Ritas Ireland Dream: 21 April

Albany Road Baptist Church built in 1932 and still serving the community

In the UK you would say “it was a Lovely Day”. Anything that is amazing, wonderful, awesome all has the same adjective – Lovely. The day had it’s usual start with sunshine and promise a beautiful Day. It is EASTER! Hallelujah – He is Risen. We wanted to make this Easter special and find one of those ancient churches filled with stained glass. God had another plan. I had written down the postal code for St. Margaret’s Cathedral and once in the car could not find it. What else do I do, drive around, get lost and just decide to find the first church we can. I was praying we would find a church before the morning was over. Both Rita and I saw a stone building and said; “Let’s go to church there!” We found a parking space and that was because it was 10 am and church didn’t start till 11:00am. That’s the first miracle. The second made us smile, the name of the church was “Albany Road Baptist Church”. That’s right and it was on Albany Road.

Pastor Leslie

We walked in and were immediately welcomed by the few people there along with worship team. First, we met Pastor Leslie. She was so sweet and friendly, and you immediately wanted to hug her. Yes, she does all the pastoral duties along with Pastor Richard. He was amazing (lovely in UK language). He immediately started talking with us and a delight. As we continued to wait, they gave us a booklet on their church and one event each month made both and Rita and I smile and wishing it was the first Sunday of the month. “SUNDAY LUNCH OUT – After the morning service anyone is welcome to meet in the foyer and join us for lunch in the Claude Pub opposite the church. We all enjoy the food, friendship and fellowship. You don’t need to belong to the church, but you do need to pay for you own lunch.”. Love the Welsh humor.

Claude Pub across from church for Sunday Lunch

Richard trying to help kids with the Cake Bake-Off. Love his humor and you can tell the kids love him.

It was a sweet service and very kid friendly. They incorporated the kids into every aspect of the service. Right in the middle of the service he asked for volunteers without telling them what they were volunteering for. He sent them out with Cadbury eggs and a card saying, “You are Loved” and they had to find 6 people out in the street and give them the card and eggs. They were thrilled to do it (the kids were accompanied by an adult). I think my favorite was at the end when the Richard had 4 kids come up and participate in a “Cake Bake-off”. Her challenged each team to follow the instructions to bake a small cake from scratch and bake it in a micro-wave. The way he brought it all together illustrating that we need to follow God’s instructions and use all the ingredients He provides for life to turn out as He planned. One of the groups left out the baking powder AND sugar. You can guess, it was not the winner. Perfect illustration, the baking powder was the rising ingredient and without Jesus who rose from the dead for our sins things just don’t turn out. The most powerful thing for me was a beautiful music video song by a girl and young man. “When there is no peace in life (earth), there is Peace in Jesus. I was going to need that for the rest of the day and probably from this point on.

Pastor Richard passing out Cadbury eggs. We won for coming the farthest for church. Well Yeah!

In the middle of the service Rita didn’t feel well and went out to sit for a while. After the service I found that she was vomiting and thought it was something she had eaten. We decided we would go ahead and drive north to Betws-y-Coed about 4 hours away hoping she would feel better. That was not going to happen. Not only did she continue vomiting but the route to Betws-y-Coed is like going through farm roads and then into mountain roads with some being just one lane. It was anything but “peaceful”. The scenery was incredible (lovely) and indescribable. It was like Oregon and Washington on steroids. I have never seen so many sheep in my life. One of my friends asked that I include videos in the blog. There is no way I could take a video with my fingers turning blue clutched around the steering wheel and Rita vomiting into a Zip-loc bag for 5 hours. Yes, 5 hours since I still can’t get those crazy roundabouts figured out and continually backtrack.

Glan Llugwy Guest House B&B

Rita is sleeping in our little B&B by the river and we both pray she will be better tomorrow so we can continue our planned/unplanned journey. I will say to each of you, if you ever want to see one of the most beautiful little towns in Wales you need to visit Betws-y-Coed…if you can handle one lane roads with stone walls on each side and everyone going 60 miles an hour. You’ll love all the hills with sheep too.

Happy Easter - His is Risen Indeed!