the au pair...

Hello all!

It's been a week since my last update...and I think that I am going to have a hard time remembering everything from every day...I have been quite busy though, and not really had a chance to write an email telling of everything until now.

Let's see here...I'll give you a summary of the week:

On Friday of last week, I didn't have anything required of me, so I had another long sleep in (it took a few days to get on the right sleep schedule...5 hours time difference from home!), then I got up and planned to go into town to a couple of places...but the rain was pouring and it looked so cold outside...just not a nice day. So I was lazy and stayed in the house until Iain got off work and came to Sarah's. We then ate at hers, just the two of us, because Sarah was going out, but pretty much just leaves her home open to us or whoever, and is so very hospitable! So anyways, we ate the leftover food from the Wednesday night, then we went to Iain's Auntie Sophia's so that I could meet her. She is not actually his aunt, but more of a grandmother who took care of him and his siblings a lot when they were children. She was lovely!! She is nearly 82 I believe, and such a sweet lady. I was wearing my wellies (rainboots) and she kept going on about how "smart" my Wellington's were!

On the Saturday...Iain and I went up to Letham (about 25 min north of Dundee) to his Dad and Kate's house. I had met his Dad on Wednesday, but had yet to meet his stepmom. It went pretty well though, and we ate and hung out with them for a few hours. (I'm not going to lie...I was pretty stressed out over this meeting!! lol) After that we came back to Dundee and had some chill time, before going back to Sarah's where we hung out with her, Alison, Jamie, and our friend Johnny (Catia's husband).

Sunday was of course church, and I went to Elim in the morning! It was so good...I got to meet some people in person, who I actually talk with quite a bit on facebook but had yet to actually meet! And also caught up with some folks I already know...I love it there so much! The sermon was great too...Graeme preached on tempation. Then after church, Sandy and I spent the day together, which was good! We went to a place called the Corn Kist for lunch, then we went to a place called Lunan Bay, which is a beautiful beach where there is also the ruins of Red Castle, which I had never noticed before. It was a fun day, altho I was still feeling the jet-lag, and seemed to be a bit "off" for much of the day. We had a good time tho, as always! After that I then went back to Iain's, and we went to church at Central. They have a new pastor which I had not seen before, and he preached a great message as well...which also touched on temptation, among other things which I can't recall at the minute! After church, I was craving pizza, so Iain and I were going to go back to his to make a frozen one...we walked in the house, and there sat his brother Andrew with two fresh Domino's pizzas!! I was so happy. lol

Monday started the real busyness! Bruce picked me up at quarter past 9 (no more sleeping in for me!!), and we headed to his and Carolyn's house where I got to play with the boys, and help take care of them. Poor Ewan has the chicken pox....so he was all spotted and not feeling that well! I also painted in the new spare room of their house for about 3 hours. After helping them for the day, I think I went back to Iain's for dinner, then we went to the Hub at 7. It was so good! I had never been before, and altho I felt a bit awkward at first since I didn't know any of the kids, I felt at ease as I saw a little face that I knew- a girl named Jody who went to Attic camps a couple of years back. She is a red haired girl with a freckled face and red glasses...and she is a sweet one. There are different things that the kids can do at the beginning, like playing pool, foozball, playstation, or doing crafts. I stood over at the craft table for the most part, and just sort of chatted with the girls who wanted to do that. A few girls made cards for one of the Hub leaders that his wife just had a baby the night before...they were so fun. After that the kids go into the sanctuary for the talk and learning of memory verses...which was also good. "I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13," and "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10." If the kids could quote the verses, pretty closely at least, they were given a sweetie (candy), and they were pretty good! On the way to leave, one little girl who had some sort of learning or speech impairment, quoted one scripture from about a month ago, and Catia gave her 3 sweeties! Johnny did the God-Spot (talk), and he used the visual of a glass being full or empty to illustrate John 10:10, as well as showing a video that illustrated it well. We also played games at the end of the talk which was good...volleyball using chairs as the net, and a very badly inflated ball. lol It was much fun tho, and the kids seemed to love it!

Tuesday was back up and at Bruce and Carolyn's again for more painting, this time with Carolyn and Sandy, and doing some other things around the spare room as well...sanding, cleaning up plaster, etc! Ewan was even more spotted, and when they put calamine lotion on his spots...it sounded like he was dying!! He screamed SO loud(!!!), and its not even supposed to sting...poor guy! I helped out there for the day, then Sandy dropped me back off at Sarah's...where I got cleaned up to go out on visits to hand out flyers for the Hub activities next week! Sarah, Iain, Catia, a girl named Mary, and myself all went out to visit the homes. Catia, Iain and I went together, and some of the places we went were nearly shocking. We took turns going to the doors two at a time, so that we didn't bombard the door with 3 people. One home that Iain and Catia went to the door, the old guy was wearing 3 coats in his house, meaning there was no heat. One door that Iain and I went to, the lady that came to the door was as high as a kite... One multi (multi-story apartment building) that we went into, there was blood on the stair case. We told the janitor, and he said it was not blood but chemicals...but Catia is a nurse and she said that was blood. It was crazy...CHILDREN LIVE IN THESE PLACES!!! One little girl that used to come to the Hub has apparently gone missing...she ran away, and her mother doesn't know where she is. Catia also told me of another little girl who is only 8 or 12, I can't remember, but either way....her father and sister have both died, and her mum has been in jail for 4 years (I'm not sure if the two situations are related or not). It's just so sad the things that these kids have experienced already...at such young ages...things I've never experienced in my 21 years, they have experienced already! Despite the sadness of seeing such circumstances, it was good handing out the flyers and there were many good responses in regards to coming to the activities of next week! The rest of the American team will be over, and half of us will be with the Hub, and half with the Attic. The Hub team will have a game/fun day on Monday during the day, as the kids are off school, then every night from Monday-Friday the Hub will be on. Saturday there is also going to be a coffee morning for the parents to come along to, which excited many of the children's parents! Pray for a good turn out so they can hear about Jesus!!

Wednesday...was good! I went in to the Attic office with Bruce, and helped there with Attic stuff...I made the flyers for the home visits next week (advertising the Americans coming over!), and then Sandy was also in, and while I made the flyer, she did most of the other small jobs we were given to do, while Bruce was away at a meeting. After we were done with everything, Bruce was still not in, so we played a invigorating and nearly violent game of foozball! (I knocked over the coffee maker with my arm...lol) I had never really played it before, and I got pretty good! haha Bruce came back then, as well as Mhairi a few minutes later, and then we all ate lunch. Bruce, Sandy, and I went up the road to a butcher/bakery and bought our lunches...I had something called macaroni and cheese, that looked and tasted nothing like macaroni and cheese! haha I just got it because it looked good tho...it was almost like chicken and dumplings, except it had cheese and bacon/pork in it. After lunch, Sandy and I ran a couple of errands for Bruce, then back to the office, then we had Clanz, which is the teen night at the Elim church. It's basically for the kids who are too old to go to the Attic. It was so good! Mhairi and I were in charge of making smoothies with the new smoothie maker, which is a big hit! The teens just hang out for the first hour or so...Playstation, Wii, smoothies, and chilling out, then for the last hour or so, we watched a Nooma video (maybe some of you have heard of them?) that makes them really think...the one last night was about gratitude basically...and then we split up into groups and have discussion time. This was INTENSE for me. I sat with a girl named Eve, which I've known at the Elim for a while, and her two friends Holly and Tabitha. They are 12 years old, and Tabitha is EXTREMELY intellectual...to the point of talking about taking physics, and using big words and having deep thoughts. She is not a Christian...and as we talked about the video, I began to realize this in things that she said. At the end of the conversation of me trying to show what God means to me, and how thankful I am for the things He does for me...she clearly stated that she was not religious. I told her that I was not religious either...I just love Jesus. I said that Christianity was not religion. I asked her what she thought about Christianity, since she was at a Christian function, and she said she thought it was good....soooo. I am not used to hearing somebody blatently say that they are not a Christian...in most of my experience, it's been more of a case of thinking there were, when really they didn't understand or really get it, or had a marred idea of what it is...but not just outright saying they are not a Christian. It was fine tho, and hopefully she will keep coming back and God will soften her young heart to His love! She was a fun girl, and interesting to talk with! As the conversation was ending, Iain came in to pick me up, and later we went to Home Fellowship with folks from his church...this one is at the youth pastor's house, and it was really good! We (about 14 or 15 people) ended up discussing discipleship for about 2.5 hours...what it is, what it should be, how it needs to be better implemented, how some people aren't getting it, how some people can't find it...etc etc. It was a good night of talk and fellowship.

Today, Thursday! I got a text from Bruce last night saying I didn't need to come in until 12:30 today, so I got to sleep in!!!!!!! lol I slept til just before 10, and then got up and Sarah and I had bagels and coffee for breakfast, and chatted til we were too late for her to take me into town before her work meeting, and she instead drove me to the bus stop where I got a bus into town! I then walked to the Elim, and Bruce came and picked me up and dropped me off back at their house. To sum up today, I hung the laundry out to dry, moved all of the books from a bookshelf, to a different bookshelf in the spare room, helped take care of the boys, mainly Arran (the 6 month old) for the first part, then later I took Aidan and Ewan to the park for probably an hour and a half. It was so fun! Ewan took his bike and Aidan made me carry him for much of the time. lol Most of our time was spent sitting and watching these skater guys skating in the skate park...it seemed the boys were totally mesmorized by this! Then they got tired, whiney, and hungry, and we eventually made it back up to the house, with me carrying Aidan and pushing Ewan's bike for part of it too! (it was probably a mile walk...much of it uphill.) Carolyn said I did pretty well being out that long with them! Haha...I totally loved it tho. I think I have become their au pair (Fancy French word for babysitter...lol)! But if God has brought me here to simply help out around the "White House", and taking care of 3 amazing little boys...I am totally ok with that! =)

So now I'm back at Iain's writing this, and he is in the kitchen cooking me a surprise dinner...even though I clearly see that it is pasta involving bacon since I started cooking that part of it before he even got home. haha...it surely smells divine tho!

Tomorrow I'll be at the White's again, and Saturday Iain and I are going on a date! We realized a couple of nights ago, that although we've seen each other quite a bit in the evenings...we've not really had any time to ourselves, so we've planned time this weekend, which will be great. Tonight we are going to pick up Adam Whipple at the train station, and then the rest of the American team gets here on Sunday morning...yay! Please pray for a God-guided and productive week to come. I'll email more later!

Thanks for reading all of my ramblings again...hope they are entertaining. =) I'll try and send out an email of pictures in the next couple days, so you can sort of get a visual!

Jesus Bless!
Lindsay...the au pair.