Helps Celtic Mission

A pair of missionary sisters asked me for bikes. This is a not-unusual but somewhat frustrating request. I would love to give them bikes but I can't. There are bikes in the mission, of course, but I can't send a couple of them to these missionaries because the all the mission bikes are (a) being used already or (b) so far away that transporting them is not feasible or (c) broken. Buying bikes for missionaries is a nice idea but challenging because a decent pair of bikes costs more than £1000.00. With this in mind I was wandering through Costco and saw they were having a bicycle sale! They had bikes for £180.00! Much to my surprise they were decent trail bikes, very lightweight, good construction and good equipment. So I cheerfully bought a couple of bikes and spent a happy few hours in the mission office garage de-boxing and assembling them. There's something very peaceful and Zen-like about working on a bike, and it's doubly satisfying when it's a ne...

We have been in Scotland for a year and a bit. It is cold and dark and damp, just as when we arrived, and last week we attended the delightful Robbie Burns' birthday celebration at the Livingston Ward. It is, we are told, the most attended activity the ward has all year. Attendance was somewhat down from last year, but this was to be expected, as the night was bitterly cold, and many older more frail folk would have preferred to stay safely at home.  The tables were laid out in the gym, just the same as last year. The music was the same or similar. The men wore the same kilts and jackets, the program was almost the same, with the Selkirk Grace, the Ode to the Haggis, one other poem which was a repeat from the last year, and an additional/different poem or two. The menu was the same - we started with a choice between Scotch broth and butternut soup, with little rounds of French bread. This was followed by haggis and neeps and tatties, just the same as last year, only - the food tast...

Christmas started for us on October 25. That was the arbitrary date on which we decided to start recording every package that arrived at the mission office. We (which is to say the person who processes all incoming mail, with tacit support from the rest of the office) developed a system over time. First we printed out a current phone roster for all the missionaries. When a parcel arrived, we marked their name with a green highlighter. Very early in the process, an email was sent to all parents, requesting that if they chose to send Christmas gifts, they send them to the mission office, so that the gifts would reach their offspring despite intervening transfers and any unexpected moves. We also explained this country's curious taxation system. If a package comes in marked "gift" the stated value may be up to 39 pounds before VAT is assessed (usually at a 20% of value rate, but it seems to vary depending on the weather and perhaps what the assessor had for breakfast that da...