Scotland Update No. 8 - Sightseeing and Celidh

Hello again! We had a great day yesterday (Saturday) visiting the Highlands. Harry (our friend and tour guide) took us to amazing places. We saw a castle in ruins and many other amazing sights. We finished off our day with seafood (at the restaurant that is considered to have the best seafood in the country). It really was a perfect day with great weather. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and if you have every been to Scotland, you would know that is not normal.

Here are some pictures to give you a taste of what our day was like:

A view from Dunadd Fort -- a mountain we climbed -- where the King of Scots traditionally accepted his crown.

Some of the ladies on the team near some ancient burial tombs -- everyone appears to be slouching so Kayla and Sarah can be the tallest in the picture for once in their lives!

Have fun storming the castle!

(500 points for the Blue Team if anyone can identify the movie reference.)

I love these ladies, but I hate getting my picture taken. (#justbeinghonest)

The view from our van.

(Not that we followed this car all day, but more for the picturesque scenery!)

Matt and his fan club on the shore of Loch Lomond.

Today (Sunday) we had church at the Potter's House and visited our local ASDA. We had fish and chips for dinner and then went to a Celidh (Scottish dancing -- pronounced "Kay-Lee" -- yea, I don't know what phonics they're teaching over here either -- but apparently the "d" and the "h" are silent).

Tomorrow is our last full day in Scotland, and we have mixed emotions. We will spend half of the day in Edinburgh to visit the castle and walk the Royal Mile. Then, we head to North Berwick for lunch, and one of our campers is getting baptized in the North Sea. It's going to be an incredible privilege to share that moment with her! We wrap up the day at the Fraley's for a cookout.

We will update more later and post more pictures.

Thank you to everyone for reading and for praying for us. We have seen God do great things, and we know it could not have happened without your prayers and support. It's also amazing that no one on our team has gotten sick. Please continue to pray for grace and health as we head home.

We are looking forward to one more day in this beautiful country.

Love to all! (Liz wrote that part. Too mushy for me to write that.)

Sadly No Livestream This Week

Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to get the livestream working even though we do finally have wifi up at Lapwing. We have a million cables in our bins, but not the right firewire connections to make it work. Please pray for us tonight though as Annie talks about Healing. Getting ready for the evening activity -- Babies and Old People! This should be good. Pictures to come!

Scotland Update No. 3 -- Beginning to Unlock Our Roar

I am happy to report that we have the wireless working at Lapwing Lodge. So I am going to try to catch you up what's been happening the last few days at camp. Things got started off well on Sunday night with Annie's opening talk on "What Is My Roar?" She explained that before we can figure out what our roars are, we have to understand what a roar is. We know that it comes from within; it takes work; it takes a willingness to open up; not everyone can do it; and it has a purpose! A roar is a proclamation. An announcement. It says "I am here!" "I have power!" "I have purpose!" "I have something to say that affects you!" Annie really set the stage for the rest of the week, and we're excited about what the Lord has in store for the students this week.

On Sunday night, we broke the students up into their small groups to play a scavenger hunt to get to know each other, the camp, and the American and Scottish camp staff. I took this shot at the Lapwing pond while I was waiting for the groups to cycle through during the scavenger hunt. The sun doesn't set here until almost 10:30 pm this time of year, which makes for some great shots at sunset.

On Monday morning, Matt challenged the students to live a life of boldness and then we began to explore what that means in our small groups. After lunch, we submitted the students to some tortuous games. The funniest one to me was the alka-seltzer/Sprite game where the students had to put a tab in their mouths and swig some Sprite and hold it in! The last one to blow -- so to speak -- wins! The array of "losing" players was priceless and hilarious. (Look for some great shots of that game in one of our upcoming picture posts.)

Yellow Team Leaders

Their mothers must be so proud.

Erin is the first to attempt to bridge the gap between the cheerleaders and the marching band!

Daniel is lucky that Lois wanted to win the game more than she wanted to dump that jug of water on his head!

The Blue team is focused!

The Yellow Team is giving the Blue Team all it can handle.

On Monday night, Annie's message ("Jesus + Peter") walked us through the life of Peter. The highs and lows. Most of all how his life roared! Even though he was not perfect by any means. At the end of the night, several students took the first step towards unlocking their roars by committing their lives to Christ while others asked for more passionate walks with the Lord.

To say the least, the Holy Spirit is present here, and the week is off to a great start! We are privileged to be taking part in this and so excited to see how the Lord moves the rest of the week.

Yard Sale!

Our Scotland mission team kicked off our first fundraiser event in late April with a church-wide yard sale. Our team decided to sell baked goods and offer facepainting. Nothing like a hot, long day to help team members bond and get to know each other better. Enjoy the pictures!

Our baked goods...and 1980s style sign.

Molly and Kayla meet a new friend!

Molly enjoying the sun.
Toree's facepainting skills are on display.

Bekah is amazed at Toree's mad skills!

Kayla shows that facepaint isn't just for kids.