Mondays post is gonna be short… we were going pretty hard most of the day today.

This was the main setup day at the venue… I was there for part of the day, mostly doing video work, and helping to assemble the stage.

The rest of the team was working all day to setup lots of chairs and move large skate ramps and stuff… this is gonna be a great big event. The ramps are huge, and a massive undertaking to just get them off of the truck.

The main sound and lighting truck got stuck in customs, and they wouldn’t let it into the country… but we prayed, and eventually they got through.

I spent the better part of the day doing some last minute design and printing stuff, and running errands for Frank (the main director guy) I have enjoyed getting to know Kilmarnick and stuff, and driving around by myself running errands was fun… although I was bragging about how comfortable I was getting driving around Kilmarnick, and then while we were coming home, we took a wrong turn and ended up driving a bit out of the way. Once we are off the map, it is easy to get lost.

We’ve been having regular devotions in the morning individuals, and as a team. Also sort of a debriefing in the evening. Some times are better than others, but it is important (at least for me) to have that regular time to spend with God and stuff – and to sort of share together. Mostly, the evening meetings have been pretty silly – but that’s ok too.

Marc and Julie were sharing some cool stories about followup happening at the first town we were at (Tilly) There is loads of anticipation for tomorrow night… the community seems a bit of a buzz with all the goings on. Lets pray for a great turnout etc.

On the difficulty end, pray that it stops raining for a bit, and allows the parking area to dry up… it is very very muddy right now… the Rowallan people were supposed to pave it, but didn’t… so it is pretty ugly for parking. It is one thing that could throw a wrench in it for local people driving out.

Loads of people are coming on busses… so hopfully that will help

Missing the family a bit, but making it through. Mom and Julie and the kids just showed up tonight, so it is nice to be together with them again.

Our trip to a chippy (fish and chips) Nate got some black pudding (clotted cows blood)

also, nate is taking lots of pictures of cars... thought I would include a cool one here

 
 
 
  

I know these are a bit out of order... sorry
Island breeze in the church at fenwick
Death and Desire in the club
and some pretty stuff we saw from the road on our way to ministry stuff


 
 
 
  

 
 
 
  

its sunday... We got up way too early today… Marc mistakenly forgot about the daylight savings time switch, and I had talked to several people about it who reasured me that it wasn’t this weekend in scotland (or else I misunderstood) in any case, we already didn’t have enough sleep, and this made it worse.

We went to the school to setup skate ramps for the GX outreach tonight, and nobody was there… so more wasted sleeping time.

In any case, we went to a cool church this morning. It is an official Church of Scotland, but from what Marc says, it is a particularly good church… in any case it is old… 1600s and Presbyterian in style. It seemed like there were quite a number of older people around, but there were some younger too, and an interesting mix of ancient practice and modern interpretation. In any case, it was interesting.

After lunch, we finished the 1300 badges that we were working on with the help of the Edinborough YWAM team. Yay for Edinborough.

Tonight was a bit more relaxed than expected (which seems to be the story) so it was nice to be together as a team in a more relaxed setting.

Tomorrow is an early and big work day for us, everyone pray for the details to fall together, and for the right people to show up to the outreaches.

One of the things that I think that God gave me for Scotland, was related to the Castles… a Castle like Edinborough is well kept and updated as the young people of the nation take over leadership and move into places of authority...even a queen was crowned as a child and ruled well. Today, the castle is still used for lots of different purposes. It continues to morph and change as needed.

The other alternative is to do nothing, and let the castle fall into disrepair and eventually become obsolete... now think about the church in this context. We need to constantly retool, and to allow young people to take on the challenge of leadership. We need to be open to change, even drastic change sometimes.

 
 
 
  

Friday was an interesting day. It involved having our team and personal devotions interrupted by a Scottish bagpiper named Alec. He is a neighbor of the Hamers, and they talked him into coming to surprise us with some authentic sounds… we were all quiet, reading our bibles and stuff, and all of a sudden out on the street we heard the sounds.

We all had the chance to take our stab at em. The highland pipes are really hard to play… \i mean physically hard. The muscles in your mouth have to be able to withstand tremendous pressure to be able to keep the sound going. Once I learned how it was done, I could pull it off, but I couldn’t really concentrate on blowing, and playing anything more than a squeek. But it was fun to try. If I remember right, none of the girls could get a sound out of the chanter, but the guys could… go guys.

We travelled down to the YWAM base in seamill – which took way much longer than it should have because of crazy traffic. And then we headed over to the outreach venue. We weren’t really part of the team or anything, but just observing the Island Breeze team.

There was an altar call of course, and a few people came forward. There were some tears which showed that God was doing something in peoples lives…

There were lots of older people at this venue, but some kids as well – it was sort of more for the church in Fenwick (pronounced fenick) they have been so generous supplying all these teams with meals… its crazy.

We helped clean up a little bit after the event, but that’s about it. I got the chance to sit in and observe Frank (Scotland co-director with Becky, Marc, and Julie) for the first time. I need to say that I think he is the right man for the job. I was impressed with his vision and determination.

We got back so late… arggg a quick team de-briefing, and pretty much to bed we go.

Early up on Saturday, heading off to Kilmarnick to hand out flyers in the downtown pedestrian area… its very much like America used to be before walmart, with little shops and stuff where people buy what they need. The team handed out a ton of flyers, and got a pretty decent response. It seems like there is a bit of a buzz locally, My guess is that the local venue that holds 2000 is gonna be packed, unless the parking situation really deters people from coming.

From what ive heard, parking is one of the only downsides to the venue, but it’s a big problem of course. If you are reading this, please pray that God makes a way for this, and gives wisdom to the leadership.

Anyway, while the team was flyering, I was walking all over the city trying to find card stock in 8 specific colors… what I wouldn’t have given for an American superstore of some kind.

Anyway, I finally make a decision on what paper I am gonna buy, but I had to run back and feed the parking meter, I had to walk all across town to do it, but I didn’t want to get a ticket, so I did. Till I got back (another walk across town) I discovered that the place closed at 1pm… arggh. So I proceeded to plan C, and went back and forth between 2 stores till I got something that would work.

In the afternoon, our team cut colored ribbons and prepared to make 1300 lanyards with printed name cards, color coded to match the busses that are transporting… this is especially so the kids don’t get mixed up and end up on the wrong bus, and in the wrong town. I spent the afternoon designing the cards on photoshop, and printing the cards.

Tonight we went to a local club called the Ark http://www.ayrark.co.uk where one of the IWT teams played – a hardcore band called “Death and Desire” www.myspace.com/deathanddesire They were actually quite good. I enjoyed the music quite a bit, and the club was absolutely amazing.

The Ark is an interesting place. The owner and the staff seem to be dedicated Christians, and the club is open to all – of course – so there are lots of community kids, probably unchurched… and they bring in secular bands and stuff… so anyway, im not sure much more about that. All I know is that facility wise, this place was amazing.

So we are home late again… team meeting at 11pm, which was fun because we are all silly. Thank God for sillyness over drama and grumpyness. And thank God for nice hot tea.

So now, till I checked all my email, taking care of printing directions to the place we are going tomorrow it is 1am… and I need to wake up at 6:30am to build skate ramps before church. Its gonna be a short night – im gonna have to sleep faster than normal.

you might find some more comments on the hamers blog
or kairsies blog
or melodys blog

a great evening of outreach happened tonight. Team Extreme in a small town called Tillicoultry (Tilli) with an amazingly beautiful view of the nearby mountains.

Last night was a late night, and my alarm didn’t go off this morning, so I made it just in time to shower before breakfast.

Our drive to the outreach took much longer because of some unexpected road work and stuff. When we got there, we helped bring cement blocks in, and helped setup plywood on the stage and stuff like that. There are 5 teams here in Scotland for these weeks of outreach. Team Extreme had 17 or so on the team, from all over the world. Each team brings support staff and stuff too, and since they do this all the time – going from town to town, they really know what they are doing. Four of the teams are performance teams, and the fifth team is a 16 member technology crew, including sound lights and video. Since this particular venue was pretty small, there wasn’t as much work for us to do early in the day… we finished everything, and all the teams were done setting up early.

I really enjoyed having lunch with the different teams, and hearing about their different ministries and stuff… they are a lot of fun.

The William Wallace monument was only 10 minutes away, and there were a couple of members from the other teams really determined to check this out, so we went over to have a look. It was quite a hike up the hill to the monument. Lots of steps, but none of us wanted to spend money to see the museum, so we went back to the ministry venue. There was still some time to kill before the event, so Nate and I prayer walked around the neighborhood, and Kairsie went with a lady from the church – back to her house for some warm tea. An hour later, Nate and I ran into Mel and Heidi, but we had no way to reach Kairsie, so we just decided to wander around the country side to check it out. Nate had his camera and the place was so scenic that we really wanted to get some nice shots of the town. Anyway, we ended up stumbling across this really nice glen with waterfalls all the way up and trail and stuff.

When we got back to the venue, we helped with lots of organization stuff, helping Julie coordinate the volunteers and such.

Then the kids started pouring in… all shapes and sizes… with tons of adults mixed in. the place ended up being packed to over capacity (around 450 people or so including staff and volunteers)

I did a pile of video taping throughout the day, trying to use my experience to benefit the work. I am shooting for a promotional video for next years event. It was really great to hear firsthand how the local Christians were energized by the turnout and response. Nate and Kairsie were “stewards” basically did crowd control, and had their hands full with the rowdies up in the balcony... They had tons of kids – some of who cheered when the guy was sharing about his former problem of smoking weed.

Team Extreme is basically a power team, which the kids love… they are breaking big cement blocks with their hands, feet and head. Bending bars of iron, breaking baseball bats over their knees etc. The young people were having a great time.

There were tons of kids that went forward for the altar call, and they were taking names and stuff for local followup.

We ended up working at the venue till about 11pm or so, lots of cleaning up debris.

Now back at the Hamers house, I’m getting pretty tired. Tomorrow we are leaving for Seamill, that’s where we will be for the remainder of our outreach. Its going so fast, can’t believe it.

Gods been really showing me stuff during my prayer walking, and devotional time and stuff. I wish I had more time to write it all down and articulate it well. Maybe tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

 
 
 
  

 
 
 
  

i wrote this post tuesday, but had trouble posting it

tonight ended up a cold and rainy evening – typical from what I understand in Scotland.

I’m here in Bridge of Alan Scotland (near stirling) and really having a great time. Im here with 4 other great young people, Nate, Kairsie, Mel, Heidi, and of course staying with my sister Julie and her family who have been here for 3 years.

We arrived yesterday (Tuesday) pretty tired from the flight over. It went pretty smooth and jet lag hasn’t really affected me much, but it was good that we could just sort of find our place and chill a little bit. I am driving the rental van around which is quite a challenge. Driving on the wrong side of the road, yielding to traffic coming the wrong way, and navigating traffic circles of every shape and size. It was good to have Marc or Julie with me riding shotgun, or it would have been tragic. I feel more confident now, which is good because I will need to be more and more on our own.

The real outreach stuff tarts on Thursday, and they will have us working hard for the rest of the time, working late, pulling all nighters to tear down ministry stuff etc. So we decided to take Tuesday to recover, and Wednesday for a vacation day.

Tuesday soon after we were settled into the house and had lunch and stuff we did some local touring around. Kairsie stayed back at the house and slept while we had all the fun. She had been working 3rd shift and had even less sleep than us. I really didn’t sleep more than 20-30 minutes on the plane (overnight flight) and so all day was just running on excitement and adrenaline.

Tuesday part of our recovery required us to visit the very close local “Dune castle” which is the castle they used to film 90% of Monty Pythons search for the holy grail. In any case, the castle was not really restored that much, and just felt very medieval. Which was cool, and we got to see lots of places where the film was shot.

After Dune Castle, we visited downtown Stirling (which included a very very fast look at the castle) – Julie showed us the church they attend as well we checked out some shops and stuff. The whole time, Julie is sharing lots about Scotland that is important to really know and under stand to be able to minister here.

When we got home, we had a really amazing meal, with traditional Scottish Haggis, nips and tates (haggis is like liquid scrapple made from lamb, nips are turnips, and tates are potatoes. We also watched a video that Julie made in which she interviewed youth on the streets of Stirling. It was really interesting to hear all their ideas on God, what happens when you die, and what they think of Church. It is amazing to hear how post-christian/agnostic/atheist/no-faith the people are. It is really amazing how important missionaries are to a culture like this who really has no idea what Jesus is all about. And yet it is so hard, because the culture is pretty closed to it. The video opened my eyes, and I realized why all the more, the Hamers are needed with this outreach targeting youth.

This morning started off pretty cool… odd but cool. God woke me up really early (6am) and prompted me to take a walk. So I showered and left for a spontanious walk through Bridge of Alan. This was definitely a prayer walk, as I was praying for the Scottish people just walking through town… on the edge of town I came across a train station, and as I prayed I started to get this sense that God might want me to pray for stirling by actually taking the train there. Now mind you, ive never been on the train here, and hardly ever at home for that matter, but I went down to check the time and stuff, and God kept working on me to confirm it… It wouldn’t leave my mind – so in an effort to be obedient, I got on the train and took it down to Stirling. The trip was spent, just covering the countryside in prayer and also the individual people I ran into. When I got off the train, I had no idea where I was, but I checked to see when the next train back home was lined up to leave. So in prayer, I walked up the hill into the city… which stumbled me upon Stirling Baptist Church (the church where Julie had taken us just yesterday. So I felt that God had brought me to that place for a specific - reason to pray. God also showed me a symbol. As I looked up at the steeple of the church, and the rain falling and misting from the sky, my prayer for Stirling Baptist, for the city, and the country of Scotland was that Gods spirit would just fall on us like the rain which is so constant, all around us and even in the air here in Scotland. Every time it rains now(which is all the time,) I am gonna try to remember to pray that the holy spirit just blows through Scotland, changing lives.

Today, we took our vacation day to Edinborough – which was beautiful. We took a decent tour of the castle there, and ate lunch in a little cheap deli (which was actually quite expensive when translated into American dollars) – where the kitchen was built (as a kitchen) in 1420… Everything is so old… another shop we were in told us that the place was built in 1450 or something, and lots of stuff is still original – like in the basement, and the steps in the main shop used to be the steps to a castle. The stone steps were actually worn down from people walking on them for hundreds of years. Castles that were first built in 1100s and stuff… Ive never been in a place that has so much history… its nuts.

Tonight Nate, Heidi and I went on an unplanned adventure to see a local football game in Stirling, it was cold and rainy, but it was fun, and to get out on our own, and just immerse ourselves in the culture. People aren’t very outwardly friendly to strangers – its just not what they are used to… so smiles are met with strange looks (like what do you want – or whats wrong with you.) This is a generalization, but it seems like they are probably lots of fun once you get to know them.

Jesus ministry was rooted in the fact that he had compassion for the people, for the masses. I feel that after this day and a half of learning, experiencing the culture etc. that I am more suited to minister from that same compassion. I do feel that I really love the people of Scotland, and I want them to know the Hope that we can have through Jesus Christ. So here goes.

Tomorrow all the hard outreach work is starting. I hope I will have a chance to update, but no promises. If you are reading this, pray for IWT. www.iwtscotland.com The power team is doing a local outreach near here, and we will help setup in the morning, promote the event, help to run the event, and help cleanup afterwards. Mostly what we are doing is just servant based stuff. Helping out.

It is great to have the chance to be with the Hamers. It seems like we just picked up where we left off last time. I hadn’t seen them in 16 months, but its lots of fun. The kids are growing of course, so that’s fun too… to hang out with them.

Just thought I would post a little bit of an update on life. Not that I have time to post, but it needs to be done.

Im three weeks into this "pastoral internship" with Zion. I think it is going pretty good - although there are so many things I want to do, and so many people I want to connect with, that it is just literally impossible - not enough hours in the day. I guess it gives me a little insight into how it is to be a pastor. To care about people their lives, and their spiritual lives, and yet be challenged to balance administrative and relational stuff.

Im also taking a class at LBC on Romans... it is good to study it more in depth, but the teacher is very strongly calvinist - and it seems like the rest of the class is pretty much with him too. I am being respectful, and he knows Romans pretty good, and he knows the bible pretty good too, but he's not so much a logical apologist or anything... his arguments dont seem always to be based in logic, and he even pulled out the "I just believe the bible" argument - which made me smile, but I didnt confront him on it. I'm pretty sure its not worth it.

In any case, it is always good to have some deep convesation with some people who think differently.

I have really enjoyed listening to apologetics.com lately. I download the podcast free on Itunes,and listen while I am working around the house, etc. Recently they have had some really thought provoking topics. Including a lengthy conversation with a well spoken athiest. It was interesting to hear the apologist and the athiest challenge each other with pretty rich content. In any case, its all mind food, which I love.

We've started up Deeper: TheBibleStudy at our house on thursday nights. it is intentionally for 20somethings.

On monday Im leaving for Scotland with a small group from our church. We will be working with impact world tour of course,

It will be good to see the Hamer family again - and to catch up on stuff. I'm also excited about the outreach opportunities that will undoubtedly present themselves as we serve. and Im also excited to spend time with Nate, Mel, Kairsie, and Heidi... It should be a great trip.

ok... there are like 6 different posts rolled up into one. sorry Im not a better writer.

peace

jeff