Well sorry to say it's been a while since I last posted. I can't say I have a good enough reason for it but I'll try to sum up the last 2 months in a manageable amount of reading!
As you can probably guess from the title I'm back in bonnie Scotland (which isn't so bonnie at the moment) and flew back from Northern Ireland around a month ago. I have to say I'm missing it. I wasn't lying in my post from my first week there, I had an absolute ball! Don't get me wrong there were times when I struggled but thankfully God has used them to build me up and challenge me.
So as I said in my last post (all that time ago) , I was kind of interning at a church called Scrabo Hall and whilst I was there, the pastoral team showed me a little of what goes on in the church and I can say there is a lot going on at Scrabo! I won't bore you all by writing a long list of what I did day to day but to sum it up most of the work was a variety of kids and teens clubs, visitation (getting to know the members of the church and also members who can no longer attend because of health), outreach events and also bible studies and courses. I can't say I stopped very much but that was just how I liked it.
During my stay, I was put up by five different familes who I feel deserve a lot of credit of managing me for a week at a time. So again a huge thank you to Muriel and Robert who made me comfortble in my first week, Karin and Werner and their lovely grandchildren, Glenn, Heidi, Ellie and Lara for a great October holidays (spiders aside), Audrey and Eric for making me feel at home and Gywneth and Cambell who put up with my comings and goings! I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with you all and was made to feel welcome and at home wherever I went. You all get a 10 star rating ;)
I was also looked after by my beautiful mentor Niomi whose wit, patience and wisdom kept me right and whose cheerfulness on those early mornings was infectious! And of course thank you to all my unofficial mentors who helped and challenged me throughout my stay and to everyone I met who were so welcoming and friendly. Thank you also to the Scrabo YF who have really encouraged and inspired me and for all the support you've been, and for all the good craic. It wouldn't have been the same without you all.
So as you can hopefully see, I really enjoyed my placement in Northern Ireland and have and will be going back again. I came home feeling really uplifted after my time at Tilsley and NI and feeling more prepared for going to Tanzania.
Now, I couldn't honestly say I'm still feeling as fresh as I was back in November as unfortunately I've let life's business take me away from spending time with God. However, He's opened my eyes to this and I'm trying to make sure that I'm putting Him first instead of pushing Him to the side. It's obviously not a quick fix but I thought I should be honest about where I stand. It's horrible how easy it is to settle back into old habits but in a way it's shown me how much I do need to change and how I can apply what God has taught me so far to my normal life and not just when I'm away from home. After all it's one of the hardest places to witness.
Where to next? Well, on the 4th of January I'll be heading off to Tanzania which is kind of scary being nearly one week away! There I'll be staying with Gill and Steve Davies in Dar es Salaam. So I've got a few things to do, packing and learning Swahili being two of them but between that I'll try and write one more post before I leave.
Until then I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and have a fabulous New Year and thank you for taking the time to read this (and it's even more impressive if you got this far without 'skim reading')! God bless :)
TTFN,
Lottie xx