Part 2, where we look at the challenges we have faced while living here.  I am almost reluctant to write this part because I fear it will be perceived as complaining. (Hello! We get to live in Europe!)   We just want to be real with friends and family about the less enviable (or less Instagramable) side of living in a part of the world that is different from one’s own.  We hope you enjoy!

The Climate….Yes it rains. But what has really been a challenge is the darkness in the Winter (the sun rises around 9am and sets by 3pm) And wearing heavy jackets in July.  We have had a handful of days that have felt like Summer, but they are scattered between days and sometimes weeks of little or no sunshine. Seasonal depression is no joke.  We even Amazon primed a “sad light” to sit under during the really dark days.

Driving….Stick shift while sitting on the opposite side of the car while using your left hand to change gears, tiny winding roads that make even the strongest of stomachs queasy,  driving on the left, and an infrastructure that pre-dates modern vehicles.  It’s a tough combo, and one that becomes most daunting when traversing unfamiliar roads (which to us are all of them!) Driving has been the main contributor to culture shock, frustration, and anxiety in our time here (which really is a blessing considering so many others deal with so much worse). We look forward to the day when we feel truly confident to just get in the car and go wherever, whenever.  Its a freedom we took for granted while living in America.

Laundry….Washing machines are a wee bit smaller here.  And though dryers exist, not too many Brits have room for them in their flat.  Smaller loads mean laundry day is everyday and constant rain means always being mindful of not leaving the wash out while your not home…. actually what it really means is setting up drying racks around your house. Rows of cloth hanging from the rafters as if your walking through a himalayan village.  Every radiator, door frame, and window sill has a duel purpose. We have fond memories of jeans being warm and fitting snug, of towels that are downy soft, and shirts that don’t sag off our shoulders.

Groceries and Food Storage….Just as everyday has become laundry day, so too, grocery shopping has become integrated into our daily schedule.  Full-size fridges are the exception, meaning our family can preserve about as much food as a college freshman in their dorm room.  Less space obviously means smaller and more constant trips.  But hey, on the bright side, at least you really get to know the people at the store!

We really are thankful to live here and that we get to do what we do.  It truly is a unique life, that in comparison to our King, is no sacrifice at all.  He left everything that was familiar and good to come and rescue the ones He loves….by comparison whats a crunchy towel?

 

 

It’s been just over six months of living in our new home of Scotland, and while life in a new culture will always present moments of anxiety, confusion, and homesickness, we can honestly say that we have been greatly blessed in this season of adjustment and exploration of our new culture.  This post will be the first of two in which we explore the blessings and challenges of life in our new culture. First, we will take a look at five things we have enjoyed about life in the U.K.

Keep in mind, we will focus more on the day to day practicalities and less on the obvious charm. (These have less to do with castles, double-decker buses, and lovely accents and more to do with the elements that affect us on a daily basis.)

Without further ado, here are some blessings….

The National Health Service….I want to make it clear from the get go that this is in no way intended to be a political post. I am speaking strictly in terms of what our family has experienced. In America we were accustomed to long waits in the E.R., mounds of paperwork, constant confusion of whether or not we were “in network”, and dreaded bills that would arrive months later. While we understand it would be unjust to make blanket statements about the two systems without taking into account the complex dynamics that are present, our family has dealt with a number of medical urgencies in the past six months and in each circumstance we have experienced exceptional, hassle-free care. We are thankful.

Foodie Fever….The saying goes that most British cuisine was invented on a dare. While we find ourselves time and again missing favorite chains like Chipotle or Shake Shack, we live in a foodie’s paradise. There is no shortage of great restaurants, cafes, and delis just steps from our front door. The food here lacks the preservatives we have grown accustomed to in the States and there is a greater purity in flavor to just about everything. In addition to the local fare, the proximity to the european continent and large population of immigrants, ensures that you don’t have to travel far to get authentic global dishes. While we occasionally have a hankering for good Ole’ American Beef, we simply have not been in want of great, tasty food.

Technology and Data plans….The cost of living in Britain is high, even for us New Englanders sticker shock is real.  However there are a few elements that are surprisingly more affordable and of better quality than what we are accustomed to. For one, our mobile plan is a third of what it cost in the States and the coverage is great. Not to mention thirty gigs of data is equivalent to the price of one back home. Additionally, cable service here is half of what we pay back home. Provider competition ensures that quality stays high, rates stay fair, and technology (like fibre optic cables and 4K channels) are standard offerings.

Public Space….A five minute walk in any direction from our front door will land us in an exceptional public park complete with fields for the dog to roam, playgrounds for the kid to scrape her knees, and public gardens and ponds where we can feed the swans, Instagram the flowers, or score an ice lolly (popsicle) from the Ice-cream truck; not to mention the government commissioned street art.  Graffiti never looked so splendid! The Brits know how to do their green spaces, and Glasgow is home to some beauties! Thirteen percent of the land in Great Britain is virtually untouched. It’s amazing to think that a country forty times smaller than the U.S., with thousands of years of history, has been conserved that much!

Pace of Life….There is a saying that Americans live to work, and Europeans work to live.  While there is certainly merit to being industrious, we have found that the pace of life here is much more conducive to family, having margin in your schedule, and allowing time to enjoy the every day stuff of life. While it can be inconvenient to show up at a shop and realize that they either A. closed at 4pm, or B. decided not to open that day because they had a really profitable few days prior, it still causes you to wonder if maybe we as Americans are missing something.

Thats all for now, stay tuned for next week when we look at some of the challenges of our new culture.

 

 

Its been awhile since our last post.  Part of that was intentional.  The other part?  Well if we’re being honest, it was insecurity.

The Intentional.

It’s been a month since our family arrived in Scotland, a truly unique season for us as we’ve been immersed in our new surroundings.  Not wanting to live life through our screens and wishing to take it all in without rushing to convey our “expert analysis” that inevitably comes from spending all of 15 days in a culture that has existed for a few millennia, we chose the path of being quiet.  It has served us well.  The first few days were filled with sleeping at odd hours, dealing with illness, and seeking to find some sense of normalcy.  We took driving lessons with our supervisor and learned how to interact in culturally appropriate ways with neighbors, shop keepers, and the Postman. We explored our city, got to know team members, met with Scottish church leaders, and received helpful field training.

We love living in Scotland.  Erin and I will often look over at one another at the end of a long day and say “Can you believe we are here doing this?!”  “Would you have ever guessed God would see fit to let us live out a season of our lives in this way and in this place?!” We are savoring the newness and seeking to embrace the uniqueness of this season of being fresh on the field by trying new things, taking risks in sharing our faith, making new friends, and enjoying the richness and the history of the culture around us.

The Insecurity

“Do you even work?  All you did today was mail a letter, meet a new friend for coffee, and not die while driving.”

That’s a real conversation I’ve had in my head, multiple times and yes I know, it’s extremely misguided.

Here is another one that rattles around in there from time to time:

“Real missionaries go to the jungle.  Real missionaries don’t get the comforts of familiar language.  Real missionaries go to places where people worship statues and farm animals. Real missionaries can’t go to the local supermarket and pick up Ben & Jerry’s. You’re not a real missionary.”

There are a lot of comforts here, but that doesn’t make the task before us any easier.

From personal experience I can say there are missional components that are more favorable in a place like Asia where you stick out like a smile on Bill Belichick’s face and everyone and their roommate wants to talk to you about your hope in Jesus.  That doesn’t negate the immense sacrifice those who serve in that region make, it’s just to say, there are different scales of difficulty and sacrifice.

Unique challenges present themselves when you walk the streets with people who look like you, have the same basic constructs of a shared culture, and who have a long standing perception of what it means to be a Christian.

It’s the familiarity that can be the hardest. In leaning into the familiar you underestimate the toll that the key differences in culture will take on you (we will have another blog post soon about some of the major differences in culture we have experienced since arriving here) and your left constantly comparing the productivity and expertise you had in your previous life with the uncertainty and vulnerability your presently experiencing.

The question we have to answer each day is this, “Were we faithful?”  If we can say yes then we can have confidence that God will take the seemingly random, often mundane moments of small risks and make of them something that will break through into eternity. Taken one day at a time, these early days don’t make much sense, but the Lord challenges that notion when we reflect back on this first month.

In the time that we have been here we have learned to drive ourselves around with a completely new set of dynamics, we have set up bank accounts, enrolled Mckinley in pre-school and registered with the National Health Service.  We have started to become familiar faces in a neighborhood we had previously never laid eyes on, have loved on not yet believers by opening first our mouths and then our home, sharing our faith, and studying the Bible.  We have made new friendships with Scottish brothers and sisters all while dreaming of ways we can join together to expand the Kingdom with the good news of the King.

The point isn’t to pat ourselves on the back and say well done.  It’s just to remind ourselves that something special happens when you begin to string together a few seemingly isolated and uneventful days.  It’s called the long game, and were just getting started.

Merry Christmas!  In just one week’s time our family will be getting on a plane to Scotland!  So much has happened since the last time we posted as we have spent the past 9 weeks in Virginia sitting under some amazing teaching, preparing us to move cross-culturally for the sake of the gospel. While we could write a book about all of the insights and strategies we have been equipped with, these past few months have also helped us grow in our appreciation for the “little things.”  We have been striving as a family to acknowledge all the unmerited favor of God in the subtleties of life and thought it would be fun to give you (apart from the obvious deep stuff) our top 5 Grace gifts we have experienced in this most recent season of life.  These are in no particular order and some of them are certainly less superficial than others. We hope you enjoy!

# 1 The Art of a Good Cup of Coffee- I (Patrick) have never been much of a coffee drinker. Basically I’ve always treated coffee as a last resort that should only be consulted during finals week or when operating heavy machinery on no sleep.  The past nine weeks of sitting, note taking, and getting the whole family out the door every morning at the same time (This is new to us!) has warranted some reconsideration.  In God’s good providence He surrounded me with new colleagues who are passionate about “the sweet morning juju.” I have been converted. Phrases like: “Hey you want to Chemex after this?” or “This gooseneck pour is so precise!” have become a part of everyday conversation.

# 2 New Friends-  Since leaving our sweet Mill City faith family back in the spring, we have struggled not having community.  There simply is no replacement for living in close knit relationship with others as you walk through the trials and triumphs of everyday stuff spurring each other on in the cross-centered life. It was so encouraging to be around so many other families who share our passion for taking the gospel to the nations.  Though loneliness and missing friends and family will continue to be a struggle moving forward, we are thankful for this season of new friendships and we truly believe that some lifelong bonds were forged.

# 3 Chocolate Cake- There is a particular chocolate cake produced by a vendor Erin often worked with while Pastry Chef at Umass Lowell that she reminisces about from time to time.  Desserts have not really been part of our life for the past few months, a reality that was beginning to take its toll on her. During our last week of training the president of our company called together a luncheon and, as a surprise, decided to put chocolate cake on the menu. But not just any chocolate cake!  Out they came with”Erin’s cake!”  It was a small but welcome reminder that we have a God who not only meets all our needs but graciously grants our wants as well.

# 4 She’s Potty Trained!- For Kinley’s 3rd Birthday she decided to give mommy and daddy the gift of not buying diapers anymore!

 # 5 Old Hymnals-Having been surrounded by talented and capable musicians throughout my time in ministry, it never occurred to me that people would look to me in our small group to decide how we would offer musical worship to the Lord.  With no guitar, or musical talent to speak of,  I was grateful to unearth a stack of old hymnals in one of the rooms on our campus.  Those dusty hymnals became so dear to us as we sang from them on a daily basis, making at the very least, a joyful noise!  I have since ordered a stack of hymnals for our family as we can’t imagine not singing from them together in the season ahead. If you would like to get your hands on a beautifully crafted, richly curated hymnal,  Hymns of Grace is a great resource that I would recommend to you.

 

That’s it for now!  Next time you hear from us it will be in the Old World!

Cheers!

It is safe to say that we are a Disney family. We own practically every movie that the House of Mouse has ever produced. McKinley’s morning plea for Mickey Mouse Club House is the toddler equivalent of the working adult’s battle cry of, “but first, coffee!”  And  Anna and Elsa? Lets just say they are a really big deal in these parts.

In case you couldn’t tell by the sudden onslaught of Disney related posts on Facebook last week, our family took our first pilgrimmage ( I use that word tongue in cheek) to “the happiest place on earth.”   We had so much fun as a family and were so thankful that Erin’s parents and my Dad were able to share in the week with us!  We rode down with Erin’s family in their RV and my Dad joined us on the back half of the trip from his new place just outside of Orlando.  We stayed at Fort Wilderness (Disney’s campground) where we were a short boat ride from the Magic Kingdom and where Chip and Dale throw a nightly rager complete with campfire songs and s’mores. Erin and I spent a few nights at another Disney Resort towards the end of our week and enjoyed  some time at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival and at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

The best part for Erin and me (apart from the food, AHHH so good!) was experiencing it all through McKinley’s eyes.  Months of anticipation and build up, of begging us to take her to see “Mickey’s castle” and to “say hi to Rapunzel and Goofy” and to “ride dumbo wit me?!” were finally realized.  You could literally see the sparkle in her eyes as she took it all in.  She was dazzled, and if we’re being honest, so were we.  While it is true to say that this trip was everything we could have hoped it would be, it is also entirely possible for the following to be compatible with that truth; it left us wanting.  There is no such thing as a “perfect” family vacation.  In a day when all we ever see is the best of what people want us to see about their lives, it is tempting to scroll through the pages of social media and think to yourself; “Man, I wish I had a marriage like that” or “Their kids are so good and so cute, how do they do it?”  I promised that this blog would be a place that is real and vulnerable, so at the expense of oversharing let me tell you about what you didn’t see posted on Facebook last week.  Missing was the picture (and the smell) of when the elated potty training toddler exploded in her pull-up, while next in line to meet her two most favorite sisters from Arendelle. Also conspicuously absent was the post of Erin’s iPhone shattered into a thousand tiny daggers as it enjoyed its own turn bouncing freely about the cart on Space Mountain.  And if only we had the presence of mind  to snap a few pics of the look, of shock and horror on the faces of those trapped on the shuttle with us as Mckinley heaved up every last bit (and then some) of all she had eaten that day. Between the posts of beautiful castle shots and meeting princesses we failed to mention that we left Magic Kingdom just as fireworks were about to start because one of my girls was screaming for it to be “nite-nite time” and the other was feeling defeated by the stares and pushing of others.

While non of these instances succeeded in making it onto my news feed, I can honestly say that I was thankful for each one of them, not because they were pleasant to experience (on the contrary) but because experiencing them helped us to lean in to what is important, what is eternal, what is true happiness.  More than anything I relish the moments that followed these instances that would never have happened had we not been put through the trial. It was the prayer huddles at bed time; thanking God that most of the puke made its way into our cooler and not on ourselves and others, singing Amazing Grace as the two year old belts out “was blind, but now I see” rather than “The cold never bothered me anyway!”, and being captivated by the eternality of God as we read his word.

We are thankful for the memories and the pictures, but we are most thankful for the picture of what Disney isn’t. Erin has made it a practice to write a memory journal to Mckinley that we plan to give her one day in the distant future.  The following is an excerpt from a recent entry that I think sums it up better than if I tried to do it myself.  Though its written to McKinley, its truth can be applied to each of our hearts:

“Mommy and Daddy had a great time experiencing Disney with you and we made lots of great memories.  Somethings, though, that Mommy and Daddy had to keep in mind all week and we hope that you will one day come to realize too, is that as great as Disney is, it’s not the most exciting thing we have to look forward to.  There is a place that is happier than Disney World; a place where everyone is always in a good mood, nothing ever breaks down, and you could never be disappointed or have a bad day.  That place is Heaven. Greater than meeting any of your favorite characters will be meeting Jesus face to face.  As awesome as it was going to the banquet hall in Norway at Epcot and having the princesses join us at the feast, one day there will be a real royal banquet in heaven for those who follow Jesus.  Everyone at that feast will be brothers and sister in Christ and not just a bunch of strangers. The best part is that it will never have to come to an end!  So the amount of time, energy, and resources that we put into planning our trip, and preparing you for what you should expect to see once you finally arrived, pale in comparison to the amount of time, energy, and resources we want to put into helping you to meet and know King Jesus.  That is our goal, and our prayer, and our promise to you as your parents.  We love you Kinley girl!”

 

Before we go any further, many of you are probably wondering to yourselves, “What’s with Quills of Stalk? Patrick does know he’s not a hipster, right?”  While it is true I am not presently punching away at a typewriter as I drink free-trade coffee while rocking an American Apparel V-neck, I would like to think the title is a bit novel and underexposed.

It’s a reference to a line from one of our favorite hymns entitled “The Love of God”  which was composed by Frederick M Lehman in 1917.  Lehman was a California businessman who lost everything, which led to him working in a labor camp where he packed produce for distribution.  The story goes that Lehman was so overcome by the cosmic love that God shows sinners, he began to write his hymn with a makeshift pencil on a lemon crate.  A gifted musician, Lehman composed the melody for the two stanzas he had written. It wasn’t enough. Unlike today where its common place for a song or even an entire worship set to consist of two or three sentences repeated over and over again as they ride a perpetuating pedal loop, the early 20th century demanded lyrical variety.  Lehman took several cracks at it, but nothing he came up with was on par with the original two stanzas. That’s when he remembered an old poem someone had once given him.  The poem was discovered scratched on the walls of an insane asylum some two centuries prior and was an English translation of a nearly thousand year old verse composed by a Jewish Rabbi. The identity of the prisoner and the nature of their affliction are lost to eternity, but the words so beautifully translated were written in the exact meter of Lehman’s two stanzas, and have been preserved down through the years through Lehman’s efforts. They read as follows:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Tho stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints and angel’s song.

As we seek to proclaim God’s incredible love to the people of Glasgow we know that words in quantity and quality will never fully convey His beauty and His pursuit.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t attempt it.  As feeble as our efforts might be, our lives have been reworked for this purpose; to proclaim the excellencies of Christ, to speak his beauty into brokenness, and to be reminded continually of how faithful He has been, is being, and will be to see these purposes worked out in the lives of his servants.

God’s love is spilling out all around us.  This blog is meant to be the utensil that is dipped in those most precious splashes we have succeeded in bottling up.