What's Up?

The hours of daylight have been changing since the
change of time a couple of weeks ago. In January it was
dark until late morning, and dark again around 4:30.
Even though I wake up early there is plenty of daylight
now. The days are slowly growing longer. We have had
some glorious days of sunlight over the past several
weeks. But this is Scotland, and the weather can change
very quickly and quite often.

I thought I would share with you what I have been doing
during the last two weeks of April. I have been busy, but
I continue enjoying what I'm doing at this time. Basically
I focus on church work that takes up between 45 and 50
hours a week. As a probationer minister I was told to try
to do no more than 40 hours of church work a week. Yeah,
right.

I continue to enjoy the one year I was granted to work on
my thesis. I think I am starting to comprehend the trauma
that the 2006 cardiac surgery had on my system, especially
my mental functions. Sometimes I wonder if I haven't recov-
ered my mental agility to the level I was at before the sur-
gery. Regardless, I enjoy the process of working on my the-
sis and look forward to being finished with it soon.

Since I preach every two weeks, I use the week before I
preach to prepare the sermon. It use to take me about
12 hours to prepare a sermon; now it takes me about six.
I'm slowly getting back up to speed after being away from
pastoral ministry for over five years. I'm looking forward
to preaching through the book of Ephesians in June and
July when my colleague, Rev. Dr. Ken Jeffrey, is away on
a well-deserved two months sabbatical. He is confident
that I'll be able to keep the church on track while he's
away.

I try to do six to eight pastoral visits a week to elderly peo-
ple who are no longer able to attend church. Some of the
conversations have been quite precious. A large number
of them are in their 80s, and a few are in their 90s. Some
conversations are half an hour in length, and some can be
nearly two hours. It is a privilege to visit with them. I have
made over 60 visits with around 50 more to visit.

I have done several nursing home services. Yesterday I
used my iPod and portable speakers to play several
hymns I had downloaded from the iTunes store. Some of
the people joined in singing, others just listened to the
hymns. They really enjoyed that. I am also being called
on more frequently to conduct funerals. I had one last
Saturday and am preparing for one next Monday. I am
finding funerals to be a good time to minister to and
serve others. I actually enjoy doing funerals.

I must make time to do things essential for living, like
grocery shopping, cooking, sleeping, and having some
down time. I have found it hard to take a full day off, so
I have been taking parts of days off twice a week. It has
worked out quite well for me.

Blessings, and all the best to you and yours,

Christ Is Risen! He Has Risen Indeed!

I had a wonderful and glorious week that began on Palm
Sunday and reached a crescendo on the Sunday past as
Cupar Old Parish Church celebrated Jesus Christ's death
on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead. It was
a very special week for me.

The special week began on Palm Sunday with a young boy
representing Jesus riding on a donkey from the church
hall to the church down the street. A large group of chil-
dren and their parents followed Jesus and the donkey
shouting hosannahs as we processed to the church. The
congregation followed closely behind singing Palm Sunday
songs and hymns. We all had quite a delightful time prais-
ing the Lord in the morning service.

In recent years the ministers of the five churches in town
have sponsored evening Holy Week services. This year
they were held at the Scottish Episcopal Church congrega-
tion in town. Each of the speakers was assigned a passage
from the Gospel of John to speak on. We were also told to
keep the service short. Sheila, the minister of the other
Church of Scotland congregation in town, led us on Mon-
day. Fr. Pat of the Roman Catholic church spoke on Tues-
day. On Wednesday I spoke from John 13:21-32 about the
Cross being the glory of both Jesus and the Father.

But the highlight of the week was Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday Anne, the minister of the host church, led
us in a Maunday Thursday service of foot washing and
communion. It concluded with the stripping of the altar
as the congregation read Psalm 22. On Good Friday Bill,
the minister of the Baptist church in town, gave a very
powerful message about Jesus' death on the Cross. A mem-
ber of his church took the part of a Roman centurion who
had a role in the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a very moving
service.

Earlier Friday afternoon, there had been a Good Friday pil-
grimage. A large crowd of us walked from church to church.
At each of the five churches we heard Scripture readings
about Jesus' walk to Golgotha and sang spiritual songs to
Jesus. It, too, was a very special time for me as I pondered
what Jesus had done for us.

Easter Sunday was a glorious day! I took part in a 8AM
Easter service at the top of the Hill of Tarvit that over-
looks our town of Cupar. There was a brilliant sun, but
it was still a wee bit chilly and windy. I was able to look
over the valley in which our town of Cupar is cradled. Ken,
the minister I work with at Cupar Old, gave a Resurrec-
tion Day message. There were people from all the churches
in Cupar. It was really a great way to enter into the spirit
of Resurrection Sunday. But the highpoint of this special
day was the worship at the packed out sanctuary at Cupar
Old.

After the church service I had a nice Easter meal with some
friends from church, and then went home and had a great
Sunday nap. Nothing could be better!

Christ is risen! He has risen indeed!

Blessings, and all the best to you and yours,

Visa Update

There is still no news from my immigration attorney and I
have not filed any papers with the Immigration Bureau. I
have sent four letters of reference to my attorney and she
is working on my next step. All I can do now is stay tuned
and continue doing my ministry placement and working on
my thesis submission. The worst case scenario is that I
would return to the USA for a month or so and enter Scot-
land with another visa. I would love to return to the States
for a visit, but don't I don't want to disrupt the ministry I
am doing here in Scotland. We'll see. As usual, I covet your
prayers.

Blessings, and all the best,