Scotland

A couple weeks ago at church our Pastor quoted a Celtic Prayer. That brought me back to my YWAM days in Scotland. I had a hard time concentrating on the rest of the sermon as my thoughts were inundated with the memories of the Discipleship Training School I went to in Paisley, Scotland called Celtic Way DTS. 

This picture was taken on my second trip. You have to cross the border of England /Scotland. The country side we pass was beautiful, breathtaking. In the past couple years, while watching movies set in the English countryside I am taken back to those days of just walking through God's beautiful creation. Sometimes I think I appreciate it more now, than I did while I walked it.

It was a unique DTS. We followed in the footsteps of Celtic Saints thousands of years ago, literally. We were a hiking DTS:) The main hike we did was St Cutherberts Trail, it is 100km long and starts in Southern Scotland and ends on a tiny island called Lindisfarne on the East Coast of England. It was not an easy hike as it lasted 5 days and crossed many different terrains. I got to experience this incredible hike twice.

On my second hike we got to experience Chase Anderson playing the Bagpipes at the highest point of the hike. It was beautiful, unfortunately all you can hear in the videos I took is the wind!

My all time favorite part of the hike is the last day (partly because it always meant it was almost over!). Its the day we walk across the ocean to the Island of Lindisfarne. There is a causeway separating Lindisfarne from the mainland which means cars & people can walk to the island at certain times of the day! The causeway is generally open from about 3 hours after high tide until 2 hours before the next high tide. Because we have to rely on the tide that means we had to wake up at 4am to be able to cross at the correct time frame. 

The causeway has refuge poles every 30 yards -ish and we each time we pass one, someone reads a Bible verse of their choosing. I love this part. We always meet up with Andy Raine, a resident of Lindisfarne, who teaches us. He is a great teacher/servant of God. A very hilarious man!

After our big hike we always did another trip that visited a few Islands of Scotland. My favorite Island ever is the Isle of Iona. It is a tiny island on the West Coast of Scotland, south of the Isle of Skye. You have to take two ferries to get there. Only 125 people live on the Island. From one end to the other it is 1.6 KM and one of the most beautiful walks I have ever taken. The Iona Abbey is situated on the Island, it is a beautiful Abbey that still stands.

Another hike we did was a one day hike called a Munro in the Highlands. My first couple years we did The Cobbler right near Loch Lomond.  The photo above is my first ever hike in Scotland. I had only been there for 2ish weeks! Who would have guessed the girl sitting beside me would become one of my best friends.

Then in my last year we did a different mountain and for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it! But it had a spectacular view! I love that my hair and sweater are the same! 

And lastly another way we followed the footsteps of Celtic Saints was our morning/evening prayer. We called it Office. We met at 730am & 9pm every day. The prayers we read were taken from the book Andy Raine wrote called Celtic Daily Prayer. I miss those office times. At the beginning of every school we would have all the new students take 5-10 little pieces of paper and add a name to each of someone they love to it. Then before we started prayer each day we would each take a piece of paper from our prayer bucket. Halfway through the prayer we take time to individually pray for the person on the piece of paper. Office was a time that we reflected and prayed.

Part of the prayer was "May the peace of the Lord Christ be with your, where ever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing and the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you back rejoicing once again into our home." I would love to be part of Office again:)


I miss the community Stanely House created, especially living in Calgary away from lots of friends and family.