"as long as the doors keep opening..."

I didn't ask for this.

I did not begin 2008 praying that God would send me overseas this summer, much less specifically to Scotland. There was some brief talk of Least of These going there last summer, but that fell through. Apparently the good folks in Scotland didn't forget that they wanted us for this summer.

When the opportunity presented itself at the start of this year, I had some mixed emotions. Many probably think I'm crazy, but I wasn't initially all too thrilled with the idea. The trip would be 10-11 days. 10-11 days of not seeing my wife and kids. I think the longest I have gone is 4 days.

But it was certainly a great opportunity... to see a country and a continent I have never seen before, but more specifically to use the gifts that God has given me to further His kingdom. Plus I knew that God had dropped this opportunity into my lap, so I figured that the least I could do was see where He was leading me. I kept telling myself, "as long as the doors keep opening, I will keep walking through." I knew that if He didn't want me to go, He would close the doors.

None of the doors ever closed.

First thing I needed to determine was if Grace Community Church would allow me to go, since I am now a member of a different church. They said it would be fine, and it probably didn't hurt matters that I was a member at Grace for 15 years and served in various lay ministry capacities for most of those years. Door remained open.

Then I had to figure out if I would have enough PTO time for the trip, and even if I did, if I could actually get all that time off approved (I would be requesting nearly 2 1/2 weeks off). No problem. I would have the time and it was approved. Door remained open.

Next was my passport. Mine had expired in 2004 and I had been meaning to renew it but just kept putting it off. As it was, I hadn't used my last one at all. You can "renew" a passport for up to 5 years after the expiration date. I had heard of really long wait times for passports but I sent all my stuff out (along with the recently increased fee of $75, versus $67). Got my passport in 3 weeks. Door remained open.

Then, there was the issue of funding. I don't really like asking people for money. The Lord has blessed us tremendously financially, taking care of all of our needs and many of our wants. But, I couldn't really afford to drop $2,000 for my portion of the trip, in addition to however much discretionary spending I would need just for basic things like food (not to mention souvenirs and money to do fun things). Plus the dollar is so weak right now, that things in Scotland will basically cost me double what they do here in the States. And yet I know that the money part is the easy part. God will provide the money somehow. As of this writing, I have raised nearly $1,200 of the $2,000 target, and I'm not sure where the team stands as a whole. I think that we'll be in good shape though. There will still be money coming in during the next several days, even while I am gone.

Because the finances are where they are, we need to keep our costs as low as possible. Being the keyboard player, I had to figure out what to do for sounds. To haul my keyboard would incur several charges (2nd bag, over-sized, overweight) for 4 flights (two there and two back), not to mention I didn't really want those baggage gorillas handling my keyboard (no offense to any baggage handlers reading this post... nothing personal... I just do not trust you AT ALL). I also looked into renting a keyboard out there, but with the terrible exchange rate, it would run about $500 to rent a decent keyboard for the week. Bleck.

So I had to get creative. The church out there has a grand piano, so I would have that sound covered. But I still needed to have a few extra sounds to supplement the band. Patrick has a MacBook Pro with a few built-in sounds. A couple of kind friends lent me some gear that I needed to play those sounds (a little 25 note keyboard and an audio interface to go between the computer and the mixer). Though 25 keys is much less real estate than I am used to having, it's better than nothing and, heh heh, it was free. More doors remaining open.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty interesting. I have been blown away by the generosity of people.

More on that next time.

My name is Rick, and thanks for reading.