We're Going To Scotland

I don't know how I've got this far without mentioning it, but we are going back to Scotland. B & I lived in Seamill in 2003-2004, working with Youth With A Mission at the fabulous Seamill Centre, a training centre for Christian missionaries. It was a watershed time in our lives, and we use it as a reference point for so many things. Like G, we came home 3 months pregnant with her, and gave her the middle name of a nearby island. Not the Isle of Man, in case you were wondering.
Vintage Gardeners Go To Scotland

We're heading back in roughly 6 weeks, leading a group from our church. We're going to garden with the Environmental Group in West Kilbride, just a short little walk from Seamill.  It's definitely exciting, but right now all I can think about is how the preparations are consuming me-I've  just spent 10 unsuccessful minutes on hold with the visa support people. The call costs $3.00 a minute, and the 10 minute wait was just in order to put my credit card number down. I finally hung up, so it cost nothing, but it doesn't bode well for future tries.
The really irritating thing is that this isn't the way I meant to write about our trip. There is so much that is lovely and hopeful and exciting about going back to a place we love: bringing our kids, hiking once again on Fairlie Moor and up Goatfell's misty sides. I can't wait to sit on Tarbert Hill with the group amidst the gorse and close-cropped grass, listening to sheep's baas, looking up the Firth of Clyde into the beginnings of the Highlands.
I can't wait to stand once again on Great Cumbrae and introduce G to great Scottish cuisine-like the tomato and cheese toasty and the Knickerbocker Glory Sundae at the Ritz. Above all that is the hope that God will be working through us as we tend the soil of a village that struggles with teenage alcoholism, drugs, vandalism and unemployment.
I am hopeful about all these things, and trying to remind myself as I wade through the morass of paperwork and websites for these visas. (Properly known as a Tier 5 Charity Worker Visa, for those who are thinking of doing the same.) Please pray for us!
And thanks to Neal B for introducing me to The Social Services, a band from Glasgow. I was just listening to 'Electric Brae' and it made me happy......