It was another amazing week that we just had. God has been doing some pretty cool stuff here as He has been preparing us for outreach and the ministries we have become involved with here in Scotland.
Last Thursday we were at the "Beacon" in Glasgow, which is a drop in center (soup kitchen) for the homeless and addicts, which really brought back memories to my Amsterdam days. We helped serve a meal and just hung out with the people and loved them. So many faces with such a look of despair. People who society has forgotten about or have chosen to ignore. But at times, showing these individuals some dignity and love, they're lives can be restored. Please pray for us as we serve at the Beacon that we will have open hearts and open minds so that we will be able to share God's love with them in a truly genuine way. (and a side note with that prayer request, that I'll be able to understand them through their thick accent!)
Saturday we had beautiful weather yet again as we set out on another venture or team building, confidence building and risk taking. We were again up in the Highlands but this time in the rushing water of a gorge. We hiked, swam and climbed up a river, through the river. Which at times was a little tricky with the strong current and large boulders but was a ton of fun. We climbed up a couple waterfalls and did some cliff jumping. We were all a little worn out at the end of the day, but it was well worth it.
Today we are heading out for two weeks to North Umbria England where we will be doing a five day trek, walking/hiking about 15 miles a day. We will also be having some teaching time a few days before and a few days after. So here again please pray for us for safe travels and hiking. Also for my ankle, the gorge walking on Saturday made it flare up some more so please pray that it will be ok during the trek.
next update won't be for about two weeks since I will have no internet access while we are in England.
God bless,
Tonya
The infinite beauty of God's creation
It is not uncommon for it to be warm and sunny at the base of Ben Lomond and then to be near blizzard like conditions at the summit of the mountain, thankfully that was not the case yesterday. We set out yesterday morning to climb this beautiful manroe mountain. It was some of the most majestic scenery I have ever seen! It was hard work making it to the summit but the view and the 70 degree temps were well worth all the effort. Over each hill/peak we climbed there was one more majestic view to be seen. It was a surreal feeling and felt at times like I was in a movie. There are honestly no words or pictures to do justice the beauty of this land. I was reminded of a part of a verse in Psalm 27 where it says, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. That is the closest that I can come to describing the scenery.
Coming back down the mountain we encountered some pretty rugged terrain, which made it a little bit more difficult and tricky since I had twisted my ankle about two thirds of the way up. With my family we kind of have an ongoing joke that if someone is going to get hurt or get some sort of strange illness, it will be me. So please pray that my ankle will make a quick and full recovery. I would like to emphasize the quick because in a week we will be starting our six day trek in North umberland, England.
So yesterday I had to keep reminding myself why I chose this particular ywam base to do my training. I chose this one because I wanted to be challenged on more than just one level, more than just being challenged spiritually. Throughout history Christians have endured persecution, refugees have had to flee their homelands, travel many miles to seek safety in a foreign land. The apostle Paul went on many long journeys, many of them not pleasant, to spread the word of Salvation and of Jesus Christ. I know I will never fully understand what all these people have had to endure, but I felt I needed to at least try to understand just a part of it. Yesterday I began to get a glimpse of it. Even though it was frustrating that I had gotten hurt, I knew it was helping me see the bigger picture.
First off I'm going to say that Haggis is actually good, I'm sure many would not agree though. I had the privilege to try the national delicacy last night for dinner after we enjoyed a day in the Highlands watching the "Highland games."
Yesterday was kind of our free day so all of us piled into the two vans and made our way to Pitlachry for the day to watch the games. We have been blessed to have unheard of weather here sun, warm temps and no rain. So yesterday was really a treat.
It was my first experience in the Highlands. I have admired the hills from afar but had never gone into the heart of them. They are beautiful! And Pitlachry is a beautiful town situated in the valley with the hills towering above.
All day long the air sang with bagpipes as onlookers watched Scottish dancers and the athletes compete in various different sports. Most of them were typical track and field events, with the exception of tug of war, and the heavy weights carrying various different objects and giving them a good toss, one of which was a tree.... It was fun to be able to partake in this rich culture.
Today I joined our base leaders and one of their daughters at their church in Glasgow, what an experience that was! This is one of the largest churches in Scotland which consists of about 5-600 members. This seems amazing to me coming from a church that has thousands of attenders. This church was so alive, you could feel it the moment you walked through the doors. Its always interesting to me that in nations where being a true Christian, follower of Christ, is the minority, how passionate and how real their relationship with Christ is. If only we could all live as though we were in the minority, how we might impact the world around us....
Many people don't often think of Europe as an area to send missionaries. What most people don't realize is that so much of Europe has turned their back on the church, and know nothing about having a personal relationship with Jesus. Many Scottish kids have no idea of who Jesus is, they have maybe heard His name but have nothing to connect that name to. As we are here in Scotland we hope to reach who ever we can to share the love of Christ so that THEY may know who Jesus is.
As I had stated in my last entry we will be needing to figure out where we will be going for our outreach. Over the next two weeks we will be coming together as a team to pray for God's direction where he is wanting us to go. We don't know what kind of conditions we may be in. We could go to one city to stay for seven weeks, or we could be traveling everyday from village to village. It is completely unknown right now, but we do know and trust that God knows and will make His plans known to us. So please continue to pray for us as we continue to prepare and go through training.
In Christ,
Tonya
Prayer request
In two weeks we have to know where we are going to be going for our outreach phase, this is where we are actually out in the mission field. We are starting to pray about this now, for God's leading, where we can be used and be most effective for Him. Please pray with us that God will make it very clear where it is that he is wanting us to go.
We are still in the midst of orientation here but are well underway with the training. Soon, we will be working in three different community outreach groups here in Paisley. We will have one group doing sports ministry with kids in a local park, another will be working with troubled kids in one of the hardest neighborhoods in all of Scotland. And yet another group will be serving at the equivalent of a homeless shelter/soup kitchen. YWAM Paisley is really working towards being more active in the local community, so we are the first team to be venturing down this road and are very excited to be part of this.
As well as serving in the local community we also do some of our class room training to the great outdoors and have that as our class room. We will be doing a lot of hiking, trekking, mountain climbing and gorge walking. In about three weeks we will be doing a five day trek into North Umbria, England. Hiking for about 14-16 miles each day. We have been keeping ourselves active and trying to stay in shape for our trekking. Which is easy to do when we walk about four-six miles into town and back everyday or every other day, (going back home from town is all up hill!)
Yesterday a couple of us decided to "attempt" to find our way to a local super market to pick up some real food. As I got directions from one of the staff members there was a small detail that I kind of didn't catch.... so we went walking in almost the opposite direction for about 20 minutes before we stopped a local to ask "where is Morrisons?" When He pointed us in the opposite direction and said you'll be walking for a "life time" we wondered how long is a lifetime to the Scottish.... its a long time. At one point while standing at a round about there was a crossing guard for the school who saw the puzzled look on our faces and knew right away that we were lost, so she gave us a ride in her car up the road to the school and gave us directions from there, which were a bit hard to understand underneath the strong Scottish accent. We finally found it, and were able to get our food/laundry detergent and make our way back home in the rain... Our quick twenty minute walk to the super market ended up talking us probably about an hour and a half.... ah, the adventures you can have living in a foreign country.
I'm settling in well here at the Stanely house in Paisley, Scotland. More people have arrived, with the remaining two coming this afternoon, both of whom are my roommates. Tonight we will officially get started so I can't really tell you much about the training, since we haven't even started yet....
I am all rested with no suffering of jet lag. The first night I slept for 12 hours, I didn't even know I could sleep that long... Yesterday I ventured into the town center of Paisley, making a mental note of every street I turned onto, since I had no map and didn't really know where I was going. Also remembering that here in the U.K. the cars have the right away, not the pedestrians, if you get hit, its your fault. Once again being confused by what direction the cars are going to be coming from when crossing the street, at least this time I'm not driving and having to figure out what side of the street I need to be on.
I am however going to post my first prayer request, One of the things that I have been concerned with the most is that I have food allergies. They are not super serious, but enough where I can be rather miserable for a little while. Last year while in Amsterdam God really protected me from a certain allergy and I had no reaction what so ever. So I am praying that God will do the same this time around, and also ask that you would pray for me in that way as well. I want to be able to be well and be fully used by God, with out having to be sick.
I want to thank all of you for your support both through prayer and financial means, everyone has been such an amazing blessing, there are no words to describe.
God's peace,
Tonya
