Helps Celtic Mission

One of the old-timey cliche's of British children's literature was, "And a corking good time was had by all at the seaside, and home in time for iced buns and hot cocoa" Despite being decades out of fashion this is not a bad description of our expedition to Cork, Ireland--except of course we spent five nights away, not just a summer afternoon. So it wasn't buns, but multiple meals and treats, Oh, yes and it wasn't cocoa, it was very much 21st century hot chocolate, rich, thick and creamy--much better than the cocoa of my youth. There was bags of children's English literature before the modern Harry Potter craze, and both of us were brought up on it. It was our duty to read Afrikaans novels from time to time growing up ("Trompie" wasn't bad), but the English schoolboy and schoolgirl tales we thrived on were sheer joy. A few weeks ago the Mission President and Richard decided together that it would be a good idea for the Helps' to atten...

We have heard a great deal about Oban this past year. The missionaries who have served there have loved the place. We decided some time ago that we wanted to go there sometime, and our opportunity came a couple of weeks ago. The mission closed the house that we rented as a meeting house down there, and as many of the seniors as could manage went down to clear the house and pack the contents into the moving van that we had rented for the weekend. Oban is beautiful. It is a summer resort town on the west side of Scotland, and even in the middle of winter with slush on the ground, it is utterly beautiful. Furniture packed, work done; let's all go out to lunch at the waterfront. A dreadful photo taken for us by a kind passer-by. We travelled down on the Friday night and slept over at a pleasant hotel which supplied us with an adequate bedroom and a super-deluxe breakfast consisting pretty much of anything we wanted. Everyone else drove down on the Saturday, so this gav...

In a cold February a walk in a tropical jungle seems awfully appealing. We decided to do one, but there were a few minor difficulties. Probably the most significant issue is that we are not to leave our mission area without official permission. However this minor problem can be circumvented by touring the Royal Botanical Garden greenhouses, about three miles from our flat in Edinburgh. The gardens have a series of ten greenhouses, which can be toured for a small fee. Each greenhouse represents a different type of terrain. All of them are warm and many are tropically steamy. It was a delightful tour amidst lush foliage. Here are a bunch of pictures to warm you up vicariously. Hanging moss Uncoiling Fern Frond  Scattered through the richly coloured foliage are a few sculptures like this dragonfly and these glass bubbles. The colours and textures were startling. Look at these puff-balls, about the size of a tennis ball. A couple of pictures of us...

One of the challenges of office missionaries is that we focus on practicalities--all the necessary things needed to keep a mission running, that are not actually doing mission work. One of these is making sure our missionaries are driving legally. Driving in the UK, and especially Scotland, is "fun", for a certain kind of fun, that is. Randomly sprinkled throughout Scotland, though mostly at the exits to parking lots at places that are of interest to tourists, are road signs written in multiple languages, reminding people to drive on the left side of the road. We believe them to be very necessary. We have mentioned before how patient and tolerant the local drivers are of the very strange driving which various drivers commit. We have ourselves endeavored to become equally patient and tolerant on the roads, merely venting from time to time "oh you tourist!" when somebody does something exceptionally strange. One of the interesting wrinkles in this part of the wo...

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...