Sep 1, 2009 | Travel..ling Tuesdays
I’ve decided to bring a new wee feature to the blog, for your viewership enjoyment, which will be Traveling Tuesdays. My dear friend Rob likes to spell travelling with two l’s, which is totally okay, according to my Mac Dictionary, and sort of makes sense, because the two-l spelling is chiefly British, and so is he, in a Zimbabwean sort of way. This isn’t really a problem unless he sets up your wireless router for you, and tells you ‘travelling’ is the password, without spelling it. I’m sure you can figure out where the trouble comes in.
Since we’re doing a good bit of ‘travelling’ these days, and Mark and I have both had some good opportunities to travel in the past, I thought you might enjoy a few snapshots from here and there. I was thinking of letting you guess where each one is from, but that seems a bit trite. Feel free to give feedback. I’ll try to include a story with each pic if it has a good one.
Without further ado, let the Travelling Tuesdays…begin.
This is possibly one of my most favourite travel shots ever.
Hopefully, you can guess the location. The backstory: Mark and I were closing accounts in Edinburgh before our move to South Africa, and discovered we had enough miles on our Airmiles card to head to either Dublin or Paris. It was either use ’em or lose ’em and we couldn’t use them towards our upcoming flights to America or South Africa, so we said, well thanks very much, I guess we’ll make the most of ’em! Â We were able to go over our second anniversary, and the trip was amazing, wonderful, and super special. How many kids can say they made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower before their first birthday? 🙂
xCC
Aug 27, 2009 | Baby Photos
I have a lot of updating to do…we are less than two weeks away from the beginning of our South African adventure! I will be sure to keep you posted as soon as! Â In the meantime, there’s a delightful picture I had to take a moment to share. This is definitely a picture that’s worth a thousand words. I shall simply entitle it, “Bear and Grandma.” Enjoy.
xCC
Jun 15, 2009 | Scotland, South Africa, Top Ten Lists
There’s great stuff happening these days! Â 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! Â 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…
Jun 11, 2009 | Baby Photos, Stories
A lot of my friends are beginning to remind me of their mothers. It makes me feel like I’m getting on in years, and it makes me wonder if I remind my friends of my mother. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, I don’t think. Â I really like my Mom.
xCC
May 16, 2009 | Scotland, Stories
Some friends of mine from church here in Edinburgh were part of a mission trip to Nepal a few weeks ago. They helped make a very special Pastor’s Conference happen and, among other things, also began looking into the possibility of helping with the great and grave issue of human trafficking there. This is especially a problem among young Nepali women who are often lured to India with the promise of work, and tricked into forced labour in the continually burgeoning sex industry there. They also visited a wonderful native of Nepal named Nima who was a classmate of mine at the University of Edinburgh. He studying in Edinburgh, but doing field research back in his home country, because he has a heart to see the Gospel effectively spread in Nepal through church planting. Through Nima (whose family currently resides here in Edinburgh) these connections between our local church and the people of Nepal have begun to form. Exciting stuff!
A friend of mine named David was among those on the trip — some of you may remember the story of how he was my first letting agent in Edinburgh, (translation for the Americans: he rented me my first flat/apartment) and was a great blessing to me as my life started here. David shared the following story with me. It is both inspiring and challenging. I hope it touches your heart, too.
One Day a beggar woman that lived in a temple was going down to the river when she saw in the distance a man throwing a sack into the river. He noticed her and ran away. She thought he may have stolen something and so she began to walk over to investigate. The dogs beat her there and were dragging the bag and trying to open it. She arrived and scared them off. Slowly she opened the bag to find a small baby inside, only a few days old. She gathered the baby up and took her back to the temple where she lived and begged for money to survive. She cared for this child for 9 years until she died.
A woman from a church heard about the child (called Didi) and contacted Shanta (pronounced “Santa,” this woman runs the Peace Rehabilitation Centre the team visited) to ask her if she would take the child in. Shanta of course said yes. Sadly the day that the beggar woman died the gurus at the temple raped the girl. Shanta went the next day to see the little girl and asked her if she would like to come with her. She said yes and PRC would become her home and family where she would be educated, find healing and love.
Fast forward many years. Didi had many offers to marry as she grew to be a beautiful young woman, but she turned them all down. One day another man came to ask her if she would marry him. He had been stricken with tuberculosis of the spine as a child, which left him very disabled. To everyone’s surprise, Didi said yes. Shanta asked her why she would choose to marry this man, and this was her reply. “Mommy if I do not marry him who will? You took me in when no one else would, and showed me love. Jesus sacrificed his life for me when he did not have to. I will sacrifice all I have to care for and love this man.”
We had the privilege to meet this couple in our last few days in Nepal. They have two children and you can see the love in their eyes for one another.
Wow. We have so much to be thankful for. And so much work to do. Lord help us to remember, despite how much so many of us have, how BIG, how great, how amazing, and how magnificent a gift the sacrifice of Jesus is, to those of us who have received Him and for those who still need to know.
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