Airdrie Mission Team 2024

This year our Mission Team was very different than other years. Millie was the only one who signed up to come from America, and though she was the only one, she was still keen to come for the month long trip. We then reached out to young people who had been on our GO Teams in the past, and three of them were able to come for several of the weeks. You can read more about the Team in our earlier post here. We had Millie and Trinity write about some of the events of the first few weeks.

Week One by Millie
My first week in Airdrie has been very eventful. I arrived on a Wednesday and immediately jumped in. Everyone has been so welcoming and loving towards me. We have done work in both Airdrie and Wishaw: cleaning inside of the Airdrie church and distributing Airdrie parish newsletters to a bunch of flats and homes, as well as putting up posters in the Wishaw shops advertising the upcoming services. We have also been able to work on tidying up the sides of both churches by weeding, picking up trash, and other gardening jobs. But there have been other activities besides working – like getting to fellowship with others throughout the week – whether that was helping with the Kids Club, getting to know a sweet group of Christian girls over a zoom call and being a light towards them, or even just having a nice cooked meal with people. It has truly been refreshing. I have also been learning so much history about Scotland and the church. We had a Reformation Tour this past Saturday with the church and it was amazing and so enlightening. I’m excited to learn more and watch our small team grow day by day.

On the Congregational Reformation Tour

Week Two by Trinity
With the addition of Matteo and Trinity, our little team doubled! Some cleaning up of the Airdrie building including the grass area outside took place over the week. The Wishaw grounds also received some very needed tlc, so lots of shovelling, weeding, strimming and more. And of course, it wouldn’t be an Airdrie team without lots of distribution. However, it wasn’t all hard work, the team enjoyed a fabulous day out on Wednesday. Starting with a Reformation Tour of Edinburgh in the morning and the rest of the day to sightsee. On Saturday after a morning distributing invitations to the services in Wishaw, we headed off to the beach for a Young Adults event and met up with some of the young people from the Glasgow and North Edinburgh congregations for some Volleyball, Psalm singing, and Fish and Chips.

Week Three by Millie
My past week In Airdrie has been very full and sweet as we finish up the last big projects and spend the last days as a team. We have had lots of fun outings and time together even while weeding, painting, sorting, organizing, and distributing as many leaflets as we can. A group of us were able to set up a table two different times outside the church in Wishaw while offering tea and coffee and biscuits and leaflets as they walked by, which I think was very beneficial. The team also got to attend Presbytery in Glasgow and be a support for the churches. That was also the last night the team was together. As the rest head away I will be spending the next two weeks helping wrap things up but also preparing for the next things to come in the life of the church.

Millie finished up her time in Airdrie helping us with some admin work as well as preparations for events in September and doing some sight seeing. Many thanks to the Team for all their hard work!