15 Sept Sunday in Glasgow

I didn't sleep that well, so it was nice to have a slow start. Peter went to get a hire car, but the Aussie curse lingered... When he went to put fuel in It, he couldn't get out of the seat belt, struggling with the catch for over 5 minutes. He took the car back, and the hire place replaced it with an almost new Kia hatchback wagon; with all that saga, the poor things were late for church. (We had been taken earlier by other friends to Glasgow City Free Church, in St Vincent's Street.)

Here's a photo of the building where the church meets. They rent it from the Glasgow City Council for £1 per year, but the heating costs are astronomical!

There was a good gathering of people in this large building, including a large number of Asian students, to whom the church has a special outreach. The minister, Rev Dr Colin Dow led the service and preached well on the account of the Magi in Matt.2. In this Free Church, they now sing both unaccompanied psalms and other Christian songs led by a keyboard. It was a good mixture. Afterwards, we joined others for morning coffee in the "large hall" basement, and met a number of people - Colin Dow, his wife and mother, as well as precentor Evan Macdonald, and some visitors from Stornoway.

After this, we accompanied P&M to their daughter Fiona's place for a celebratory lunch for their middle child, Sophie, who turned 10 today. It was a lovely family time, shared with other family and a couple of other visitors. (It was Fiona who took you Cate out for an evening in 2005, which she remembered and was asking after you.)

Back to Peter & Marion's for 40 (or in Mum's case, 85) winks, before heading off to evening (communion) service. 

We had a great service this evening, the logistics of the Lord's Supper being a bit different but it all worked well. The rain and cold has persisted most of the day and is predicted for tomorrow. The temp as we write us under 6°C.