"Be Still and know that I am good"

(First, I want to thank my grandmother for her e-mails. They mean more to me than I can say.)

This morning I went to 2nd Presbyterian Church in "The Village" of Saintfield. The main reason is because the buses actually don't run at the right times to the right places to get me to the Belfast Vineyard, and I could walk to this church in about 25 minutes. It reminded me of the church I grew up in - the church where Christianity "didn't take" - St. Andrew UMC (it's not the church's fault...). The place even smelled similar to St. Andrew...I'm wondering if it's the people (since that what a church really is, anyway) since I remember that smell from my childhood as well as the last time I was at St. Andrew (for my grandfather's memorial service) - and the church has moved buildings in between those two things. Anyway, the first song the choir sung was "Be Still and Know that I am God" (thank you, Lord). With their accents, it sounded like "Be still and know that I am good" (thank you again, Lord). The service really was wonderful and spoke to me a lot of ways I needed to be spoken to.
Afterward, I walked around a neighborhood - probably the equivalent of a "suburb" - and laughed in the sunlight. I walked to the end of the road of these peaceful houses with carefully groomed lawns and precisely arranged flowers, feeling a sense of home (not my own, but that this was where people made their homes - something I sometimes forget when I'm on "vacation" in a strange new place). At the end of the road was this beautiful song (pictured to the left). My pastors, on a 4 and a half hour phone call a few nights ago, suggested that I "fall in love" on this trip (with the One who made all this!). I'm starting to find this One (praise God) irresistible!
This evening, I cooked up some fish (trout!) and "experimented, in a do-what-you-can-with-what-you-have sort of way with a salad: really good lettuce (that I haven't had in the States and is hard to describe), kiwi (it was going "off" (as in, "bad") soon), strawberries, olive oil and what I thought was ginger but turned out to be cinnamon. I know. Gross, right? But, actually, it was delicious. I am actually so enjoying coming up with things to eat around here - yes, I think I am actually saying that I...enjoy...cooking! I'm being humbled into beginning to believe that God really can change things I think are "impossible." :-). (In the corner of the picture is a jar of garlic - I can't figure out what they do to it here, but it, too, is rather irresistible! :-)
As I was consuming this lovely meal I made, I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (I had to do this weird thing and switch the region on my computer so that it would play the DVD and I can now only switch it three more times or something...)....and all I have to say about this movie is...what. the. heck.