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.