Travelling Tuesday

This Travelling Tuesday shot is from my second trip to South Africa, the first trip Mark and I made here together. We spent some time in Cape Town, travelled along the garden route to Knysna, up toward Bloemfontein where I met Mark’s parents. The second week of the adventure, we stayed at a Game Reserve called Makhasa, run by some old friends of Mark’s (discount!) and on our last day there, Mark asked me to marry him!  Lovely story for another day as well!  This shot is from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, looking down towards Victoria Drive. On our way up Victoria Drive towards Table Mountain we saw whales breaching from our wee moped. We pulled off and watched them go by and just felt blessed by the experience.  This is looking south from Table Mountain, the hills along the way are called the Twelve Apostles. No wonder this is one of the top honeymoon and vacation destinations in the world! It’s gorgeous!

xCC

 

 

Our Best Travel Experience yet, or, FLY EMIRATES!

Well folks, we are safely in South Africa and it is really really good to be here. Our most recent travel experiences really deserve a mention. By the end of this you might think I’m writing a paid advertisement for Emirates airline, but honestly, this is just me telling you what a great experience we had. (Although if they wanted to pay me, I would take it!)


This adventure began with our last few days in Scotland, staying with our dear friends Rob and Alice (travelling Rob), and catching up with more friends, (who had birthday prezzies for Asher, no less! thanks Worwy and Sawah [above]!) connecting with friends at church, and catching colds because it was so cold and rainy and wintry. A million thanks to the Andersons for hosting us so graciously (Rob could run a fantastic restaurant of culinary delights), to Adam for driving us to the airport in Glasgow, and to Hope for letting him when she’s so pregnant she’s about to burst and has two wee ones.

We were…shall we say… a bit concerned about our baggage because we thought the Emirates allowances were the same as Continental’s, but we discovered we were mistaken the day before our flight. We were looking at 25 to 35 pounds — that’s British Pound Stirling — per kilogram overweight. And we had none too few extra kilograms. But the travel agents were as friendly as Nessie is hard to find, and did not even mention the extra weight. When we walked away from the counter we felt like kids on Christmas morning. That upgrade we prayed for just happened. They only made me taste two baby food jars at customs (yeah… seriously) and when we arrived at the gate, they came and checked our pram (stroller) for us, and told us although it was checked to Johannesburg, there would be a pram waiting for us while we were at our layover in Dubai. That was great. The layover was more than four hours in the middle of the night, but at least we had a pram! And I am now convinced Dubai is quite possibly the coolest place I’ve never been.  (Since the airport doesn’t count).

Our two eight hours flights were easypeasy. On each leg, the flight attendants gave us toys and other stuff for Asher…he got a hand puppet camel on the first flight (along with a colouring book and coloured pencils) and he got a hand puppet tiger for the second leg of the journey! They also gave us baby food, and a little pouch with a rattle, a spoon, baby wipes, a bib, baby lotion… they just really took care of us. And they took Asher’s picture and put it in a little paper frame with an airplane on it. “Best wishes from Emirates to Asher” with the flight number and crew member names. So sweet! He wasn’t looking at the camera so they tried twice. Sweet anyway!  We also had a row of four bulkhead seats to ourselves on the first flight, and three bulkhead seats to ourselves for the second. Upgrade!

So here’s my thirty second Emirates promo: “At a time when most airlines are debating charging customers for extra baggage or even for going to the bathroom, Emirates is handing out hot towels and amazing meals. They’re serving cake and ice cream with tea and coffee at snack times. They’re giving kids toys and making sure their families are comfortable. Their prices are competitive, but their customer service blows the competition out of the water. (Or sand dunes, if you will). From perhaps one of the best-traveled babies in the world, Emirates gets a one-tooth smile with lots of drool, and two happy hands up!”

Thanks for allowing that digression. As the story continues, we are now safely in South Africa and it’s great to be here. We arrived in Johannesburg, stayed the night with Mark’s sister, Lyn, (who also had great birthday prezzies for Asher!) The next day was, praise the Lord, our final flight — Johannesburg to Cape Town. Mark felt prompted to wait one more day before buying those tickets with Kulula, a domestic South African airline.  A one-day sale started the next day, and (thank you again, Lord!) we saved a huge amount on the tickets. Unfortunately, we did have to pay for our extra baggage on that flight, but since we’d saved so much on the tickets, we pretty much broke even.   And now the real adventure begins! Since I’ve gone a bit long, I will perhaps save the story of our arrival for tomorrow. =)

xCC

Travel…ling Tuesday = South African Sunset

In honour of our impending arrival, this week’s Travelling Tuesday Shot is one Mark took in South Africa.  We’ll actually be in the middle of our travels when this hits the web — in Dubai on our way to Johannesburg!  Enjoy the photo, and the backstory is below!

Mark’s Backstory:

In 1998, some friends and I hiked the Otter Trail in the Tsitsikamma National Park on the south east coast of South Africa. The hike is along the coast, and the Lord blessed us day after day with beautiful sights and amazing moments. On some parts of the hike we had to ford rivers by sticking all our stuff in a water proof bag and swimming across. We saw dolphins again and again, and snorkeled with rays. I even had a very close encounter with a shark … there were a bunch of us snorkeling and a shark came up and had a look at me, but decided I was too scrawny to be of any nutritional value and swam off. This picture was taken on the fourth night of the five day hike. We experienced so much along the way, this moment was like the crowning glory  — the sunset we had as we were enjoying our last evening meal together.”

Top Ten Things I'm Excited About Right Now

There’s great stuff happening these days!  This is at the top of the list…

10. We have an intern moving into our flat on Thursday! Her name is Hope and she’ll be serving the church in Edinburgh this summer. Should be fun!

9. Scottish summer!  With 18+ hours of daylight, Edinburgh in the summer is tons of fun (although a little hectic) — especially when the festival crowds show up! Woo woo!

8. I am having a blast selling my old textbooks on amazon. And making money!

7. I really think (and hope) Asher is getting some teeth finally! I can stop pureeing everything and buying baby food in jars!

6. Mark and I have recently gotten connected with a ministry called Samaritan’s Feet. We are excited about working with them in the future.

5. Asher is almost crawling on his hands and knees. I’m not excited about chasing him, but I’m excited that he’s getting some skills!

4. Mark & I have been hooked up with free flights and cheap accommodation in Paris — we are going for our anniversary next week! Oui Oui!

3. I’m going to be back in North Carolina for a wee while in August. Hooray for getting to see my Mom and Dad and hopefully some of my stateside friends!

2. Paris in next week! Oui Oui!

And finally…this is a big one…

1. We are MOVING to Cape Town, South Africa. I am very sad to be leaving my bonnie Scotland, but excited that we may soon be serving with Samaritan’s Feet in one of the most beautiful countries in the world! More details to come…

The Challenge of my Chequebook OR Schindler’s Attitude

Challenging Fact: I’ve heard that America spent roughly 20 billion dollars on ice cream in 2007 — enough to provide everyone in the world with clean water and food.

Through a variety of different means, I’ve been reminded again over the past few months about some of the basics of godly financial stewardship. Some things I’ve heard before — like the fact that the Bible talks more about money than any other subject, or the helpful reminder that you can tell where a person’s heart is if you look at their bank statements. But somewhere, I feel like a spiritual corner has been turned, and I am thinking about God’s money (the bit of it that’s in the Collie family hands) on a whole new level. I am challenged to the core to see a change in the way we live. Here’s my best attempt at describing what’s been going on in my heart.

One piece of the puzzle of what’s happening, I think, has to do with our sponsorship of a child through Compassion. I’m not sharing this to say “yay for the Collies, aren’t they great!?” but seriously, this is part of the story. For £18 each month (that’s currently about $26) we’re helping Compassion provide regular medical check-ups, hygiene training, dental care, supplemental nutrition and educational opportunities to a child in Burkina Faso. This little country in Western Africa, north of Ghana has a population of about 15 million, a life expectancy of 52 years, (some estimates are closer to 44) and a literacy level around 21%. Most adults are unemployed, but some work as seasonal labourers and earn the equivalent of £10 (yes, TEN POUNDS – less than fifteen dollars) per month.

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So, £18 – $26 used to not seem like a whole lot of money to me. It probably won’t pay for a meal at a restaurant in Scotland. I might be able to find a pair of jeans for that in America, but probably not here in Edinburgh. My food budget for a month here for our family is about twelve times that. But now, it suddenly seems like a whackload of cash. I’ve spent more than £18 on a single item of makeup before, and I’m pretty darn ashamed of that now.

The question that’s now ringing in my head at the till (cash register) was posed to me in a sermon recently — will this matter in eternity? And now I’m thinking about how I can spend LESS money on myself, because we could potentially sponsor another child. And another. Or maybe save up enough to sponsor the building of a well in an area without clean water! If we keep driving our old car, could we provide clean water for a village somewhere? Worth it!

Two weeks ago, a gentleman knocked on my door to share with me about a charity that is working for the protection of certain species of wild birds in Britain. Don’t get me wrong guys — I’m an avid recycler, I bring my own (IKEA) bags to the grocery store and don’t use plastic ones, I turn out the lights when I leave the room, and I care about the environmental impact of us crazy-consumer-humans. But I had to tell the guy, I cannot with a clear conscience pay for the stranded dogs and endangered birds of Britain when there are kids in other countries, like Burkina Faso, dying of malnutrition, malaria, meningitis, and diarrhoea. Seriously, dying of such easily treatable disease. While these kids and their families are being raised up with instruction about health, nutrition, opportunities to earn income, and so on, most important, people are sharing with them about the God who created them, loves them, and wants to spend eternity with them. Jesus cared about the poor, rejected and brokenhearted, and He instructed us to feed His sheep. Food for the body, and food for the soul — both are given in Jesus’ name.

To sum the matter up for the moment — I am thinking about things eternal. The Lord knows exactly how much money I’ve spent (or convinced my Mom to spend) on clothing, on food, on superfluous stuff, and on stuff that I actually needed. I’m afraid I would be ashamed to know some of those figures. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and feel like Oskar Schindler at the end of the Holocaust, looking at a ball point pen and thinking, I could’ve sold this to save the life of another Jew. It’s amazing that his incredible efforts have an amazing legacy — perhaps 6,000 descendants of Schindler Jews are alive today — and yet, he thought, “I could’ve done more.”

I do want to have Schindler’s attitude, for Jesus — “What more can I do?” “What else can I sell?” “How else can I serve or give to see your Kingdom come?” There are people that are hungry, there are people that are hurting, and there are people dying every day who don’t know anything about the God who loves them. How can they hear, unless someone tells them?

xCC