The March Gang

It is a few days late, but “Merry Christmas”.  We enjoyed having Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw March here with us this week.  However we did miss the rest of our loved ones and friends.  We did get to do a Skype chat with Me-Me and Paw-Paw Slusher on Christmas morning which was good.  Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Jimmy were there and we got to see them too.  Aunt Leisha got up to watch us open gifts, it was really early for her.  She was up at 4:00am on Christmas morning and we are glad she did.

I took Mom and Dad to the airport this morning very early. (4:30am)  So the kids said goodbye before we all went to bed.  Like I said we enjoyed spending the last 11 days with them.  The kids didn’t want to say goodbye but we are all doing better this morning.  Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw brought a Christmas present with them that has kept the kids entertained, a Wii.  Actually it has kept all of us entertained.  We are very grateful for all the gifts that were sent along with Mom and Dad.  Mee-Mee and Paw-Paw Slusher sent Kirsten a pot holder kit and we already have pot holders coming out our ears.  Kirsten and Peyton both sent numerous pot holders back to many of you as a thank you for your gifts.

The Sunday School Department did a wonderful job on their Christmas program.  I have to admit there were three kids in it that I was very proud of.  We have sent back a DVD of the program for those of you who want to watch it, which I know is all of you.   Sunday evening several of us from the Gilford church went to Dublin and had service with a group that has been having service in a rented dance studio.  It is a wonderful group of Filipino’s all who came out of UPC churches in the Philippines.  The served us authentic Filipino food afterwords and it was awesome!

We did a little sight seeing since Mom and Dad were here.  We went to Carrickfergus on Tuesday, which happened to be Mom and Aunt Diane’s B-Day.(My Mom’s twin sister)  Carrickfergus is a neat little village with a small castle.  We toured the castle and had a blast.  Afterward we went to a museum and then headed home.  The hours of sunlight you get here in the winter are very short.  The sun doesn’t rise completely until about 9:00 am and it starts setting at 3:30 pm.  So you get about 7 hours of sunlight, that is if it is shining. Friday we set out for Giants Causeway and drove along the coast taking in some beautiful sites.

We have added new pictures to our Flickr Site

Well, today was a good day in Ireland.  One; Maw Maw and Paw Paw March arrived safe, tired but happy to be here.   The other is the long awaited container arrived and so we are really going to have a wonderful Christmas.  We have a lot of food on there and a lot of things from home.  The kids have already gotten a few things off of it and are excited.  If I knew they would have been that excited about old toys and stuff I would have just made that Christmas and saved some money.

For those of you wondering Dalton “Red” March survived his first international flight and entrance into a foreign country. Him and Mom were speaking to each other when we found them so all was well.  Dad did say that it is a lot bigger than it looks on the map.  The funniest thing so far is everytime we have gone to get into the car he has followed me to the drivers side.  I can’t give him to hard of a time since I stil catch myself going to the wrong side once in a while.  He also wanted me to send a message out to Chuck Coomer. Dad said… “Chuck you wouldn’t like it much here.  So far I haven’t seen a tree big enough to tree a coon in.”   He also is trying to acclimate to the local dialect.  He said they all look like my next door neighbor until they speak then I just aint sure what they are saying.  Dad wanted me to let all of you who are helping cover all his livestock duties while he is gone “Thank you!”.  (Nathan Gordan, Elmer Gene Littrell, Craig, Larry and Gary Mathis)  Mom is excited to be here and has been requested to make us chicken and dumplings.  We know she hasn’t made any in awhile so we thought it would do her some good.  When she reads this she may want to throw them at me. (She overseen the making of the dumplings for the nine nights of CAOH)

This weekend is going to be fun.  We are having our church Christmas Banquet and Children’s Program.  Kirsten has a solo and is very excited about it. Peyton is helping with the puppets and Simeon is a Wise Man. We will be posting pictures and hopefully video.  We want to thank all of you back home for your support, prayers and love.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, the weekend has come and gone, but not without a few highlights.  Sunday we had a wonderful service and a few guest.  We have had for the past few weeks a Polish family who has been attending our services. Edward, Irena and, I won’t even try to spell it but roughly translated to English, Blueberry.  They are a precious family and seem very interested in our church.  Also this week we had another Polish guest.  His name is Bartosz and he works for a man in our church.  After service I handed Bartosz a Bible, which is something we do for all first time guest who doesn’t have one.  I will never forget the look on his face when I handed it to him.  He looked at me and said “For me?” and I said yes.  He said I have never had a Bible before.  He took it and just stared at it and rubbed his fingers across the gold imprint “Holy Bible.”

This got me to thinking of how blessed we are in America.  Really how many Bibles do I have laying around and on the book shelf?  A lot and yet there are some in this world who have never even seen one let alone held it in their hands. It makes me think of another story I was recently told by a friend of the McFarland family who was visiting from Zimbabwe.  Civil war has torn the continent of Africa apart for centuries and she helps in many of the facilities that have been set up to help those who have suffered from the atrocities of it.  She said when she goes into these places and ask what she can do to help them.  She has food and money available, but these people usually ask for “pages” of her Bible.  Yes, pages of her Bible.  They are lying there suffering from machete attacks so severe that they can’t even lay on there backs.  They have very little but bone left on their backs and they are asking for mere pages from the Bible.  Yeah I know it’s heart breaking and convicting all together.

Winter is here and it is cold.  So far it isn’t much different from winters back home except for the frost we get.  Ireland is a very wet country thus the reason it is so green. That and the “organic” fertilizer they spread out over everything.  We got up yesterday morning to the picture below. What you are looking at is frost and not an ice storm.  The side roads were very slick, but they had the main roads salted down good.

Well, before I sign off I want to give a shout out to all those back home who are working at Christmas At Our House this week.  Tara and I are missing being there and have been thinking of you all.

Well I finally got all the pictures organized and commented on a few.  We hope you enjoy them there are a lot so take your time.

Scotland Flickr Collection

A few of our favorites:

Well I wish I would have been able to keep up better while we were in Scotland because I know I am going to forget something.  Since that didn’t happen here it goes…

We left for Scotland on the 21st and headed to the ferry docks at Belfast.  We were all anticipating the ride on the Stena Voyager (you have got to check this thing out), but the seas were to rough and we had to take another ship over.  It was an older ship and had a lot less to offer than the Stena, but it got us there.  However not without first getting most of us sea sick.  I got very sick and came close to tossing my fish and chips I had eaten right after getting on the boat.  The only one who seemed to enjoy it was Simeon.  It didn’t even bother him and he bounced around like nothing was even happening.  The rest of us were bouncing around but only because the ship was making us.  We arrived in Scotland a little less than three hours after we left Belfast and hit the road for the two hour drive to Glasgow.

Saturday the 22nd we had minister meetings with the Northern District of the UPCI of GBI (United Pentecostal Church International of Great Britain and Ireland)  Is that a mouth full or what?  Sunday we enjoyed having church with the Glasgow congregation and students of the Harvest Bible College.  Two people received the Holy Ghost during that service which was awesome.  After service the school and some of the youth of the church served dinner for a fundraiser.  They had a Culture Feast and it was very neat.  All the students cooked a dish from their home country and served it.  There was a lot to choose from even a few good ole American entrees.  The most daring I tried was a Scottish dish called Oxtail, and it was just that an Oxes tail.  I have to say it was very delicious and had it not been on the tail bone you would have thought it was just some type of beef.

Monday the 24th we stared our adventure of touring Scotland.  We kicked it off by going to Edinburgh and touring the Edinburgh Castle.  This thing is huge and totally awesome.  We spent the entire day there and loved every minute of it.  They offered guided tours and audio tours.  We opted for the audio tour which was pretty cool.  They gave you an audio device with head phones and as you walked along there were numbers posted on the points of interest.  You just punched in the number and a very pleasant Scotsmen told you what you were looking at and the history behind it.  The kids loved it and since we were taking the week off from Home Schooling we just made this hands on World History week.

Tuesday the 25th we made our way to the Linlithgow Palace in Linlithgow.  This was by far the less preserved site we visited, but in its own way the most charming.  You were free to roam all over this one and very little was off limits.  Mainly all that is left of this palace is the walls and the towers.  One of its many claim to fame is that Mary Queen of Scots was born there December 1542.  She of course is the mother of King James I who decreed the most popular version of the Bible used today.  Yeah it isn’t that hard to figure out the KJV.

Wednesday the 26th was our last day exploring and we went to Stirling and visited the Stirling Castle. We also went the the William Wallace Monument in hopes to see “Brave Hearts” broad sword.  Well we toured the castle and enjoyed it, but we didn’t make it to the Wallace Monument in time.  They were getting ready to close and would not allow us to go up to the top. Not only do you have to walk up to the entrance of the monument, which is standing on the tallest point in Stirling, but you have to walk to the top of the monument and there are 246 steps to get there.  I guess they looked at us and didn’t think we could make it up there and back in 30 minutes, which is how long they had until closing.  So needless to say in the words of Kirsten “this was just disappointing”.

Thursday the 27th we enjoyed Thanksgiving at the college with about 40 people from all over Europe, North America, Aisa and Africa.  It was one of the most unique Thanksgivings I personally have ever been a part of.  Before we ate we went around the room and everyone had to say what they were thankful for.  When it got to Simeon he sat there for a second or two then grined real big and said “Me”.  Of course the whole place erupted in laughter, but I have to say he is one of the things I am most thankful for along with my two beautiful girls and wonderful wife.  God has been good to me.

Well that pretty much covers our week in Scotland.  We did get to enjoy the Stena Voyger on the way home as the seas were a lot calmer.  I am thankful for that in more than you can imagine.  Not only is it outfitted like a curise ship it is a much smoother ride on the sea than the first boat we were on.

Pictures of our journey are on there way.  I have about 300 of them that I am trying to get sorted in some type of order so you all will know what you are looking at.  I hope to have them up no later than tomorrow.

FYI: My mothers maiden name is McClintock and her family is originally from the land of Scotland. My Mom’s youngest brother has done most of the research on the family.  They at one time owned at least 10,000 acres of land in Scotland, but as history tells of this ancient land and time that could change very quickly. It of course changed for the McClintocks and history has them losing their land and ultimatly ending up someplace south of Dublin, Ireland.  There is in Scotland a McClintock castle.  We are going to have to look it up the next time we are there at least whats left of it.

We were able to get access while here, but haven’t really had time to make a good post.  We have seen a lot of exciting things and we will be making a post  as soon as we get back to Ireland.  We also have a lot of photos to post.  I just wanted to take a little time and wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving we are heading back to Ireland tomorrow evening.

Well Bro. Mac and I arrived early Wednesday morning back in Ireland.  We had to come and take care of the container that was being shipped with three family’s personal belongings and building material for Sunday School room additions.  The building material was keeping the container from shipping.  It is a long story but the Cliff Notes version basically was that the EU has put a restriction on all raw lumber being shipped from the USA.  Seems, or at least they say, there was a bug show up in a container and they were afraid that it was going to eat a tree or something.   So they have stopped all imports of US lumber.  We had to remove all the building material and repack what was left.   My Dad, Kevin Raposo and Bro. Bobby Gentry came up along with a man, Kevin…his last name has slipped my mind from Bro. Suey’s church, to help us accomplish this.  Bro. Mac and I were very grateful that they did.  We got it all done in one day and since we did I got to go home for a few days.

That being said it was great to be home and see everyone.  I just wish Tara and the kids could have been with me.  Yes I left my wife and kids in a foreign country.  I appreciate everyone who called and emailed Tara while I was gone.  It meant a lot to her and the kids. Peyton and Kirsten want to thank WPCA and the Sunday School Department for all the cards you sent them.  They also want to thank everyone who said hello to them on the video their Aunt Eleisha made them.  Simeon also had a special thank you to a few special buddies.  He wants to thank Connor for his Green Lantern picture he colored for him, Kenzie for the Christmas tree coloring page, his cousin Wyatt for the Batman cape and mask and his buddy Greg for the drum sticks.  He has not quit beating everything in sight since he got them.  Tara thanks you too Greg.

Well tomorrow we are off on a trip to Scotland.  We are going to be spending an entire week there with the Kelly’s and several other Missionary families.  We will end the week by celebrating Thankgiving.  We have ministers meetings this Saturday which is why we are leaving so early.  I am not sure how much access to the Internet we will have, but I will get pictures up as quickly as possible.  I am even going to have some video of the trip posted as well.

We are excited about all this and look forward to sharing our adventures with you as soon as we can.

Well I have finally gotten some of our pictures uploaded. I am still working on getting more up. You can view them at our Flickr.com account. Everything from Ireland is in the Ireland Collection. Pretty clever I know! We also have several of the kids Tara wants posted and those will be up in the next day or so. The Internet situation is still very slow so it makes this process a long one.

Quick Link to one of our field trips:
Belfast Transport Museum

Well It has been a little while since I have made a post.  Everyday there is something new that I think I should blog, but if I did that every time I wouldn’t be getting much of anything else done.  So sit back and enjoy, this may be a long one.

You may be wondering what is up with the title.  Well I have to give Kudos to Mr. James Ramsey for the title.  He actually made a very good joke about my Internet situation.  As you have seen in a previous post we got our phone and Internet hooked up and it was one week shy of being a month to do so. Since then my Internet has been awful.  It is DSL and slower than dial-up.  In the last ten years I have worked for two ISP’s. In no way do I know it all and will be the first to admit it.  I manged and worked with guys who were and are far smarter than me.  I do however feel I can hold my own in most situations. Well when I called tech support to discuss my speed issues I was given this answer. “Mr. March since you haven’t had your service for more than 10 days there isn’t anything I can do for you at this time. Call back in two weeks and we can see if it has improved. It takes at least 10 days before you reach your full speed potential.”  I was speechless and considered it par for the course.  I could only imagine my DSL modem as the Little Engine that could.  It is sitting over in the corner of the room saying “I think I can, I think I can get faster than dial-up”.   When I shared this story with James he said “Two things that get better with age, wine and Irish Internet”.  For all my Geek friends I will keep you posted on the Internet woes

Well now on to other things that I am excited about.  (Believe me the Internet isn’t one of them)  Church has been awesome ever since we got here. God has been doing some wonderful things and I can see the church here is getting ready to explode into revival.  I come from a revival church, good ole West Point, and I can see a lot of the same things I witnessed the last three years here at Greater Life.  That being God getting ready to take a church on a journey.  I thank God every day for Pastor Chuck and the wisdom and spirtual insight he instilled in me.  I also thank Him for taking me from working under a man of vision and putting me to work with another one.  Bro. MacFarland is awesome and he is a man with a vision.  God is getting ready to pour the Holy Ghost out on this country and I truly believe that Gilford is going to be the hub.

I have to share with you our Sunday service this past week.  It was a special service where we took communion.  It had been awhile since the church had had a communion service and Bro. Mac just felt it was needed.  I have been in a lot of communion services and I have to say this was by far the most powerful one.  The spirit of God moved in such a mighty way it was amazing.  The power of God was so great that even Simeon, who is four years old, felt it.  He was sitting in Tara’s lap and just crawled out of it and knelt down in the floor with his head resting on the seat.  He sat there for a few minutes and I knelt down beside him and what I heard made me start crying for joy.  He was sitting there just say “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”.  He continued to do this for a good five minutes.  Like I said God was in the house so powerful that even a kid who has trouble sitting still most of the time was touched and moved to pure reverence.  I was one proud Daddy!  On the way home he told us he thought he would pray again the next time we were at church.

Well I have one more story to share with you.  Me driving on the “other” side of the road.  To say the least it has been an experience.  It for sure has been one for my passengers.  The only thing I was having trouble mastering were the Roundabouts.  Now if you look at this image it can be a little intimidating, but they are aren’t all that bad once you get the hang of them.  Anyway I have only been driving down the road once and had to have someone tell me to get on the left side of the road.  That was Bro. Mac and he was as cool as a cucumber about it.  He was looking down at his iPhone and didn’t even look up he just said “Riley get on the left side of the road please”.  In my defense it was a very narrow two lane road without a center stripe.  It was so narrow that it could have passed as a one way road.  I’m just saying!  Anyway my first time driving was with David.  He let me drive his car so that the first time I did drive it wasn’t test driving a car to purchase with a salesmen.  Yeah that was fun too.  Anyway I am driving along with David and we are talking when all of a sudden we hear something beside us.  It is at this point that I discover that I am being passed by a man on a scooter.  Yes I am ashamed to say a scooter, not a motorcycle, but a scooter.  Not only did he pass me but he just about ran off and left me.  I looked over at David and said “I am guessing that means I can speed up a little huh?” He and I were so involved in my driving lesson neither of us realized how fast I was going.  We got a good laugh out it anyway.

One last thing…It SNOWED today.  We had some crazy weather, very unusual weather for Ireland.  It snowed about 30 min or so.  It didn’t accumulate any but it was pretty coming down.  Ireland is cold and wet in the winter, but gets very little snow.  If it does snow it usually comes during January and February.  Well if this is an indication of the winter we are going to have we are in for a treat.

I am working on getting the pictures we have so far uplaoded, but as I have already stated my Intenet isn’t making that easy.  I have a few here to share with you and hopefully will have more in a few days.

Take care everyone and know that we love you all.  Thanks for the comments too we really like those.

We are finally connected to the world wide web.  After almost a month, we got phone and internet service yesterday.  I was busy e-mailing and calling family and friends last night.  I started before we went to church and then continued after church until 3:00 a.m.  You don’t realize how much you use something until it is gone.  We have felt very disconnected from home.

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments.  They mean so much to us.  We appreciate your love and support.  We need it more than you realize.

It has been kinda difficult to move a family of five across the country, and then to start all over again.  We have been very blessed, everytime we need something the Lord has provided.  I am coming to love charity shops.  We went with Bro. Eamon Monday to many different ones, looking for living room furniture.  After four different towns and seven different shops, we found a beautiful, like new set.  We bought two couches and a chair.  It of course had to be the last one we went to.  I did however, find bar stools and some winter clothes for us at others.  It is starting to get very cold over here, and all our winter clothes are on the container, so that was a blessing to find some warms things.

I have figured out why the Irish people like their hot tea and coffee.  It stays so cold that you need hot tea or coffee to keep warm.  I bought Riley a coffee pot, and Kirsten, Simeon, and me a tea pot.  We have come to love sweet hot tea.  Kirsten likes hers the Irish way, with some double cream in it.  Peyton, the picky one, just likes her water.  You can however, buy two liters of water here for $.34 American money.  I however, have not abandon my Southern roots, I still have to have sweet tea.  At the anniversary banquet we fixed sweet tea, not as sweet as I like, but still sweet.  One man tried it and said he did not like it at all.  Bro. Eamon thinks it is an abomination.

Our church services are going great.  Every service God is there in such an awesome, powerful way.  We had an awesome move of God on Sunday.  Bro. Larry preached on reaching out of our four walls to the lost.  He did a great job.  We were all moved to do more for the Lord.

Bro. Mac, started a series last night about “The carnal mind verses the Spiritual mind”. He first said that it would be a 3-4 lesson series, but by the end he said probably a 7-8 lesson series.   He talked about how our minds can always reason us out of the spiritual things.  That we can reason away the things God wants us to do, by thinking it is not possible or that it isn’t really God.  I’ve had several times in my life that I didn’t think it was possible.  But, the Bible says “That all things are possible through Christ Jesus”.  I am so glad that even thousands a miles from home I feel such a peace about doing this work for the Lord.  If you are in God’s Will that is where you will find peace of mind.  I truly miss everyone, but nothing can take the place of peace of mind.

I want to thank Bro. Eamon for taking us everywhere, and helping us get the best deals we could.  I also want to thank Johnny for getting us beds to use until our gets here.  Both men have helped us out greatly.  Thank you.

We had a fun time of food and fellowship at our house Tuesday night, with the Bunches and Macs.  We had a planning session for the church.  There were a lot of great ideas given to make our church the best possible.  I was given the job of having tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) prepared for after church services.  This is right up my alley, because I like to cook a lot, and of course eat.  I have also been put in charge of fundraisers, so it is like I’m home a West Point again.  Sis. Halley, I am going to try to do Peanut Brittle.  The Irish people have never heard of it.  Can you believe that?  Please pray for me, this is new territory.  I have made it before, just have never been in complete charge of it.

Please contnue to pray for us.  We truly need your prayers.  If you have e-mailed us and we haven’t gotten back to you, please forgive us, and send it again.  Thanks!!!