Fast Forward Seven Years

And so, forward seven years to continue the story!

Throughout the seven years that followed the initial word from the Lord about going to Scotland, I continued to receive words from the Lord and confirmation through the Body of Christ that this was indeed what God was saying and going to do.  And I myself dug in and learned a lot more about Scotland.  In the process of both I fell in love with this wonderful country.  Who wouldn't?  It has such a rich history of revival, war, beauty and pain.  There is so much to love and so much for which to pray.

I continued to wait for God to reveal what was next in the plan regarding Scotland, determined not to force His hand or 'make something happen', as I am unfortunately wont to do.  I remember someone once saying, "God told you He was taking you to Scotland?  Well, girl, get on a plane!  You'd better go!!"  But thankfully, that's not the way God works with me, usually.  Sometimes it's the way I work with God, but historically that hasn't always panned out so well, as you might well imagine.  But in this case, I did wait.  Truthfully, I couldn't quite figure out how it was going to happen, not being in a position financially to just pick up and go, and not knowing what on earth I was supposed to do once I got there. 

But then, something wonderful happened.  A very close friend and prayer partner of mine phoned me up one day in 2006 and told me that she had to go to Wales on business, and that she wasn't going to Wales without going to Scotland and that I was going with her.  She herself had felt a pull to Scotland for a short while, and has said to me afterwards that she believes the Lord put that in her heart just so that it would open up a way for me to get to Scotland.  So within about 6 weeks we planned and departed on our trip!  And better than that: since my friend, Karen, was going for business, our rental car, petrol and much of our hotel stays were paid for.  I was able to fly totally on Air Miles points that my mother had been collecting for my Scotland trip for years.  Though we weren't going until September, I still had my holidays from work available.  Everything worked out amazingly, and I still marvel at how inexpensively and easily I went for a two-week holiday in the United Kingdom.  That can only be God's hand at work.  How beautiful.

We left Vancouver on September 3rd, 2006, and flew to London, staying the night in Nottingham with family of Karen's.  And the day after that we drove north, all the way to Edinburgh. 

I don't think I will ever forget the experience of crossing the Scottish border.  Karen and I had stopped at the sign that says "Scotland" to take pictures (of course), and I actually took a picture of my first steps into Scotland.  But it wasn't until we actually got back in the car and drove across the border that the real impact came. 

I was in the driver's seat at the time, and as soon as I drove across the border, I started to weep uncontrollably, and through my sobbing I said to Karen (no small feat, by the way - talking, sobbing and driving on the right side of the car and the left side of the road!) that I'd just come home.  Like no other experience of home I've ever had, I just knew somewhere deep in my spirit that this was my home, and I had come home.  It was strange, since I had lived in Vancouver since I was four or five, and it was truly my home and where my family was.  But this was something deeper.  This was my true home.

After explaining that to Karen, I told her that I had to pull over and get on my knees and thank the Lord for bringing me to this amazing country.  And that's just what we did.  About 100m into Scotland we pulled off the highway at a pullout and got out of the car and got on our knees in the dirt and praised God.  By this time we were both weeping, and our praise was not hindered by that in the least.  In fact, we only stopped because some big rig trucker pulled off behind us - I think he might have thought we were ill or in trouble!  Little did he know.

And this was only day one.

About to cross the Scottish border for the first time (you can see it in the background on the right of the picture, actually).  God is good.

How It All Began

Many of your have asked me how "all this Scotland stuff" started.  And I generally - believe it or not - give you the shorter version of the story.  Hard to believe, I know.  So in case you weren't privileged enough to have me talk your ear right off in response to that question, I will give some more of the details here now.  Though truthfully, the details are likely to come bit by bit in different blog posts, or you'll all lose interest and start telling me you're enjoying this new blog while secretly reading the title and first paragraph and hoping that carries you through any potential conversations we might have about it.

Anyway, moving on....

So 'all this Scotland stuff" really started almost exactly 14 years ago.  I was at a listening prayer conference put on by Brad Jersak (author of Can You Hear Me?) and as part of the exercises of learning how to listen to God's voice in prayer, we were given a series of simple questions to ask Him.  One of the questions was, "Where do You want to meet with me, God?  Where is our safe place together?"  And when I asked God that question, I immediately got a picture.  It was a picture of a rocky cliff (from the perspective of standing on the top of the cliff looking out, not looking at it from below), and the rocks had grassy parts all around and in them, and there were big rocks on either side of the place on the cliff at which I was looking in my picture.  And as soon as I saw the picture I knew it was the highlands of Scotland.  That in itself was extremely odd, as I didn't recall ever even seeing pictures of the highlands of Scotland, nor had I ever before had any particular interest or exposure to Scotland or Scottish things.  True, my family heritage does partially come from Scotland, but it was generations ago and never something that was given more than a passing comment in our home.  Nevertheless, this was the picture I got.  When I went home after the conference, I looked up information on the Scottish highlands, and sure enough, they looked exactly like the landscape of the picture I had seen in my vision.

After that series of questions at the conference, we were then put in partners and given an opportunity to practice listening prayer for another person.  I was partnered with my friend Sabrina, though I hadn't told her anything of the vision I had in answer to the earlier exercises.  What she heard God say for me was along the lines of (and I'm slightly paraphrasing here, since the actual words are recorded but somewhere in a box in Vancouver), "I will give you paint and canvas and everything you need to step into your safe place with Me."  And all of a sudden I felt that God was doing something very large.

Over the course of the next number of weeks or months (I don't actually recall which), it felt all of a sudden like everything was about Scotland.  Raffles had trips to Scotland as their prizes.  People mentioned Scotland in casual conversation.  I saw Scottish flags everywhere and heard Scottish accents almost as often.  It might seem trivial, but there was an intensity and frequency to all of it - coming on top of feeling like I'd never heard anyone mention Scotland before - that I could tell was God calling me to pay attention.  And so began the knowledge that God was telling me that He was going to take me to Scotland.  For what, I had no idea.  When?  Even less of an idea.  But the seed had been sown and received into fallow ground.  Now the task at hand was to believe and to wait and to pray. 

That's how this highland journey all began.

Continuing the Journey

I wanted to title this blog, "The Adventure Begins" or something else particularly esoteric and intelligent-sounding.  But as I started to think of some more clever title it occurred to me that the adventure is not beginning.  The adventure of my life and my call to Scotland is well on its way.  It is simply that I am physically a lot closer to living in Scotland than I have ever been before.  I plan to use this new blog to record the things God is doing and saying regarding the call and the journey to (and in) Scotland.

Thanks for coming on the journey with me!