This was orginally sent on November 17th

Hey next week we're back to work and I thought I'd send and update.

We had a great week and a half down in county Clare, out in thecountry. The west coast beaches of Ireland are nothing short of exotic. It's as pretty as this old planet gets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDZkXcOeU50

Driving continues

I did find the worst road in Ireland so far. Not because theconditions were that much worse but rather because there are lost ofbig truck that don't respect the centre line (they don't fit if theydo) and the stone wall on the other side is very very close. (6inches) It's 20 minutes out to the farm to see Eileen's grandam andby the time I get there my stomach is a rock from tensing it in fear.But after a week I feel I'm qualified to drive in the grand prix.Just hope I don't have to do that in the dark with pouring rain again.

Sadness

This part of the trip was quite serious as well. We were staying withUncle Johnny who's son Peter died 5 months ago. I didn't really knowhim but Eileen and Peter were really good friends. Uncle Johnny isstill a mess and probably will be for the next couple years. Hedoesn't make any bones about the fact that he is miserable. He goesand works at his business every day but at night he's blue. Thefamily was just getting normal after losing Aunt Virgina 10 years ago. Eileen and Uncle Johnny sat up late several late evenings, talkingand sharing some tears. It was good for Eileen but I think it waseven better for Uncle Johnny and the two girls. Eileen has a gift forcompassionate listening and it seems that they all still have lots totalk about. It was also great because no one else in the family wasas close to Peter as Eileen was so they sort of felt like they hassomeone who could really understand them. It was an emotionallydraining time but it was clear to me that God was doing some smallsignificant things for Eileen and the family.
Uncle Johnny wears his heart on his sleeve and I felt like I learned alot about how very hard and complicated it is to deal with this kindof loss. It's the kind of education you wish you didn't need to get.

Tough questions

When a family loses two members way too early there are going to bequestions for God. . Interesting though is that uncle Johnny's stillat mass every Sunday morning. The girls aren't doing that good.Jenny's angry. Caroline's confused. The three of them sit around andask themselves if God really likes them and that's why two of them hadto leave so early. There's really no good answer to give them and thelast thing any of them want to hear is something from sunday school.It's tough.

What about Jesus

Scary though is that Peter told God that he wasn't going to churchever again if his mom died 10 years ago and he mostly stuck to thatfor the rest of his life. Eileen has really worried about that overthe years. Now Peter had no idea he was going to die. In fact threedays before the doctors said he would sail down the road to rapidrecovery from that point on. There was no time for a bed sideconversion because he suddenly went into a coma. This left us reallyunhappy at the time.
Then last week uncle johnny says that three weeks before Peter diedthe priest popped buy uninvited and peter and him had a chat. Peterdecided that he needed to make a little peace upstairs and decided totake communion. Well when I heard that even I almost started to cry.Thank you Jesus.

Leaving on a jet plane

Two days ago Eileen and I finally got our flight info for Korea.(Nothing like the last minute) We leave sat at 3:00 for London.After 3 hours we get on Air Asiana? for our 11 hour flight to Korea.We are way over our 20 KG max and hoping for a miracle. At theairport someone is going to have our names on a cardboard sign to pickus up and drive us to our home in Korea then we hold our breath as weplunge into a whole new world. (Starting to get a little nervous).This is really it. We are packing tonight and tomorrow it all begins. Pray for us!
We'll let you know if we come out alive in a little while.

God Bless,
Randall