I kinda dropped the ball on updating this everyday while I was in Scotland, like I had planned. Oh well, I'll try to recap as much as I can now...
Fri-left STL for Atlanta around 3pm. They had shut down ATL's airport b/c of high winds and we circled for about an hour. With the pilot telling us we were low on gas and may have to land somewhere else to refuel, but luckily we didn't. After claiming my luggage and checking back into another airline, I noticed a group of people ahead of me in line. I kept thinking they looked familiar (from FB), and it turned out they were part of the team. We had dinner at TGIFridays, where we learned that restaurants can't give you real knives past the security checkpoint, so the guys were cutting their steak and chicken with plastic knives. Interesting! 10 of the 12 on the team made the flight to London. 2 that didn't were from Detroit and their plan arrived too late.
Sat - arrived in London and had to catch a train to Glasgow. BA was dealing with strikes and were so kind to cancel our flight :(. One girl's luggage didn't arrive in London also. We run through the London Tube (subway) with all our luggage and just missed the train we were supposed to be on. Ate lunch and then caught a train. Riding backwards the whole way, but very pretty scenery. Arrived in Glasgow, Ryan picked us up and we headed to Overtoun House, which is beautiful!! Had dinner, a short orientation and a team meeting and then headed to sleep.
Sun - church. A few of us gave testimonies (including me) and we broke bread with the members of the church. The bread was really good too, homemade! The youth were having a lunch fundraiser, so we had lunch with the church too. After, we got a tour of the house and later went on a hike. The land is so pretty. A girl from the church gave me a pair of tap shoes too! That was really cool :)
Mon - starting work on the house! we were split up into many groups, and I started the morning cleaning out a cabinet full of towels and sheets. See, water had leaked on them back on Valentine's day and no one knew about it. We threw a lot away, but were able to save some, which we then put through the wash. Then headed up a few floors and cleaned one of the dorms and set up the furniture. It was so pretty when we were finished! That evening we watch a Passion conference video about how great our God is. Hard to put into words, but makes me feel very small in comparison to the universe, but so loved that God knows me by name!
Tues - was assigned to work in the basement building stalls in a new bathroom. Learned how to use a grinder to shorten some nails and a table saw. That evening we kinda just hung out. We had a really good girl talk in our dorm room too.
Wed - worked in the basement finishing up what we worked on the day before. Got to know Grace and Matt, which was really cool. After lunch, headed outside!! Raked a lot of grass and weeds, and since the temp was a little chilly, I really enjoyed it :) And before anyone asks, the reason I don't do that so much at home is usually the temp. But whatever. I had a heart-to-heart that evening with one of my new BFF's about some personal stuff, but it was really nice to connect with someone.
Thurs - some brush needed clearing on one of roads, so we worked on that all morning and afternoon. I was on the team that ran the branches to the discard pile up the road. This involved loading the branches on the trailer, riding either on top of those branches or on the 4-wheeler, unloading the branches, and heading back to get more. Made quite a few trips. Close to quiting time, on a pretty full load, I rode on top of the branches and my body had had enough. MS, which had hid its ugly head all week, showed up. Basically my left side had no more strength. I went back to the house and rested for awhile, and the team was finished with that project about 45 min or so later. We cleaned up the main level of the house for the tea room that would be open the next day. Later, part of the team went on another hike and a few of us stayed back. We went on a smaller hike around the house. We hung out with the missionaries for awhile and prayed over them.
Fri - got up early and headed to Edinburgh (capitol of Scotland) for a free day. We took a train there and then took a bus tour of the city. We toured the castle and went shopping. Had dinner at a fish and chips place (I had chicken and chips) and headed back home. We debriefed and shared our favorite moments. Packed and headed to bed.
Sat - got up really early to fly home. while waiting in the London airport, we had 'church' and a few of us gave testimonies. This time more of the where we came from kind. I gave mine too. I took a couple Benadryl and slept almost to whole flight to Atlanta. In Atlanta we said our good-bye's, better yet, our see-you-on-facebook's and parted ways. Arrived back in STL around midnight, got home and crashed.
I met so many amazing people on this trip, friendships that I pray will last a lifetime. Did things I didn't think I could. Learned a lot about myself too. While we didn't do all the things we thought we would while there, God worked everything out and we were touched deeply.
Cannot wait for the next mission trip and really cannot wait to go back to Scotland!
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