reality of God and the importance of recognizing the days, in which we are living.
I almost never take on the role
of a tourist en my trips, but in this one the David Johnstons, father and son,
had great plans for me to know the northeastern part of the country. I owe them
much, because certainly I was enriched by what I learned. First, we went to see
Mount Stewart, house and gardens, an estate of dukes and duchesses. While the
guide has showing us a painting of a past duchess of the place, a tall, thin
lady of about 60 passed by and the guide pointed out, “and there goes the granddaughter
of 
this duchess”. ...the 10th duchess, I think she is, still lives on
the premises, but the government has taken on the responsibility for the upkeep
of the property. The gardens were fabulous and my camera almost overheated
taking photos, as I tried to capture all I could in order to remember that
beautiful place.
We also went to the shipyard in
Belfast, where the famous Titanic was
designed and constructed. My imagination had a heyday, trying to force me to perceive
all the events and people involved in those
first years of the 20th
Century. I believe that the ship represented the great arrogance of mankind in
those days, when the automobile had just begun to be put into use and just
ahead there would be air travel. As in Babel, man was saying to his Creator, “I
don’t need you anymore, and no matter what You say, I will do as I please!” On the photo you can see how they marked the details of the deck of the ship on the place, where it was originally constructed. The owners felt there was no need for life boats, so there were very few aboard.
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| I highlighted the lifeboat at the front of the few onboard |
That same day, we went to the
north coast to see what the Irish call “the eighth wonder of the world”… the
lava formations that begin on that coast and reach all the way to the Hebrides
Islands underwater. In the museum that opens to the sight, the creationists had
placed a display, giving a possible biblical explanation of the phenomenon, but
now the evolutionists have removed it.
We also went to the great
Balmoral Agricultural Show where, it seemed to me, all the farmers in
Ireland,
as well as Scotland, England and France had gathered. There were thousands of
cars parked over several acres and inside there were hundreds of animals,
especially cows, horses and sheep of all sorts of breeds. There were horse
jumping competitions and, something very interesting for me, a sheep-shearing
competition. There was something else of great interest to me: 
Christian, a preacher of the gospel of Christ, and came to be the first
missionary to the island called Ireland. On a map I will show the territory that
he covered, evangelizing the pagan Irish. I will also show a photo, which will
give you a short version of his biography. I hope you enjoy it, as well as
this entire report.
A FEW MORE PHOTOS OF IRELAND
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| Here is a short biography of Patrick |
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| My kind guides to N. Ireland, David and David, father and son. |
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