Hi everyone! This is Alaina! The St. Louis Soderstroms are all finishing up the last details of packing for our trip. Tomorrow we leave the house at 8 am, meet up with Avis and the Hankins in New York, and continue on over the pond, arriving in Glasgow at 5 pm on Saturday. We're all very excited:)! Please pray that we don't miss any of our connecting flights - especially the one in New York. Also, that we would work together as a team and not as individuals. We want to follow God's game plan for our trip, not our own. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support over the last few weeks. We'll try to post blogs every day while we're over there.

What color is God's story?

5 simple beads...5 colors...but what a story they tell. On the last day of our Baseball and Bible Club at the Aitkenbar Elementary School, we'll be sharing the great news that God loves us and wants us to know Him as our Father. We'll be using these little beads and the Bible to tell that news. Each person there will get a bracelet and a Bible.

Yellow: God created each one of us and loves us. He wants us to be with Him forever someday in Heaven. But, there's a problem...

Black: The dark bead reminds us that every one of us has done something wrong at one time or another. God calls that sin. And, because sin cannot be with Him or in heaven, He made a way for us to be there.

Red: Jesus, God's son and the perfect man who had no sin, took all of our punishment for sin when he died on the cross. He did it for all of us -- as a gift!!

White: When we admit to God that we have sin, ask forgiveness, and accept his gift of being saved from our sin, we can be clean from all wrong! We are made right with God and become His child.

Green: We can grow closer to God by reading the Bible, praying, and spending time with other believers who love God and follow the Bible.

A simple explanation for one of the greatest things a person can ever learn. Pray with me that hearts will be open to hear this good news.

Making our mark

The skateboarding world is a unique subculture. And the missionaries at Glasgow's Overtoun House (http://www.overtounhouse.com/) have an amazing ministry to this group of extreme atheletes. Not only do they go each week to a local skateboard park and hold a Bible Study, but they've built an indoor skateboard park in the lower level of the Overtoun House itself!

How are we going to come alongside this ministry? Well, if you think that I'm going to even think about stepping onto one of these little boards -- think again! However, we're going to help decorate both the local skateboard park and the Overtoun house park with some pretty cool designs. They look like this:

Pretty awesome, eh? We'll be painting silhouettes of different sizes on the walls of both skateboard parks. And as we do, we'll be praying that God uses this ministry to bring these kid's hearts the love of Jesus.

With only 5 out of 100 people attending any kind of church in Scotland, the amazing message of God's love and the hope they can have in Jesus is being brought out to the streets (and schools and skateboard parks!)

One of the Overtoun House missionaries shared recently that there has been a rash of suicides among the young men in Scotland. There are two local boys who took their lives in this past year alone. Jesus said, "I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abudance to the full, till it overflows"!

Pray with us that the truth of life and hope will penetrate the darkness of despair that has filled some of these boy's hearts. Pray that the love of God gives them hope -- not only for the life they're living now, but for the life to come!

Volcano!

This is one big, smokin' disruption in people's lives! Our plans are to leave on June 11th and fly to Scotland via Dublin and London. Will the ash cloud belching from the Iceland volcano affect our trip? Right now, Dublin airport is closed.

Whether it delays our departure or causes us to be stuck there is completely unknown. But one thing I do know is that God can use something like a cloud of ash to get our attention. I'm more aware than ever that nothing goes according to our plans, but to HIS plans. The ash cloud becomes a common denominator that God can use to open doors to share his truth. How? I'm not sure -- but God does. I'm listening, Lord.

Hello from Team Avis!

Hello! I'm officially joining the Scotland blog with a picture of me
and 6 of my favorite young people -- my neices and nephews!
3 of them -- Alaina, Grant, and Luke -- are part of the Scotland Missions 2010 team. Our trip is only 6 weeks away and we're all getting very excited.

As I prepare to go, I've been reflecting on Romans 12:9-13. The apostle Paul shares about being devoted to one another, never lacking in zeal, being joyful in hope and patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. My favorite phrase is this: "Share with God's people in need. Practice hospitality."

As I prepare to go to Scotland I am seeing these verses in a new light. While we're ministering in Scotland with the Overtoun House missionaries, what opportunities will present themselves to be joyful in hope? With whom or for whom will we pray? Will traveling circumstances require me to be patient? (A total of 6 different flights, 4 different trains, rental cars, taxis, the "tube" -- driving on the other side of the road -- ya think?)

Seriously. I'm an event planner. What does that mean? Plan, plan, plan. Check lists on paper. Check lists in my head. But the Lord is already showing me that His good hand is my preparations. He is reminding me that He is in control and I am not. This is a good thing.

And my favorite part? Living out the "practice hospitality" part of Romans 12. For our entire trip, my primary role will be to be "Chef Avis" to our team and, at times, the Overtoun House staff. This is really exciting to me! 3 meals a day for 10-18 people means meal plans, shopping lists, metric conversions, and flexibility! As for traditional Scottish foods like haggis, blood pudding, mutton, and mincemeat? Hmmm. I'll keep you posted about that.

Thanks for following our journey. As we share our hearts and our lives, please pray that God is glorified in all we do!

Avis

Welcome to the Scotland Missions trip blog!

April 29, 2010

We're 40 days away from heading off to Scotland!

Our plans are set, the supplies have been shipped over, and the countdown has begun. Although our main goal is to lead a Bible and baseball club for the week with elementary children in Glasgow, God is showing me so many more things that He is doing.

Alaina and I drove 19 boxes of Bibles, baseball equipment, and other craft supplies to Memphis, Tennessee to be sent on a ship to Glasgow. As were were taping up and labeling the boxes, I decided to take an 8 1/2" x 11" sticker and write "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands! Psalm 19" on it and stick it to the side of a big box.

"Hey look you guys," I said to the kids. Let's pray that someone on the ship sees this verse and wants to know more about God after reading it! Hopefully, it will get placed on the shrinkwrapped pallet with the verse showing!" Well, it didn't even take that long...

We were at the warehouse getting the boxes put onto a pallet and one of the loading guys reads the side of the box and asks, "Hey, are you guys missionaries or something?" So, I got to share with him who we were and why we were bringing Bibles and baseball gear to Glasgow, Scotland. "That's really cool!" he replied. Without me asking, he placed the box on the pallet with the verse showing to the outside. Awesome! Alaina and I were all smiles.

Thanks for following our journey. Pray that our 200 Bibles, 375 pounds of baseball gear, and other supplies reach Glasgow safely!

More to come soon...

Nancy