Country Roads We Are Coming Home – Scotland Day 11 & 12
Here we are…the end of an incredible journey. Tomorrow we head to the airport at 9 a.m. Scotland time and arrive in Pittsburgh at 6:41 p.m. By time we get our luggage and take the long 3 hour drive home I suspect we will arrive in Elkins about 10:30 p.m. That is Day 12!
Our last full day was today. We woke up and again had a hearty breakfast compliments of Agnes, our hostess. She fattened me up! We then met up with our team in the city and dispersed to do whatever we wanted – museums, monuments, cemeteries, shopping, tours, etc. Janell, Kary Kramer, and I hung out and primarily finished shopping for our families while taking in this historic city one last time. We ate a late lunch at a restaurant called the World’s End where we had fish and chips (French fries). It was delicious! The restaurant existed when Edinburgh was a walled city and was located at the main gate! thus, when people left the city they entered the “other world” – hence the World’s End! I think it was from the 1800’s.
After fish and chips we took the bus back to The Hub for our barbecue, which was really a cookout. It was for all us plus the Scottish leaders and kids. It was fun mingling and hanging out one last time with new friends and kids we ministered to. After one final meeting and prayer we said our goodbyes and off we went!
I hoped I captured our experience here via this blog. But like many other things, one must experience things to really grasp them. I would encourage everyone to come to Edinburgh, Scotland. We fell in love with this country and their people. We only pray we can return again. We are grateful for the opportunity to not only see some if this big world, but to do so in Christ’s name and with the primary task of making Him known! What a blessing to be used for the advancement of the Gospel, especially because God doesn’t need me, but chooses to use me! We hope our children can experience trips like this in the near future. We hope to show them how important it is to live for Christ and to make sacrifices, even if it means leaving them for nearly two weeks!
We love you all and are thankful for sharing in our ministry and our lives!
His,
Heath and Janell
Arthur’s Seat & The Highlands – Scotland Days 9 & 10
I thought I’d combine the last two days since they were mostly touristy. We did attend a church service at the Church of Scotland at an absolutely beautiful church (see pic). Afterward we had lunch together and then headed into the city to climb a mountain called Arthur’s Seat. It was spectacular as you will see in the pics. It overlooks the sea, the city, and the country side. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city – so much stone! We love it. That night we joined the rest of our team along with a bunch of teenagers to watch the World Cup game. It was a super day.
Today was another magnificent day. It didn’t start out great as the Young Life minibus broke down on the way to the Highlands. However, in God’s sovereignty, it broke down near a Krispy Kreme. So we walked there and formed a plan. We end up getting three vehicles to join the other vehicle we had, but here was the catch – I had to drive…in Scotland…on the “wrong” side of the road…sitting on the “wrong” side of the car…and driving a stick shift which I haven’t driven in years! Did I mention we had to drive 2.5 hours to the Highlands?!?! It was intense, weird, scary, and exciting all at the same time. On the way back led-foot Lynn (Scottish leader) was difficult to keep up with. I managed to get my carload home safely and was quite thankful to hand the keys over to their rightful owner!
In route to the Highlands, we stopped at the William Wallace Memorial in Sterling. I loved this. Most Americans, including myself, wouldn’t even know who William Wallace had there not been Braveheart. Nonetheless, Mel Gibson brought us William Wallace and I’m a big fan. It was so fascinating!
The Highlands are really indescribable. They are high steep mountains covered in green – no trees. Despite the rainy weather, it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Only the Grand Canyon would top the Highlands in “awe”someness but in pure beauty the Highlands take the cake. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!
Please pray for Kary Kramer, she just got word tonight that her grandma passed on. Chopper’s grandfather passed on while we were here as well. Thankfully John, who was bed-ridden for two days, is feeling better and joined us on the journey!
Last full day tomorrow. We will finish shopping in the city and then we have a barbecue at 4 pm with all the Scottish leaders and kids – a farewell of sorts. Scotland is stunning…thank you for giving us this opportunity by your support and prayers!
HDS
Camp Concludes – Scotland Day 7 & 8
As promised, yesterday was a late night. We didn’t return back to our host home until about midnight (hence no blog). It was a long day but a super day as the anticipation of the Cross talk has a way of motivating people to work hard, pray often, and serve well.
My character, Rick Floss & his team – the McMerican twins (see pic) concluded our bit with an epic Clan War! Kids and leaders did a variety of relays, contact games, and messy games. It was a jolly good time, as my Scottish friends would say. Running program is not my strong suit, but coming up with games while dressing up as a silly character that allows leaders to be set up as the heroes and lead their kids is quite the privilege. John and Kayla were great to work with and were very teachable. We had a blast doing it.
Most importantly was the proclamation of the gospel this week. I thought Ross delivered his best talk with the Cross. He read much of the story verbatim from Mark’s gospel…just let God’s Word do the work! After his talk he sent the kids outside for 10 minutes of silence to process how Jesus not only remedied the sin problem but by dying on the cross reconciled us to God so we could have life to full today, tomorrow, and forever. From there the kids went to their small groups for cabin time where they processed the Cross out with their leaders.
From there, leaders and kids walked a few blocks away to a conference room where we (Americans) were awaiting them to celebrate the week. We had a pizza party, showed the camp video, and Ross gave kids a chance to “say so” – say they made decision to follow Christ this week by remaining standing after a prayer. 18 kids made decisions this week and many more seeds were planted! And that is why we came here – to be the workers to give kids a great week so they could hear and respond to the Gospel! I am reminded by the prayer of Andy, the head YL staff guy here, as he prayed last night – “Protect the seeds that were planted Lord God!” What a beautiful and fitting prayer!
It is hard to follow up with the last paragraph and what we did today had little eternal significance compared to the last 5 days. We now turn into tourists. We all slept in and met for lunch. Afterwards, we went into the city where we walked the Royal Mile. On one end is the Edinburgh Castle and the other end is the Queen’s Palace. We shopped, sampled fudge, ate, and took lots of pics. We then had dinner at a restaurant on the shore of the Firth of Forth (it’s a bay that leads out to the North Sea). It was a relaxing and fun day. Tomorrow after church we will hike the big mountain at the end of the Royal Mile called Arthur’s Seat. Later that night we will catch up with kids again and watch the World Cup Finals! Until I write again…
Praise God for His movement in the lives of kids in Edinburgh via Young Life leaders who loves them with their lives!
HDS
heathdsizick 