Once upon a time, a very long time ago when we were newly married, Fraser and I lived in the beautiful west coast village of Lochcarron. Actually, we didn't even live in the village itself but in one of three traditional white cottages about three miles away. The scenery is stunning but living there had its challenges, not least the water supply in the cottage which, coming from a stream, would often freeze up in the winter and dry up in the summer. Previous inhabitants of the cottage even found a frog in the toilet one day although the most exciting thing we experienced was the decaying mouse behind the electrical socket (detected by the smell) and the burst pipe that kept us up all night emptying pans of water.
We don't often get back to Lochcarron although it's only an hour's drive away but every time we do I want to stay longer. The air is so much fresher, the pace of life seems less rushed and the walks are gorgeous. We had an excuse to travel west on Friday as old friends at the Free Church had invited us to talk about God's plans for us in Nigeria. It was lovely to get such a warm welcome and expressions of interest in what we're doing. One of the great side effects of being called overseas is the opportunity to renew old friendships and to meet new members of the Christian family. I know I use this word a lot but it really is a privilege to be in contact with so many different Christian traditions from Anglicans to the Free Church and the many gradations between. We are keen to be sent out by a rainbow of God's people whether you sit, kneel or stand up to pray, sing Psalms sitting down acapella or modern songs swaying to electric guitars and drumkits: believing in Jesus makes us all part of the same family.
Driving over to Lochcarron brought back a lot of memories, not least of having to cycle from the cottage into the village (we were even poorer then and kept the car for emergencies and shopping trips to Inverness!(some would say they amount to the same thing)). Fraser's convinced that the wind was always against him going into work and still against him when he cycled home again. As he was actually blown off his bike into the ditch one night I think I might believe him.
We managed to avoid the deer sedately crossing the road on the way back to Dingwall and I hope we avoided the frog hopping across too but in a strange way it felt as if life was speeding up again as we drove east. If we had managed to sell our house I would have been tempted to suggest buying somewhere on the west coast to retreat to. As it is there's no interest in any of the houses for sale in Dingwall at the moment so we're thinking we'll have to rent ours out when we go away. If anyone out there fancies buying a characterful three-bedroomed house in Dingwall with views over the Black Isle and River Conon and deer that come off the hill into the garden please get in touch!
Finally, here's a quick advert. We're holding a coffee morning and card sale on Saturday, 28th May in Castle Street Church hall, Dingwall (10:30-12:30) to raise funds. There may be some people reading this close enough to come and support us. We'd be very glad to see you, feed you, sell you cards and enthuse about Mission Africa. Do come along if you can otherwise there'll be far too many cakes and biscuits left over. I won't even be able to take them to be finished off at our church the next day as we've been invited to speak at Kiltarlity church about what we're doing so we really need lots of people to come on Saturday.
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