RP Mission Team – Week Four

This past week the mission team helped host Airdrie RPC’s Holiday Bible Club. Holiday Club is a weeklong Bible school for young children held during the summer holiday, so this was one of the team’s largest projects. Monday through Friday was primarily spent managing the day’s program or preparing for the next day, however many evenings this past week were also available for more leisurely activities.

Monday was the first of a week of early mornings. The team arrived at the Airdrie RPC at 8:30 AM to hold personal devotions before finalizing last minute preparations for Holiday Bible Club (HBC). This is how every morning would begin this week, and fortunately everyone – including our historically late sleepers, Rich and Nate – seemed to adjust well to the earlier mornings!

The children for began arriving a few minutes before 10 AM and quickly displayed excitement for each other and an openness toward the Holiday Club staff. The program was kicked off by a rousing game of coconut bowling led by Zuri and Nate. After working up a bit of a sweat, everyone settled down for snacks before Beth and Zuri led the group in singing Psalm 150A and other Psalms.

Next, Solomon came to direct the children in memorizing a verse from John. Each day they would learn a new verse and have an opportunity to win prizes for remembering the previous days verses. Solomon was a persistent teacher, and the kids were fast learners. Even the kids who couldn’t read very well yet, proved that they had memorized the verse from John.

Our Holiday Bible Club was structured to crescendo towards a Biblical message. Each day begins with games and snacks, transitions into psalm singing and memory verses, and right before the Biblical message, the mission team puts on a drama that bridges the memory verse with the coming message. Set on a tropical island, this drama began with a creative way of presenting the memory verse, and then provided opportunities for the children to engage with the storytelling and follow the drama’s main characters as they seek to navigate the realities of Biblical truths. Part way through the drama there is a period allocated to reading the Scripture and clearly communicating the gospel to the children. Each day a different member of the team led it. The drama then finishes, and the children move on to crafts time.

That night the team, Jacob, and James gathered at Beth Bogue’s apartment to watch Star Wars episode three. Arguably one of the best Star Wars films, this installment in the saga depicted one of the most tragic stories in mainstream film: Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side of the force. Many of us left that viewing wondering how the hero of the story – Anakin Skywalker – could have fallen so fast and so far.

Wednesday was the third day of Holiday Bible Club which followed the regular schedule. However, after that, the mission team met Jimmy and Helen in the church to do a short Covenanter Tour of the surrounding Glasgow area. Jimmy and Helen are professionals, and the tour was very well done. We saw famous sites, Covenanter monuments, Viking graves, and much more. Scotland’s rich history of conflict and faith inspires a serious consideration of what it means to follow Jesus. In guiding us to these sites Jimmy and Helen helped highlight the real ways in which the Holy Spirit has worked in Scotland.

After Holiday Club on Thursday, the team continued to finish work on two ongoing projects: power washing the manse and preparing the church’s new library. Mr. Sean Bird from Indianapolis had joined us for the week and brought to each of these projects, renewed energy and a lot of knowhows. While he primarily worked on power washing the manse, he was very quick in getting the mission team going on clearing out aspects of the new library. The mission team finished this work by demolishing the wall in the room, adding on dry wall patching, and painting the room. Bill also came in to rewire the room so that the lights were put to appropriate use.

On Friday the team went to Stirling Castle with Jacob Alexander, Beth Bogue, and the McCollum family. We took this day to leisurely explore the entire castle, take photos next to canons and on battlements, and shop in the castle’s gift store. Outside the castle, at the foot of its walls, Pastor McCollum showed us the monuments to Covenanting martyrs. Finally, the trip to Stirling was the last thing that we did with Jacob Alexander. He had spent the last few weeks working with us, throwing balls at us, and making fun of Nate with us, but now he was leaving for vacation as we were wrapping up our stay in Scotland. After Stirling, Jacob traveled to the South of England for a holiday with his family. It was a sad goodbye, but we expect to cross paths with him again.

That evening the group returned to Airdrie to join Tim Duguid for a barbecue celebrating a very special event in 1776. Flags were flown, certain songs were hummed, and the whole group had a special time eating burgers and lighting sparklers!

On Saturday, the church hosted a BBQ at the manse. This was a special time to enjoy food, games, sing Psalms, and chat with one another. At one point during the event, some of the team members remarked that it felt like a final episode of a TV show. Different church members, all of whom the mission team had interacted with often throughout the weeks, showed up to join in the food and fun! A special after party for people who still had energy was held at Tim’s house where people still awake stayed to watch a movie.

Today was the final Sunday for the mission team. Although sad for that reason, but it was also special because Rachel and Nate’s family, recently arrived from the US, and were able to join everyone for the services and lunch. Furthermore, Airdrie RP held a special evangelistic service that evening with the goal of reaching the local Airdrie community.

Zuri Cassell