Dedication Week

Many of you may know that Re:Hope (the church we work at) just bought a church building under a month ago. You may also know that we have spent much of the month of April, updating and renovating parts of the building. However, what you may not know is that this past week at the building was our Dedication Week. 

Dedication Week was a week focused on dedicating the building to God for His work by reading the Word and worshipping him. God provided the church building in a miraculous way (see story at Brian's Blog) and we know He plans to use it to further His Kingdom. We created a sign-up for 1 hour slots beginning at 8am Monday morning and allowed attenders of Re:Hope to sign-up for slots to read the Bible. Pastor Brian started us off reading Genesis 1:1 and each hour the person arriving would take over where the last person left off. I signed up for the Tuesday morning, 8am slot and read from the middle of Joshua through Judges 1.  It was a glorious, sunny morning and I loved starting my day off reading the Bible at the church!

The unique thing about this time was that each person read the Bible out loud from the pulpit, declaring the words of the Lord over the building. Sometimes the reader was the only one there, but other times, people were round about, either for the purpose of listening or to organe things in the building. We took the nights off and by Friday at about 5pm, the last reader finished up Revelation. There is certainly power in reading God's Word aloud and the church building was bathed in it and set apart for His work. Throughout the week we had 3 short evening worship times in which people came to simple sing songs of worship and praise to our God.  

The Bible Reading took place from where Brian is preaching in this picture

Easter Sunday was our first Sunday service in the building and God's presence was there and moving in people's hearts! I can't wait to see all that God is going to do in and through us at this new church home!

Re:Hope Easter Service

Re:Hope Easter Service

Hillwalking

Saturday, I experienced my first hiking adventure! I was quickly informed that the word "hiking" is an American term and what we were doing was "hillwalking." There's a new term for you!  Scott and I got a "lift" (a ride in the car) with some new friends from Re:Hope a little after 8am. We drove about an hour outside Glasgow to Loch Lomond (a lake) and began our hike at the base of Ben Lomond which is part of the Munros, the highest mountains in Scotland. Ben Lomond is 3,250ft and the distance of the hike is about 7 miles.

Not really in the best shape of my life, there were a few points at which I wasn't sure I really wanted to make it all the way to the top, but I've never not finished a hike, so I was determined to finish what I had started. Though I have sore knees and a few sore muscles as a result, it was well worth the work. The weather was beautiful, complete with blue sky and white puffy clouds (a rare blessing around here) for most of our hike. When we had nearly reached the top an unexpected snow storm overtook us for about 10 minutes, but then blew away and left more beautiful weather! The views from the top and all the way up were so rewarding! Scotland is such a beautiful country!

The victorious gang: Cortney, Tiomoid, Rhiannon, Scott, Mon, and Stewart

Views from the Top of Loch Lomond

Love these ladies!

More gorgeous views of God's handiwork

One of the sweet ridges

Traditional Scottish Meal

We had a guest in from the States the other night, so I decided to feed him the most well known and tradition meal in Scotland: Haggis, Neeps (mashed turnips) and Tatties (mashed potatoes). I had never eaten turnip before coming to Scotland and I actually quite like it. The secret to making mashed potatoes and turnips taste nice is butter! Though maybe not the healthiest, butter will make most vegetables taste quite yummy. The food turned out quite well and our guest enjoyed it and the chance to try something new!

 '

If you're ever in Scotland don't miss this meal! The first time I was in Scotland, my mother-in-law made it for me and I found I really like it! I was warned before ever visiting Scotland (by a few Americans) that haggis was not very good and was made of strange things. I won't disagree that for many people it might be best not to know what is in haggis before trying it, but I quite like it myself and would recommend it! For those who do want to know, haggis contains sheep's "pluck" (heart, liver, and lungs), onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt mixed with stock and it's traditionally simmered in a sheep's stomach for 3 hours. Today, most commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach. Haggis is definitely a must try!

Our Flat!

I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to get the pictures together, but I'm finally posting pics of the amazing flat God provided for us! It is a traditional Glasgow style tenement flat and because of that it has some lovely features including high ceilings, crown moulding, stained glass archways, huge windows and lots of space! The front two rooms of the house have single glazed windows, so they are often quite cold, but the back rooms are double glazed so their a bit warmer. The best part about the flat is that it was advertised as a two bedroom flat with a small office and as you'll see it actually has 3 full bedrooms and it was only £45/month more than all the others that we were looking at that we half its size! We decided to invite our friend Mark to stay with us to make good use of the space and it's been great so far!

So enough of the rambling, I'll give you a tour! We are still working out of some boxes as you'll see and slowly decorating, but we're getting there!

Our Flat on Lauderdale Gardens

Come in!

Our lovely kitchen

Beautiful cabinets with our wedding dishes displayed

My favourite place to sit read!

The "small office"

Your room when you come visit!

Mark's room

The largest bedroom we'll ever have!

The living room...we're still deciding on décor

Christmas in Scotland

This is my second Christmas in Scotland, but the first one since being married! Two years ago, Scott proposed to me in the wee hours of Christmas morning!

When all the Burns boys lived at home, Santa would fill their Christmas stockings and leave them on the end or at the foot of their bed. As soon as they would wake up and discover them, they would race through to their mum's room and dump them out on her bed and show her what they got! Now that they're grown up, Santa leaved the stockings under the tree with the rest of the gifts.

Every year, Gran Macdonald (Scott's mum's mum) spends the night so she's there for the early morning Christmas start. Christmas morning, Scott's mum Linda woke us up at about 8:30am. The little old neighbour lady Chris (who has been adopted as a granny) is brought over shortly after everyone wakes up. Stockings are opened first and usually include a couple of daft gifts. When Scott and I were first engaged for my first Christmas in Scotland, Santa, a.k.a.Linda, put a black and pink thong with pom-pom ties and "Santa Baby" written across the front in my stocking. And of course, she suggested I try them on, since my family try on clothing they receive. Eeek! That's Scott's family for you! Gifts are opened after that, then everyone hangs around and gets ready for the day and then heads over around 2pm for a 4 course meal at Scott's mum's brother, Uncle Ian's House.

Surprisingly, this year's meal went off without much of a hitch. Way to go Uncle Ian! In the past, he has caught fire to the kitchen via the turkey, burned various other food, put a wicker basket in the oven to heat up the bread and caught that on fire, there has been an all out food fight, and the first year I spent Christmas here, he had so mistimed the baking that there was over an hour and half between the 2nd course and the main course...we were sooo hungry! Christmas dinner in Scotland is much like Thanksgiving dinner in America and usually includes turkey and sometimes ham or lamb.

 Christmas Dinner

There is one tradition in Scotland which I love that I've not seen before in the States. Christmas Crackers! A Christmas Cracker lies on everyone's plate prior to the meal as a decoration and just before Christmas dinner begins, everyone picks up their Cracker and holds it out to one of the people next to them. Each person pulls and it pops! Out pops a little trinket prize, a joke, and a paper hat. Everyone shares their joke, swap prizes if they want and puts on their paper crown hat!

 Christmas Cracker

After the meal is complete, most of the family continues drinking and often end up setting up for karaoke. It's doesn't matter if you're any good or not, because Uncle Ian will sing with you or over the top of you most of the time! This year I skyped my family and watched them open presents. They met Uncle Ian and Aunt Elinor for the first time that night (via skype) dressed up in crazy costumes. Now my family is certain that most Scots are a bit crazy!

 That's been my Christmas in Scotland with the Macdonald family! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Re:Hope Women's Worship Night

Since arriving in Glasgow, I have joined the Women's Pastoral Care Team at our church, Re:Hope. My first day in staff meeting, one of the women on staff voiced that a couple of them wanted to have a women's worship and prayer night soon, so I jumped on board to help! I've never done much on the computer before concerning invitations or the like, but I volunteered to help advertise for the event. With assistance I managed to come up with an invitation that I was proud of! I love learning how to do new things!

There are so many young women at Re:Hope! I feel like it's going to take ages to meet all of them, remember their names and then actually get to know them! It's such a wonderful spot to be though. I love getting to know women and helping them become grounded in their faith in God and connecting them with other fabulous women! Overall, Scotland is in such a place of spiritual hopelessness. The last couple of generations have walked away from God and don't have much to offer the upcoming generations. It is so refreshing to see young people searching for hope for themselves and finding God!

Last night, we hosted the event at the church building and a lot of newer women to the church attended. I was impressed with the team of women who came together to make everything happen. The response from everyone was very positive! The lights were dimmed, there were lots of candles lit and strands of white twinkle lights. The worship through singing was beautiful! Several times I just stood silently praising God and listening to the amazing chorus of women's voices around me bringing glory to His Name! If you've never experienced this kind of thing before, you should! There are few other things like it that will turn your heart to God!

Wellies!

Scotland is not exactly the driest place on earth! Having experienced that in the past, I was well aware of the fact that one of my first purchases upon arrival would need to be a "brolly" (umbrella). Once the brolly was acquired (at a second hand shop!) I thought I was pretty well prepared for the weather. However, within the first couple of weeks my white trainers (tennis shoes) became a splotchy brown and my trendy boots were no match for the puddles. I resolved to do something to keep my feet dry!

Prior to our move, I had heard rubber boots known as "Wellies" had become quite the hit in both fashion and dryness in the U.K. Buying a pair of Wellies sounded like a good idea, so I began to look around for a pair I liked. I tried on a pair of size 7s, thinking that would be pretty close to my U.S. size of 8. I was way off! I ended up deciding that I'm about a size 5 here! After looking at several shops, I decided to go out on a limb and get a rather colorful pair!

Now, with my brolly (umbrella) and my new Wellies, I am properly armed for the Scotland rain!