Well I don't know if we are officially into fall yet but the weather has changed. It is not much cooler in the day but at night it is cooler and the rain, well we have had some very interesting storms. One was the end of Hurricane Gordon and it hit us pretty hard. You would think that a country that gets a lot of rain would be prepared for it but it seems that after every hard rain the talk on the radio the next day is where the flodding is.
Here are a few of the ways the rainfall is described in the local Cork paper. Cloudy with outbreaks of rain-A breezy and showery day-Staying cloudy with falls of rain-Largely cloudy and showery-Mostly cloudy and a few showers-Cloudy with rain at times-Mainly cloudy and showery rains and my favorite Rather cloudy with patchy showers. All of these forecasts were within a week and a half. I am happy to say they were only right twice.
The best was when Gary took Mungo for a walk and just when they had reached the farthest point in their walk the clouds burst. Both Gary and the dog had all their hair plastered to their bodies, I wish I had taken a pic! I don't have any special pics so I put one of our extras, hope you like it!

Well we are officially doing ministry now. Gary has preached 3 Sundays in a row. We have started to organize small groups. 4 for the adults, one for the young adults and one for the youth. We will be hosting one of the adult groups, the young adult group and the youth group. Gary will also be leading one of the groups at someone elses house so we will have at least 3 nights a week busy. I will also be tryingto form some kind of youth group beyond just their small group, planning some activities etc. There is a c amp in Oct and I will be going yo that with the youth. Gary has also been going to a weekly prayer meeting with 2 Cork University teachers a fellow that is with the student Christian union and a fellow named Terry Crowley. Terry and his wife Laura are from the Vancouver area and go to church with Toni and Dan Selles. They planned to be in Ireland for one year to network with people and see how they could be used by God. They have done a great job scoping out a lot of the other evangelical churches and letting us know what is going on in the area and meeting people. I had said they were planning to stay for a year but Laura is now growing a baby and so has to go home to work so she can get maternity leave. So they had arrived in May and Laura will be leaving in 2 weeks but Terry will stay until Nov. We are sad they are leaving because they make it feel a little more like home.

We have pics. Our new piano we borrowed,
TaLeah on her new pink guitar, our house and neighbourhood and a few hurling pics to give you an idea of the game.

Well the children have settled into school fine and have discovered that Ireland schools also have homework. We have found a rocker chick to teach TaLeah guitar, she has crazy pink-red hair and TaLeah says she likes to play Nirvanah songs and this paniced her a little. We told TaLeah that if her teacher could play that style of music then she had talent and TaLeah just had to learn how to play and then apply that skill to what music she liked. She thought that was a good idea. She has only had one lesson so we will see how it goes. Her teacher has started her off with a Bob Dylan classic, Blowing in the Wind.

Shanaya will be taking her piano lessons from a teacher that comes to her school after school. Very convenient. But get this. We had a lovely lady in our church, Mary O'Connor offer to let us use her piano as her girls have moved out. So Gary and another fellow, Sean McMahon, from the church did the piano moving thing (Garys past moving skills once again came in handy), moved a beautiful old piano into our house. A complete answer to prayer. We were not looking forward to spending €1000 for a new one. First off we really don't have the money. Might have had to borrow from grandpa!!

I thought that my new sport would have to be rugby but I have discovered Hurling. Great sport, kind of like a cross between field hockey, and lacrosse but after they scoop up the ball with the hurley stick they hit it like a baseball. The sport is only played in Ireland. Very fast and agressive (a nice way to say violent). Anyway, they just had the All Ireland Finals, kind of the equivilant to the Grey Cup, and Cork was in it so we had a gathering of people and watched Cork loose, OOPS! But it was great crack (as they say here).

I have however been able to watch a lot of CFL games including all of the BC Lions games since we got NASN (north american sports network). Just don't email or phone me about the games because we often get them later than you all. We will also get, yes it's true, NHL!! Right now all I can say is BC LIONS RULE> Not sure if I can say that later so I'll say it now. Knowing BC they will blow it!!

I don't seem able to put any pictures on at this point but when I can again I will give you a few of hurling and the girls.

Well, in our last week before school started we took the girls downtown Cork to get a look at their school and the church that it was named after. It is called St. Finn Barrs Cathedral. There has been Christian worship on this site for 1000 years. This church has been standing for around 300. It has been bombed by ships with their cannons from the river and one of the cannon balls hangs in the church. It has an organ that is below the floor that goes in for three stories. The girls will probably do choir there and possibly a Christmas production with their school.



As we toured around it Gary was taken with the idea that it was like a corpse, the makeup is on but the body is dead and only being preserved. I was however a spectacular building.









Liz Bryce asked for a pic of me and Mungo so here you go Liz.