Thanks and Posts Never Written

Dear Overtoun House and Hayes Barton Baptist Church:

Thanks to everyone for making this mission a success.  You can see from the blog posts that we accomplished the mission we chose to accept.  The blessings and prayers we took with us as well as those we received while there helped us be the hands and feet of Christ in a place far away from home, one in need of love and care.  We know that our work will assist in the creation of hope and healing for those who may not even know that hope and healing are possible. 

We close this 2011 Hayes Barton Baptist Church Scotland Blog today even though there are many more stories to tell.  A selection of some titles for posts never written might just generate some questions to ask of mission team members when you ask them about Scotland:

• You Paint the High Wall and I'll Paint the Low Wall
• Waiting Makes People Wait
• One Stick Short of a Bundle
• Overtime House
• Give Me Liniment for My Joints
• That Studfinder is a Liar
• The Second Wind for the Second Shift
• It’s Saturday Night!
• It is What It Is
• People Who Build Glass Walls Shouldn’t…
• Where Are the Tape Measures?
• We Had a “Hoochin’” Good Time…Scottish Style
• Blessings Upon Blessings
• Are We There Yet?
• There Are No More Puffins to be Had
• Use Paper Plates
• James Taylor
• The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From Audrey
• We Say “Yes” Cindy “Yes”
• I Do Windows…and Floors…and Ceilings…and Doors
• My Hobby is Kissing
• We Left the Bodies on the Floor
• Quincy
• Did You See the Owl?
• We Have Bats in Our Belfry
• Fanny Packs Are Allowed on This Journey
• It’s 100 Degrees at Home
• Newlyweds: 55 Years and Counting
• The Glossy Girls
• You Can Paint Dirt

I have been privileged to write the blog for this team.  While everyone else was measuring and cutting and caulking and painting, I was blessed with being able to take time to write a wee bit about our mission.  I encourage anyone who is reading this to consider going on a mission when they hear the calling to do so.  For me the call came in the form of hearing bagpipes on NPR; I knew when I heard them (combined with some not so subtle nudging from Susan!) that Scotland was a mission field for me. 

Watch and listen; you will hear your call, too, if you open yourself to do so.  You will find "blessings upon blessings" and may even have a "hoochin' good time...Scottish style"!

Footnote

Body, Mind, and Soul

We’ve been home a few days now and have had some time to rest as evidenced by most of our attendance at church yesterday. Resting after such a mission is needed for the body, mind, and soul. While our bodies may have been most immediately in need of rest given aching muscles and jet lag, the mind and soul also needed some time to be still as well.

Thinking through the mission we completed generates the knowledge gained from our shared experience. From learning how to do things for the first time (“I’ve never done that, but I’ll try.”) to conquering previous fears (“I’m not good on tall ladders, but I’ll climb up there.”), we each took away from this mission lessons learned that we will carry with us forever. We learned about each other and about ourselves. Our minds were expanded through exposure to new things and old things made new.

Our souls were also expanded as we experienced God’s world. The discovery and sharing of the gifts of our team members evidenced how God created each of us to be a unique person who has unique contributions to make. The teaming of us for this mission no doubt was guided by God’s hand as we came to complement each other and to work in concert. Beyond the teamwork that formed, the magnificence of Scotland’s lochs and lands reminded us of God’s omnipotence and omnipresence. Indeed, our souls were refurbished just as the rooms we worked on were refurbished.

Now that we’ve rested, we will continue to reflect upon this mission experience. We’ve written another chapter in the story of Hayes Barton Baptist Church and Overtoun House. It is a chapter that will further move Overtoun House toward its goal of serving as a Christian Centre for Hope and Healing. In a way, we’ve planted the Hayes Barton brushstroke cross at Overtoun House. And what the cross symbolizes will be there even as our reflections become distant memories.

If the Walls Could Talk…the Caledonia Room

Ten days ago a group of pilgrims from a place called Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, showed up at my door. These pilgrims had traveled from afar to tend to me and another room at Overtoun House. I was initially perplexed by their arrival as they had much difficulty deciding what to call me: the Blue Room, then the Gold Room, then the Heritage Room, and finally the Caledonia Room. It took the whole week to finally decide who I was to be; needless to say, I had a wee bit of an identity crisis.


Initially I was to be the focus of a woman named Audrey but that changed quickly, and so I was put into the hands of Tonya. Tonya has an eye for style and flair. But before Tonya could take action, much needed to be done by all the pilgrims as I was in poor shape. My trim needed trimming by a man I’ll call “Trim Jim,” and my walls and ceiling needed painting, respectively by “The Glossy Girls” and “Tall Ed.” The stone wall that is my centerpiece needed to be planned around, and my size was a source of constant commentary as I am a bit on the wee side. I have two windows that are in pretty good shape but still needed painting.

Praises to God that these pilgrims came to help me. I am now beautiful and bold, and I can confidently claim my identity as the Caledonia Room which is a reference to my homeland Scotland. My gold and red color scheme accented by a black valance which frames the stone wall makes me outstanding.

I have a bench at the foot of my bed that Pastor Bob made from a yew tree. If my research serves me right, yew trees are commonly found planted in church yards and are sometimes referred to as a tree of transformation and rebirth. How appropriate for this piece to be placed within my walls as I have gone through a transformation and rebirth by the pilgrims that journeyed to help me. May the renewed life they have given me help the women and girls who come to Overtoun House renew their lives.

If the Walls Could Talk…the Iona Room

I am the Iona Room. I offer a peaceful and tranquil setting for those who seek rest here at Overtoun House. I must admit that ten days ago I had little to offer anyone. But then a group of pilgrims from Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, came to help me. I was in very poor shape given my door frames were crumbling, and my bathroom had no distinguishing features. I was a room without much to offer.


The pilgrims went to work quickly. Audrey took charge of my space with her energy and enthusiasm. Other pilgrims spent many hours within my walls. Cindy and Deborah were constant companions, and I think Ralph lived in my bathroom the whole week as he set about building glass block walls around the tub. Nelson and George hung various objects on my walls after the “Glossy Girls” painted. “Trim Jim” and Gary were in and out of the room measuring and making miter cuts on numerous boards. Even a young college student named Taylor who was not part of the original team of pilgrims joined in and helped Audrey accent the space that is me.

I now have stenciled on one of my ceiling beams “Faith, Hope, and Love.” I know for a fact that the person who stenciled them prayed as she worked on the tall ladder that the stenciled letters would spell the words as intended. I also know she said she was glad that there are only three “timeless values” to stencil…whatever that references!

I’m glad that I am the Iona Room and that I can offer a peaceful, tranquil place, one that will offer those who stay within “Faith, Hope, and Love.” These are timeless values for all. May the women and girls who come to Overtoun House for healing also find these timeless values on their journeys.

At the End...A Rainbow!

The Hayes Barton Baptist Church Scotland Mission Team landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport a few hours ago. Much of this mission’s story is still to be told, but this post will close the journey part of our story.


Exhausted and exhilarated are terms which describe the team tonight. Exhausted because of all the work the team completed over the past week (think “Extreme Makeover”...mission style), and exhilarated because the work already serves as a blessing to God’s glory. More about that in another post tomorrow.

The team has had a very long day. With a five hour time difference and a 730 am Scotland time breakfast on the schedule, some of the team had their heads barely hit their pillows before their alarms sounded. Gaining the five hour time difference on our journey home made for a twenty-plus hour day. Still, everyone retrieving their luggage from baggage claim had smiles on their faces and likely the tune "All Day Long," one of this mission's songs, in their hearts:

All day long I’ve been with Jesus, it has been a glorious day.

I’ve just moved up one step higher, and I’m walking on the King’s highway.

As the plane lowered into RDU airspace, some of the team on the east side of the plane saw a rainbow formed in amongst the clouds. At the end of this mission…a rainbow! It truly has been a glorious day.

A Long Climb from the Basement

We are working overtime at Overtoun House tonight as everything is coming together. Jim has put the finishing touches on the trim in both rooms, and Deborah has ironed the curtains. “Faith, Hope, and Love” is stenciled on one of the ceiling beams in the Iona Room.


We debated at dinner whether there are 134 or 139 steps from the basement to the top room. If you take the back stairs, you climb the lesser number, but either way you climb, you end up feeling like you’ve hiked a small mountain or at least a large hill. We all feel like we have shaped up with all our stair climbing…even if we seem to be groaning more and more as each hour passes and each step is taken.

Climbing stairs like the ones in this house serves as good exercise for the body and perhaps also for the soul. Going up stairs might be thought of as moving closer to God, especially in a place like Overtoun House with its tower that reaches into the sky. Yet we who live in this world find ourselves going down the stairs, too. Such is the way of life and of faith. We sometimes move toward God with our actions, and sometimes we move away. Our goal should always be to move toward him, to take the stairway up rather than down, to reach for heaven and not end up in the basement. After all, it’s a long climb from the basement to the top floor. 134 steps to be exact…or 139 depending on who you ask. But who’s counting?

Be Still

It's after lunch, and I’m grabbing a few minutes in the Hayes Barton Room at Overtoun House. Completed by past mission teams, the room is especially peaceful at the moment. On the other end of the house, the hubbub of last day tasks dominates the setting, but in here all is quiet and still. On the wall is stenciled Psalm 46:10: Be still, and know that I am God.


Being on a mission like this affords little opportunity to be still. Yet I suspect each of us has had at least a moment or two to stop and reflect on what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ on a journey like the one we have taken this past week. Watching a beautiful Scottish sunset from the roof last night, gazing out the window of one of the rooms we are working in to see a Scottish terrier rolling in the grass, meeting a local woman in a store and discovering that she was born at Overtoun House, receiving a note of thanks from an American college student named Rebecca who noted the love and faith of the Hayes Barton team members in their interactions with her.

God has sent us each on a mission, and each of us through mission work moves closer to discovering what that mission is. Sometimes we have to work from dawn to dusk to make the discovery. And, sometimes, we have to just be still.

Gary’s in the Basement, Nelson’s in the Bathroom, and Clara’s in the Doorway

Our day today was all about getting the work done. People worked where they were needed on what was needed. Gary cut boards and boards and boards in the basement. Nelson painted, painted, and painted the door in the bathroom. And Clara…Clara worked in a doorway that happened to be the entry and exit point for a continuous flow of workers. “Pardon me” and “excuse me” were said repeatedly to Clara as people needed to get into and out of the room with the doorway she was painting. Never was a mission team so considerate and polite. And never has someone been so gracious and patient as Clara given she had to stop and start her work when others needed to get through the doorway.


The day indeed was laden with many tasks that, as one of our mission songs says, were “dreary.” Yet, the song goes on, “a song keeps singing in my heart.” Today’s “songs to work by” included numerous Johnny Cash, James Taylor, and Celtic classical tunes selected from the musical collections we have along with us. And the "songs to work by" also included the songs in our hearts for…”Even though the day be laden and my task dreary and my strength small, a song keeps singing in my heart. For I know that I am thine. I am part of Thee. Thou art kin to me, and all my times are in Thy hands.”

We are starting to see the rooms come together. And you will soon see them, too, as we’ve taken many photos and will be posting them soon. Stay tuned....

We Took the High Road

After working late into the night last night, our Monday in Scotland was our day to break away from tasks and tour the countryside. With an excellent bus driver named Juliet at the wheel, we headed north to the Highlands. The majesty of God’s creation dominated our day as we saw breathtaking vistas of plush green mountains and lochs (lakes) with water as smooth and still as glass mirrors. The black water of Loch Ness didn’t reveal Nessie the Loch Ness Monster on this day, but the refreshing experience of the boat ride was noted by Ed as we discussed our day during devotion time tonight.


“You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road….” That is a famous refrain from the Scottish tune “Loch Lomand” written in the 1800s. We learned today that the “high road” that is referred to in the song is the road of life; and the low road, the road to death. Today we took the high road. We took the road of life. As one of our mission hymns says: All day long I’ve been with Jesus, it has been a glorious day. I’ve just moved up one step higher, and I’m walking on the King’s Highway.

We were with Jesus all day long. We witnessed God’s world and were witnesses for him while we traveled. We took the high road. We traveled on the King’s Highway.

Rest and Be Thankful

Our Lord’s Day in Scotland brought a wee bit o’ rest. After beginning our day with an in-home church service, we all headed out to Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum which just opened in June. The Riverside Museum is a museum all about transportation. It has real scale as well as models of every method of transportation the world has seen. From baby buggies to horse-drawn hearses to full-size train engines to VW Beetles, the museum offers an interesting collection which brings to mind memories of days gone by as well as thoughts about how we will travel in the future.


One of the cars that is perched high above the museum’s floor in an exhibit called the “Wall of Cars” has a license plate on its front bumper that can be seen from the floor. The plate reads “Rest and Be Thankful.” What a fitting message for the Lord’s Day and for those of us who are on this mission trip. We were given a chance to rest today and that chance also afforded us an opportunity to think about all for which we can be thankful. On a mission trip such as this, one certainty is that we can give thanks that God has given each of us a unique set of gifts that, on a team such as this one, is needed to complete the mission. From Cathy and Vivian’s culinary artistry to Ralph and Cindy’s project management skills, we are more than a wee bit thankful.

As I write this at 11 PM Scotland time, many of our team members are still working on the upper floors of Overtoun House. After the wee bit o’ rest they took, they got back to the tasks at hand. There is much yet to do in our remaining time here. And we are thankful we have been given the opportunity, the resources, and the gifts to do what needs to get done. Thank You Lord for putting us together in this place so that we may serve and reflect the love you have for us through the tasks we are doing to help this Centre of Hope and Healing.

Faith, Hope, and Love

The timeless values of faith, hope, and love that we cherish at Hayes Barton Baptist Church can be found here in Scotland at Overtoun House as well. Operating on faith as we carry out the various tasks we have as part of our mission, having the hope that all will get done, even though at this point the word “impossible” may creep into our thoughts, and expressing the love of Christ as we work with each other to get various tasks checked off our lists. The rooms we are working on are starting to show progress with new paint and door frames. Collecting of materials and planning for the furnishing of the rooms are in high gear as Audrey and Tonya visualize what can be.


Late in the day, Audrey sifted through a box of stencils that was found somewhere in the house, looking for just the right stencil to use in the room that is going to be called the “Iona Room.” In the bottom of the box, that “just right” stencil was found. What do you think it says? If you guessed “faith, hope, and love,” you are right! They are timeless values for Hayes Barton Baptist Church. And they are timeless values here at Overtoun House.

Caulk is Like Grace; Grace is Like Caulk



We have been doing a lot of caulking on this mission thus far. We’ve caulked to fill holes, and we’ve caulked to fill cracks. We’ve caulked to fill gashes, and we’ve caulked to fill gaps. We’ve caulked walls to paint, and we’ve caulked around a new door frame. We’ve caulked high, and we’ve caulked low. We’ve caulked with our fingers, and we’ve caulked straight from the tube. We’ve caulked and caulked and caulked so much that, at one point, we even thought we had run out of caulk. Yet a funny thing happened as we thought we needed to go out and get more; more was found.


“Caulk is like grace,” said George Hughes this morning. “It covers a lot.” Yes, caulk is like grace; it covers a lot. And when you think you might be out of it, you can find more. Grace covers a lot, too. And when you think might be out of it, you can find it again. That is what we are finding on our mission. God’s grace can be found. It is all around us. Filling us in; filling our holes, our cracks, our gashes, and our gaps. And just like caulk restores and refreshes and makes things new again, grace restores and refreshes and can make us new again. Caulk is like grace. And grace…grace is like caulk.

No Rest for the Weary

There is no rest for the weary.  The 2011 Scotland Hayes Barton Baptist Church Scotland Mission Team arrived at Overtoun House mid morning, unpacked, ate lunch, and got to work.  After revisiting the peaceful and joyous rooms which were worked on by past mission teams, this year's group assessed the work to be done and found there is plenty to do. Someone said we will need to work from dawn to dusk to get it all done and that is really saying something as dawn here is about 3 AM and dusk about 10 PM.

More than once in the short time we've been here we've heard someone say that we will need to operate on faith to carry out our mission.  The tasks and tests will be many, but the blessings that will come when the tasks are completed and the tests passed will be many more, multiplied by a mission team that has yet to stop and rest from its long travel day.  We may be weary but we are already at work. On this atypically sunny almost warm day in Scotland, there is not rest for us yet.  Maybe at dusk...but that is still hours away...at 10 PM!

On a Prayer and a Wing or Two

The 2011 Hayes Barton Baptist Church Scotland Mission took flight this afternoon. We await the next leg of our journey in six hours (thanks Kristen for allowing us to have ample time to meet our connecting flight!).  Tomorrow we will arrive at Overtoun House. Our “mission from God” is to complete two rooms at the House which serves as a Christian Centre for Hope and Healing.

We are a joyous group of thirteen souls to be joined by two more in Scotland. With a prayer led by Dr. Hailey before he said his good bye to his beloved Susan at the airport, we were off on a wing…or two...for sure lift and good measure. We will be weary by the time we land tomorrow, but we have our mission and have chosen to accept it. Susan Hailey has set the stage well by noting Isaiah 58:12:

Your people will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.

Thanks to all of you who have helped us get this far and who are supporting us with your love, thoughts, and prayers. We will work hard to multiply the many blessings Hayes Barton Baptist Church has to share with those we encounter as we do the Lord’s work.