Helps Celtic Mission

We had an All-Scotland Zone Conference on Thursday, with a visiting GA. There was a dinner for senior missionaries afterwards and we were asked to give a 20 minute presentation on our impressions of Scotland. The following is what we prepared, with a few additions as we are no longer limited to 20 minutes. We cut the presentation down a little/lot on the fly, as time was short. Preparing it was fun, so it would have been worthwhile even had we not presented it at all.. L: Climate. When we first arrived in Scotland, in the middle of January, it was dark when we drove to the office in the morning, and dark when we left the office in the evening. Most of the time it was both dark and damp, and on occasion the sidewalks were icy. After a few weeks of this we turned to each other and said, "why would anyone live in a place like this?" Last weekend we took a much anticipated trip northward, to visit the villages and towns where my ancestors lived according to 18th cen...

As our remaining weeks in Scotland start to thin out, we find ourselves more interested in castles again. We joke about having renewed our Historic Scotland membership, and visiting more ancient sites so we can get the most out of it, but at the time we renewed we already viewed our payment as a donation to a cause that we support. We think preserving and sharing this country's historical heritage is a worthwhile occupation. However, since we renewed our membership just a few weeks ago we have visited abbeys in the borders, a palace in Lothian, and a couple of castles in the Kingdom of Fife, and enjoyed it all. We even managed to find and admire another beach or two while we were exploring. Linlithgow Palace is famous for being a place that James V liked to show off - and he did like to show off. He was one of those super-wealthy people who is only happy when people realize and are amazed at how wealthy and powerful he is. He was responsible for the building of the ornate fountai...

The pace of life and our mission appears to have increased. One would think that with our vast (ahem) experience in the office, we would be on top of everything by now, well organized and generally imperturbable. It hasn't been like that. We seem to be pushing ourselves harder and harder, and are truly grateful for the remarkably good health with which we have been blessed. We are working our heads off, but are still managing to enjoy ourselves, mostly. With the last transfer, we found ourselves working a twelve- day week. Our Saturday P-Day evaporated into a working day, and we came into the office straight from our Ward responsibilities on the Sunday. Richard worked in the office while I yoyoed between the office and helping to prepare a farewell dinner for the departing missionaries. It was all the Lord's work we were doing, but it still felt a little weird doing office work on a Sunday. The biggest trigger for all this extra work was  (wait for it) Introducing Smartphon...

So, this past week we bounced in and out of the office.  We left the office early on Monday afternoon (shortly after 3 p.m. in the hope of avoiding the worst of the traffic) to drive up to Aberdeen for Tuesday's North Scotland Zone Conference. On Tuesday we attended the zone conference, which we left a little early (in the hope of avoiding the worst of the traffic) to drive back to Edinburgh. 'Tis the season of daffodils, which grow in wild abundance along the verges. While near Aberdeen we dawdled through Stonehaven. Truly a seaside village worthy of being added to our memories Of note are the whimsical steel statues along the board walk. And yes, if you look closely all these vessels are crewed by fishy denizens The dolphin is more conventional but beautifully proportioned. And the sea was so boisterous we saw actual breakers, rather rare in these parts. Stonehaven also boasts the "Carron Fish Bar", which claims to...

This post leaps about like a flea at a picnic. We like Scotland, especially Edinburgh. Actually a more accurate rendition of that sentiment is, we like Scotland, everywhere but Glasgow. We LOVE Edinburgh. Edinburgh has grace and charm and style and beauty. Edinburgh makes money out of its tourists by wooing them and charming them into spending time and money in the city. It treats them like honored guests, humoring their little ways and only occasionally honking when they mess up on the roads and drive the wrong way. Glasgow also makes money out of its tourists, lots and lots of money; they take photographs of their tourists (and residents of course) when they mess up and drive the wrong way and then send them traffic tickets as souvenirs. And no, in case you are wondering, we have not ever personally received a traffic ticket from Glasgow.  We have made our fair share of driving mistakes, but never in Glasgow. We drive in Glasgow when we cannot avoid it, but always on t...

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...