this is not goodbye (i hope)

Tomorrow we leave for home.

Today, we did a little sightseeing. Took a bus tour of the Highlands and cruised Loch Ness. Some beautiful parts of the world in that there Scotland.

On our "coach" (Brit term for "bus?") we befriended two young French girls. Marie (23) and Claire (17) are here for a couple weeks as aupairs for a Scot family that lived in France for a time (I believe that they know Claire's family). We were with them all day for the bus tour, then invited to come to Room 65 that night. They came back :). During the day the team was just enjoying each other's time and relaxing a bit before we left for home. And we laughed and chit-chatted... A LOT. When we came back to the church we had a late dinner with some of the people from church (Angelo and Dorcas provided an A-MAZING meal). We invited Marie and Claire to come down and hang out with us.

I wonder what went through their minds as they saw the same fun-loving people from earlier in the day being hugged and loved on so dearly by people they've only known for a few days. It was a rather emotional time for me, as the church gave each of us on the team a picture and a card signed by several...



And truly, I do not post that last picture because I want everyone to know what they thought of us... I want you to know the kind of impact the LORD made, through us. Without Him, none of this happened and none of it matters. You can see how endeared we became to the people of Carrubbers, and likewise how they became endeared to us. Just an amazing group of people. You will be hard-pressed to find so many caring and generous people in one church. In fact, I'm going to say that you won't find any church more caring and generous and loving than this one. In all the world. I'm willing to bet you £12.88 (all the UK currency I have left) that you won't.

In 34 years, there have been very few times in my life where my heart has felt so good from feeling so torn. I have been gone from home for so long that those planes can't fly me home fast enough tomorrow. I feel sorry for anyone that might be around me when we step off the plane in LA and I lay eyes on Heidi and the girls. They may hear sobbing and shrieking the likes of which no one has heard since the Loch Ness Monster first found herself trapped in Loch Ness.

I have MUCH MORE to blog about, but it will need to wait. So please keep checking back! I will let you know when the Scotland blog will officially end, and you can choose to either stop reading my thoughts, or start reading my primary blog. Of course, if I blog about something other than Scotland, it won't be found here.

You can find my primary blog at www.nozomilyric.blogspot.com.

Suffice it to say, I knew that this trip would be awesome. I knew I would be changed. I knew I would feel like I'd been served and loved more than I served and loved back. What I didn't know, was just HOW MUCH I would feel this way and how this trip would exceed any and all expectations I may have had.

To my new and cherished UK friends... you will never know just how much you have impacted my life. I cannot articulate it properly with any words I know how to use. My life has changed because of you. God has shown me just how much bigger He is because of you. You have helped my heart expand. I praise Him for you and I really hope that the Lord will allow me to come back and see you. You are all such dear, sweet people and I will never forget this time. I only hope that I made a fraction of the impact on you that you made on me. Please come visit us in LA. PLEASE.

To our family and friends that financially supported and/or prayed for us... I tried my hardest to create a blog that would communicate just what your money and prayers went towards. I hope that I was able to at least partially convey the message of how the Lord used YOU to use us. Without your money, we couldn't afford to be here. And without your prayers, all this work would have surely killed us by now (at least me). I've said it before but it begs repeating... I *FELT* your prayers. So strongly and so consistently. Your work in prayer was absolutely vital to our impact here in Scotland. There is no way I could have done the things I did and kept the hours that I did, had it not been for the faithful saints remembering me at the feet of our Lord Jesus.

I have learned so much, but one thing I didn't learn... is how to get a decent amount of sleep while here. Current time is 5am... exactly. *BEEP*

I better get going.

My name is Rick, and thanks for reading.