September has arrived and the Bennetts are safely home from France.  It was hard to leave the sunshine but it’s great to be back!

A quick visit into Dock Cafe today to say Hi to the gang, and it’s fantastic to see how well everything has being going for the month.  The fantastic Dock team have been doing a great job and it sounds as if loads more stories of welcome, friendship and laughter have been happening in the TQ over the past few weeks.

A new term, a new chapter in the story, and already loads to tell you about exciting things coming up over the next few weeks.  For now it’s time to unpack the toothbrush, put away the suncream for another year, and get back to normality (or whatever passes for normality in the TQ…)

Dock Walks start again tomorrow – so if you’re in the area, pop by and join us at 3:33 – I’m really looking forward to getting out on Titanic streets again!

So this is farewell for a bit!  The Bennetts are hitting the road – France is beckoning and it’s been too long since I tried out my scraped-a-pass-at-GCSE French on the unsuspecting locals.  (Pouvez-vous telley-moi where ze campsite est, s’il vous plait?  etc.)

But what a difference a year makes.  Two years ago, when we left on holiday, the Dock just stopped.  Last summer we left behind a dedicated core group who kept walking and praying the Dock vision.  This summer we leave behind a fantastic, talented, utterly fabulous team, who will continue the great work of The Dock (and will probably get on far better without me cluttering up the place.)  Tegan and the volunteers – I can’t express how much it means to me that you’re doing such an amazing job in Dock Cafe.  It’s not just a place to grab a cuppa.  It has become something truly special – a safe, shared space in the Titanic Quarter, a place bursting at the seams with life and laughter.  Almost everyone who has visited has been affected by it (and the rest were just looking for the loos.)  (Which are coming soon!)

So as a leaving pressie, I’m going to tell you a few more reasons why I love Dock Cafe.  (You might remember that numbers 1-20 appeared a while ago…)  How many more reasons can there be, you may ask? – well, keep checking the blog over the coming days and see just how many ways there are, both big and small, to fall in love with this brilliant, unexpected, God-given blessing of a place.

And I’ll kick off now with No.21: the new Nomadic exhibition.  Yes, the Dock has now become the place to find out about the beautiful little tender ship that served Titanic at Cherbourg.  We’ve been Nomadic’s next-door-neighbour (and watched with delight as the restoration continued).  We’ve been on board to oil the teak (and if you want to join the next expedition, get in touch through the ‘Contact Us’ tab!).  And now we are the one-and-only venue for this brilliant exhibition of photos taken throughout the restoration of Nomadic by local photographer Stephen Potts.

Want to see the inner skeleton of the ship, the close-up view of 100-year-old rudders and propellers and rivets that were assembled in the shadow of Titanic?  Want to see how the restoration was achieved and what the ship looks like now?  Want to see the world’s biggest mussel conveyor belt?  (all makes sense in the exhibition!)  Well, you know where to call…

Have a great August!

What a fantastic Sunday…

Walks were very much on the agenda today.  At lunchtime we had the second ‘Titanic Slipway Pilgrimage’ walk – a new venture in conjunction with Titanic Belfast.  Setting out from the visitor centre with 30+ people, we walked the outline of Titanic and Olympic on the slipways where they were born, stopping every so often – at the lifeboat positions, the launch site, the memorial name-plaques on the slipway ramps – to reflect on the Titanic using music, stories and prayers.

I’m just so excited that this new opportunity has opened up within Dock-world.  It seems to combine so much of what has happened over these past 2 years – the Dock Walks, my tour-guiding with Titanic Walking Tours, my role as Titanic Ambassador – into something new.  The Titanic story contains so much that is thought-provoking and spiritual – and offering space and a little structure for people to respond to that is, I reckon, a massively important role for The Dock in its chaplaincy to the Titanic Quarter.

It was great to leaf through the feedback forms today and realise that this idea has really struck a chord with visitors from all over the world, even during these ‘experimental’ weeks while we’ve been finding our feet.  So, watch this space…

After a quick bite of lunch, it was time for the Dock Walk, and another beautiful afternoon with a brilliant bunch of people.  We walked amidst sun-showers, blazing sunlight and distant rainbows; we prayed for Ronnie and Lyn (two Dock members who are embarking on an epic adventure to Mongolia) at the edge of the Lough; we discussed Scripture as we walked through unformed wasteland, enjoying the challenge of chewing over a difficult passage; we worshipped as we stood dwarfed by Goliath (the crane not the man).

These walks have become such a profound part of our lives, and the people who have walked with us on Sunday afternoons have become family.  But all good things (like the Slipway Pilgrimages) have pauses built in to them, times to stop and reflect: and so the Dock Walks will be taking a pause in August, ready to resume on the first Sunday of September.  The time is approaching for the Bennetts’ annual pilgrimage to the land of vin rose, crepes nutella and pain au chocolat.  In our absence the team are going to do a phenomenal job of keeping Dock Cafe open for Life in the Titanic Quarter – make sure you pay a visit when you get the chance.

And when we return from a wee while of putting our feet up, we’ll keep walking.  The journey continues…

Sometimes you’re just in exactly at the right place at the right time to be reminded of what a staggeringly beautiful world this is.

Like yesterday, when the Red Arrows screamed overhead as they flew past Titanic Belfast:

Or a few days ago, when a thundershower over Samson and Goliath gave birth to an amazing rainbow:

Someone gave me a fab present today.  Alastair, who is a new member of the Dock team, was catching up as a newbie to the story-so-far of The Dock, and went right back to the beginning of this blog to follow the adventure right from the start.  He then copied and pasted all my blog posts from the last 2-and-a-half years into one humungous document, which now nestles on my hard-drive, taking up entire terabytes of space with its one hundred and nine thousand words!

How did I ever write so much?   (Even if you could probably halve that word count by removing the superlatives).   I suppose at least part of the answer is that The Dock truly has been an adventure, full of twists and developments that I never could’ve predicted or expected – and it’s been fun to share that story as the pages have turned.  Starting with the blank page – catching the vision – seeing the team grow – walking tours – new friends – meeting the neighbours – business plans, TV documentaries and Titanic Ambassador duties – to boat or not to boat? – the Meanwhile contract and Dock Cafe – Eamonn Day – blessings all mine, and ten thousand besides…

So I’ve just spent an emotional wee hour looking back over some of those blog posts.  There have been tough days.  But realising that days like today (which involved some brilliant, brain-stretching meetings with the great teams who keep the Dock running, some exciting forward planning, and being part of our busiest day ever at Dock Cafe) started so small, such a comparatively short time ago, makes me very, very thankful.  Have a closer look at this pic – taken (like all the others here) on Day One of the Dock – you’ll see that the building which now contains Dock Cafe was only half-built back when we started!

If you’re a new arrival and want to see how it all started, the link to the very first Dock blog post is here.  Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to read all 109,000 words of all the rest of them – respect, Alastair, respect!