Pictures of Apartment #1

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the Leith apartment...note the separate faucets....cracks us up. Will post pictures of the new apartment next time.

Still alive and well (almost).....

I know it's been a few days since we last posted anything. Not to worry....all is well. We are still quite alive and kicking. It's rather hard to get connected to the internet....more so now that we have moved to a new location. The only way to access the internet at the moment is at the internet cafes, which can run a tab of about £1.50 (or $3.00) an hour. It adds up rather quickly.

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, we moved - from Leith to Stockbridge. I know it's quite irrelevant to you (ha ha) but we have been looking forward to this move since we got here. Stockbridge we have discovered is a more upscale area. We can tell by the luxury cars that lined the side walk! We'll be in Stockbridge for about a month (before we have to move again!!) which allows us to unpack, somewhat! We got quite sick and tired of wearing the same few outfits (since we left Pittsburgh) for about 1.5-2 weeks. Not to mention scarfs, hats, gloves and warmer attires were quite a delight to unpack! We have also moved from a tenement style apartment (really old style building) to a newer apartment building with all modern amenities! We are learning the difference! And yes, we are quite spoiled indeed. We both got sick (terrible colds) the last few days as a result of our daily intake of crisp fresh air (from walking, sometimes running when we are late, causing us to get chilled because of wet clothes from sweat and rain) and the inability to get a nice hot shower or to remain warm in the (1st) apartment. It is extremely chilly here and it rains almost everyday. The only good thing is the rain does not last, typically a shower, then the sun will shine immediately after. Very strange. Almost tropical in nature, except for the temperature!

Since we do not have a car, we are on foot everywhere, raking up to almost 5 miles of walking everyday! Which means we have to leave the house with an umbrella and a rain coat everyday. Quite a pain. The biggest risk/danger we face on a daily basis is getting run over by a car/bus! We're just never quite sure which direction cars are coming from, especially when there's a roundabout! Somehow, the direction we look is never the right direction. We almost got run over quite a few times now! Our first landlady, Wendy, thinks we are not going to last for very long without a car, and I have a stinking suspicion she might be right!

We attended St. John's on Princess Street on Sunday for church. Unlike the States, the latter service is the traditional (high church) service while the morning service is the contemporary service. Needless to say, we goofed and turned up for the 11:15a.m. service only to find about a dozen people in attendance in such a huge and beautiful church. We were quite discouraged only to find out later that we actually missed the "bigger" (contemporary) service which starts around 9:00a.m.. We plan to attend the earlier service next week. The message was quite good. The pastor stuck to Scripture....no jokes or stories to fill gaps! :-) Praise God! See pictures...

We spent some time walking around city centre last week before Dylan had to start work on Monday. We visited Old St. Paul (see pictures),

the Royal Mile (didn't quite make it to the Castle, yet),

Princess Street,

and a few other places. We haven't the energy (lots of up hill walking!!!) to hit all the tourists spots since we are also walking around looking for apartments, grocery stores, etc. We figured we'll be here for a while so we'll take our time to soak in all the spots slowly.

I got news yesterday from the headhunter I have been dealing with that he's secured an interview for me with Diageo on Monday - http://www.diageo.com/. They are the world's leading premium drinks producer - beer, wines and spirits. Yum! :-) Nothing better than to work for a premium/leading company in every location/state/country, eh?! Well, I have to get the job first!! Your prayers are much appreciated!! If you have lived in the CT area, and is familiar with the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) industry, you might have heard of Diageo. They do have an office in Norwalk, CT.

Tomorrow, we are heading up to St. Andrews! We'll be taking the train (about an hour ride, then a 15 minutes bus ride) to get there. The train ticket cost for two (at a student discounted rate for a return-trip, which means round-trip in American terms) is about £25. This will be Dylan's commute once school starts. We are not quite sure yet how many times a week Dylan needs to be at school. Dylan needs to get registered with St. Andrews, we are hoping to open a bank account with RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) and also to register with NHS (National Health System - UK's free health care system). We need to do that before we get run over by a car and need medical attention!! ha ha ha....ok, sick joke. We've heard that St. Andrews is a beautiful place. Of course, I will be taking pictures. Stay tuned.

Anyway, I think we are both trying to transition from feeling like we are on vacation to really let it sink in that we are here for good - well, for 3 years at least. It's by nature that we want everything to be the same way we are used to....we just have to learn to embrace the change. This whole experience has taught us to really appreciate what we had in the States - a car, a single faucet with warm water (rather than hot & cold water in separate faucet so you either freeze your hand or suffer 3rd degree burn while washing your hands or doing dishes), the luxury of a dryer and dish washer etc.. We don't want you to think that we have landed in some 3rd world country but life is definitely simpler and greener in the UK. They don't generate as much waste in energy and paper goods as we do in the States. Modern apartments do exist but they cost more to let, obviously.

Hello everyone, just stopping in for a moment to say 'hello'. I've just completed one week's teaching at Basil Paterson, and what a week it has been! My students are primarily Saudi Arabian with one Ukrainian thrown in for good measure. The boys are quite wealthy, even beyond most common ideas of wealth. For instance, when trying to teach them about vertical integration today (this is when a business owns other factors of production/distribution/etc), I chose one student's family business (petroleum refining--yes, seriously) in hopes that I could show the students that most companies use shipping companies like UPS or other common carriers to transport their product, I was met with a blank stare when I asked Faisal who his father uses to ship the petroleum...he informed me that his father owns the shipping company as well. Um, so much for a real-life example from the classroom!

Back to Jacqueline....

We have also secured a mobile phone. If you wish to call us, just let me know and I will email you to phone number. For security/privacy reasons, I will not post it here.

Wondering where the pictures are??? Well, for whatever reason, the computers in this internet cafe will not allow me to upload anything from a thumb drive. So until I find another computer (internet cafe) which will allow me to do that, keep checking in! :-)

Rugby

Tomorrow is the big day...the World Cup Rugby match between our own Scotland vs New Zealand ''All Blacks''...though it is being played a few blocks away from where we are staying, we're going out to watch the match after church today. The prediction is that Scotland is going to be decimated by the All Blacks. Click on or copy/paste this link into your address bar and you'll see why...the All Blacks play with an intensity that puts to shame the Spanish Inquisition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rulZOE8bDa8&mode=related&search

Arrived!! Edinburgh at last!

Whisky anyone?

Friends and family - happy to announce that we have finally arrived at our destination! Praise God for a safe trip and the many many blessings, mercies and favours he has shown us along the way!!

We got an upgrade on our rental car (we didn't even ask for it) at Pittsburgh International Airport - a yellow PT cruiser. :-) I guess God with his infinite wisdom knew ahead of time that there was no other way we could have fitted all our bags (6 HUGE check-ins & 4 carry-ons) into an economy car! The drive to JFK airport turned out to be an 11-hour trip! We then upgraded our new rental (one-way rate was ~$104 so we had to return the car and get a new local rental) to a SUV. We walked into Budget rental office and there on the counter was a sign posted "Manager's Special - upgrade to a SUV for only $15 more a day". Wow.

Anyway, our time in CT was rather productive and relaxing. I was able to get some administrative stuff accomplished before we leave the country. It was also great meeting up with old and dear friends to catch up and say good-byes...wish we could have stayed longer.

We don't know why there's a random possession of people in costumes at the end of the Royal mile....

At the airport, our bags were, to say the least, OVERWEIGHT!! Thanks be to God, and Dylan's sweet talk to the lady behind Aer Lingus's counter, she let us through without a fee!!! Not only that, I got to stuff 2 winter coats (I was going to carry them in my hands all the way to Edinburgh!) and a few other heavy things from our carry-ons into our check-in bags as we drag the bags from the counter to the security scanner in another spot. ha ha.

Our flight to Edinburgh was rather uneventful. No crying babies on board!! Yea! Upon arrival, we managed to find a taxi that could take all our bags and us, all in one car/van. We thought we might have to go in separate taxis. Again, money saved.

We arrived at our first flat without any hassle. Wendy, our landlord, was there to meet us. The place is extremely small - literally Manhattan size/style apartment. We are on the 3rd floor. No elevator. Eiks! The shower is literally tickle of water coming our of a shower head. I think Dylan's comment this morning, coming out of the shower, says it all - "I manage to get myself damp". It's the cheapest short-term let we can find - £125/week. We are hoping and praying that the next one (next week) will be an improvement. It can't get any worse, right? Or, can it?!? The only consolation is that Wendy is extremely friendly and helpful. She even ironed Dylan's shirt for him this morning! Well, she has a really old iron and didn't want to risk getting rust or anything on his shirt.

A street 'festival' off of Princess street (yummy & intersting foods) ....


Closing comments (have to go - we are at an Internet cafe and it's getting late) - Dylan secured a part-time job today with Basil Patterson - a prep school for international students as they learn English. Praise God, yet again!

There's so much more I want to share but I'll have to save it for next time. Pictures to follow when we can get better access to the internet. Please keep us in your prayers. I have an interview this coming Monday. Praises and all Glory to God! :-)

Sooo busy!

We're so busy! It is hard to put into words, but my short post should be an indicator of the all consuming responsibility of packing everything for this Sunday's move. I'll post more later when things calm down a bit. :-)

Angelology - what is that?

For those of you who are wondering what Dylan is up to (besides packing and preparing sermons etc.), he has actually started his paper for Prof. Brown. Here's a sample of his writing (I am just sharing this with y'all to get some sympathy for me...ha ha) --

"Scripturally speaking, angelic activity suggests that these higher-order beings are not only related to our sphere of existence, but they are worthy of imitation and appreciation because their mere existence points to the generosity of God. This notion is at the heart of the inscrutable Doxological mystery of what it means to sing, “Praise Him above ye heavenly host!” For centuries, Christians around the planet have gathered every Sunday in hopes that their pecuniary response to the liberality of God will somehow resonate with the angels as well and that an antiphonal angelic chorus would in turn encourage us to a higher order of being. Like a yearning for camaraderie between distant cousins living on different continents, we lift our voices week after week secretly hoping that an echo from heaven, an enabling word, will hit our ears prior to the end of the service. The human yearning to experience a higher world while in this world is further fueled by the belief in higher order beings located somewhere between the two. Eradicate that prospect and we are back to living as cogs in a cosmic machine whose dual function appears to revolve around the preservation of the state and the amassing of wealth. To think of angels, however, is to do something quite revolutionary and refreshingly countercultural, because it permits the individual to live somewhere between the spheres of heaven and earth; transcendent power and human frailty, steadfastness and inconsistency, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, power and weakness, past, present and future. To contemplate the angelic is an inspiration to seek a higher order of experience while living on earth."

God's hand at work???

Answer - Absolutely!!!

Am I anxious? I think my sleepless nights (for weeks now) betrays my confidence a little bit - I'm ashamed to say. It's quite intriguing the battle that we will always have whereby on one hand we trust God, we know we should trust God, but we can't help ourselves because we want to be the Master of our own universe! No matter how much God has proved to me time and time again that He is faithful, I find myself secretly doubting in spite of myself! Somehow we insist we know what's best for ourselves, and the time-line we have laid out for ourselves (no matter what it is), is the best!

Well, just today, as I was driving around completing my endless errands, I caught myself smiling in anticipation to see God's hand at work in this last week. You see, we are down to the wire and we haven't sold any of our major furniture pieces i.e. couch and mattress etc. I told myself that if we are left with them, I am not going to doubt God's wisdom in that. Few hours later, we have a guy calling to say he would like to take a look at our couch and mattress this evening. Did I hear him right - couch AND mattress? Yes! And he actually turned up. He took a look at the couch, laid on my mattress in his street clothes (!!), and went for both items!!! Paid cash. Packed them in and on top of his car (I happened to have ropes - go figure), and off he went! Wow. Friends, whatever trial you may be facing right now, let me encourage and urge you to trust in the goodness of our God, in His plans and in His wisdom for all those who believe and trust in Him.

"2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." AMEN! --- James 1:2-8

Before ....

After....

Farewell Party for the Potters - WUMC

It is sad but inevitable unless one can stop time. But we have come to (almost) the end of our service here for God - physically but never in prayers. :-) At last we have to bid farewell to many we have come to know, to care for and to love dearly. The ladies and men at the church poured their hearts into the preparation and it turned out to be such a lovely event. Despite the heat, many stayed on to the end. It's quite poignant as Dylan pointed out it's our last supper together, at least for now. There were tears alright!

Our biggest take-away for the night was the encouraging words from those who spoke. Not about how funny Dylan is (that would be a lie - JUST KIDDING!!) or how entertaining his singing interludes were in the middle of sermons, but rather how many have come to know the fullness of our Lord and Saviour through his sermons and teachings! How precious! Praise God for his mercy and favour upon his people! We do not claim any credit but are terribly honoured that God chose us to be his vehicle to deliver His message to His people. We will continue to pray that for those who are on-fire that the fire will not flicker nor die out and for those who are "sparkling", that it will turn into a flaming fire! There is nothing more precious and blessed than to dwell in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!

It is not goodbye but until we meet again, either in Pittsburgh or in eternity! Peace be with you all....