Finally! A Picture for the Blog!

St Fergus Parish Church, St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

I have been working on getting pictures of St Fergus Parish Church and the area surrounding the village of St Fergus into the blog and onto Facebook. I succeeded in regards to the latter, and now I see that I am successful regarding the former. Here is the first picture I have had on my blog. It is a picture of St Fergus Parish Church. The church building itself dates back to 1850 or so, but there is evidence of a Christian church here in the area from the mid-16th century. The foundation of the earlier church building can still be seen at the village cemetery located between the village and the North Sea. When I get more settled, I will explore the old site to see what I can learn. The clerk of the Church session has given me material to go through about the history of the church. I feel like I am on an adventure! 

I am interested in finding out more about St Fergus the missionary and whether he was caught up in the great missionary movement that flowed out of Iona in the second half of the first millennium of the present era. The great Celtic missionary saint Columba was at the forefront of a movement that swept into Scotland and Northern England from Ireland. Other Celtic missionary saints such as Aidan, Cuthbert, and a host of others proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and healed the sick. Later the Venerable Bede, an Englishman, wrote a history in the English language of this great missionary endeavor. I am wondering if St Fergus was part of this great Celtic missionary movement. I have a hunch that he was. I expect that St Fergus Parish Church tapped into this stream of rich Celtic missionary heritage! I am eager to find out more. In the picture above of the church, there is a standing Celtic Cross in front of the church. I haven't heard anything about the date of the cross, whether it is ancient or relatively recent. But I will have joy in finding that out! 

Blessings to you and yours, 

The Doric Tongue: My Challenge

I am starting to settle in and put things in place. But before me is one challenge that will occu-
py my attention for years to come: the Doric tongue. Doric is a dialect of Scots that is spoken
in the North East of Scotland. People I have met who grew up speaking Doric do not refer to
it  as a dialect, but as the Doric tongue. Several people speak of it as a language, with a vocab-
ulary and way of saying things all its own. Whether I am talking with friends from St Andrews
and Cupar or new acquaintances from northeast (also called Aberdeenshire) Scotland, the con-
versation always seems to come to how I am handling the Doric tongue. I usually answer in the
little Doric I've mastered: nae bad, 'not bad.'

I take every opportunity I can find to listen to Doric speakers. I have to pay close attention to
what is said and the context in which something is said. Sometimes I can follow along; other
times I feel completely lost. Fortunately many of the people whom I visit slow down their talk-
ing and teach me words I hadn't known before. It would be helpful if I were a child who is learn-
ing to speak Doric. Children are willing to talk, make mistakes, and be corrected. But I find that
my pride gets in the way. It is difficult for me to talk knowing I will make mistakes. It is hard for
me to accept correction. It is challenging for me.

But still, I take seriously learning the language and settling into this culture of the North East. I
do so because God takes language and culture seriously. Jesus Christ is the eternal Word who
took on human flesh. Jesus centered his ministry in Galilee and spoke Greek, Hebrew, and Ara-
maic with a Galilean accent. He lived out his life in the manner and customs of his community.
He was not the universal man who was a reflection of everybody. He was truly human, but he
was also a Galilean. When we are redeemed and saved, God does not throw away our own lang-
uage, social mores, and customs. Rather, God brings us into the Kingdom with our distinctive
language and customs. However, we are not saved by Jesus being a Galilean; we are saved by
Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Christ died, Christ is risen, and
Christ will come again. As a result, people from every tribe and language and nation and peo-
ple worship him as Lord of lords and King of kings.

I take seriously the society in which God has placed and the people with whom I live. I am
making every effort to speak and understand the Doric tongue. As I do this, I can only ask for
your prayers.

Blessings to you and yours,  

Swamped, But Still Going Strong

I am somewhat astonished by how long it has been since I last posted on my blog. I had planned

to blog frequently about my big move to the North East of Scotland as I took up ministry at St. 

Fergus Parish Church. I had the best of intentions, but was not able to carry them out. Even 

though my residential internet access was activated last week, I still did not post to my blog and 

answer emails from friends. It had been my fervent desire to keep people informed of my move 

across the Pond to my new home in St. Fergus, Scotland. I did not succeed in carrying out those 

best of intentions. I have felt swamped by all that I have had to do to get setup here in St. Fer-
gus. There is much more I have yet to do. 

I am doing very well. I am happy and enjoy being in a new area of Scotland that I had never real-

ly experienced before. I firmly believe that the Lord shaped me for such a time as this during the 

sixteen months I spent in my hometown of Longview, Washington. I have been well prepared. 

Even now I have a strong sense of what I need to do to enter into pastoral ministry here with the 

people of St. Fergus and Peterhead, the latter being the large town just a few miles down the road 

from the former. 

But I have also been challenged by the reality that the way things were done in my hometown in 

the USA are certainly not the way things are done here in North East Scotland. I have to unlearn 

habits, customs, and routines that made sense in Longview, but do not work here in St. Fergus. 

There have been times I have felt like a little child who is having to learn from grownups and old-

er children how to do basic things of life. It is humbling, but it is a process that everyone goes 

through in varying degrees when one moves from one culture to another. It is a process that I ex-

pect to be in for years to come. 

I am developing new habits, customs, and routines for my life here in this part of Scotland. As 

a result, right now I spend considerably more time to do routine things that I did quickly when 

I was at home in the USA. Even the way things were said and done in the South East of Scot-

land where I  lived before are not the way things are said and done here in the North East. Some-

times I feel swamped as I try to do everything I believe I need to get done to settle in here. It
takes time to build new habits and routines. But soon I will be up to speed with many of the things
I struggle with now.  

As always, if you are the praying type, I ask for your prayers as I learn to live and serve the peo-

ple of St. Fergus and North East Scotland in Jesus' Name.  

Many blessings to you and yours,