It’s been a week since we have come to Glasgow, Scotland. Mary and I were picked up at the airport by our friend, Jill Morrison, with whom we lived in July, 2015. We were all set to stay with her and her husband, Graham, at their home again this time; but just a few days before we left Denver, a fire began in one of their upstairs bedrooms. The fire did a great deal of damage to the top floor of the house and filled the bottom floor with smoke, but the house was saved by the fire brigade. (They think that a faulty extension cord hooked up to a phone charger may have been the cause.) It will take six months to restore their home. In the meantime, we are staying with good friends of theirs, Liz and John McFarlane, for the first week-and-a-half. After that, we will be spending time with friends from Cambridge, England for two weeks – and then it’s back to Scotland where we will be staying with the Morrison family in their rental home until we return to the U.S.A. in December.
That first night we had a lovely supper with both the McFarlanes and the Morrisons, and the next day took the train to the Falkirk area to meet up with Stuart and Lynsey Gilmour. The Gilmours are the young couple I’ve written to you about before – the ones who feel called to begin Scum of the Earth in Scotland. Lynsey was struggling through a cold (which I promptly got myself) but we had a marvelous time catching up and having suppers together. Over the next few days we kept going back to visit them via the train and rides from Stuart or John. Our discussions have obviously been swirling around the beginning stages of planting a church. To that end, we’ve also been watching a series of videos I received from a fellow pastor who specializes in this.
We also met with American missionaries from Communitas (formerly known as Christian Associates). To make a long story short, Communitas is a missions agency, based in Denver, which has people in the Glasgow area. They possess both the legal covering the Gilmours need in Scotland and the conduit for donations to come from the United States. It was a very good meeting. They are fine people who already love Stuart and Lynsey and we are looking forward to working together. Mary and I also met with the pastor from Mosaic Church, where Scum of the Earth folks have attended whenever we came to work at the Glasgow City Mission (GCM). He is also a Communitas missionary, so we heard some good old American accents a couple days in a row. He has also met the Gilmours and is excited about what we are attempting.
From there, we went to meet with people from the GCM, spending the afternoon in separate meetings with the director and the assistant director. The primary reason was to reestablish the relationship between Scum and the mission. We had each decided to take 2016 off and not have a Scum team work there this summer. The upshot of the afternoon was this: they are excited about us returning with a crew of people who can fill-in for volunteers who go on vacation. (This past summer they’ve had many shortages.) That evening, we ate with the staff member who had been the volunteer coordinator for GCM last year when Mary and I led the trip for the month of July. We had a fantastic time at our favorite Greek restaurant in Glasgow. The owner came to our table and we had quite the conversation about the Isle of Crete (where he was born and where my mother’s side hails from).
In between all this, we’ve been trying to keep up with things in America – our family, Scum of the Earth Church, the World Series – and trying to avoid the U.S. election process. I get asked about our country’s presidential choices daily, so it’s hard to escape it even over here.
I regret to inform you that due to purchasing airline tickets over here and other ministry expenses, I did not receive a full paycheck this month. I sent out a special plea to a list of “Scum Alumni” hoping they may help make up the difference. Could use your prayers about that situation.
Mike–thanks again for keeping us posted. We are looking forward to your next update.