I really want an apple pie right now. All hot and delicious and full of apple slices drenched in sugary goodness in a nice delicious crust…along with a cold glass of milk. Yes? Yes. Made by dad(the filling) and mom(the crust), specifically. Of course, this is now sadly impossible as they are thousands of miles away. Well maybe come Christmas time, this will be remedied. Until then, I will just have to dream…

And now that my craving for apple pie has increased exponentially after writing that, I will try to switch topics gracefully…by saying that it is a beautiful day here!! I am very happy that despite a week of mostly rain and wind and cold gloominess, Aberdeen has decided to reward us with a gorgeously sunny and refreshing Saturday! And of course, anthropomorphizing Aberdeen is foolish…I really want to thank God, for this is indeed the day that He has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

And this has been a delightfully busy and hectic week! This week I think I’ve become fully immersed in my new job, as I had no lack of tasks to complete, from compiling quoting process maps to engaging the rest of the staff to form a comprehensive picture of affairs here. We have a consultant coming over from the States next week, so we’ve been prepping for that this week, as next week should be even crazier! But then, do you really want to hear about Cameron Drilling affairs? Probably not, so I’ll refrain.

But last night was not business, but pleasure! A couple from church invited me to their place for dinner last night, so me and my roommate went over(rewind – did I mention I now have a flatmate? He’s from Nigeria, and this is his first time out of the country! So it is most fun to use my lofty status as three-week resident of Scotland to show him around the city and introduce him to our crazy Western ways; he’s pretty awesome) – we left straight from work and through the driving rain and terrible traffic(Houston-esque, almost) I drove(wait, rewind again – did I also mention that Cameron hired me a car? Well they did – a Nissan Note – and so yesterday was my first day driving through Aberdeen! In the rain. And traffic. On the other side of the road. I’m still here!) to their house right near the University of Aberdeen. And wow, that was…an interesting sentence. Anyways, Josh and Emily have a lovely family(daughter Rebecca, son Luke) and they made taco salad for us! They’re actually from Texas(what!) and he’s here getting his doctorate in theology, particularly in regards to the doctrine of the Trinity and the view of the Trinity throughout church history and how that has been changing the past 200 years. Oh yeah, we got a little theologically nerdy. Anyways, it was simply an amazingly awesome night hanging out with them and relaxing and communing in the goodness of the Lord!! Afterwards me and Uche(my flatmate) drove back through the considerably more empty roads to our flat. Following that we had an ASDAs adventure to get him a phone so he could call his family(which he did – success!) and I called back home and got to talk to Laura for the first time in a while – hurrah! Finally, we made it home and sleep beckoned…I woke up this morning to hear Uche vacuuming our flat – see, I told you he’s awesome!

Ok, while I’ve been writing this, me and this woman two tables over from me(here at Starbucks) keep making eye contact. I’m not sure if she’s just intrigued at my furious tapping away or what.

ANYWAYS, I really need to get going soon, as later this afternoon is castle time! But a little sidetour first…

This morning I was walking to Starbucks enjoying the beautiful morning when a woman stopped me(old enough to be my grandmother, if not my great-grandmother!) holding out a tract, saying something about “the future kingdom”. I’m thinking, “Oh, she must be a Christian, yay!” So I mention that I follow Christ. She sort of brushes that off, which I find only a tad odd, and then ask me if I’m waiting for the coming kingdom. I enthusiastically agree and at this point she points me to a verse somewhere in John about Jesus pointing the way to God. John 3:17 maybe? Anyways, I make a remark affirming that, saying also, “And Jesus is God!” at which point she says, “Well, no, he isn’t…”

screeching halt

I had to drastically revise my approach at this point from friendly encourager to wary combatant. I responded to her heretical statement by saying, “Actually, He is God.” At which point we got into a nice little debate, with her pulling out what I assume are all the classic Jesus-is-not-God passages, starting with Colossians(why is it telling me Colossians is spelled wrong – hmph) 1. I think when I rebutted this by telling her what firstborn meant in the Greek, she may have begun to re-evaluate her opinion of me as a soft target. Anyways, I’m not going to recount our whole conversation except that I urged her to read John, as the whole purpose of that testimony is to put forth Jesus as God!! She denied that with some silly out-of-context verses, tried to reproach me on the illogical nature of the Trinity(1+1+1 can’t equal 1!) and eventually we parted ways. I think I would put our mini-debate as a draw, simply because neither of us were even slightly budging and I failed to pull out the ace verse of John 1:1. Oh why oh why did I not remember that until ten minutes later???

Anyways, the point of this whole recount isn’t to prove my theological acuity, because most assuredly, I felt like I was stumbling around….any good words I did say were of the Spirit. But I just wanted to express my sadness over her words and my acute anger at her denial of Jesus’ very divine nature as God Himself. I think this cut me the deepest, that someone would deny Christ as God, and then I think of all those every day who deny Christ. And I weep. And then I think of my own denials of Christ every day, even though I know Him!! And I weep bitterly. Oh for the lost ones of this world! I cannot wait for the day when faith truly shall be sight and He comes on the clouds for every eye to see Him. Every heart will be pierced and all will know Jesus as Lord. King of kings and Lord of Lords is His name. Amen and Amen!! Come Lord Jesus!

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The
Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it.

Some of the most beautiful words ever penned. Bar none.

Grace and peace be with y’all this most glorious day!