It's been One Year Already!

We have now been here at Kensaleyre for a year!  We feel like we are settling in and understanding the culture here a bit more now and learning so much about God's love and grace. We are looking forward to our next year in God's "vineyard" here on the Isle of Skye! The weather is changing and the heather has faded and the bracken(fern) has turned brown. There is a coolness of autumn in the air. Robert is wearing his jumpers.... yes, jumpers. That's what they call sweaters here. They don't even say sweaters. He has had a hard time with that one. He told some church members the other day that most men would never wear a jumper! Speaking about differences in language....how about "I will give you a tinkle later?" I really like that one! It's a phone call. Or "Quit blethering!" Which means to stop just going on and on. We learn new words almost daily. I should write them all down.

Garden dinner...with fork and knife

We are also adjusting to table manners. Fork upside down in left hand, knife in right. You know there is something to say about scooping your food onto the fork upside down. It is definately a more leisurely way to eat and it's not as difficult as using chopsticks! Robert's much better at it than Linda.

Fruits of our labors!

 
For a first year garden, with a plot totally covered in grass and weeds, we have been pleasantly surprised at the produce. Some of the turnips have been as big as footballs! There is quite a variety of potatoe types, and enough harvested for a big sack stored in the garage for the winter. The carrots are sweet and plentiful, and we had a sampling of several other kinds of vegetables as mentioned in  previous blogs. Murdo, (my head gardener) tells me that the soil here is really good. Adding lots of cow manure sure helps too. Since it was such a success, we will double the size next year. You know I could go into business, selling organic vegetables. They are in demand here and quite expensive. But I rather give them away.

 

Sheep continue to delight and entertain us. We were watching out the bedroom window today as the next door crofter had his dogs in training herding some sheep. It is fascinating to watch them in action. Those poor sheep were just running back and forth as fast as their skinny little legs would take them. The dogs kind of crouch down like that cartoon character, Road Runner. You'll see some of the sheep jump straight up into the air they get so agitated. Our neighbor has won several sheep herding competitions with his dogs. We also saw some dogs herding a flock of geese this summer. Now that was funny...all of them stayed in a line like little soldiers. Quite different than sheep.

 


   

Marianna and her husband Pete



 We have been encouraged by a number of things this summer and early fall. Marianne Naylor is a very sweet lady in our Uig church who this year started coming back to church after a long absence. She also began coming to the Women's Bible study. She has recently recommitted her life to Christ and was so joyful and delighted to share in communion this time. We are thankful for her growth in the Lord. 

DI, his dad and one of elders singing at communion fellowship

 DI Murchison, who I mentioned in a previous blog, prayed and asked Christ to be his Savior recently. He made a public profession of his faith and joined the church as well.  He has been coming to prayer meetings on Wednesday evenings and his commitment to the Lord Jesus has been encouraging to all our members. We are still meeting with the youth every other Friday (fortnight) at the manse and recently participated in an event at Uig for youth. We hosted several of the volunteers and enjoyed hearing their testimonies of God's grace in their lives. One of the young men had been a heroin addict and was saved just two years ago. He had a wonderful testimony of God's power in delivering him from that addiction. We appreciate your prayers for us as we challenge these youth here to respond to Christ.

After communion fellowship...lots of tea and biscuits



The Cullin mountains

 Robert has been preaching through the book of Philippians on Sunday nights and the Sermon on the Mount Sunday mornings. He recently went on a "Mission" where he preached up in the north end of Scotland at a place called Wick. He preached 7 times over a period of 4 days. There was a wonderful response to his messages and many there told him how the Lord had used his messages to really speak to their hearts. That was a refreshing experience. He also had an opportunity to do some "street evangelism". He and some others preached and handed out tracts in the town square. He thoroughly enjoyed that experience and talked to several people hanging around the area about their need for the salvation. Seeds were planted there. While there, we had a guest preacher come to the Kensaleyre church on Sunday night to fill the pulpit. His name is Stevie Boyle. He is from a notorious Glasgow drug dealing family. He and his whole family were drug addicts. His father was imprisoned for quite some time and Stevie also jailed on numerous charges through his young years. At 27 years old he said he thought he was dying as his heroin habit was so severe. about that time, some Christians invited him to a retreat on Iona. (It is an island off the west coast of Scotland famous for being a place where Christianity started and spread to the rest of the Scotland).  He said the Christian love for him and their acceptance of him gave him hope. He prayed and asked Christ to save him. The Lord did, and he went to work with Teen Challenge in Wales and lived with Christians there. He is now married to a lovely woman and they have two young children. They live here on Skye and he is attending the Highland Theological Seminary and hoping to start a substance abuse program. What a testimony of God's grace! What encouragement that no one is beyond hope. And what a challenge to us as believers to love those who at first glance we might "write off" as being hopeless. Robert and I want to love the people here on Skye with Jesus love. We really appreciate your prayers for us! We are so excited about our visit to the states these next few weeks and hope to see some of you there. And we just want to say again..."you are most welcome to come to visit us on this beautiful Isle of Skye whenever you can!" The Lord bless you.