We have a wonderful neighbor that stopped by and introduced herself the first day we were here. She has a 9 ½ year old daughter that finished school this week. When we got home that first night, she had left 4 candy bars and an invitation to a play date for the girls that evening, but we didn’t make it home early enough for it to work out.
She stopped by again today and brought her daughter for us to meet. When we told her about the nettles, she told us that the antidote always grows right beside it…all you do is rub the leaf on the spot that touched the nettle, and it supposedly relieves you of experiencing any negative symptoms….wouldn’t that have been nice to know this afternoon! We are SO thankful to know in case we bump into it again!
She also dropped off some cream for us to put on our nettle stings and a bag of warm clothes for Maddie that her daughter had outgrown! It included a wool sweater she had made herself! She even walked down in the rain to show us how to use our oven...which was embarrassingly easy! She has been such a blessing to us.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
An Unexpected Adventure
After we finished the explorer garden, Lillias encouraged us to go see the Footbridge
over the River Clyde. Since a gate was locked, we had to head another way. We saw a sign for a Clyde Walkway that we decided to take. It was a beautiful trail that had some nice views along it. It seemed to be winding back around to take us back to the bridge that we really went to see. Unfortunately at the end, we realized we were at a dead end and were going to have to walk all the way back the same way we had come. On the trail, we all got stung by nettles, thorny weeds, that made us get these burning bumps that tingled and hurt. Thankfully the girl’s stopped hurting after a few minutes…mine on the other hand is still burning and numb hours later. (It took about 24 hours for the burning and numbness to end!) Annye told me I should add it to the list of things I’m allergic to! I agreed to carry Maddie back on my back…Annye was a trouper and knocked it out!
over the River Clyde. Since a gate was locked, we had to head another way. We saw a sign for a Clyde Walkway that we decided to take. It was a beautiful trail that had some nice views along it. It seemed to be winding back around to take us back to the bridge that we really went to see. Unfortunately at the end, we realized we were at a dead end and were going to have to walk all the way back the same way we had come. On the trail, we all got stung by nettles, thorny weeds, that made us get these burning bumps that tingled and hurt. Thankfully the girl’s stopped hurting after a few minutes…mine on the other hand is still burning and numb hours later. (It took about 24 hours for the burning and numbness to end!) Annye told me I should add it to the list of things I’m allergic to! I agreed to carry Maddie back on my back…Annye was a trouper and knocked it out!
A Synopsis of Monday
Today we all headed to church to help with the Teddy Bear Picnic, a conclusion of the preschool ministry at the church (similar to Mother’s Day Out). Both morning and afternoon classes came in the morning with an adult for lots of fun and games and activities. They played all morning and then we had lunch together. Jeff and John helped for a bit and then headed off to one of the schools, where Jeff was the panel for Grill a Christian…a chance for the students to ask him questions. He survived it! He said a couple of atheist students did come and “grill” him, but overall he felt it went well.
After all the kids left, a friend from church offered to take the girls and me to David Livingstone’s house. David was a missionary in Africa. We jumped at the chance. They had a play ground, some statues, an explorer’s garden (which was fabulous), and a museum in the actual house (which we did not go through). They had some really cool games in the Africa Pavilion, but tic tac toe was the only one we could successfully complete…guess we weren’t smart enough for that center!
More pictures later...never enough internet time!
Calderglen Park
This zipline is the girl's favorite part of the park!
They have beautiful flowers and bushes here.
House on the property.
A monkey at the zoo portion of the park.This is one of the girl's favorite places we've been.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Daily Guarantees
So far, the following have been daily guarantees while we’ve been in Scotland:
• It will rain.
• You will see beautiful scenery and buildings.
• You will meet at least one amazing person.
• You will get cold (if you’re American anyway!)
• You will receive a kiss on the cheek as a greeting.
• You will eat too many sweets!
• You will be offered hot tea.
• You will be amazed at how well the girls are doing.
• You will wonder why their butter is SO much better than ours.
• You will wonder how many pounds you will gain by the time we get home.
• You will not understand Scottish English and will answer a question that you think you hear but was never really asked.
• You will feel so blessed to have this opportunity to be in Scotland!
• It will rain.
• You will see beautiful scenery and buildings.
• You will meet at least one amazing person.
• You will get cold (if you’re American anyway!)
• You will receive a kiss on the cheek as a greeting.
• You will eat too many sweets!
• You will be offered hot tea.
• You will be amazed at how well the girls are doing.
• You will wonder why their butter is SO much better than ours.
• You will wonder how many pounds you will gain by the time we get home.
• You will not understand Scottish English and will answer a question that you think you hear but was never really asked.
• You will feel so blessed to have this opportunity to be in Scotland!
Worship at Calderwood
We had an amazing worship experience at Calderwood. We were blessed by the three baptisms and were honored as the church made special effort to introduce us and pray over us and ask God to bless our time and efforts here. They also prayed for Living Hope.
John kicked off a new sermon series entitled “Love Defined in Love Excelling.” He presented a very wonderful and practical sermon about the patience aspect of love.
On Sunday evening, we heard from a team of teens and their leaders, who are heading to Croatia in six weeks for a mission trip to continue a partnership with a Baptist church in Croatia. It was wonderful hearing stories and seeing pictures of last year’s trip and hearing plans for this year’s trip.
It was so exciting to see the recurring theme of world church partnerships between Living Hope and Calderwood and Calderwood and churches in Croatia. The two were linked together as were able to pray and give to this mission effort! Isn’t God’s church a wonderful thing?!
After church, Jeff participated in a men's discussion group. It is a mixture of believer's and nonbelievers. This week they discussed Phillip Yancey's book about prayer. He really enjoyed it.
John kicked off a new sermon series entitled “Love Defined in Love Excelling.” He presented a very wonderful and practical sermon about the patience aspect of love.
On Sunday evening, we heard from a team of teens and their leaders, who are heading to Croatia in six weeks for a mission trip to continue a partnership with a Baptist church in Croatia. It was wonderful hearing stories and seeing pictures of last year’s trip and hearing plans for this year’s trip.
It was so exciting to see the recurring theme of world church partnerships between Living Hope and Calderwood and Calderwood and churches in Croatia. The two were linked together as were able to pray and give to this mission effort! Isn’t God’s church a wonderful thing?!
After church, Jeff participated in a men's discussion group. It is a mixture of believer's and nonbelievers. This week they discussed Phillip Yancey's book about prayer. He really enjoyed it.
A Synopsis of Saturday
Saturday we went further north into Scotland to cheer on some church members participating in a triathalon or a 6 mile walk to raise money for local charities. The mountains were breathtaking – something beautiful (layers of beautiful to be more accurate) in every direction. I’ll give more details as we get the pictures on.
That evening we participated in the house group leader dinner and enjoyed some wonderful food and the chance to meet more church leaders. It was another late night (despite the fact that we left early!)
Today was their longest day – I wonder if the sun even went down. The night before, the sun was still shining at 11:30 p.m. and then back up at 4:30 a.m. We have no idea when it actually went down!
That evening we participated in the house group leader dinner and enjoyed some wonderful food and the chance to meet more church leaders. It was another late night (despite the fact that we left early!)
Today was their longest day – I wonder if the sun even went down. The night before, the sun was still shining at 11:30 p.m. and then back up at 4:30 a.m. We have no idea when it actually went down!
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