Week 1

The first week in lovely Scotland is over! The flight up was very...long. I had a 2 and a half hour flight to Detroit, where I had a three hour layover and then a connecting flight to Amsterdam. The flight to Amsterdam was seven hours, and although I tried my very best, I only got to sleep about two hours. Considering it was only 4 pm when we left, that might have explained my sleeplessness. Then there was a delay between Amsterdam and Glasgow, which put my travel time at 23 hours. It was pretty intense when I got here, because all I wanted to do was sleep, but had to stay awake another seven hours. Don't remember a whole lot about that day, but do know I slept wonderfully that night!



Ok, so I figured it would be good to introduce everyone at the base, so if I reference them later on it'll be clear who I'm talking about. First off, Tim and Amy Robson are the base leaders. They have two kids: Garrett and Cara. Then Sarah and John Wilson, who are our DTS leaders, and they have one kid: Bayne. Corbin Miles is one of the DTS students,and he brought his whole family: wife Stacey, and four boys, Aidan, Corbin Neal, Boston, and Rowan. The single staff members are Theo, Geoffrey, Anna, Sandra, and Danielle (Ding). Geoff and Ding are helping lead our DTS, and will be the ones going with us on outreach. Then I share a room with the four other DTS students: Annaliese (my bunk mate), Cerina, Kelsey, and Sarah. They're all wonderful and we get along quite well.












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We're all American except Sarah, who's from Luton, England. It's been a lot of fun mimicking her accent and telling her how we can't take her seriously when she gets mad because she "sounds so cute". Poor Sarah. She tells us to stop letting her corrupt our wonderful accents, and she's determined not to get an American accent so that she won't get teased when she gets home. After six months with us, though, I'm thinking it might be inevitable. I already have picked up a bit of her accent, though, since the other night a Scottish girl I met told me she thought I was from England. Oh dear.



So each week is going to consist of around the same schedule: Monday-Friday we get up and eat breakfast in time to start Connect at 7:30, which is an hour of alone time with God. It's amazing how quickly you adjust to spending an hour with your best friend, and use so many different ways to connect with Him. At 8:30 most of the people in the house come together to worship through singing, and pray. This base has a big focus on Ancient Celtic Christianity and New Monasticism, so at most prayer times we read old Celtic Christian prayers, which are beautiful, and then pray for whatever God puts on our hearts. It's very open and honest and beautiful. At 9:00 am Tuesday-Thursday we have a lecture with a different speaker each week, and that goes until 1 pm. Mondays in the morning we do a book discussion, and then intercession about where we'll go on outreach. It's one of my favorite parts of the week, because it's a really intense prayer time and listening to God on what He wants from us. Fridays we do house cleaning in the morning. Then the afternoons are filled with work projects, craft projects, outreach to the community, book discussions, and other things. Two evening a week we have Express, where we work on sharing our testimonies and about things God is doing in our lives, and Film and Theology, where we watch a movie and discuss it. Overall our weeks are pretty busy, but awesome because it's filled with the good stuff -- God! Already I've been feeling God move in my life in ways that are completely new and different, and it's the most amazing feeling.



Life at the base this week has been pretty crazy. We mostly did orientation things, but got a few fun things thrown in. On Tuesday we went on a lovely hike up into the Braes, which is the Scottish word for hills. It was pouring rain, but we managed to find a little fort to have Fika (A swedish tradition that we participate in twice a day. We come together and fellowship and drink coffee and tea and eat biscuits and fruit). Thursday we had a nice little trip into Paisley, the town I'm living in. I've been there before, but I love this place so it's nice seeing it again, especially when it's not freezing cold and raining. Yesterday we went hiking up Conic Hill! It was super intense, especially for my poor untrained body. I was about to die after about fifteen minutes, but I made it to the top, and wow, it was worth it.



My 21st birthday was on Wednesday, and it was wonderful. This place really feels like a family, and basically everyone I know in Scotland was there. It was so awesome and I felt very loved, especially after barely having been here a week. I really love this place.

So that's my extremely long first week update! Please keep praying for me and our team, specifically pray about us deciding where God wants us on outreach. It's one of the biggest decisions right now! I love you all, and have a great week. :) By the way, I'll probably be updating this on Sunday evenings, so that would be the best time to check back for updates.