visit to norn iron....

.....or Northern Ireland for those who don't know the lingo.

We headed over last Friday night and stayed for two nights with my brother and his family. They now have 2 daughters. The youngest is about 6 weeks I think and is called Abigail. She is very sweet. Chloe is about 18 months now and is very chatty. She has an amazing vocabulary, mostly because my sister-in-law spends so much time with her and is such a great mum. you've done well there little bro - not bad going for a 25-year-old.

Managed to fit in dinner with my mum and Sunday lunch with my dad. We went to church with dad on the sunday morning. He goes to a Christian Fellowship Church in Strandtown, East Belfast. It is a great church. The pastor, Paul Reid was finishing a 7-week series on Destiny. His main message was that our Destiny is not about reaping a harvest for ourselves now, but investing in a legacy that we will leave behind through the input that we have on other people's lives and being obedient to God's call on our lives. He spoke about Abraham and the theme of altars and tents in his life. Everywhere he went he built an altar - a place of worship - emphasising the importance of individual and corporate time with God. Secondly he lived in tents all his life. He had a nomadic existence. The first piece of land he owned was his wife's tomb. His roots were in heaven, the spiritual realm, he was not overly attached to a plot of land here on this earth. Someone spoke of a questionaire conducted amongst people aged 80 - 90+. When asked what two things they would do differently if they had their lives over many said that they would take more risks. I can't quite remember the second one. It was either that they would invest more in where they were going or in the legacy that they would leave behind (but not in the material sense).

All in all a very good weekend though knackering.

I have struggled to concentrate at work this week as excitement has been building for our impending ski holiday. We leave tomorrow. Temperatures are ridiculous: -21, but the sun will be out next week. Will be in touch on our return!