Visiting Friends

June 22, 2011

I haven't written anything for a couple of weeks.  Most of our days have been pretty full.  The weekend of June 11-12, we took the train to Sheffield to visit a pastor friend of Alan's named Steve Timmis.  Some of you may know him as the author of the book Total Church.  I had never met Steve and enjoyed getting to know him, as well as his wife, father, kids and grandkids.  They all live quite near each other, which is quite unlike our spread out family.

Sheffield is in a very hilly part of England, quite the opposite of Cambridge, which is very flat.  It was a cold and rainy weekend but we got a feel for the beauty of the area.  We also got a feel for his highly committed church, by meeting with his small group, which they call Gospel Communites,and with a "Gathering" of all the groups together as we met at a hotel on Sunday morning for worship.

view of Sheffield from bedroom window

The birthday girl with her parents

 

Music for the Ceiligh

Last weekend we went to the Isle of Lewis to visit our friends, Robert and AnnieMary Sinclair, and to attend the 40th birthday party of their daughter, Monica.  It was a long trip (train to Edinburgh with two changes, and then a bus to the airport, where we caught a small plane to Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis.  But it was worth it to help Monica celebrate. Monica is the Sinclair's youngest child, and she was born with Downs Syndrome.  She has friends all over Scotland and we think only the queen gets more cards and jewelry on her birthday.  When we left there she had received about 65 cards.  And everyone knows Monica's love for jewelry, so she is well supplied with the lastest in fashion jewelry! She always  looks quite posh!  Monica has not been doing very well the last two years and has been diagnosed with dementia.  It was sad to see how it has affected her.  But she arose to the occasion for her birthday party.  Robert and AnnieMary had a birthday dinner for her at a local hotel, inviting 50 guests.  After a delicious dinner, we had a ceilidh (pronounced kaý -lee)  It is a gaelic social gathering including music and dancing.  Young and old did a little dancing and Monica really seemed to get into it. There were probably about ten people from their old church in Dumbarton, people we have known since 2004, who came up to Lewis for the occasion.  The Sinclairs did not tell us they were coming, so we were quite surprised and thrilled to see them.


Monday night we flew back to Edinburgh and spent the night.  We had planned to revisit some of our favorite spots on Tuesday before catching the train at  5:30pm.,  but we awoke to a very rainy day.  It drizzled in the morning, but by midday, it had given way to heavy showers.  We ended up hanging out in bookstores, coffee shops, and museums, but we cannot complain.  We have truly been blessed in the past with unusually beautiful weather while in Edinburgh, so I guess it was our turn for showers.  It took most of the five hour train ride back to Cambridge to dry out, but the trip was beautiful.  Lots of sheep, green hillsides, gorgeous coastline, etc. We were rather exhausted, but thankful, when we arrived back at Tyndale House about 11pm.