Belgium

Off to Belgium tomorrow morning. We're headed to a CSM (Creative Student Ministry) conference in Brussels. It's an intense, 10-day conference with meetings 3x/day, it's definetely not a vacation, though we're amped to learn and network with 130 other campus ministry pastors and leaders throughout Europe.

Paris is only a two-hour train ride, who knows on our day off.

Gonna hop a train to London, then take a flight over to Belgium and stay in a hostel tomorrow night before the conference begins tuesday. Should be fun for us.

Looking forward to updating you on our experience throughout.

Prayers would be really appreciated: travels, and a productive time during the week.

The Foleys

This is going on the "about the staff" page on eikonedinburgh.com
Halarious!

story of how we got our flat

blues brothers

Went to pick up our DVDs today. I showed up and met Malcom, an older man who fit the nutty professor description to a tee; hair disheveled, thick glasses and quarky. He was so proud of his small facility, taking me around every room. Came to find out he used to be a tenured professor at the University of Edinburgh in Bio-Chemistry for 17 years. He gave that up to pursue a graphic design company that has unfortunately been relatively unsuccessful.

Pretty sweet though, he watched most of the DVD and had loads of questions about what we're doing here. He loved what Eikon was about and may pop in some day.

He noticed we were from Chicago and said, "Ah, the Blues Brothers." I affirmed his connection and he remarked, "So you're on a mission from God then", he said with a smile.

"Yes, I suppose we are Malcom."

some thoughts

Have kind of turned going up to Calton Hill into a tradition every sunday. It's my time to get away, reflect, talk to God, read and just detox from the week and anticipate the next.
Every sunday I go up there and am uplifted and refreshed. It's a reminder of where Kate and I really are because oh how easily we forget.

Decided to go out for a walk and talk with God up The Mile late at night. I sat down for a moment and was approached by a guy in his late 20s, wearing a suit but clearly exhausted. He kindly asked if I knew where this one hostel was and for a moment, I had no idea, so I sent him on his way. It then clicked and ran to catch him. Came to find out he had been looking for hours apparently and nobody knew where this place was. I remembered seeing a sign for it a while back and thought it was a terrible location at the time. I walked him all the way there and he ended up sharing that he was an accountant from Glasgow, but he just wasn't satisfied and decided to move to Japan and teach english for a few years.

We got to the hostel and he asked why I would be kind enough to walk him all the way to the hostel. I told him that what I was doing at the moment he walked up to me was praying for our Church to have opportunities to serve this community, an area that we really hope to develop over the coming months.

"Well, you saved me tonight, thanks a lot." Those were his words and it just got me thinking about how we approach evangelism at Eikon.

Eikon is and continues to instill a culture creation that allows dialogue and that itself, requires immense trust in God. It requires letting go of the need to fix, change, or control others' beliefs or actions. It requres trusting that God's Spirit can work behind the scenes in people's hearts as we create a culture where they are free to question, doubt, and explore faith at their own pace. This shifts the burden to change people back where it belongs - with God alone.

There are times for harvesting and we always believe in those possibilites, but a lot of what is required in this culture is planting seeds. It's not necessarily glamerous, or doesn't always look good on the stat sheet, but that's what people need.

We are in a constant rub: rushing things and doing what we can to get those "stats" looking better and entirely miss the process, or exercising patience and trusting the Lord in His timing and direction.

The momentum is building for this ministry. God we're excited.

done

finally got the DVDs done. Took longer than anticipated with having the team over. We are sending them off on Friday. I'm sure everyone is very anxious:)

Brian and Amy

What can I say, time flew! Brian and Amy came over here 6 weeks ago to serve the ministry of Eikon. They were such a blessing to have over here.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Being over here can be a lonely thing. Tony and Yvonne feel that way, as do Kate and I. They have supported this ministry from the beginning, as prayer and financial partners, and now giving of their time to take part physically. Such an encouragement to have them.

Brian worked on creating a database and contacting all Edinburgh schools, private and public so we can begin to serve the needs of the educators and students. He also led our prayer meetings, was actively involved in our gatherings and spent a lot of time at The Forest. Amy compiled a list of contacts in the community service sector, whether public or private industry. We hope to partner with already established community groups that are making an impact here in the city.

She was also a major help in getting the Eikon Mini's going on sunday mornings. They will be missed and look forward to their wedding in December.

Craggs

where else can you walk for 20-30 minutes and get views of a city like this? The Cragg is an amazing rock formation overlooking the city of Edinburgh. This was a hotspot for the team. In fact, a few of the guys went up there 4 or 5 times. I'm very conditioned for this terrain after a year of living here, but Kate and I couldn't even hang with that.

dancing

dancing and missions trips typically avoid one another. Particularly in a church culture that tends to look down on certain kinds of dancing. I remember when "dirty dancing" came out, I couldn't go near that and when my sister watched it, she got in trouble. I'm not here to debate whether certain forms of dancing are wrong. In fact, some of you don't even know what I'm talking about because it was always acceptable.

Nonetheless, I've talked about Ceilidh's before, they're traditional Scottish dances. It's kind of like square dancing, only fun. So we took the Ohio team to a Ceilidh and they loved it! It stretched some of the team members, but they all went and appreciated another dimension to the trip.

Anyone that comes over here will be required to participate in a Ceilidh, no ifs ands or buts.

jam

One of the evenings the Ohio team was here, we ventured down to The Forest to listen to some bands they were showcasing.

At one point in the evening, a lady banged on the window in the back and complained about how loud the music was. Instead of turning it down, one of the guys got up and improvised about the lady.

We made some incredible progress at The Forest this week. Most of the doors were installed, bathroom fixed, stage built and windows plaster-boarded for fire regulations.

At the end of the week, the entire team met at the Forest for lunch provided by the staff, so cool of them to do that for us.

Several people at The Forest in particular were so much help and had such great laughs and conversation with them.

music

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construction

Have been working all week at The Forest. There is a large space upstairs from the cafe that they are bringing up to fire code so they can use the space more efficiently. It's been a joy to bless this organization as well as opening an opportunity to use the space for campus ministry activities starting in September.

We've been building a stage, replacing doors, plater-boarding, replaced flooring and fixed a bathroom. They've been feeding us like kings all week and have had many opportunities to meet new people throughout the week.

Love this team by the way. Nobody knew each other before they came and they've just bonded this week. Again, missions trips are what captured our hearts for the future so I know what kind of impact this week can make on some of the guys and girls.

Tomorrow is the last work day, then it's time to play. That means one thing: golfing!

missions construction

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grace space

Great message by the reverend himself, Mr. Foley. Started the new series this morning with a full room given our added mission team from Toledo.

Quick thought from Tony:

"We don't want to be loved equally, we want to be loved uniquely." So true.

Plan to spend the week at The Forest doing construction preparations for the Fringe Festival in August (world's largest cultural festival). We'll replace doors, windows, install emergency lighting and alarms, and build a stage. 4 very skilled guys from the team will be helping out there, so should be able to jam.

toledo team

A group of 12 adults arrived this morning red-eyed and delirious from an all-night flight to spend the next 9 days serving Eikon.
What a group, instantly felt connected to many of them. Bill, the associate pastor is a gem, so kind-hearted and continually reminding us they are here to serve.

I love being around people who haven't been overseas, particularly Europe. We got on the bus and one of the guys began shooting video of the fields and hills. They were beautiful, but he had no idea what he was in for when the bus drove by the castle. Kids in a candy store. It's a reminder of what our daily environment is around here.

Spent the evening talking about Eikon, Tony and Yvonne's story, and how we arrived to this point. Great evening of sharing and encouraging them to not just work hard, but step back, take it easy sometimes and just soak in the culture and setting.

Look forward to tomorrow morning in our gathering and then an afternoon of touring the city.

night.

bbq

It goes without saying that a church staff needs to meet outside of a "working" context to really get to know one another. I know most staff go away on retreats, or pray 'n play's which we hope to do one day. A few days away in the highlands sounds glorious.

The reality is, when most of the team works part-time or full-time positions outside of putting in numerous hours for Eikon, organizing a date when everyone can meet for an evening is insanely hard. Yvonne is a professor, Claire is a nurse, Mike works at a restaurant, I'm at school (though on break for the summer, ahhh) Tony is at school, and Kate does a lot of web design.

The stars aligned a few nights ago, and our entire team got together at Tony and Yvonne's for a bbq. What a blast! Being able to laugh and joke is so essential to our team. And we do it well. Non-stop laughing. Brian and Amy were able to join us along with Tony and Yvonne's kids, Luke and Jess, and Mike and Claire.

I love the team we have!

other side

We've been in numerous missions trips in our lifetime. It's certainly shaped our worldview and has been a catalyst for our calling to Edinburgh. I've always gone though. Hosting is a different story.

We've had a few teams come through so we're getting pretty good at this, and we couldn't be more excited to have a team from Ohio over next week. It is a lot of work though. If anyone knows kate and myself, you'll know that I'm not the details guy, so this is a particular headache for me (the details, that is.). What makes it exciting is seeing people take time off work and money to give of themselves and serve and learn. I love being around teams. You should see Kate in this setting, she's a rock star.

If you've been on a missions trip, it often times involves some sort of prayer walk at a given point. We're not knocking them, there couldn't be anything more necessary, particularly for the laborors that will remain long after a short-term team leaves. To be honest though, they can be boring, and it's tough to walk into a context you're not very aware with or haven't poured much energy into and really pray over the area.

Our solution is going to be a "mystery prayer walk". Should be interesting at best, chaos at worst, but they won't forget it. Each group will be given a map and several locations. They'll hunt it down and each location will be presented with a different facet of our ministry and how they can really personalize it.

Anyways, it's been a learning experience seeing short-term missions from the other side of the aisle.

DVDs

sending out DVDs this weekend, if there is anyone that would like one and you don't think we have your information, email me: dave@eikonedinburgh.com

The DVD will include a recent message by tony what Eikon is, interactive slideshow of the year and some of the things the Lord has led to get involved with, video promos, Eikon Adverts, and some interviews. It will hopefully give you a better feel of what's taking place as we venture into our second year here in Scotland.

Obviously it's free with no obligation to support us....though it would be nice....just kidding....kind of.

male modeling

"Hi, I'm male model Mike Laberge, you'll never be as good as me." This happens to be a spoof off Zoolander.

These videos are entirely improvised. The "adverts" are products that I gave him on the fly to use for pictures in another video. Good stuff.

be yourself

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podcasting

in the process of revamping Eikon's site , well, Kate is. We're a little behind the times, but are going to be podcasting shortly in video and audio.

It'll be worth subscribing. To be honest, I've heard a lot of christian communicators throughout my life and Tony has some fresh insight I've not heard from anyone else.

The next series we're starting is entitled " S p a c e ", looking forward to it.

is the sky blue

I think I saw a twinge of blue in the sky today......wait....yeah, I definetely did. The month of June, has had the highest recorded rain-fall in history. Not only that, but a scottish woman I talked to the other day of 65 said this was the coldest June she's ever had.

Nice to get a dose of the sun's rays.

turn the other cheek

Arrived this past saturday in Glasgow to hear Rob Bell around 3:30, about a half-hour after the car with two passengers ran into Glasgow airport in an apparent act of terrorism. Obviously there were cops everywhere, all the train stations and Edinburgh airport closed down. Funny, because I remember thinking when we arrived here this past August that Scotland would probably be the last place there would be an issue.....how naive.

Anyways, Rob shared something I honestly hadn't heard before. It had to do with Matthew 5:39...."But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

I've always read that as a passive act, in fact every example between versus 38-42 seemed to be acts of pacification. That couldn't be further from the truth.

According to Jewish tradition, the right hand was considered clean, as the left was unclean. Living in a very socially stratified culture, every action one took coincided to their social status....even to the extent of how you struck someone who either offended or was insubordinate.

You always struck someone with your clean hand, and striking someone's left side with a fist indicated that though one may have offended the aggressor, they were still considered equals. Striking someone on the right cheek, if you can picture it mentally is almost impossible with your clean hand and making a fist. Thus, you slapped a lesser person on the right cheek. That is why certain versions of the passage interpret it as "slapping" as opposed to "striking".

By turning the other cheek, you weren't sitting back and letting them beat the tar out of you. No, this was a highly subversive act, thus requiring the aggressor to strike the left cheek and indicating they were equals in the eyes of the onlookers, something you dare not do. Could you be more imaginative or creative?

It wasn't passive, nor was it aggressive. It was considered the "third way". I've read about the third way before, but just not quite like this.

Two guiding principles of the third way:
-do not co-operate with anything that was dehumanizing.
-allow for any possibility that the aggressor could change their mind

He used a great modern day example: a woman from his church had said she was in a destructie marriage. One of the things the husband would do was take her bible and tear it up in front of her. What's the "third way" in that situation? Go after him, walk away? Perhaps the third way was to quickly grab your camera phone or a camera and tell him you wanted to get the act on camera so she could show their kids what Daddy did when they were younger. Pretty imaginative, I've got to admit.


I'm continually amazed at some of the seemingly simplest passages in scripture being so easily misunderstood.

don't come to eikon

posted this earlier, but didn't get any response, wasn't sure if anybody actually watched it. A little reverse psychology, people seemed to really like it.

In case anyone is confused for what these are about, we use them to start our gatherings, and ultimately as commercials for our website that we'll be revamping and using more resourcefully in the future.
don't come to eikon

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stonehaven

I had to show some of the pictures from this golf course we went to yesterday, unreal. Jeff, Kate's step-dad said he'd been to Pebble Beach and this blew it out of the water. Almost every hole involved a straight down cliff into the ocean. The British Open starts in a few weeks and is only an hour from Edinburgh, at a course called Carnustie. May try to get up there for that for an afternoon.
There was a cliff right behind our tee-off on the second hole. The coastline along the northeast of Scotland is spectacular.
Ruins of an old church and cemetary are the backdrop for the final hole. The course itself dated back to 1888, but the ruins was significantly older than that, dating back to the 16th century.
Walking along one of the fareways with the ocean just to my right. I tee'd-up a ball and cracked it into the North Sea because it was on my top 200 things to do in life....not really, but it felt freeing for some reason.
Kate's mom teeing off. Her mom and step-dad are really good at golf. I just liked this shot.

last few weeks

Took a little blogging vacation, well at least unintentionally. I'd like to think we live a farely adventerous life, but I do feel a bit pretentious when writing about what is taking place around here.

Momentary feelings aside, it's been a fruitful latter half of June....I can't believe it's July!

Kate's parents arrived early last week and we've been spending a lot of quality family time with them. They're avid golfers, so I finally got the opportunity to hit the links here in Scotland. All I can say is, I've been missing out. I knew they were amazing, but to get out there and hack up a course is another thing, such a blast. If it wasn't' so expensive, I'd seriously pick it up....I got some skills, gotta be honest.

Brian and Amy continue to be a value to the ministry: Brian is laying the ground-work for Eikon to get connected with various schools througout the city. i.e. construction (painting, plastering, general cleaning) which we look forward to developing this one of the many effective ways of reaching into the community.

Amy continues to establish connections with various non-profit community-based services that would partner with Eikon or make available opportunities for us to serve.

There is a missions team from Ohio that will be coming in a few short weeks, so preparations are well on the way for their arrival. They will be involved in some fire-code updating in a building that The Forest uses and we hope to use in the future for a campus ministry venue. That'll be huge! Pumped about them arriving.

Tony and Yvonne have been on vacation these past few weeks, which was much needed considering they've been going non-stop since we got Eikon up and running. I've enjoyed the opportunity to share in the past few gatherings, will hopefully post a few thoughts on what I've shared.