Monthly Archives: November 2009

St Andrew’s Day Blog Carnival

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Today, it’s all about Scotland and St Andrew’s Day. This year is a little bit more special because of Homecoming 2009. Lots of historical sites have been free entry all this week including Edinburgh Castle!

Edinburgh Castle

I do love being Scottish. I love that we seem to be a nation that has a achieved a lot of great things – Scots have had a hand in pneumatic tyres to penicillin to pain relief in childbirth (woo!) to basketball to the Bank of England (oh, the irony)

I love that pretty much anywhere I’ve been in the world, I’ve been welcomed as a Scot. My Uncle Ivor (who lives in Australia) told me a story of how he once asked in a Parisian hotel for some directions – they wouldn’t give him any because they thought he was English at first, but when they discovered he was a Scotsman living in Australia they suddenly became super-helpful. I love that we have our Scottish banknotes. I love that men here are comfortable enough in their sexuality to wear a kilt (with no underwear). I love that here, coca cola isn’t the #1 drink, it takes 2nd place to Irn Bru. I love it went people try and do Scottish accents. I think Hollywood’s take on Scottish history is hysterical (sorry to break it to you, but Braveheart isn’t quite how it happened). And if they do make us stop singing Flower of Scotland at sporting events because it’s ‘racist’ I’m pretty sure there’ll be a revolution. I love the Scots words and phrases like wee, numpty, ‘Yer Ma!’ and clarty. And we’ve been blessed with some beautiful landscapes.

I don’t like how in English soaps, the Scottish dude is always the ‘bad guy’. Seriously, like every single time!  And you know, it would be nice to experience some warm sunshine a little more often. And the long dark winters are a bit of a drag. And I get a wee bit annoyed when I go to places and they say ‘Scotland, that’s in England yes?’ (No). And I have been the Scottish person who has come to someone’s aid in a shop outside of Scotland and gone ‘Excuse me, but I’ll think you’ll find that’s legal tender. It’s still the pound, it’s not monopoly money‘. I also find it amusing and a little frustrating that people assume I’ll know everyone in Scotland because you know it’s such a tiny country. It’s small but not that small.

But when I land at Edinburgh Airport or see the ‘Welcome to Scotland’ sign on the Scottish/English border, my heart always lifts. Especially when I see the words in Scots Gaelic too!

Even though I’m usually seeing the sight through sheets of pouring rain!

I don’t know what you think of when you think of Scotland, but I’m looking forward to reading other people’s posts today.

If you have a post, please give me a link by e-mail or comment below and I’ll add it to the list. Don’t forget to tell folks on Twitter with the #scotlandrocks hashtag! :)

Here are some of them:

Initial Conditions

The State That I Am In

Learning to Love

Dan on Music

Ruthy’s Ramblings

Musings of a Scot

Thinking out Loud

From Africa, With Love

Fran Brady’s blog

Another teeny tiny fighter

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Hi Guys,

Sorry if you already follow my @koalainscotland twitter feed as I posted this yesterday there.

Just wanted to ask if you could pray for Baby Dylan. He was born 6 weeks premature, and is currently in the High Dependency Neo-Natal Unit here in Edinburgh. He’s a little fighter, and is doing well though he still has fluid on his lungs and breathing rapidly.

Always with any preemie baby there is a higher risk of mortality/morbidity, but we’re hoping Dylan will be healthy and home in time for Christmas with his Mummy, Daddy and big sister (a friend of Elastababy who is now Elasta-toddler!)

We know that Dylan’s family will really appreciate your prayers.

Thanks everyone x

Caledonia

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Yep, we’re getting excited about St Andrew’s Day…I know of 3 blogging friends that plan to be part of the St Andrew’s Day blog carnival.

Hoping some more folks will be joining in with us on Monday, and looking forward to seeing what people decide to do – it can be anything as long as it is some way relating to the bonnie land of Scotland.

If you’d like to help spread the word on Twitter, Carolyn has decided on the hashtag #scotlandrocks :)

St Andrew’s Day Blog Carnival

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So lots of you are probably recovering from Thanksgiving and eating leftover turkey today.

And Monday is St Andrew’s Day

In case you didn’t already know, St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.

Me and my fellow Scottish friend, Carolyn felt that St Andrew’s Day needs to be recognised with a bit of a Scottish themed blog carnival of sorts!

Woo! We Scots do like a wee bit o’celebration (in the words of Ross from Friends). And yes, I fully admit I’m maybe just a teeny wee bitty patriotic. I get seriously bugged when people pronounce my Scottish surname incorrectly (except the Aussies…bless you guys & Queensland’s great taste in town naming – you are the only people outside Scotland who get it right). And I’m a little sad that I lost my Scottish accent from having to learn to speak differently so my English and American uni friends could understand me. Although according to some of you who saw the duvet video and the packing for South Africa video, you think I still have one!

So, I have some homework for you – due in on Monday – if you are willing to take it on!

What do you think is quintessentially ‘Scottish’? What do you think of when you think of Scotland?

You can answer in a blog comment on Monday, or maybe you want to use your own blog to share a little bit about Scotland. It could be memories of trips you’ve made to Scotland, your experience living here, what you’d like to do if you came here, exciting things God is doing or what you dream of God doing in Scotland…it can be anything you like really as long as it relates to Scotland in some way. :)

And ANYONE can participate – you don’t need to be Scottish or even have had to been to Scotland before. Everyone is welcome. We Scots are very hospitable, and our mantra is ‘the more the merrier’.

I’d love it if you could think about it over the weekend, and celebrate St Andrew’s Day with me through the wonders of cyberspace on Monday!

If you do decide to be part of our St Andrew’s Day Blog Carnival, please let me know so I can link to your Scotland-y post so other people can read it too. :)

We’re thankful for…

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Happy Thanksgiving to my Americanese friends!

Hope you are enjoying a holiday with family and/or friends today.

Thought it would be nice in the spirit of being thankful, to give thanks together…

I’m thankful for…

…lovely friends

…a sister who is now living in London (please Jesus provide an opportunity for me to go see her in 2010!)

…an afternoon off today watching Up (slightly weird but great film)

…that God is doing some incredible things just now

…chocolate – yummy and without which Saturday’s fundraiser and the recipe collection would be non-existent!

…washing machines, especially when you’re the person that managed to somehow drip melted cheese down in the inside of your top and cardigan sleeves. And then on smart trousers. Oops.

…a great team of volunteers who help keep the pregnancy crisis centre going and do a fantastic job with clients and with teens in schools we visit.

…that our plane didn’t crash onto the runway at Edinburgh airport when we landed last night…and that no one near me was sick (seriously, it’s a miracle).

What are you thankful for?

Riding the wave

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Today one of our newest volunteers asked me about how I ended up working in the pregnancy crisis centre.

Yeah, long story, right? One of our mutual friends, who worked for the centre at the time of my employment came in and immediately started picking up on what I’d left out.

Everything in my life has had a purpose that leading up to this point. It’s so obvious looking back now, but it certainly wasn’t always clear at the time.

In 4 hours time I need to be up to drive to the airport and start making the journey to Basingstoke. I can’t sleep.

I was reading Angie Smith’s blog. I wasn’t expecting to see a ultrasound picture taken at 10 weeks gestation.

Yes, that was the stage of pregnancy I was at when I had it terminated.

It was a little bit of a kick in the guts to see that, I’ll admit. Sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock, and bizarrely I don’t want to turn it back to the point before she was conceived to change things in that way. Turning back the clock I wish I would have had the information, support and courage to make a different decision.

You can’t think like that though. Because if it hadn’t been for Sophie being part of my life, I wouldn’t have the wisdom and understanding I have now. The perspective I have when I meet with clients, or abortion providers is different from many of my colleagues. It’s not that I necessarily agree with the people who think it’s all ok, it’s that I get where they’re coming from…because I used to have a totally different viewpoint.

God is doing some crazy things with this work, ministry or whatever you want to call it.

Crazy in the best and in some cases, most unexpected of ways.

He is, as Sarah Chia put it earlier this year, widening my territory.

And yet, I’m not that close to God as I once was. My quiet times are um, yeah, embarrassingly few and far between. My prayer life sucks compared to what it once was. There are lots of things in my life that need sorting.

I feel like I’m just riding this wave of God…He seems to have me along for the ride whether I like or not really!

The majority of the time, I do like it. I love it. The life God has for me is never dull.

But it is sometimes tough.

Um, actually a lot of the time it is tough.

I need to get prepared - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually – as much as I can for what God has in store for 2010.

How do you do that? Answers on a postcard (or blog comment) please… :)

 

Travelling Tuesday: Made in Norway or China?

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I’m going to London tomorrow. Sort of. Really I’m only going to Gatwick Airport and Clapham Junction train station. I was last properly in London almost 4 years ago.

Me and my friend went to one of the big ‘parks’ in London (I think Hyde Park, but it might have been St James’ Park) and there was a big boulder with the following words written on it.

I just love (which I know I shouldn’t because it’s vandalism, and vandalism is bad and wrong) that someone wrote this on the same boulder…

Ahhh….classic British sarcasm.

Eeeeek!

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That’s how I feel about this coming week, which if all goes to plan will look a little something like this…

Monday - school & centre

Tuesday – school & centre

Wednesday – a early morning flight to London, 2 trains, a V.I.M. (very important meeting), 2 more trains and another flight back to Edinburgh.

Thursday – school & collapsing into an exhausted heap (I expect)

Friday – school & picking up things for chocolate morning…

Saturday - Our chocolate morning fundraiser where we will be selling copies of our Chocotastic recipe book! Woo! Thank you so much again to people who spread the word on Twitter & Facebook, sent me recipes and so on.

Sunday - a sleep in (well earned I feel), a rock gospel choir rehearsal (my dream of being in Sister Act is FINALLY sorta coming true) & church. Oh, and then Top Gear!

 

Romans 12:1

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No Flower of Scotland Friday post today….because this is what is on my heart just now…

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship”

Romans 12:1

Earlier this year, I started a new blog – Grace Note Showers – as I had a few people asking me to talk more about worship. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve failed on that front!

Worshipping God has been something that I became interested in when I started on Alpha Couse…way back in January 2002, and ended up being invited to sing in the church worship band (they didn’t realise I wasn’t a Christian yet).

I used to get really self conscious when people told me they liked to listen in to me singing if they were standing near me in church. There was a bit of a journey to getting me singing and leading worship. What did it mean to be a worship leader anyway?

So I studied it a lot.

Not just the music stuff, but what it meant to worship God individually, with others and with all our heart, mind, body and soul.

I’m still learning.

But recently I’ve been pondering a couple of things…

1. Worshipping God when it hurts

2. Worshipping God with all our lives

So once again, I’m asking for your feedback. I want to hear your stories, particularly on the second one.

I’d love to get some guest bloggers willing to chat about their journey in living out their faith wherever God has called them to be.

You see, we’re all disciples. We’re all missionaries.

Whether we’re pastors, working for Christian organisations, teachers, doctors, community education workers, secretaries, outdoor education instructors, stay-at-home parents, architects, surveyors, filmmakers, shop assistants, regular hospital patients, accountants or IT consultants…

I really believe God is in all that stuff. Do you believe it too?

Are we open to the opportunities it can bring?

And what challenges does it bring, and how can we as your brothers and sisters support you and pray for you?

Causes I support: Live Life then Give Life

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lltgl

The mission statement of Live Life then Give Life is

“To save and improve the lives of all those in need or receipt of organ and tissue transplants. The charity exists to improve education and awareness of organ donation and to fund projects that increase the numbers of successful transplants in the UK.”

LLTGF Website

I can’t remember exactly when I went on the organ donor register, but I remember it being when I was in primary school. I think I found out about it being bored in a doctor’s waiting room one day where they often have leaflets about the NHS Organ Donor Register with the organ donor card to carry in your purse or wallet.

I remember telling my Mum at that age, that if I was to die I wanted my organs to be donated to someone who needed them (‘Don’t say that Laura! I don’t want you to die‘ I think was probably her immediate response when I approached the subject aged around 10!)

I haven’t had any close contact with transplant patients or donors. The closest it came to was when my friend’s newborn son very quickly developed an infection where doctors at the RACH in Aberdeen were ready for flying him down to London for a liver transplant. Thankfully God intervened, and one wasn’t needed though he and his Mummy spent a while in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. He’s now a healthy toddler.

Over the last couple of years though I’ve followed The Lawrensons’ blogs, when Tricia got her double lung transplant after her beautiful daughter Gwyneth was born. Nathan has often pointed us towards other inspiring stories of people with CF. It was through following Eva Markvoort’s twitter feed that I discovered the Live Life then Give Life charity when they started the Save Jess campaign.

That has made me more convinced on how important it is to be on the organ donor register.

And if anything this year has taught me that we really don’t know how long we have on earth. Which is why I’ve had the conversations with my Mum about dying. They are important conversations to have. As my next of kin she would have to sign permission to agree for my organs to be donated.

If you look at the stories on the LLTGL website, one of the saddest things is the number of people who die after years of waiting for a transplant.

So if you haven’t already, I’d really encourage you to get educated, and if you feel it is something you want to do…join the organ donor register in your country. And make your wishes known to your family.

Links connected to this charity:

Live Life then Give Life Website

NHS Organ Donor Register (UK only)

Live Life then Give Life on Twitter

Live Life then Give Life on facebook

Save Jess Campaign

Donate to Live Life then Give Life via JustGiving