Scotland Times - Day 33 - 6-23-11

Hello everyone!

Long time no see/talk/whatever. Sorry about the delay. Been a bit busy the last few weeks, so I believe an update is needed.

The past few weeks have been exciting for sure! I have been busy finishing up the final design work for the website, photoshot a wedding, saw castles, and went to another country for a conference... so here's a bit of more details in week format...

3 weeks ago...
Hello, it was my birthday! Big 25. Quarter of a century old. I was treated to an awesome day with the Martin's, the family I currently reside with, at my first castle outing. It was pretty legit. I also got to go inside it, with all the cool chambers and such. Oh and there were gargoyle statues with their heads lopped off. Oh and a weird glowing knight asking if I would pick the correct Grail. Okay so that last one didn't happen (except in Indiana Jones). But hey, it was cool! So that week was full of the kinda normal stuff, with finishing up the final touches of the website after having a meeting with all of the main website-savvy peoples from each of the 5 churches, redesigned the logo, and edited a little bit more of the pics I've taken (but taken a whole lot more). Sorry I haven't updated more photos, when you work on the computer for half the day you kinda get burned out and want to maybe... I don't know... take a walk on a beach, enjoy the sunshine, read a book. Which are all of the things I did on the one or two super nice days here in Banff. Woot! Anywho, we also did some fun stuff with the youth, and I got to be a part of their saturday BBQ extravaganza. Honestly, I've been doing a lot of stuff with the youth, and seeing some amazing things happen through them. We've seen several come to the Lord and many more just seeing what true community and freedom in Christ looks like. On Sunday the 5th I actually got to shoot my first wedding (so now I could say I'm an international wedding photographer? Yes.) with Andy Martin, the dad of above-mentioned family I'm staying with. Fun and random, the wedding took place mid church service (yes, it was planned that way).

2 weeks ago...
Sunday the 11th the pastor from the Elgin church (Norman, I know, ironic name right?) came and picked me up to take me to Elgin, a 2ish hour drive away from Banff, to stay with him and his wife for a week. Really, for me this week was to get to experience new places. We went and saw castles, road tripped with others to the west coast of Scotland for a day to see God's amazing creations, which included but not limited to, lochs (lakes), forest covered mountains, and coffee. Yes, I said coffee. It should always be included under "God's amazing creations". Anywho, yes I did see Loch Ness, and no, Nessie didn't come out to play this time. I was so ready to wrestle him/her/it, but the taunting I gave must have scared the big baby away. Sissy. Annnnnyways... got to also experience some old cathedrals and a garden area called "Biblical Garden". It had an amazing garden with several bible story inspired stone sculptures (some better than others, some were just goofy). Also got to do an outreach with Team Challenge in Buckie with Bob Mings, a Texan missionary. It was a good time. I was really inspired by what Team Challenge does and loved the heart behind it (they reach out to addicts and such). Did I get to go see some more castles... YEAH I DID! I'm quite the explorer (and when I say explorer, I mean I will even break the rules to get a better shot, like when the sign says "do not cross over rope", to me its just an invitation). I also got to help fix a few people's computer problems and got to take part in some worship team practice. A good time.

1 week ago - Wednesday, June 22nd
So you may be thinking, "Matt, you've gone so many places, surely you are ready to settle down." Well if you were thinking that, you are just wrong. This week and a half will be spent with Joe Ewen in Jeffreysbaai (Jeffrey's Bay or J-Bay, for short), South Africa. Oh it feels so good to step back into good ol' Africa. It seems like only 2 years since I last touched Africa soul. Oh wait, it was 2 years ago. Oh Uganda... good times. But nooooowwww, I'm in South Africa! Exciting! I've been wanting to check out South Africa for a while, I've heard great things. Well I was right. We flew out Sunday the 12th, arrived the 13th after an overnight flight from Paris to Johannesburg, and got a ride from the Port Elizabeth airport to Jeffreysbaai to meet some new amazing people. The apostolic-prophetic conference that Joe (and later joined by Floyd McClung) won't start till thursday the 16th, so the next few days was spent getting ready with greeting new people from the training school where Joe spoke at for 2 days and the fantastic people at Global Challenge, a super cool missions organization/house-church movement. I met some of the nicest people here, and the view is also not half-bad (its a few blocks away from the beach, where the Billabong Surfing competition is held every July due to its ridiculous nice and long waves. Some stretched even a quarter-mile (I believe)). Its even more amazing at sunrise. Also amazing was the fact that Nikki Johnson, Brooks Grigsby, and Lennell Perry drove 8 hours along one of the most beautiful stretch of road from Cape Town to see me! For those who do not know them, they are amazing people that are from Antioch Norman that I also went through the training school with. Also I might also be dating one of them (name starting with a N :) ) Love it! So on the days they were here, I stayed with them at a campsite in J-Bay. Such an amazing time with them! They also joined me at the conference on thursday and friday, so they also experienced some amazing teachings on the prophetic and the apostolic. They had to get back to Cape Town, so they left early in the morning Saturday. Also exciting was the fact that I accidently booked my flights the exact flights and times as Joe did, but on the next day. So that means Joe flew out Monday, I flew out Tuesday. So for my extra day there I designed a logo for a new business Global Challenge was setting up dealing with screenprinting, which I also got to check out, and afterwards went to some new friends' house and had mexican food. Good stuff. It was also bittersweet to leave South Africa, but I imagine I will return there someday to see my new lifelong friends.

Today
So after returning yesterday (June 22nd) from South Africa and catching up on the sleep I didn't get on the plane rides (which by the way, was upgraded to first class on one of them, for no apparent reason other than the fact that I have FAVOR!!! Ba-zing!), I am back at the church now starting the last 2 weeks in Scotland with a new logo project, inputing more information into the church website about the churches, and beginning to get a few things ready for my next trip to the Dominican Republic that I am co-leading in the beginning of August. My goal for these last few weeks in Scotland is to take in the last bit of time I have here and make the best of it; not checking out. Yup.

So thats an update for you guys. Hope all is well, wherever you may be. I'll be updating at least once more, maybe more before I head back to the states.

As always, here are a few pics (from South Africa)...

Driving into Jeffreysbaai, amazing sky! (No editing done other than spot cleanup from window)

Joe speaking at the training school.

Nikki checking out the millions of shells on the shore during our sunrise walk on the beach.

Sunrise on the beach.

At "The Mexican" restaurant with Brooks and Lennell for dinner just after they arrived.

Scotland Day 18, 6-8-11 video update

Scotland Times - Day 12 - 6-2-11 Quick video update

A quick video update from my iPhone in Banff, on the coast.

Scotland Times - Day 10 - 5-31-11

Fit Like everyone!

Wow what a week it has been! It feels like I have been here a month, and that's a good thing! Just to let you all know that all is well, no illnesses, no injuries, and no destruction on my part done. Ha!

So in a nutshell, here is what has been going on...

Wednesday the 25th: Went to the church, started working on the church website (riverside.churchinsight.com) and got some ideas for what it would look like. I also created a new logo for them, which was okayed by Joe and I think looks great. After work went with Andy and Marion to the Adult lifegroup, which was fun, different from back home, but still a great time. We stayed there till around 11:30. Did I mention the sun goes down around 10:30 here? Crazy stuff!

Thursday the 26th: Went to the church, continued work on the website. I'm actually starting to understand how this website creator works, its not exactly from scratch or using dreamweaver, so it is taking a while to get used to. This evening I went to the youth lifegroup (basically its the youth leaders all meeting together for lifegroup aka similar to Lifegroup leaders lifegroup back home). We did more of a study and discussion over a few chapters of Acts, and had yummy snacks while there.

Friday the 27th: Went to the church, worked, then off to Joe's for a dinner with Joe, Yvonne (Joe's wife), Jimmy Seibert, his 2 boys, and Robert Fuller (he co-wrote Jesus is the Lord, which he would sing on Sunday). The Antioch Waco guys got in around 1:30 pm. I was late due to the fact I was walking from the church to his house, normally taking around 15 minutes (according to google maps), but I continued on the wrong road which turned into a 45 minute walk to Joe's. Fun stuff. But I did see the school here in Banff and another nice neighborhood. Did I mention it was raining lightly the entire walk. Yeah, it was. Ha! After that we went to a church leaders meeting in which Jimmy spoke. Fun stuff.

The weekend (28th-31st) was a blast. I walked down to see the yearly arts festival here in Banff with the Martin's (Andy had a photography booth where he had cards and framed photos to buy), then headed over to the local golf course to meet up with Jimmy and his youngest, Daniel. The main reason they are even here is because Daniel is in the World Junior Golf Tournament here in Scotland. So he's kind of good. Okay, he's really good. I took some photos of him playing. The biggest problem for me was that I didn't eat breakfast or lunch, so I was pretty tired by the end of the 18 holes (4-5 hours). Yup.

By the way, the weather here is amazing, and so different. It could be nice and sunny, then immediately have wind gusts up to 60 miles an hour, then nice again, then downpour, the five minutes later be sunny again. If I was any type of weather, I would be Scotland weather, random and full of surprises.

Next up we went to the church for the youth night, called "Youth Extreme". 6 kids came to the Lord! Awesome. Jimmy spoke on "Who is God, Who am I, and What is my Purpose". I'm not sure why I just capitalized most of that. Oh well... A good night.

Sunday was church together, meaning all 5 of the Riverside church plants (Banff, Buckie, Elgin, Gardenstown and Aberdeen) came together to Banff Riverside church for sunday morning church. It was jam-packed! A couple of people came to the Lord as well, so thats good news! We immediately went from there and drove to Aberdeen for a chinese buffet, which was freakin delicious! Better than back home, I think. We then drove all the way to St. Andrews, and walked around the university, saw where Scottish Reformers George Wishart and Patrick Hamilton were buried (in the middle of a street, interesting enough), saw the first ever golf course (Scotland DID invent golf, ya know), then went down to the beach where the "Chariots of Fire" running scene was filmed. It was amazing. Beautiful, but windy, which actually made for some great photos! We went on to the place we were staying the night (Jimmy and the Waco gang actually would stay here for the week till the tournament is over). We went down to the coast nearby and took photos and enjoyed the beautiful rock formations and sunset there. (I'll add some photos at the end for your viewing pleasure)

Monday (30th) me and Joe headed back after seeing the Waco guys off. What an amazing time with those men, loved it! It was a long car ride, but it was good. Picked Joe's brain for a while on life things, the Lord things, and other thing... things. :) We toured Edinburgh for a few hours, saw some old churches and the castle there, met up with a local pastor for coffee, then headed out.

We got back to Banff around 5 after a 6 or so hour drive, had some dinner with Yvonne, then I headed back to the Martin's house where I chilled out with the family while Joe went to a church meeting in Elgin. I got to skype Jason Kennedy too that night. Funnnnnn fun!

Well today (31st) is a beautiful day, a bit warmer than it has been, sun is shining. I'm writing this blog, kicking out a few minor tweaks for the website design, answering some emails, adding books to my kindle, and just having a chill time at the church office. I'm unsure what this week will bring (other than my birthday on saturday), but its gonna be great I'm sure. God bless you guys and I hope all is well back home!

-Matt

Now a few pics...

Whilst out for golf, found a hidden bench with writing etched in it.

George Wishart, Scotland prophet and reformer, is buried in the middle of the road in St. Andrews.

Sunset pics out by the coast.

St. Andrews beach where the "Chariots of Fire" movie was filmed.

Edinburgh Castle (try scaling that with arrows flying at you!)

Scotland Times - Day 3 - 5-24-11

Good afternoon everybody!

So this is my first post for my Scotland trip, and it has literally been a little crazy getting here. So here is my story from the past few days:

So Sunday the 22nd was the bittersweet day of leaving Norman. Nikki and my sister Mary saw me off at the airport (so grateful for them!), and everything was going great. My first two flights went off without a hitch, from OKC to Detroit, then 50 minutes later took off from Detroit to Amsterdam. That flight was overnight, so I will continue that on the next day. Had a small breakfast and dinner this day, no lunch. Fun stuff!

Monday was certainly a heck of a day. After arriving in Amsterdam I had a 4 hour layover in the terminal, which I spent mostly napping and updating a few people to where I was. Yes, it was around a 6 hour time difference, but I thought it would be good to let people know about my progress. So then I got on the plane to Aberdeen, which was only supposed to take around an hour and 45 mins, but actually turned into a 3 hour flight that was diverted to Newcastle, Scotland. Aberdeen had some heavy winds, around 50-70 mile an hours, and Newcastle was decided to be the safest place to land. We also circled Aberdeen to see if the winds would die down, but that was an hour wasted in the sky. Anyways, we arrived in Newcastle, and KLM airlines set up a coach (tour bus) to take us to Aberdeen, a 6 hour drive. My worst fear is that without any internet, I couldn't use my phone to get ahold of Joe or anyone in Scotland. Thankfully, the man next to me on the coach let me use his phone and send an email to Joe to let him know about the delay.

As worried as I was getting, I knew that God had a bigger plan in the works, and right away on the bus I saw a full rainbow, and it was probably the most beautiful one I'd ever seen. As the rainbow was a symbol to Noah of God's promise to never flood the entire earth again, so it was a reminder for me of God's promise to take care of me. So filled with peace, I was able to catch the beautiful view of the Scotland countryside and ocean without any distractions from electronics, although the drunken guy on the bus continuously shouting obscenities about how unfair it was that all this was happening was quite frustrating. Anyways, we got to Aberdeen at 1:30 in the morning, and with great surprise and thankfulness, Joe came out of nowhere in the closed Airport with a hug. I was so relieved and glad that God had this all taken care of. And since it was so late, I crashed on Joe's couch after updating Nikki on the progress just before she got on her plane to Nepal. What an adventure, finally in Banff.

So today the 24th, I got cleaned up and shaved as Andy, one of the worship leaders from the Riverside Christian Church that Joe oversees in Banff, came to pick me up and take me to his house, where I'll be staying for the first week at least. This is due to several out of town visitors to Joe's house, such as his daughter and Jimmy Seibert and his boys this coming weekend. We had a half hour chat with coffee, then went and talked photography and worked with him doing some photo editing from the wedding he recently shot over the past weekend. He owns his own photo company, started it within the last year, so getting to teach him a few tricks with photoshop helped him to speed up his work. We then went out and met his wife at the church at a small diner for sandwiches. I got a spiced chicken sandwich with pea and ham soup, which, although sounds disgusting, was actually really good! We then took a walk near the oceanfront and I shot some photos, told some stories, headed back to the house for coffee and then we just chilled out. I worked on photos and this blog, and Andy went on to work more on his wedding photos and his wife started dinner and read some. They also have a fascination here in Scotland with Meerkats, which is due to a commercial and website, similar to our Geico gekko commercials and the old Taco Bell dog. Interesting. Reminded me of Lion King 1 and a half. Tonight is a worship meeting at one of the churches for the weekend (they are having all 5 churches in the region together for a celebration in which Jimmy Seibert will speak at). So I'm excited for that.

Well, fun stuff. There's an update. And here are a couple more photos...

The Coast

Me (notice where the glare is, Bringin "The US" in the house! Ha!)