Going with the Flow: Scotland Times - Day 10

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...