Preparation...

So, God was sending my on this mission abroad and I was preparing. Frist, we had a mission retreat where we locked ourselves into the Wesley Chapel with the intention of getting to know each other better and to spend time in prayer over our upcoming journey. I knew three of the grils very well, Nat, Brooks, and Pickle, and was looking forward to meeting everyone else. We spent the day and night talking about our strengths and where we thought God was going to use us most. I joined the "games" group. You all know me and that deep down I am a cut-up, so I wanted to use what humor God gave me to reach the youth. We had an activity at our retreat where we were assigned a responsibility in making individual pizzas for everyone on our team. Well, turns out we aren't very good at doing things individually...we had to work together...but we WANTED to. It was a great premonition of our teamwork while in scotland.
To leave the country these days, you have to have a passport, well mine didn't come in until the week before we left-talking about stressed out, but the Lord provided. We left Atlanta with a delayed flight, I can't remember why we were delayed, but of all people that I was randomly assigned to sit next to, I sat between Brooks and Nat. Everyone else might have been next to one other mission member or even were by themselves, but not the 3.
We had wonderful salmon on the plane over and watched movies...I think everyone was too excited to sleep, or atleast I was. We landed Gatwick, London, England to switch flights for Glasgow. I was with Kathrine going through security when I was informed that I was going to have to chug my water or throw my water bottle away. So, Katherine and I did. It was a funny story to remember. Some of the other team was looking for the bathroom and was informed that what they were really looking for was the toliet. In England you go to the bathroom to take a bath, not to use the toliet. We boarded our flight to Glasgow, and wow. I have never seen anything more beautiful. The view from the sky of the green farm lands and blue lakes of Scotland did not adequately prepare me for the Highlands that I was soon to see. I just stared out the window and the clouds and land mixed together and thought to myself that God's brush strokes had surely been preserved on this land. The photograph was taken right before we began our descent. Once we had landed, we were all anxious about meeting our missionary leader, Lance. He had once been an intern at Wesley in Athens, but had been called by the Lord to minister in Ireland. He later felt the Lord really pulling him to Scotland, so he and his family moved to Scotland where they had been for a few years. He picked us up and I hauled my very heavy pack and carryone to a luggage cart of which mine, brooks' and nat's bags too up the entire cart. We all gathered on the right side of the van to get into the back when we all realied there wasn't a door on the right side. It was as if a light bulb went of on top of all of our heads at the same time and we shifted to the left side of the van. The Scots drive on the wrong side of the road, you see. We left Glasgow and rode into Paisley, a smaller town that is know for its decadence. We were staying in Kingdom House, a missionary hotel owned by a Christian Family from Canada. We wanted to sleep so bad, but Lance knew better and kept us awake for the rest of the day. . .