Northern Ireland—Days Six and Seven

Day Six of the tour of Northern Ireland began with a welcome change, a morning off! A couple extra hours of sleep and a leisurely breakfast was a change from the very hectic pace we had been keeping the previous few days.

Our destination for the evening was the Straid Congregational Church in, of all places, Straid. The pastor was expecting an average attendance, but before the first talk began, we were putting out several extra rows of chairs. I really enjoyed the time with all the folks who came out. I even met a man who had visited the Creation Museum last summer!

Day seven began with a school talk for about 30 young men. I spoke on evolution and medicine. These students were really engaged with the talk, and there were many great questions.

In this particular class there was one young man who seemed especially unhappy with what I was presenting. He challenged me on many points (very respectfully) and did not seem to accept anything I said. I later found out that he openly described himself as an atheist, which did not surprise me. He approached me after the session and told me he did not agree with anything I said, but he appreciated my trying to answers his questions. We need to keep this young man in prayer.

That night we were at Hebron Free Presbyterian Church in Ballymoney for two sessions. There we had another packed house. I especially enjoyed these two talks because I got to use my iPad as a remote control for my Keynote presentations. This is something that I have to do on occasion when there is no VGA connection at the pulpit.

I do want to mention several very special people. I would like to thank William and Rosalind Brown who were so gracious to open their home to Neil and I on days four and five of our trip. Also, I want to extend a special thanks to Pastor Paul Bradley and his wife Jacki for putting us up on our trip to Straid. We were made most welcome in both of these homes, and I will keep fond memories of my time there.

We continue to be very encouraged on this tour. In fact, several of the churches have indicated that they would welcome us back anytime we are in the area.

We plan to do a little sight seeing in the AM, and then we will be off again!