"Falling" Forward in His Grace!

 

How does Your Garden Grow?

 



Looking for Slugs and rabbit damage!

Lots of potatoes (however a bit smaller this year), turnips, less cabbage, snap peas, regular peas, lettuce,  and onions have been unearthed, pulled up, picked, etc. Carrots, parsnips, celeric, fennel and beetroot soon to come  and weeds continually competing for prominence! Rain often keeps me out of the garden but not the rabbits! I didn't think we were going to have any cabbage left, they were being so greedy. However, we were able to get chicken wire around the whole perimeter of the garden (and that's alot of chicken wire!) and so far it looks like they haven't been able to wiggle under it and get back in! Robert had tried some techniques (unsuccessfully) previous to the chicken wire to scare them away, which I will leave to your imaginations!

We enjoy sharing the produce with neighbors and friends as well as serving it up for those who come to the manse for a meal.  We have been serving up lots of meals here; visiting ministers who come to do communion week services, church members, visitors to our churches, fellow presbytery ministers and even some hitchhikers!

We had a great "Holiday Club" this summer, with Jonathan and Elizabeth Tink planning the program. This year we had 18 children attend and we were thrilled so many came along!  On the last day of the club, parents and relatives came to watch the kids singing, reciting scripture verses, and hear the bible story for the day. We served up some highland baked goods and tea at the end. It was nice this year to have several from our parish volunteer to help us. We were a bit nervous, only having the Tinks and ourselves to run the club this year (last year we had a team come in). However, several of our folks "stepped up to the plate" and it was great!
Communion in September.....Roger and Pearl Page and Sandy Sanderson came again for our September communion services...all the way from London area! In a previous blog, we wrote about their 40+ years in Christian Literature Crusade ministry. They attended a communion here in Snizort Parish a year ago while they were here on Skye for holiday. Since then, they have planned their holidays to coincide with our communions. What a blessing they have been to us personally. This last communion, Roger and Sandy each preached at one of the 4 "Preparatory Services" before the actual communion service on Sunday morning.

Fall youth meetings have started up and we have increased to 10 youth! They are a lively bunch!  With the 3 new attendees being 12 years old, there is a new dimension of energy in the room!! We are looking at a Norwegian missionary's life story, and the youth are "keen" to hear what will happen next time we meet. Please pray that all those who have yet to respond to the grace of the Lord will do so this year. 

Robert and Jonathan have the opportunity again this year to go into the schools every 2 weeks to do a devotional. They use a puppet monkey "Leroy" and he has captured the kids attention with all his antics. What a rare opportunity it is here in Scotland to go into public schools and share God's Word on a regular basis!  There are 60+ children at MacDiarmid Primary school and 15+ at Edinbane. We appreciate your prayers for them!

Robert and Jonathan also alternate preaching each week in the different churches in our parish. Robert has been greatly relieved to have 2 services on Sunday, rather than 3! We are so thankful to the Lord for bringing the Tinks to help us here in Snizort Parish! We have been so encouraged by their coming alongside us in ministry.
The women's bible study continues to be a big blessing for Linda. We consistently have 9-12 women coming each week to the manse to study God's word. We have been using the book "Lies Women Believe" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss as the guide in our study. The ladies do their homework each week and we have had some good discussions. Our fellowship and love for one another has grown over these past 2 years together.

Even with all these great opportunities for ministry within our parish this summer, there has also been a heaviness in our spirits over the decisions of the recent General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In the Lochcarron Skye Presbytery, of which Snizort parish is a part, there are 5 out of 9 ministers who plan to leave their parish ministries in the near future. The decision to allow practicing homosexual ministers freedom to keep their positions and to stay on a "trajectory" to ordain practicing homosexuals to ministry has created a great division in churches, presbyteries and the denomination as a whole. William Philip, pastor of the St.George Tron Church in Glasgow, expressed our (and many others in the Church of Scotland) sentiments about this decision quite well in a letter to his congregation. Please take the time if you can and read it yourself: http://new.tronmedia.org/news/from-the-minister/
It's a sad thing when Scripture is basically ignored and a denomination takes a path toward being "culturally correct" rather than standing by what God has revealed to us very clearly in His Word.
Some ministers have said they want to wait until 2013, when there will be more definitive legal moves, but others say that C of S has already crossed the line and it's time to go now. We are among the ones who feel they can no longer stand "under the banner" of the
C of S. It is very grievious to us and other ministers to leave their "flocks".  Many church members are leaving as well. We greatly appreciate your prayers for us as we seek to discern God's leadership in where He wants us to go from here.
We are headed back to states for a visit soon and hope to see some of you there. We are expecting a new grandson this month and are looking forward to meeting him! Blessings to all of you!! 

Highland Spring and Summer

You barely knew it was springtime or summer, as far as the weather is concerned. Yes, the temperatures have been milder and we haven't seen snow lately....but yet....so much drizzle and grey almost all the time. We have had serious talks about getting those lamps that imitate sunlight. Some of our friends have them and say they really help the doldrums you get with so much grey and wet weather. However, the dafodils have bloomed and faded, and it's warm enough to see the purple flowers on the heather poking through. They do brighten up the surroundings! Earlier in the spring we had the snowdrops blooming all over. They are a smalll white wild flower that is rampant around the highlands early March.

Robert, Jonathan Tink and Murdo on the way to shovel
horse manure for the garden! What great guys!

Because the calendar says it's spring, it's time to get the garden ready. Murdo MacDonald will be 90 years old this year, and is still active and eager to help this Texas lady perfect the art of vegetable gardening! I have been writing everything down this year...as my memory is quite sketchy on occasion. I was given a wonderful "Dodos Book of Gardening" that has lots of empty pages and places for notes on your garden. My friend, Marianna, had Murdo write down what I needed to do each month in the garden and then presented the book to me for Christmas. So, the seeds were sown, the electric propagator ran in the garage to keep the plants warm. That was crucial, as it has been so cool here this spring. The horse manure was shoveled into bags and later spread generously over the vegetable plots. We expanded the garden to almost twice the size it was last year. Now it's the middle of June and all we need is some good warm weather!  Hopefully I'll have some good pictures later on of produce harvest time!


It's been quite awhile since I last blogged, so here is a synopsis of some of the activities we've been involved in so far this year.
 

Rosemary MacDonald, Ann Allen, and Linda

We had "North Skye Mission" in March. The Church of Scotland and Free Church congregations get together for a series of meetings with some very good preaching! Martin Allen (he's a retired minister who overseas the Crieff conference for ministers each year) preached for the 4 services and was very inspirational. Also, his lovely wife, Ann, spoke on the Saturday morning to a large group of ladies in our Kensaleyre church. She talked about her 25+ years as a minister's wife. We all appreciated her openness about some of the struggles in ministry. 

World Evangelism Crusade missionaries came and spoke at the different churches here in the Northern part of Skye. We were privileged to host a young couple who are missionaries to the Congo. They were energetic and very committed to bringing the gospel message to a people in a very dangerous and hostile place. What an inspiration they were!  

Steve & Catherine McGoldrick-on left- missionaries to Congo

We enjoyed watching the wedding of the royal couple, Kate and William, at Murdo and Mairi MacDonald's house. Mairi provided an elegant "brunch" with china and quite a delightful assortment of sweets and savories! We felt like we were part of the Royal festivities, and it was fun experiencing it on this side of the "pond".

We continue to have the opportunity to meet with some youth in our parish on
Friday nights, most recently we have been doing "Christianity Explored" with them. We have really been blessed to have the Tinks help us with the youth. There are 5-6 who are faithful to come and we are most grateful for the opportunity to reach out to them with the gospel.
In May we had a great time with Linda's sister, Paula, and her husband, Steve, and their longtime friend, Evette. We spent a week in the Dumfries Galloway region of Scotland and then went on to Edinburgh, Leith, Pitlochry and on to Skye for one week. Unfortunately, the weather was less than ideal...(shall we say gale force winds for several days on Skye?) So, if anyone says May is usually a good time to visit Scotland,weather wise...take it with a grain of salt! It could be, but it also could be terrible! In spite of the weather, we saw alot, and had many laughs!

Caerlaverock Castle near Dumfries

Edinburgh Castle guides

Robert at a Medieval exhibit in Dollar learning how to use a sword!

(There's alot more to say about our time with Paula,Steve and Evette...but you can imagine what went on with this group of grown up hippies! Wild things! Ha!)

In June, Linda went home to Texas for a short visit. Our daughter, Sarah and her husband Josh came to Texas from Norfolk and the family hosted a baby shower out at Linda's parent's home. It was a great time to celebrate the coming blessing of a new little one...our 4th grandson! He will arrive sometime in September.
We would appreciate your prayers for Church of Scotland ministers and congregations at this time. At the General Assembly in May this year, there was a vote for the acceptance of homosexual ministers currently ordained within the Church of Scotland. Many congregations and ministers are against this move and are considering a response. We feel there will be many who will leave the Church of Scotland within the next couple of years. Our own parish, as well as Robert and I are opposed to the Church of Scotland's decision and are considering what response we should make. Please pray for wisdom and direction for us as well as all those who adhere to the authority of God's Word.
We have a Holiday club scheduled for July 12-16th again this year. We appreciate your prayer for that outreach as well. Thank you all for your prayers and support these past couple of years.