WHOA, craziest few days ever! Hahaha, this most certainly IS an adventure!
After our previous post, we began to feel that we needed to head up north, and fast... so we did a whole day and a half of hitch-hiking and bus hopping. One bus dropped us in Belfast at 1 a.m., 3 hours earlier than scheduled. We were just planning on doing our sleeping that night on the bus, but when we pulled into Belfast so early, we started looking for a place to crash.
The bus depot was closed for the evening, and so we wandered the wet streets until we found a hostel--which had no vacancies. We asked if the warden would led us even just sleep on his floor, but he declined. So... we slept on the streets of Belfast that night. And boy, that was weird! We really didn't sleep at all, more just huddled together under our wool blankets and tried to get comfortable on the cement beneath us and stay close enough to the building that we wouldn't be rained on. We were bums! Aroudn 5:30 a.m. we went off to the bus station (which had re-opened) and got set to head into Coleraine, where the Causeway Coast Vineyard church is located.
We arrived and found the church--and it was full of Californians! There's a team here from Anaheim on a missions' trip, and it was the perfect time for us to arrive because we are able to help with some church maintenance, food prep, and other behind-the-scenes action while the rest of the church is doing street ministry with the team. We have a place to stay until the 26th here, rent free, and 3 meals a day! PRAISE THE LORD! AND, last night, we stayed in this gorgeous penthouse suite in a B&B owned by one of the members of the congregation, PLUS they washed our clothes for us! We haven't had clean clothes since leaving BC. Next week another team is coming in from Slovakia, and we'll be working with them as well. We did some street evangelism with the Americans today, but the rain has been the worst yet, so we've retreated to a drier location. Anyway, we are SO blessed to be at the church, it's definitely an answered prayer both for us and for them, as we'll be filling in for one of the staff members who is off next week on maternity leave. We're feeling REALLY good, and we'll post some pictures of the beautiful north coast as soon as we can! Thanks for your encouragement!