My beloved is like … a young stag.

Throughout my life, whenever the Lord is about to do something significant and call me to big changes (like when I went to the Philippines and when I got married) He speaks to me from the Song of Songs (the book in the Bible).

This current move to Scotland is no exception. Although we felt that we had heard from the Lord, a few fears and questions were creeping in, like:

"How will we earn money?" "What will we do in the dark winters far from friends and family?" People began to ask "Are you going to start a church?" "What will you be doing?" All these questions ...

However, once again I have found Jesus to be so kind and gentle in his ways. First, to alleviate the doubt that it was really a calling from Him, He inspired Simon in the Highlands, who knew nothing of our calling to Scotland, to send a text on 7th August: "God is calling you North, I believe it's on the West coast... and in my dream is a lighthouse (which is the name of a fellowship that we had a link to in Mallaig). Your comfort and stability is going to shake like an earthquake... Come up here!"

We had a week free in the diary and so we decided to take a trip up to the Western Highlands. We stayed in Arisaig. near Morar, in response to the initial instruction from Gen 12:6 And Abram passed through the land ... unto the plain of Moreh. Here's a link to the last blog if you missed it.

We stayed with fab people, led worship at the Lighthouse church and met a minister who confirmed a scripture we had already from Isaiah 45, about treasures in the darkness. While I was there I had a text from an old friend who said "I was praying for you and see you dancing on mountains taking ground."

We had a lovely time and Dave got really excited about some information that he found out about the area - but I will leave him to tell you this in another letter.

Before we came home we walked to the top of the highest point in Morar. A giant cross is erected as a landmark and under it we prayed for the area and asked the Lord to show us what He wanted for us, symbolically building an altar.

(Morar is a Catholic stronghold completely unaffected by the reformation:

There's a hamlet in the West, where the weary mind finds rest; far surpassing beauty spots in foreign lands, where the river meets the sea, that's the place where I would be, Blessed Morar with it's silver sands.)

Back in Birmingham, we went to church on Sunday still unsure of the impending move. But during that service there were so many confirmations of our call to the Highlands - through Scriptures, songs and in the message - the most stirring came when a couple who had been missionairies in Uganda read a passage from Song of Songs 2:9-10

Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like … a young stag.

Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows...

A stag gazing through windows? This photo had been taken in Arisaig just a couple of days before.

We move on Sunday 22nd October until March. More exciting news to follow!