New Opportunities

We hope you all had a great holiday season. We were nervous about our first Christmas in Scotland, far away from family and friends, and had no idea what to expect. God was very gracious and we had an absolutely lovely time here in Dundee. We were able to continue some traditions from the States and add some new ones as well. New Year’s Eve (called Hogmanay here) was spent with new friends at a farm where we took part in the traditional Scottish games, storytelling, singing and incredible food that accompany the holiday here. Brian got the privilege of piping in the New Year, a duet with our host, with both pipers proudly donning their kilts.

A couple of exciting developments have occurred over the last few months with our ministry here. The first is that one of the community health nurses from the local clinic where we see our GPs and the kids see their paediatricians has approached us desiring to make referrals for counselling services. This was a surprise as we have yet to have a need to advertise our services here at St Peter’s. We really are both that busy here. We both have full standing counselling schedules each week and see a few people from within the church on an ad hoc basis. Needless to say, we saw this as an ideal opportunity and dropped off some of our materials by the clinic.

The second is that we have been meeting and praying with the leaders of a new YoungLives ministry that is in the process of being planted here in Dundee. “YoungLives offers teen mums relief from the isolation and struggle of their daily lives and hope for the future by linking them with mentors who provide friendship, parenting advice and help meeting the practical demands of raising a child.” We’re hoping to be able to provide counselling to these young mums who want it and to build a link between St Peter’s and this exciting ministry that’s new to this area. (The Tayside area, which includes Dundee, has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Scotland as well as the highest per capita rate of abortion in all of Western Europe. You can imagine the important influence a ministry of this sort could have here, providing practical support and guidance that hopefully lead to life-affirming choices when unintended (or intended, as many of them are) pregnancies.) Please pray with us that God would further His influence and reach into the community through these avenues.

With all of these new opportunities to serve, this New Year has brought much work for both of us. We have both gained several new individual counselees and are seeing several couples for marriage or premarital counselling. As our workload grows we ask that you would join us in praying that God will help us to manage our home life well and that we would take the time to nurture our marriage and children daily.

One last thing . . . and equally as exciting, a few weeks ago our Pastor, David Robertson, whom many of you prayed for during his severe illness back in October through December, returned to St Peter’s to preach his first sermon since his illness!!! If you were following the story you know what a miracle this was. He had a 10% chancing of living at one point, after nearly six weeks in the Critical Care Unit. Thousands of people around the world prayed for him during his illness, even some of the atheists and agnostics David regularly debated. The Lord heard and spared us this grief and David is working his way back up to returning full time in a few months. This Sunday, 11 March, St Peter’s is having a special service to thank God for answered prayer. David has invited all of his doctors and nurses and the church has made a concerted effort to invite friends and family to this evangelistic service. Please pray with us for this incredible opportunity for the gospel to be heard here in Dundee.

On the home front, a quick update:

Madeline lost her first tooth (as you can see),

Joseph 1) started nursery (pronounced pre-school) and 2) fell in the North Sea (shortly after this picture),

Ava is awesome and growing at an incredible rate and is being baptised this Sunday, 11 March.

Karsee and Brian both had birthdays a few days ago and are feeling their age.

We are continually grateful for your care, prayers and encouragement. We also love to hear stories from the US (and abroad). Please let us know how you are doing and how we can pray for you.

It’s the end of the year as we know it . . .

Happy Christmas from Dundee, Scotland!

We can’t tell you how long we’ve wanted to write those words, and it feels just as incredible to say them to you today as we thought it would be. We hope this finds you well and enjoying a deepening sense of God’s love for you during this Advent season.

Much has happened in the six months since we arrived in Dundee. And things look a little different than we expected. Though not drastically different, some of the changes are significant. For starters, we thought we would counselling in an already established counselling centre operating outside the church, instead, we’re providing pastoral care and counselling to those that attend St Peter’s Church, and providing counselling for those in the community through our offices in the church, all as a ministry of the church, free of charge! We each have several individuals and couples that we are now seeing regularly and new people are seeking us out each week.

Secondly, Brian has been assigned the task of restructuring the way pastoral care is provided at St Peter’s. Part of that includes developing a training program for the church’s elders and the additional pastoral carers that will be a part of that structure. Thirdly, Brian has taken on the responsibility of administering the existing mentoring program and Karsee, having taken on some mentoring responsibilities of her own, will play an integral part of that mentoring program in the coming year. Fourthly, we have also been asked by our pastor to develop and oversee an intensive pre-marital counselling program for anyone who wishes to be married at St Peter’s in the future.

Finally, as most of you know, our pastor and friend, David Robertson, took ill several weeks ago and slowly continues to recover in hospital here in Dundee (with great progress in the last few days, I might joyously add!). These last weeks have been emotionally tumultuous for all of us who love and care for David and his family. We feel extremely privileged to be here during this time of upheaval, to sit silently with those who need presence, to encourage those who need words and to add our own tears to the many that have been shed through this season. Our hearts resonate with God’s Word when we read about how its not supposed to be this way; and we hold fast to the promise that all of our tears will one day be turned into joyous laughter. Without these promises and the Holy Spirit’s internal witness of their reality, we would surely fall into despair.

Your prayers for us in the midst of our work here, for our strength and our ability to care for the people in Dundee with the gifts and training with which Jesus has equipped us, are being answered every day. We know we are not alone over here, that you are interceding for us as the body of Christ. Our internal call to this place continues to be validated by the fit between our calling and the ongoing needs here in Dundee. We don’t know how to adequately express our gratitude to each of you.

As we approach the end of the year, we would like to ask those of you who make charitable donations during this season to please consider making a contribution toward or work here. We have experienced some shortfall in our support account as some who made pledges have been unable to follow through due to the strain of the current economic climate on their own finances. The cost of living has fluctuated a bit over these first six months as well, causing additional strain on our support account. If you are able to, and see some worth in this gospel ministry, then we would invite your financial partnership.

We’d also like to remind those of you who have made annual or monthly pledges and have not set up contributions yet, that the easiest way to do so is to visit our Mission to the World donation page by clicking here. You can either make a one-time donation via credit card or you can set up a recurring monthly, quarterly or annual deduction to support the work we’re doing here.

If you would prefer to send donation by a check, you can do that by downloading this card and sending it with your donation to:

Mission to the World
PO Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284

If you do decide to donate this way, please keep in mind that your gift should be postmarked by December 28th in order to make sure you receive any tax benefits for 2011 you might want to claim.

We are overwhelmingly grateful for your support in all its forms. Thank you for partnering with us in Jesus’ ongoing gospel work in Scotland.

Soli Deo gloria,
Brian, Karsee, Madeline, Joseph & Ava

Thankful

Thanksgiving Day this year will look much different than any in our past. Brian will have work at the church during the day, and Karsee will be counselling in the evening. Maddie will have school as usual, and Joseph will have his first “visitation” day at the Nursery he’ll soon  attend. Thinking about how different this day of festivities will be has made us thoughtful about the many things for which we are thankful.

God has brought us on this magnificent journey and he has shown us his faithfulness, his perfect timing and his grace all along the way. Over these first six months in Scotland, he has smoothed our paths in some places, taught us patience in others, surrounded us with brothers and sisters to encourage us, challenged our expectations and revealed our fears. He has taught us new things about the depth and breadth of our sin and its effects while at the same time reminding us of his unending, unfathomable and undeserved love for us.

As we look through the names of our supporters and friends this week, we are so thankful for all of the ways you have faithfully supported us over the last few years of fund-raising and, now, service on the field. We’re reminded of the family who prays every Wednesday for us, and the friend whose little boy prays for “Maddie’s mama and papa in Scotland,” of those of you who periodically FaceTime, iChat or Skype with us to check in and let us know you’re praying. The blog comments, the emails and the texts all encourage us. Every single one.

As we continue to settle here in Scotland, we’re so thankful for our new family and friends in Dundee who have already cared for us in amazing ways and in a variety of circumstances. We’re developing some incredible friendships here that make our hearts glad and confirm our sense of call to this place. And how fitting that in this week of Thanksgiving, our friend and pastor David Robertson has made significant steps on the road to recovery: he’s out of ICU, breathing on his own and getting back to being “David” again. God heard and honoured your prayers to spare his life and we are very blessed to be able to have him here with us for a while longer.

We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving here with a meal on Friday evening and will be introducing some new foods to some of our Scottish friends. Though we’ll miss our extended family and friends, and the lounging, and the football, and the turkey induced comas, we are looking forward to sharing a bit of this tradition with this new family God has given us here; and to ponder and share about our Father’s faithfulness.

Answered prayers and more prayer requests . . .

When I look up at the sky here in Scotland, I am often amazed at how quickly the clouds move across the sky. Storms come in and then they’re gone. Time has been moving pretty quickly here as well. We can’t believe it but we’re already coming up on six months here in Dundee. And so much has taken place in that time. I continue to be so thankful for the church family here  and how easy it has been to join in the life of St Pete’s. I have also had the privilege of getting to know several mums in the community through play dates. It has been really neat to hear their stories and to share some of my own.

A few weeks ago, I began to ask God when he would like me to begin counselling again. It’s difficult at times to know how to balance managing a home with three children and the gospel ministry we’ve been called to here, but my desire to be walking with people through their difficulties has not diminished, regardless of how hectic life has been since arriving here. Well, God didn’t wait very long to answer my question. Within a weeks time I had four clients form the Dundee community as well as a developing mentoring relationship with a university student who attends St Peter’s. I was shocked at how quickly God answered my prayer and I am excited to get to know these women.

Additionally, there are several young couples at the church who will be getting married at the church over the next 12 months, and Brian and I have been asked to develop a premarital counselling program for these and future couples who wish to wed at St Peter’s. I am excited to get to work with Brian in this ministry of the church. Please pray with us that we would be able to manage our busy schedule well and that God would be glorified in the work we do.

Please pray for our friend David Robertson
One last note. Most of you know by now of our friend and pastor, David Robertson, and his illness which continues to keep him in the ICU here in Dundee. The moderator of the Free Church has asked the churches here in Dundee to pray for David this coming Sunday. We would invite you to do the same, and to ask your church, wherever you are, to join in. Here is the prayer request as posted on the Free Church’s website:

“In the light of the most recent posts regarding the serious and worsening physical condition of Rev. David Robertson, a request has been made that the whole church pray earnestly to God on David’s behalf at the same time on this coming Lord’s Day at 10.30am or 12 noon. Along with him being a family man, our brother in Christ and a loyal servant of the Free Church, we also appreciate the intense role he has been fulfilling as an effective defender of the Christian faith in our secular society.  Please pray for David, for his healing, his family and his church.  Pray that God will be glorified in and through this dark experience that we are facing as a church.

Rev. James Maciver
Principal Clerk and Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly 2011″

IT’S NOT RAINING!!!

Imagine that exclamation coming from the sweet little voice of a two-year-old boy in Scotland, fists raised in triumphant victory, when his father opened up the front storm doors of their flat and sunlight flooded into the front hall. “IT’S NOT RAINING!!!” Joseph is as excited as we are each day the clouds leave for a wee while. Dundee is the sunniest city in Scotland, but that’s not really saying a lot. So we grabbed our things and went out to enjoy our breakfast on the front stoop. You have to seize every sunny day. Carpe diem solis.

Over the last six weeks (since our last update)we have been:

Figuring out what Ava wants, when she wants it, and getting her on a regular nighttime sleep schedule. This has been challenging, but seems like we’re getting the hang of her cues. (Karsee’s really the one that has figured all this out. And she translates for me.) Ava goes to bed now around 7pm and usually only wakes up once around 5am for a snack and then back to bed until 8am. This has made life much more sane for all of us. She’s trying to talk. A lot. And seems to be a pretty happy baby. Please pray that Ava would continue to be healthy and meet her developmental milestones.

Maddie getting adjusted to school. She was nervously excited the first day, and has been loving school every day since. We are so excited about how well she’s transitioned into life at school here and we are overwhelmingly grateful for all of your prayers for her. God is gracious and good. Maddie recently had a “Red Letter Day.” She received an official letter home from the Head Teacher for her excellent attitude in class and her superior reading. Karsee and I both teared up with pride as we read it.

Maddie’s school here is incredibly diverse, a happy surprise. A great many of her classmates are from all around the world. In addition to the Scottish, English and Welsh kids in her class, there are children from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Japan, China, Indonesia, Africa, and Greece, all with a wide variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. She has made several good friends in her own class, and in others, and is having a great time each day. This week her best friend from school is planning on coming to St Peter’s Monday Club after Maddie’s invitations over the past few weeks. Please pray that Maddie would continue to be a light in her school and that her friends would be attracted to the Light of the world that’s in her.

Joseph learning to live without having his big sister there all day every day. This has been a tough one for Joseph. He misses his sister. A lot. For the first two weeks of school Joseph would wake up and tell Maddie it was Saturday and that she, therefore, did not have to go to school. He’s through that phase now and just looks forward to the end of the day when Maddie and Daddy come home from school and work. A few weeks ago, Karsee took Joseph to register him for Nursery (preschool for three to five-year-olds). That was pretty exciting for him and he’s been talking about when he gets to go to his school incessantly ever since. We told him that in order to be ready to go to Nursery he had to be three (October 6, less than three weeks away), it had to be after Christmas this year, and he had to be able to wee and poop in the toilet. That same week he decided it was time to start wearing underwear and he has effectively potty-trained himself. He’s so grown up.

The time without his sister has also allowed him a larger spotlight in the family during the day. He’s talking a lot, and I mean A LOT more, and his confidence in speaking to and in front of others has skyrocketed. This past Sunday he took the stage during the children’s teaching time and explained to the pastor that Jesus was there with us, but that he was invisible and that he came to rescue us and that his (Joseph’s) parents have rings and that they’re married. He would not stop talking/preaching. He’s also had a few other experiences without his big sister. The pic above is of Joseph sitting on the top of Arthur’s seat, atop an 823 foot peak overlooking Edinburgh, which he climbed with his father and his cousin Sam during a recent visit. Please continue to pray for Joseph’s transition and adjustment to all these big changes in his young life.

Karsee getting to know the local mums. Karsee has been a busy Mum of three, figuring out the instruction manual for the new wee one as well as keeping the middle child entertained during the day. She has had really excellent opportunities to build relationships with the mums of Maddie’s friends at school and at Joseph’s toddler play group. She’s really enjoying getting to know these ladies and continues to look for opportunities to share bits of the gospel as they present themselves. Simply explaining why we’re here often opens the door to deeper grace-oriented conversations. Please pray for wisdom and opportunities as she continues to build relationships in Dundee.

Brian researching and developing a model for pastoral care for St Peter’s. (No, that’s not what I’m doing in the picture there, but I don’t have any other pictures of myself. That one was taken at Stirling Castle and the court jester and I had a great conversation about the gospel when I told him why we are in Scotland). What I don’t have a picture of is all of the reading and research I’ve been doing over the last three months and the preliminary plan for pastoral care at St Peter’s that I presented and that was warmly received by the church Session this last week. As a result, I was appointed Pastoral Care Coordinator and given the green light to continue developing and implementing the plan which includes developing a pastoral care training program for the Elders and others in the congregation. This is a several-month task that will require a good deal of work and patience. Please pray that God would provide that and the wisdom needed to contextualise a great deal of information.

In addition, I’m continuing to see a handful of counselling clients and have had one meeting (with two more scheduled in the coming weeks) with outside social service agencies regarding serving as a place for referrals for counselling services. Please pray for these contacts and that God would open doors for us to care for the people of Dundee who are without the hope of the gospel.

We are very grateful for those of you who have chosen to join us in this ministry through your prayers, letters of encouragement and financial support. Without you and your generosity we would not be able to continue. We are very aware of the challenges you continue to face, and we appreciate your partnership so very much.

Tea and Toast

We have two stories involving tea and toast that we hope you’ll find interesting:

The first story involves our THIRD CHILD BEING BORN!!!

Yes, many of you already know this from our Facebook updates and the email we sent out at the beginning of the month, but for those of you who haven’t heard, Ava Ruth Parr entered the world on 29 June after a very short (45 minute) labour. Karsee woke me at 6:30am that Wednesday morning to tell me that she was pretty sure we were going to have a baby by the end of the day. Her contractions weren’t regular or strong, so we had a leisurely breakfast, showers and then woke the kids.

Our friend Rachel arrived to pick up Maddie and Joseph around 7:45am to take them out for the day. Karsee’s contractions became more regular and increased in strength at that same time. Rachel and the the kids left at 8:00am, we left at 8:02am. Karsee transitioned in the car during the four minute drive to the hospital, and Ava was delivered, with Karsee standing up in a delivery suite, at 7:20am. We were so grateful that we didn’t have a 20 minute drive as we would have had in St Louis and that we had taken one practice run so we knew exactly where to go. Whew!

Two hours later Karsee was showered, dressed and relaxing with Ava in the midwifery suite when the midwife brought in a tray with a pot of tea, warm toast and a variety of butters and jams. It’s funny, but it was this small, culturally-centered gesture that made us realise, in that very moment, that we were far from our origins. It had a strange settling effect as it communicated our here-ness in Scotland.

Exactly eight hours after Ava’s birth, we walked out of the midwifery unit at Ninewells hospital with our new baby, and drove home to spend the night in our own home without nurses checking in on us every hour, no beeping machines, no IV’s attached to Karsee and no hard, uncomfortable institutional couch for me to sleep on. We were in our own home, with our kids taking part in caring for and loving on Ava, and slept in our own bed. It was without question the best and easiest delivery we’ve experienced.

The second story involves me nearly losing my right ring finger. Exactly nine days after Ava was born, I was cleaning the massive 150 pound, double-glazed Victorian windows in our home when the sashes in one of the top windows broke. The window slammed down, grabbing my right hand and lodging it between the two window frames. The ring on my right finger, a reproduction of the ring Maria von Bora gave to Protestant reformer Martin Luther on their wedding day, was also caught in the frame and the force ended up ripping 80% of my finger from my hand in what is called a “de-gloving” injury. I used a hammer to pry the window frames apart and get my hand free, and then, still in shock, I did what any normal person would do, I grabbed Karsee’s phone sitting nearby and snapped some photos of the bone, tendon and other gruesome stuff. That picture is here if you have a penchant for the macabre.

The EMTs delivered me to the ER in a haze of nitrous-oxide. They cut the ring from my finger and took me up to a surgical theater to repair my hand. No internal damage and the plastic surgeon did a pretty good job. He was especially careful with his work after I informed him that I was both a concert pianist and a professional hand model (nitrous-oxide induced fabrications). A short while later I was enjoying my own tray of tea and toast. Less than five hours after the accident, my hand was stitched up and I was home eating the best-tasting bowl of frosted flakes I’ve ever experienced. No breaks, no internal damage, no amputation. I’m thinking of having a screenplay written by my brother-in-law Kip to retell the story dramatically. The working title is 127 Seconds.

Settling in and longings . . .
We’re feeling pretty settled now in Dundee, especially since our shipment arrived and we have our old familiar tableware, books, tools, toys, warm clothing, etc. Our house is slowly becoming more homey as we unpack and get pictures of friends and family and our artwork and decorative touches in place. We haven’t felt homesick in the traditional way we think about that. You know, like a feeling of, I wish I was back there, or I really miss that place. Perhaps we will eventually, but we’ve been praying about being in Scotland for more than seven years. In our heads and hearts we so longed to be here that we were homesick for this place and now we feel like we’re home.

We do miss all of our friends and family back in the States, and are starting to feel that loss more acutely. FaceTime and Skype are great, but you can’t hug a computer screen. Well, you can, but it’s just not the same. We do long for our longtime friends to be able to pop over for the afternoon or to go out to diner with our crew. Another way we’ve been experiencing loss in this transition is through a longing for the familiar. We long for Dundee to be as familiar to us as St Louis and Oklahoma City have been. That’s beginning to happen, but its more of a time thing. We’re just noticing it now. Thank you for your continuing prayers for this aspect of our transition, both for us and for the children.

St Peter’s
Things have been going brilliantly here. We love the people at St Peter’s and they have taken very good care of us through our transition, having a baby and the trauma related to my injury. We are thankfully seeing relationships deepen with several of the families and individuals and are enjoying getting to know the culture through its people.

I have continued to see a couple of people regularly for counseling and have made been sought out by a few people in the community to establish referrals from other agencies to our counseling service. We haven’t pursued this in a systematic way yet, as we’re still getting settled in, so we can only see this as our Lord directing our steps and preparing a path for us. We’re grateful for this practical manifestation of His care for us and a reminder that it is He who has called us here and who will use us to for his own purposes here. There is true rest in that.

In and around Dundee . . .
We’ve also been meeting and making friends with people in our neighborhood. Our neighbour Allie was walking by when my hand was stuck in the window and helped Karsee get me free and to the hospital that day. Since then we’ve spent some time getting to know her better and she has come to St Peter’s with us a few times as well. I’ve also seen the man who ran up to me in the street again just recently. I’m hoping I can spend some more time talking to him in the future.

We also met a family from China at the local playground recently and have bumped into them three more times at various places around Dundee.I’m hoping that relationship will develop before they have to return home after his studies. Please pray that we would continue to meet and have deepening relationships with the people here.

Here are some more random pictures of our life here in Dundee and of Ava:

Thank you for your ongoing prayers and support in all its forms.

Finally, our first post from Scotland . . .

This is the view from our drawing room, overlooking Magdalen Green and the Firth of Tay. We were overwhelmed when we saw this beauty for the first time and it consistently takes our breath away daily.

SETTLING IN
It seems like just yesterday that we were in St Louis, trying to make sure we weren’t forgetting anything and packing everything we own into the ten giant duffle bags, five carry-ons and five “personal items” (pronounced: five more carry-ons). If it had not been for our friend Jen and her amazing Honda Odyssey, which seemed to expand each time we put another bag into it, we would never even made it to the airport.

At the same time, it feels like we’ve been here in Dundee for quite a while now. (Some of you have expressed the same as you’ve been looking for this update. (c:) It’s been four weeks since we touched down, made our way to our rental on Windsor Street – twice, because the largest mini-vans here are really mini so we had to leave half our luggage at the airport and return for it in the afternoon – and began making it into our home. That’s done for the most part now. It was mostly furnished when we arrived and a trip to Ikea for some inexpensive ready-to-assemble furniture quickly filled up the rest of the space. We have only our shipment from the States to finish out the nesting phase and it should be here by the end of the month.

We have settled in to life at St Peter’s, for the most part, and that has been made very easy for us by the wonderful, loving people here who have welcomed us, fed us, shown us where things are, stopped by for tea and company, answered our unceasing questions about the meanings of words we’ve never heard before, smiled, encouraged and prayed with and for us. This experience has made Mark 10:29-30 come to life for us.

FAMILY
Karsee is great with child. Ava is 37 weeks old now and there have been stirrings.

We have a midwife and have made a practice run to the Midwifery Birthing Centre at Ninewells Hospital. The nursery is complete except for one wall hanging and whatever we might have packed in our shipment that has yet to arrive. We’re as ready as we can be, we guess, and have three families from St Pete’s who have offered to be on standby to care for Maddie and Joseph when Ava decides to make her way into the world.

Maddie and Joseph have adjusted very well to life in Dundee. They are making friends and having playdates with other kids from St Pete’s occasionally. Maddie attends Monday Club, an outreach for kids in the community organised by our church. Oh, and she has been accepted into Blackness Primary School, which is 50 yards from my office at St Peter’s. We are very excited for this development. We were told when we arrived that we had missed the enrolment deadline and she might have not made it in to the school. We’re now trying to determine if she should be in P1 or P2. We’d love your prayers for wisdom and guidance. Joseph is ready to be a big brother and has informed us that Ava told him that she was coming this Sunday. Stay tuned . . .

WORK
After four weeks of settling, I (Brian) have begun regular office hours at St Peter’s and already have three counselling appointments my first week. One of them came about in an interesting way. I was biking to work this Monday morning for my first day at the office and was chased down by a Dundonian who thought I was one of his mates. He was a bit embarrassed, and a bit inebriated for 8:30 in the morning. We laughed his mistake off together and began to talk a wee bit. When I told him I was in Dundee to serve as a counsellor, he asked if he could walk with me to work and began pouring out his life along the way. I’ll refrain from details to protect his privacy, but he is one of the people God brought us here to help. He agreed to come back later this week to talk further. Just like that. On the street on my way to work. Incredible.

Another interesting conversation began with a couple of Mormon “elders” that visited our home our second  Saturday here. A 30 minute conversation on our front stoop turned into a great two-hour discussion at a local coffee house the following Tuesday and hopefully some followup conversations in the future. Please pray for Matthew, who seemed to be responsive to the true Gospel of God’s grace.

We also had a great outreach event here this last week with the Jason Harms Quintet, from Bethlehem Baptist Church, where John Piper serves as pastor. They are a jazz quintet with a catalog of standards as well as original compositions that explore the ideas of faith and Christianity. The event was at the Tartan Café coffeehouse and drew a rather large crowd.

Finally, I’ve been given the task of developing a plan for increasing the scope and depth of pastoral care and counselling for St Peter’s over the next few months. Suggestions for books and materials are welcome.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
We really didn’t expect this, but the first couple of weeks here our heads hurt. They hurt like when you’re learning a new language. We had no idea how much vocabulary we’d have to learn when we arrived. In each blog-post, we’ve decided to share some of these “new” words we’re learning. Today’s word is “pudding.” In America this refers to a sweet dairy based dessert usually made with milk, sugar, butter and a flavouring like vanilla, chocolate, banana, etc. Pudding of this variety, so far, has been non-existant, both in the stores and in the understanding of the Scots and English we’ve spoken to.

1) Puddings here are instead made with flour and a few other ingredients and can be either sweet or savoury. They take on a variety of forms, but more regularly look like spongy batter-based pastry. They are often served with with meat and gravy, like Yorkshire pudding (pictured at right). But they can also be served with hot jam or warm fresh fruit compote. 2) Pudding is also used as a general term for the dessert course of a meal. 3) There’s also apple pudding that looks similar to apple pie, but instead of pie dough the top is of a cake-like consistency.
4) Also included in the term pudding is Summer pudding, a medley of soft fruit encased in thin slices of white bread then soused with the fruits’ juices and compressed for 24 hours. 5) Lastly, there’s black pudding, which is a large sliced sausage made mostly of blood that is a staple in traditional Scottish breakfasts. I may have missed some, we’ve only been here four weeks. Let me know if you know of others.

THANK YOU
So much more has happened, but this post is already way too long, so more next time.

We love you all, and are so grateful for your prayers, encouragement and support. Please write us. We love getting messages from the colonies. And come visit us. We have a warm bed in a usually chilly room waiting for you.

PRAYER REQUESTS
For the work of getting adjusted and settled and for building relationships in the community for the sake of the Gospel. 

For the lost and hurting here in Dundee, that God’s grace would be proclaimed and understood by those who have yet to know God’s deep love for them.

For Ava’s impending arrival, that all would go well and that she and Karsee would both be safe and healthy.

For Maddie’s school situation, that we would get her in the classroom where she belongs and that the school staff would be helpful in those efforts.