Apartment Searching

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We have begun the great search for a place to live in Edinburgh! Above are pictures of the latest find, though it sounds like that property is not as nice as it appears online...Tony Foley went and visited the property for us today and just called to give us his thoughts, mainly that it's not as nice as you would think and, for the money, we can do better elsewhere. And so the search continues...

It turns out that living expenses in Edinburgh are much higher than here in the States, especially in the area that we're looking (City Center: near the University, social scene and historical hotspots). We're finding that a two bedroom apartment will go for between 500 and 1200 pounds per month; we're trying to keep as close to 500 as possible without ending up in a dingy, cupboard for the next couple years.

We're praying that the Lord would provide us with an affordable place that would meet our every need; we would appreciate your prayers as well!

The ball is rolling

So we have sent out many of our support raising packets (DVDs) and have enjoyed everyone's comments and positive responses! We've been planning to leave August 1, though it looks like we may be heading out to DC August 4-6 for National Community Church's Missions Conference and leaving from there on the 7th--how could we pass up a chance to visit NCC and the DC Schmidgall clan?!

We are in the process of getting our visas and school loans, which should come through in a couple weeks. We've also been looking for a "flat to let" (apartment to rent) in Edinburgh, which has proven to be a bit difficult as many of the properties listed don't have images available...though the Foleys have said they would check a few out for us, so hopefully within the next couple weeks we'll be able to put down a deposit and nail down a place to live!

Only 6 more Fridays in the States! It's a bit more real when you can start saying things like that! We're heading up to Minnesota for a few days to spend time with the Schmidgall family, then will come back and start organizing our apartment and packing!

Gathering of the Elders

It's always a humbling experience to share your life story to 50+ elders. Kate and I walked into a "primetimers" breakfast at Calvary this morning under the assumption that we were sharing with those with a June birthday/anniversary, and thought, "Wow, June's a popular birthday month!" Turns out the Primetimers meet every month to celebrate birthdays and have a good ol' time.

I just love Pastor Ron Markese, not just because I've known him since I was a fetus and Kate receiving Christ from a message he preached one Wednesday evening several years back, but because he's a hilarious guy with a tremendous heart. He truly is "the people's pastor". (It's been a long time since I heard such a cheer develop throughout this past Good Friday service crowd as we learned Pastor Ron would be delivering the message....I got chills.)

Anyway, Kate and I had the opportunity to share our hearts and excitement for Edinburgh. We always hope people can, in some way, experience our joy for this time in our lives. We believe we have a unique voice in sharing with older generations the needs of our generation.

One of the things we did was ask the people with June birthdays what they were doing at our age (mid-20s): Context and recognition of the past is so important in relating to others. When you meet someone for the first time, it's like starting from chapter 14 in a 30 chapter book, you've completely missed the beginning and its so important to get the "cliff's notes" on the earlier chapters. I can't tell you how fascinating it is to hear what my parents, and many elders I meet were doing 10,30,50 years ago at my exact age.

So my question for you is, what were you up to in your mid-20's? For you "blogger newbies", feel free to add a reply in there, look forward to hearing stories.

Thanks to Pastor Ron and the Primetimers for such a wonderful time!