Isle of Skye

Wow, I had an amazing weekend. This is the first bit of scenery I have seen that doesn’t remind me in any way of anything I have ever seen before. The water, cliffs, and mountains at the Isle of Skye are absolutely gorgeous. The first day (Friday) was spent traveling from Aberdeen to Isle of Skye. This is about a six hour trip. Once we arrived we walked about two miles and across a great bridge to our hostel. Of course it was pitch black and we couldn’t see a thing, but it was fun none the less. We discovered in the morning just where we had walked and how beautiful it was. I made this journey with five great friends from Hope College and was later met by another person from our program whose college name is escaping me right now. It was a great group to hang out with. Saturday we got up at a decent hour, ate some breakfast, and headed north. We visited the town of Portree and then took a bus to Kilt Rock. Afterwards we walked two or three miles to another town where we spent quite a bit of time near the water just exploring. It was quite a liberating day. We then headed back to Kyleakin (where the hostel was) for a good meal and some cards before bed. Oh, we ate our lunch at Kilt Rock. We got to bed a little late that night, but not a big deal. The next day we set off in search of a castle. This was more difficult than we thought it would be as a result of the fact not that many buses run on Sunday. However, we did make it and it was well worth the trip. We spent all morning and part of the early afternoon there before getting on the train to head back to Aberdeen. Are trip back was a little long as a result of a layover in Inverness. However, this ended up being a marvelous thing. We had three hours to explore the city. We had an incredible dinner (the best I have had yet). I took a picture of Haggis for everyone. Mom, you better learn how to cook it or make sure I have the kitchenware to cook it myself. I quite enjoy it. Afterwards we toured the city at night and finally got back to Aberdeen a little before midnight. The trip could not have gone any better. I took a lot of photos while I was there, so please enjoy. The link to the photos of the trip is below. Also I added a link to all of my photos on the side of this page if you have missed things so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12609321@N03/sets/72157602436893711/

Me Upcoming Weekend

Hey everyone. I just thought I would let you know that I am headed to the Isle of Skye in about an hour. I will be there until Sunday evening. Hopefully I will have some good stories and information to share when I get back. I am going with some good friends I have made from Hope College. Have fun as I know many of you are on break. Talk at you later.

Finally a Post

I was looking at my blog recently and realized that I had not written for a while. I also am yet to answer a few of the questions that people asked about the church in Scotland. As a result this post will be quite long. Instead of submitting multiple posts, I will simply attempt to split this one up with headlines.

Timeline Update

Well, not too much has happened since my last post. Saturday night I attended this acoustic café thing at the only Methodist church in all of Aberdeen. I had a wonderful time, although the music was more about saving the world through fair trade than the message of Christ. Two of my professors attend this church. I had an opportunity to talk to them a wee bit more and find out how they ended up in Aberdeen. Also they both recognized my school (Wabash) because one of the seniors from my house my freshman year had attended this church while he was in Aberdeen. It was quite a wonderful coincidence. The following morning I went to Joy of Life church. This was a different experience altogether. They meet in a movie theatre (brilliant idea) and are a Pentecostal church. Now this is nothing like those in the United States. They basically are a charismatic non-denominational church. They are also the self-proclaimed international church of Aberdeen. This is quite a fair assessment. I was one of about sixty people in attendance and to my knowledge over twelve countries was represented. It was definitely a joyous morning. My favorite part of it though was afterwards when I told the pastor/minister that I simply wanted to visit as many churches as I could while I was here to get a feel for the Church of Scotland. He did not seem disappointed I would not be coming back regularly nor did he end conversation; rather he proceeded to build up other area churches and tell me about what each was accomplishing for the kingdom and which churches I should go visit. I wish we as local churches did such a good job building each other up. There truly is a kingdom minded attitude here and it is very refreshing. Sunday night I had basketball practice and then attended Garrod Street Baptist church again. This will be a permanent place for me on Sunday evenings. I quite like the music and preaching. It is also within a reasonable walk. It takes me less than thirty minutes to get there. Monday, Tuesday, and today have been typical school days. Class is going well and I continue to adjust well to my new surroundings. I guess last night was a little atypical. The flat next to mine decided to host a cross-dressing party. There were definitely some interesting outfits. I chose to watch Beyond the Gates of Splendor. It is an amazingly well done documentary if you have not already seen it.

My Thoughts

I have found myself writing down little questions in my journal during the day. My goal was to elaborate on what I was thinking/pondering when I had more time. I thought I would share a few of those with you now. First I wrote down that I am beginning to have a distaste for academia. This is an interesting conclusion for me. I personally love to learn and read. I find information contagious. However, I am surrounded by master and doctoral students here (especially in the Theology/Divinity Department). I very much appreciate my professors and value their careers. If one plans on teaching I think academia can be a wonderful thing. However, I find that people are so concerned with the exact translation or the exact doctrinal truth that they miss the big picture. I am in a class that discusses Calvin and Luther. I love this class and love to have these conversations with other Christians. However, I often wonder what would happen if I spent another four years learning what others thought on the topic and the history of it all. I would be better informed, more knowledgeable, and have a wonderful time. However, assuming I went to class thirty weeks of the year for at least fifteen hours a week (counting homework), I would spend 1800 hours in four years. How many people could I have interacted with in that time period and shared with them the good news of Christ. Now understand, I am in no way saying going to school is a bad idea. I personally still plan on attending graduate school for something (I have no idea what), but just remember to keep the big picture in mind. School can never be for us, but only so that we are more equipped to impact the kingdom. The rest of my thoughts are in reaction to things said or learned in my rise of Christianity class. This class is not designed as a religious course, but rather a history class. I am very much appreciating this as well. We have already seen that the Bible and surrounding texts about Christ are the most well documented and verified text ever. However, our professor made the comment that she will do her best to separate the historical Jesus from the Christian Jesus. Yet, she conceded (she is a Christian) it is hard because all of the writers (biblical and unbiblical) seem to start writing from the pre-disposition that he is the messiah and not simply a man. I find this interesting. How many other historical texts have you read that cohesively start with a pre-disposition. I mean everything I have ever read on Arthur assumes it is accepted he is not Arthur but King Arthur. Maybe the fact that all the writers seem to write from the perspective that Jesus is the messiah is because he actually is. Wow, wouldn’t that be a shocker. My second thought from the class has to do with the phrase “Come follow me” (said by Jesus to disciples). If someone had said that to me I would have said they were nuts, unless it was a privilege to follow him. I have always learned that Christ profession was unknown. It was assumed he was a carpenter (following his father’s trade). However, what if he had passed all the test of the days and actually had followed a Rabbi, then in turn became his own independent Rabbi, it would make sense then that these fishermen, tax collectors, and doctors who hadn’t been good enough to study under a Rabbi would be thrilled to get to study under one. I understand Rabbi means teacher and so when the disciples say it they may merely be calling Christ a teacher, but what if he was more. What if he was simply a radical Rabbi? I don’t know I guess my mind is just wondering. Not that any of this impacts the big picture that he was the Son of God and died in obedience and glory to his Father to redeem all of mankind. Finally, the resurrection has me excited lately. We approach it in class as if it were an impossibility. In order to examine something historically there has to be a metaphor to compare it to or in other words another occurrence of such a thing. Therefore it is assumed it could not have happened. Yet, the professor always has to say these depressed, lonely disciples all of a sudden got so excited that they changed the entire world (with a lie). I mean either all of these guys were possessed and multiple writers and all of mankind have believed a lie or something really happened. I don’t know I just think it is exciting. No one has yet to come up for a real explanation for what changed everything after the crucifixion except a resurrection.

Your Questions

Many of you wanted to know a little bit more about how churches in Aberdeen actually functioned. I do not yet know if the ministers live off of giving/tithing from the church or have alternative jobs. I know many that I have met have jobs and most of their wives work. There is also an exuberant amount of associative ministers who work for free. Many of these are graduate students from the University. So far every church I have been to is running weekly Bible Studies in homes. There is one distinct difference. While some of these studies have some substance to them, most are introductions to the Christian faith. So many of the Christians here are so young in there faith. There are also tons of evangelical Bible studies going on. It makes it so non-confrontational for church members to invite friends into their homes just to discuss whether this God is real. The big program they use over here is Alpha. Attendance on a typical morning is full of people of all ages. I have been to a church that had a few more older people, but more or less there are infants, children, youth, college, and adults. I would say the smallest group is youth. There are a lot of college students as a result of the University, but very few junior high and high school age kids at the church. There are not really programs like youth group, single adult’s ministry, older adult’s ministry or anything like that. There is Sunday service, weekly bible study, and many of the churches have weekly corporate prayer. Almost every church does have a music program. As far as clothing goes, anything goes. There are people in suits and there are homeless people in rags. Everyone is welcome at every church I have been in so far. The larger churches, and from what I sense are growing churches, offer free bi-weekly meals. It is very typical for a church to eat lunch together or have coffee and sandwiches after service. This is a great way to get college students and the homeless to come. It is probably one of the best out reach tools the churches have at the moment. There are many denominations. I have been in Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, and Non-denominational. I still have an Assemblies of God and a Catholic church on my list. We will wait and see. I think that answers all of the questions up to this point.

My Closing Remarks

As always if there is anything particular you want me to address just let me know. Also I realized I have not posted any new pictures in a while. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to take pictures of. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. Finally, if you are going to leave a comment please don’t leave them anonymously. If you simply put your initials or something I would appreciate it. I enjoy knowing who is actually leaving the comment. It helps me to put into perspective what someone might be thinking as they are reading my rambles. Also I wrote this really quickly, so if there are grammatical errors I apologize.

USA is Amazing

Just a real quick thought. If you have to mail a letter to someone in Indiana and you happen to live in Illinois when might you expect it to arrive? I would personally expect it to arrive in three or four days at the latest. I would have no doubt of this either. It would make it in plenty of time. Now let's say you wanted to mail a letter to someone in Indiana from the UK, when might you expect it to arrive? I would say 1-2 weeks would be a reasonable timeline. Now remember you are mailing from a socialist country where government employees can go on strike. Therefore I have no idea when any of my mail will arrive in the USA. This country literally has a mail strike going on. I have mail that must arrive by the first Monday after the first Sunday in November (those who care about there country know what I am talking about), yet I have no guarantee because a bunch of nuts are on strike. I am so grateful to be living in the good ole US of A. By the way, my German roommate insisted on me copying him some of my patriotic music for him. He said nobody cares that much in Germany about their own country and he just loves the music. It has been nice to hear American music being played in my flat.

Just an Update

Wow, the last three days have been fun. My time basically consist of reading and playing ball. I had more basketball practice on Monday night. We went somewhere in the city I had yet to go. It was very nice. Plus next door was their version of Wal-Mart. In fact I think it is actually owned by Wal-Mart. It was bigger than most of their stores, but it was still no Wal-Mart. The practice was good and we actually learned some fundamentals. Currently the team lacks a lot of fundamentals to the game of basketball. It was here that I found out that I got to play in our first game which was today. This means that I am either second/third string for the first team and they just wanted a few new guys to get some play time or I am actually first string for the second team. At this point I do not care I was just glad to be offered the chance to play.
Tuesday was pretty typical for me. As part of our introduction to Luther we actually watched the recent movie Luther. I had not previously seen it. It was quite impressive. It just amplifies how much Luther endured to make the gospel available to the common man. This is most definitely my favorite class. My early church history class is starting to move along, but is still not moving to the top of my list. It is interesting because I have almost all first year students in that class, but those students are not allowed to take the Luther course because it is labeled third year.
Today was a pretty productive day. I had my second Greek course of the week and then I had my second dose of counseling. I may end of appreciating the class. I am yet to learn much about the skills of counseling that I did not already know and may never learn that much knew information, but I am learning from the class. I have grown up with at least one close friend or someone I could consider a confidant at all times and often more than one. We were asked today to think of a time when we approached someone for help and felt like they just blew us off. Minus minor occurrences of little importance, I honestly was having a hard time thinking of a time this had happened. I do not know if it is a function of good hindsight in choosing who to approach or if I have simply been blessed with good people in my life. The women in my class had no trouble thinking of instances. We did not discuss the instances, but rather talked about how those people made us feel or what they did wrong. It was really eye opening to discover these basic principles of honesty, empathy, listening and caring are truly not instinctive for many people. It was a good lesson and insight to life.
Finally, tonight was my first basketball game. I was placed as third string, seeing that we had 13 guys playing. However, they finally put me in to guard the other team’s big guy. You must understand I am not the tallest or by any means the best offensive player, but I do love playing physical defense. The word physical is not in the vocabulary of European basketball. This big guy was probably only two inches taller than me, but weighed, I am guessing, 270 pounds. Unfortunately for him a lot of this weight was in his upper body and not lower. He scored ten points in the first quarter, however I held him to two points the rest of the game. I think I threw him off guard when I accidentally knocked him to the ground on a rebound. He was not use to getting pushed around. Believe it or not I actually had a decent offensive game as well. I managed to score seven of our sixty-five points. My brother should know I was three for four from the line. As a team we did not play so well. We had a whole lot more talent than their squad, but only won the game by fifteen points. I guess we have only played together for ten days.
Well, I have to go for now. If you are interested I attended a Bible Study last night that had me a little frustrated. We talked about truth from Ephesians, but we neglected to talk about whom the letter was written to, why, and its implications. We simply sugar coated the fact that God loves us. My rant can be found on Jonathan’s blog youareholy.com or colossiansonetwentytwo.blogspot.com

Busy Weekend

I have had an incredible weekend. Friday I more or less took it pretty easy and just spent some time resting up. I attended the Aberdeen Christian Union, here by referred to as the CU, in the evening. I had an absolutely wonderful time. The message was a little bit all over the place, but the fellowship and time of musical worship was wonderful. It is becoming more and more evident that the basics have to be taught here over and over. It has little to do with the fact that people don’t understand, but more to do with the fact that there are so many brand new Christians. It is quite wonderful.
Saturday I slept in and then made myself some lunch. I eat pretty well most of the time, but at times I eat things that would make most people nauseous. Saturday’s lunch was an example of that. I had two tuna and Nutella sandwiches. For those of you who are yet to have Nutella in the states; it is basically chocolate peanut butter made with hazelnuts. I very much enjoyed this high protein sandwich.
I then headed to the park to play some ultimate Frisbee. It was so nice. They actually have a team, that competes, but the park time is for both the team and anyone that just wants to hangout. After almost two and a half hours of Frisbee I was exhausted. I came back home and got ready to go out with two of my friends. We went to a local Pub called the Bobbin to watch Scotland beat Italy to go to the quarter finals of the world cup in Rugby. It was so exciting.
This morning I went to my third church. It was called Oasis. I had a fantastic time. The preaching was not the best I have heard, but I was quite touched during the music. I had been giving some thought to how we approach God. During this service the children walk around or sit in the back and color. When it comes time for the message they leave for children’s service. The band is to the left and there is nothing in the center during the message. Therefore an 18th month old boy decided to crawl up to the alter and sit and wave at people. While I know he had no idea what he was doing, all he desired was to sit as close to the front as he could. It was truly a picture of approaching Christ like a child on our knees, just begging to here him speak.
The rest of my day flew by. I read a little and took a brief nap before going to basketball practice. We had a new coach show up and he had us run a lot. Maybe guys will learn to listen better. It was a good practice though and I really am feeling like a student here.
The one thing that could use prayer are my flat mates. I do not know where all of them stand on Christianity, however I know at least two of them and maybe three of them are going to attend a class called Alpha tomorrow night. It is designed to introduce people to Christianity. They serve a free dinner (always good) and then have a short lesson. It will run the next ten weeks. My prayer is that is sparks some incredible conversation in the flat. Well, that is all for now. I am tired and am going to go eat my pizza dinner.
Also a quick shout out to all of my pledges at Wabash. I have really enjoyed all of the Homecoming pictures. It looks as if you all did as well as Wabash did at stomping Earlham. Just wait Depauw, it won't be pretty.

Church

As I start to write this I first want to make it be known that these blogs are not meant to be grammatically perfect. In fact about the only safe guard I have is spell check. If you notice something glaringly wrong and insist on letting me know that is fine. Otherwise just enjoy my idiocy.
I have written about my experiences thus far; however I have yet to mention my time in church or the Christian Union here on campus. Despite the fact that Christianity is not a “big thing” here, what they do have is quite impressive. The Aberdeen University Christian Union is made up of a little over 100 students. While this may not sound big for a campus of 12,000 people, their presence is made know. No other organization comes close to being able to advertise and mobilize the way this one does. I have also been very impressed with the way the church responds to people here. The Christian Union owes its success to the fact that one of the local churches bought a building on the edge of campus and has given it to the union for its use. They have anything they need, all they must do is ask for it. In addition, they attend over ten different churches in the area.
You must understand that here an average church has 50 people at most attend service. There are a couple of big ones that are 100-200 people. I have had an opportunity to visit two of them so far. The first Sunday I went to a Church call Hebron. It was very nice and the preaching was amazing. Late in his preaching he was giving instruction on why every Christian should read their Bible. Let me tell you when a man with a strong Scottish accent says “men died here in this country and others that you may have a translation of that to read”, it has quite an impact.
The second church I visited was Garrod Street Baptist Church. I went to the evening service. I think the morning service is a bit more mainstream, but the evening service was quite contemporary. I felt as if I was home. The message was also very memorable. Last year I had the privilege of hanging out with a few of Northside’s students at Disciple Now Weekend where the theme was verizontal. The idea being that in order to tell the world about Christ you must have your vertical relationship with God right first and then you can begin to reach out horizontally to those around you. The message this Sunday evening was about the church. His main point was that we have to quit looking at each other and the thing we call a church from our horizontal views and start looking at it from God’s vertical view. The church was never and never will be designed for us. Rather, it was designed to bring God glory and be a place for his kingdom to grow. Oh how sweet it will be to have our dress on the day of marriage.
The church here is small, but it cares for the citizens of Aberdeen. They truly seek to see people discover and fall in love with Jesus Christ. It is not unusual to talk to someone who has heard of Christianity and believes in the concept of a God, but has never heard of or has no idea who Christ is. The fields are ripe for the harvest, but here the workers are few.
I have just finished my second book. It was called Three. Scott Blewett suggested I try reading Dekker, a Christian fiction author. He is quite amazing. He very much reminds me of Michael Crichton. I highly suggest him to anyone who enjoys science fiction, psychology, and fiction. This particular book challenges the way we view evil. It wants to make the claim that evil is not merely something that exist, but that it truly is in active battle for our lives. It truly puts into perspective the passage in Romans 7 where Paul speaks of the struggle he has of doing what he does not want to do. Their truly is a battle that is taking place for our lives as we speak.
My final thought for the moment has to do with the people here in Aberdeen. There is one thing that has struck me more clearly than anything else. People are people everywhere. I live in a flat with Germans, Polish, Finish, and Scottish people. They all have hopes, dreams, fears, pains, and a longing to be accepted and loved. This is no different than people anywhere. I know this sounds obvious, but it is so true. It makes the simplicity of sharing the love that is Christ so straight forward. Everyone has the same void that can only be filled by one person. I challenge you to take a look around in your school cafeteria or work office and begin to realize that what stairs you back are not merely faces, pupils, or employees, but rather real people with a real need.
I will leave with that for the time being. I am having an incredible time here in Scotland. I could not have picked a better place for me to spend this semester. If there is anything else you want to know for the time being just let me know.

My Classes and their Abnoralities

Well, classes have officially started. I must admit I am glad that they have. I have four classes and they all require completely different time tables. I am taking Rise of Christianity. This class will examine Christianity from 0 A.D. to right before the beginning of the Reformation. I am then taking the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther and John Calvin. This class picks up where the other is leaving off and brings me closer to the common era. I am also taking an introduction to New Testament Greek. Finally, I am taking an intro to counseling skills class. I have a feeling all of my classes should be quite entertaining. My counseling course will be very easy. In addition I think my previous experience in Ancient Greek will cause my Greek course to also seem easy. My other two classes are no more difficult or easier than a Wabash course in terms of content. However, the amount of work I will be required to do is considerably less. I view this as a bonus. Not only does it make life less stressful, but it gives me more time to read books about the topics themselves. I just finished another book called Three, but I will write about that later. I heard a funny description of one of my Professors. It may not be kind, but funny. My Professor for Rise of Christianity was described as a German/Swiss He/She who looked like she should be out of the Sound of Music. It is quite a look and will be an entertaining course. The final thing that strikes me as different from the USA is the level of teaching. I do not doubt the qualifications of any of my Professors and am sure I will come to appreciate and enjoy all of them. However, only the He/She is actually a doctorate in her field. The others are all Doctoral Students. This is strikingly different than Wabash where 95% have their doctorate and if they don't they are merely a visiting Professor. Well, those are my classes. If you want to know any specifics let me know via comment. Oh, I just got out of my counseling course. I was anticipating a bunch of undergraduates interested in psychology and potentially counseling. There are a few, but I also have a ton of older women who want to solve problems in their own lives and hope this class will help. I felt as if I was attending a self-help session; not to mention 50% of the grade in the course is class participation. It will be fun. There are 14 females and two males. I am the only American and the only male that speaks English well. I will have to speak up for the male sex. I am rambling and will therefore end this here. I look forward to giving you my church update soon.

The Weekend

How is everybody? Anyhow I had quite an eventful weekend. One of my pledge brothers from Wabash (Clay/The Sauce) came up from Lancaster England on Thursday and we spent the day together in Aberdeen. We then left early Friday morning for Edinburgh. It was a fun train ride with a bunch of happy drunks. Upon arriving we discovered an absolutely beautiful city whose crowning jewel was an enormous castle in the middle of the city. Edinburgh has a population of about 450,000. We spent two days there. Our sleep at the local hostel was quite nice. We even had a chance to climb a cliff and oversee all of Edinburgh. While there I purchased my first kilt. I can not wait to wear it in the states. I am share my just look ravishing.

Upon our return late Saturday night we got some sleep. We think we walked nearly twenty miles that day. It was exhausting. However, the next day proved to be just as eventful. I tried out for what I hoped to be intramural basketball and ended up making the Aberdeen University Basketball Team (B squad of course). Who would have guessed? I know not I. So I guess I have found my activity for the semester.

Monday morning is when I had to say good-bye to Sauce. However, before he went I gave him a hair cut. It was a jolly good time. I then proceeded to my first class and he went to the train station. Later post will detail classes here in Scotland and I will tell you about my church experiences. They have been quite interesting and inspiring. Below is the link to this weekend's pictures. As always, if there is anything specific you want me to write about just let me know and if any picture ever strikes you as amazing let me know which one. I will try to get back to you all soon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12609321@N03/sets/72157602142983516/