Perfect timing

Passport arrived at 1 p.m. this afternoon - two hours and 10 minutes after original flight was scheduled to take off. So I am legal to remain in the UK for another 9 months, and I'll see you all in April! Merry Christmas!

Countdown to April

Wow, I am some kind of amazingly crappy blogger.

Sorry that I've not informed anyone of anything at all in the last two weeks. I've found communication generally very challenging lately. There are several people I owe important emails and phone calls... and yet on Sunday nights (my designated "phone home" evening) I've found myself coming in from church so completely exhausted that the best I could do was manage to put on my pj's before falling straight into bed. I feel like I've barely even spoken to my family in the last month!

Right, so what do you guys need to know about my life?... Well, the reason I'm online right now is that I'm also on hold with cheaptickets.com/United Airlines (and listening to Canon in D while I wait, which I'm finding quite enjoyable, though it is lulling me to a dangerous level of sleepiness - it's nearly 1 a.m. in the UK - so I'm simultaneously drinking tea and checking email... who knew I could do so many things at once?) because... I STILL don't have my passport back from the Home Office. No big surprise there. So this afternoon I thought I would just call the airline and explain the situation to see if they might feel sorry for me and let me change the date of my non-changeable ticket. The name of the woman I spoke to was Johanna, she had a lovely French accent, and she was very kind and said United Airlines would be happy to change the date of my ticket (provided that the price of the new ticket was higher than that of the old one). All this means that I am making the executive decision (with the decidedly unhelpful aid of the Home Office) not to come home for Christmas. If United will let me, I'm going to reschedule my trip for early April, when I have another two weeks off from Cornhill before we begin our last term for the year.

The problem is that I've now been on hold for a very long time. This afternoon, Johanna was so accommodating and would have been happy to book the thing for me there and then, but I couldn't settle on it just then, because I had to check with one very important person about the date... Here's big news for all you Glasgow insiders: Helen and Euan are getting married!! And - even crazier news - Helen asked me to be in the wedding! Let it be said that this is one of the greatest honors ever. I mean, every wedding I've been in has been an honor - I do not take it lightly when one of my best friends asks me to stand up with her on the day she solemnly pledges her life in marriage! But this wedding is an extra special honor since wedding parties here are small by American standards - 1 or 2 bridesmaids is normal, and more than 3 is considered really huge! So Helen is having 5 - because she is cool and does what she wants - and I get to be one of them!! I was so excited when she asked me, I felt like I had just gotten engaged! So I had to wait and get assurance from Helen that she was definitely not getting married in April before I hauled off and left the country for half the month. Once Helen had confirmed it with Euan, I was already on the way to our Cornhill Christmas dinner, and just got home about 11:30.

So I've probably been on hold for more than an hour now... have listened to Canon in D more times than I can count, and it's not sounding quite so lovely anymore... and despite Johanna's insistence earlier today that she would make notes about all this stuff on my account so that the next representative I spoke to would have it all right there in front of him, Chris who I am speaking to now is having to go through all the official channels again and he (apparently) is not having quite as much luck as Johanna in getting in touch with the right people at the right time. Hmm. I hope Chris can work this out for me. I've already got my hopes set on coming home in April, when Memphis will be nice and sunny, before the boiling heat of summer descends.

In addition to the weather, there are several reasons why coming home in April is superior to coming home next week. Here they are, in random order:

1) The weather. I know I just said "in addition to the weather", but seriously I think a good dose of sunshine in April will do wonders for me emotionally and spiritually. Last year I remember April being nice, but still chilly - and then the whole summer was just plain cold. In fact, it was the freezing May that plunged me into about two months of emotional wretchedness and near despair. So a big helping of delicious Memphis springtime will be just the thing to steel me through the chilly summer months in Glasgow. I told a friend just yesterday that I would be quite happy to live in Scotland forever if only it had better weather!

2) Christmas in Scotland. I've never had a Christmas or a New Year here, so it seems right, I think, to experience it before I go. Sort of completes my whole Scottish experience. Christmas at the Tron should be awesome.

3) I'm mildly ashamed of this one, but I'll just come right out and say it: I've not bought a single Christmas present. Not one. But if I don't come home for Christmas, I'm off the hook. And I can wait to buy Christmas presents during that special time of year in Scotland known as the January sales.

4) Rest. I had forgotten how exhausting full-time ministry is! But really when you work for a church, your life just isn't your own. (Technically, I guess this is the way life is meant to be for all believers; I guess you just feel it more when you're doing it in any kind of official capacity.) Cornhill - though in every way amazing and wonderful and though I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to complete this course - is exhausting. And as much as I love going home and seeing everyone, a 17-hour international journey with a 6-hour time difference to get over and then 3 weeks straight of quality time isn't exactly restful. If I stay here, I'll have  (I think) an abundance of time just to chill. I might not wake up before 9 a.m. for a solid week!

5) I am the official "bridesmaid on the ground" (according to Helen), because only one of her other bridesmaids actually lives in Glasgow; bearing this reponsibility means that I get to do lots of fun wedding stuff - like shopping for wedding dresses! And since I'll be here for 3 weeks with no classes, I'll actually have the time to do it.

6) David and Julie are coming to Glasgow! Their visit was a secret for a while, but (apparently) word has leaked out that the Rowbories are officially home for Christmas. I was a bit gutted when Julie told me the dates of their trip - right smack in the middle of me being in America - but without that pesky trip to the States hanging over me, I'll get to hang out with much-loved and sorely-missed friends.

Chris has just come back on and informed me that he's got the person he was looking for on the phone, should be just another 5 minutes! Let's say a quick prayer that this thing works out...

Lord, thank you for being sovereign and good. Thank you for the assurance knowing this about you gives your children. It means that we can trust you in everything, through all circumstances. So I trust right now that you know exactly where I will be next week, next month, next April, and beyond that. Father, I ask that you would work out these details now. I would very much like to go to Memphis in April... I pray that the airline would be cooperative and kind given my passport situation. If it's your will, I pray that you would allow me to go home this spring. But even if you don't, I will go on praising and loving and trusting that your will is good and right and perfect. I pray this in the name of Jesus... Amen.

Still on hold.

7) One last reason why it's good to go home in April! I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be in grad school next year. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm desperate to come home and go back to teaching. CRAZY, huh? There are so many reasons for this, things that I've discovered both about myself and about God just in this term at Cornhill... if I'm on hold for much longer I'll be happy to give details. But having said that, I think April might be a better time in terms of locating a teaching job for the following fall. Who knows - maybe I'll be on the ball enough to have already put in applications by that time so that I could have an interview or two lined up?? That might be wishful thinking. But still... this is another mark in April's favor.

Okay, talking to Chris again...

Alas...

No wee croft for me. The Home Office has foiled my trip to Skye, and I've got to stick around Glasgow this week to work out some visa issues. I'm not super-bitter, but I'd rather not talk about it...

The good news is: Thanksgiving last night was a complete success! So much fun - and many compliments on my corn casserole. Lots of requests for the recipe as well; but alas (again), they don't sell Jiffy corn muffin mix in Glasgow!

One more good thing

Forgot to say this yesterday, but I wanted to pass on something encouraging. One of my friends here is a girl from China who became a Christian earlier this year. She is super-fun and teachable, asks great questions about the Bible, and makes yummy Chinese food, so I love spending time with her. Yesterday I had tea with her at the music academy where she is a student, and she introduced me to several of her friends at the college who are also from China. In particular, one girl I met with the introduction, "She would like to come to church with us!" So I wasn't sure if that meant this girl was already a Christian or just interested in Jesus; at any rate, I didn't really ask any follow-up questions to find out.

But then as I was leaving, my friend mentioned this girl again and said that she would be at church on Sunday. I said, "Oh, good - and there's an international lunch on Sunday, too, so she can have more time to meet people and get to folks know the Tron a bit better." My friend, in her perceptiveness, however, pointed out the more important point that I had missed. She said, "Yes... and she will be able to learn about Jesus!"

So, praise God for this new girl's desire to learn about Jesus - and praise God for my friend's desire to tell her! How good it is to be a part of the work God is doing in gathering a people to Himself!

Reading week

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving (at least, it is for international students at the Tron) and then on Sunday I'm away to Skye for the week. We have a reading week for Cornhill, and the church has very graciously offered to send me to the cold, white north for 4 days. It's a good thing, too, because there's no way I'd get any reading done if I was, say, on a beach in Portugal...

Actually, I am really looking forward to this week away. I cannot believe how tired Cornhill has made me the past two months! And honestly I've just not had a proper vacation... well, since last Christmas, actually. So even though this week is technically for reading - I've got a massive book to churn through, "The Christ of the Prophets" by O. Palmer Roberston - I have to say that the prospect of holing up in a wee croft on a moor overlooking the sea, with a wood fire and lots of naps and neverending pots of tea, doesn't sound like a bad way to spend a week. Will be leaving Glasgow on Sunday afternoon, coming home on Thursday. I'm giving a report on the book when Cornhill reconvenes the following week, so I'll be sure to share with everyone what I've discovered about Christ in the OT.