The Back of Beyond

I am, in two words, totally knackered. How do I find these jobs? Would somebody out there please find me a job where I can either hide in a book... or climb trees... or pick flowers... okay, I know it's real life - as my dear old dad likes to remind me.

One week after I arrived here I was tired enough to resign and sheepishly hightail it back to Edinburgh, though the Lord knows what would have happened there, where you spend money just by breathing. One trial or the other, I figured. Anyway, I was persuaded to stay. It's alright. When I wake up in the morning, I look out across a field of grazing sheep - beyond that, a line of trees, and then the beautiful Loch Tay at the foot of a mountain which promises to be covered in snow in the very near future. I'll manage to save some money, and learn useful things like how to carry a vacuum cleaner without tripping, and how to fold up an ironing board (one of the eternal great mysteries of the universe). There are unfortunately no Australian diversions at this hotel ;).

Today I drove a car for the first time in Scotland. It was so good to drive again - I took our staff car and drove to a nearby (30km) village. The autumn colours and farm lanes...

It's generally well with my soul. I still have this dull feeling a lot of the time that life is just plain pointless if I cannot be in Grahamstown, but the other day I had such a big thought about my... destiny... here... that I got butterflies in my tummy. Just for a moment.

Be Strong - Take Heart - Wait for the Lord

Did you know that there is this verse in Ecclesiastes that says: "A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer to everything"?? (10v19) I checked it out in a few different versions, and there it is - money is a good thing. A good thing came to me last week Friday - the last day of September. Things have improved, to say the least! I have been shopping. Good to my soul.

It's been a week of change, because on Monday I handed in my resignation. I have accepted a job in a wee hotel on the shore of Loch Tay in Perthshire. It was a big decision because I obviously wanted to be in Edinburgh for the church plant and close to friends, but... there are many reasons I feel like it's right and going to be okay. I'll be there for four months, coming in to town as often as I can to see people, go to church, keep up my contacts here - I'm hoping it will be every two weeks or so. So tomorrow I'm putting my backpack on again and catching a bus to Stirling - the closest large city, and will hopefully be able to catch another bus from there. I love it when an adventure comes together... especially in Scotland.

It was sad to leave the nursery in the end. They gave me flowers, and wine, and cards, and asked me to change my mind. I was actually concerned because my little heart had started to l...l...love some of those agents of destruction. I loved talking to them and teaching them, and teasing them, and kissing bumps better, and running around like a chicken or something equally ridiculous, in the name of fun, and I loved wee arms around my neck! On one of my last days there, I was privileged to be a Princess locked up in a tower (the climbing frame), awaiting my rescue from the evil dragon, by the brave knights Adam (3) and Patrick (3). They rescued me but the dragon wasnae killed for a while, we all had to chase it around the playground. Oh Lord may they grow up fighting for You...

I resigned because of the bad moments - those of boredom and frustration and exhaustion and noise and poo - but now I think I'll just remember the good ones.

By the way, did you know that boys are born knowing how to pile-on? Including the random moment chosen for this masculine ritual?

To all who have been praying for me - I have taken heart! I have lifted my eyes up! The Lord is showing me that, in the place you least expect it, there can be life in abundance. I'm still convinced that Scotland is God's will for me, and I have felt stirrings of life and love and laughter. This mission field is fun! Strange? No, just the Lord. I love to dance, and I have been meeting people here who love to dance, and I love to write, and I'm finally writing. Even though friendships take a long time and patience, I feel like there is grace to make them with people - church and non church. I'm intrigued to see where the Lord is taking me in this... Promised Land.