Houses, Highlands, and moving...

Well I am back from Scotland now and I must say that the trip was great. To see the highlands again and to be around backpackers again was wonderful. But I'm sure you are all wondering if I was able to accomplish what I set out to do. The answer is yes. I was able to meet with the YWAM leaders as well as meet with some Realtors to see the legal side of buying a house in the UK. It was a very informative trip and I thank you all for your prayers. So here is the run down.

I arrived in Scotland on a Saturday night very tired. It was a good flight though, just long. The next day being a Sunday there wasn't much to do but walk around the YWAM base and spend some time praying. On Monday I had a meeting with one of the leaders to see what my week would look like. Since I had a short time there I had to fit in as much as possible.

My first meeting with one of the leaders was on Tuesday. I took the train out to Paisley, another one of the YWAM bases, and had lunch with the staff and students and then I spent the afternoon visiting with the leader. It was a good time of talking and seeing the base. I found out that during our time at Paisley we would need to be renting an apartment near by. The base itself is not so big so there isn't much room there for another family.

From there I went up to Oban to see the town again and to meet with what they call a solicitor. Basically a lawyer who is in the business of buying and selling property. See, in the UK you don't really buy or sell the house, the solicitors representing you the buyer or you the seller does the actual buying or selling. As the buyer we would hire a solicitor to make our offer to the seller's solicitor and then, in his words, if the seller accepts the offer then it becomes a "tennis match" between the lawyers over the different deals of the purchase of the house. There was a lot more he said but I will not bore you all with all the legal stuff since even I didn't understand all of it.

After my meeting I headed back down to the YWAM base in Seamill. I had a few more meetings before my time to come home. I had a meeting with the leadership team which went very well. It cleared up a lot of confusion in some areas. Mainly just about where and how we fit in during our time with the two bases. Our time will be spent making relationships with different YWAM works around Scotland and with the teams in Paisley and Seamill. This way we will have a family support base from which to work so we don't end up out on the field on our own. A very wise idea. Everything is ready for us to come.

All we need is to raise the funds to move as well as raise the money for the purchase of a house. We have been looking at a few houses in Oban town and while we are not sure of which house yet we are looking at a budget of how much we want to spend. So after talking to some of the families there we saw about how much would be a good idea to raise. As you can imagine the cost of living in the UK is not cheap. The exchange rate is almost 2 dollars to 1 pound so whatever we raise by the time we get there we are looking at that amount being cut in half. It is a bit daunting but not for an infinitely rich God.

So please pray with us during this time of waiting as we try to raise the support we need to move. During this summer we will be visiting with some friends and traveling around trying to raise some more support for this vision. As we go please pray we would have safety on the road and that God would bless the outcome. Thank you. May God Bless you.