6/30/12:  we all slept in different homes last night and everyone was tired! We ate a fantastic meal with Linda and Kirsty Hagan at their home on Skail! I stayed with Michael and Teenie Harcus and we went and viewed the completely refurbished Kirk (church). Then we went for a sunset walk at 10:30 on a beautiful night! I slept from 11p.m. Until 8:00 am like a baby!  Had a wonderful breakfast with Michael, Teenie and Peter (a cousin who is sailing down from Shetland to Aberdeen but enjoying a stay here waiting for right weather).  Then we saw Steve Wynn and Kimsey Welch walking past the house and I went and collected them. After some chat at the house we went up to the lighthouse and walked along the cliffs, saw many seals, birds, but no puffins (they were out feeding). At table for lunch after buying seafood at local market!

Scotland Mission Trip 6/29/12: flight from RDU to Heathrow was on a small 767. There were no seat-back DVD screens and I sat apart from group since Daynette Orr's name change messed up seat assignments. My seat mate was Mike Gerber and he was going to meet his family in Paris (a fine Christian man origannly from Illinois and now a manager in a construction type insurance company)!  The real ordeal came at Heathrow! The que to get through customs and collect baggage had literally hundreds of people and an estimated two hour time. I asked an airport worker what we should do since we were to fly out of Gatwick at 11:20 and he just said to forget it... "it's a two hour drive to the other side of London and even if we had our luggage we couldn't make it!" a few minutes later I asked the same question of a lady in charge of " the fast track" lane. After a few minutes she let our group through, we walked FOREVER tp the Central Bus and Train station, I bought 6 tickets for 150 pounds, and we were told that we had 4 minutes to catch bus #15 to Gatwick and we should make it to Gatwick by 10 a.m. We hustled to find bus #15 and when we did the driver didn't want to let us on? Another driver argued with him and then he took us! We made the connection from Gatwick to Edinburg... But then upon arrival realized that we had no boarding passes through to Kirkwall... So the kind lady with British Air shot us directly to our departure gate for Kirkwall where two agents hand wrote boarding passes for us. Kimsey and I were moved to the two front seats to "balance the plane" and enjoyed the company of Rachel, the flight attendant from Glasgow. Upon arrival in Kirkwall we were told that we only had 10 minutes to get to the Westray Ferry.... Made that and are on route now at 5:22 p.m. (their time) to Westray with Kirsty Hagan! Whew!!!!!

Well, I went to bed early and was going to sleep in, but can't do it! Up at 6:30 and going to meet my daughter, Katy-Mac for daddy time and breakfast before I leave at noon! Steve Wynn has to be at work this morning by 7 a.m. I think that the rest of the crew will be packing to meet at the church around 11:45 am! Day 1 of journey, here we go!

Our Scotland Mission Team is getting excited as we head out Thursday at noon from RDU directly to Heathrow. However, once arriving at Heathrow, we must change airports and transfer to Gatwick where we will depart to Edinburg and then to Kirkwall where we will collect our luggage and then ferry to Westray! It is an adventure getting to Westray in the Orkney Islands. We are due to arrive in Westray by Friday night around 7 p.m. Please pray for us and I'll blog the experience along the way, where and when possible! The theme of our Bible focus with the 50 - 60 eight to eleven year old children that we will working with is that God knows our name and has us inscribed in the palm of his hand (from Isa. 43, 49 and John 10).