A good visit!

Courage here:

I had such a great visit with my friend Mercy last month. I was excited to see her and Iain and Norma. She told me all about her time in Africa. Wow! I got to share with her what we do on Sunday nights with Ms. Peyton and the Athens Link children. God is so good!

We also spent some time looking at the world map. Mercy pointed out where she had been-cool! I loved hearing about Brazil.

Seeing the picture of the Dunfermline Link on the map!

The picture on the bottom of the map is a prayer and support card for my friend Sarah Olds. Sarah is a missionary in Mozambique. She has a blog too! Her blog is found at http://www.sarah-n-africa.blogspot.com/

We also spent some time putting our heads together to think of new blogs to share!

I'm always so thankful for the time we get to visit with each other!

At the farm

Hi everyone! Courage here. Everyone has been back to school for a while, and we are finally enjoying cooler weather! Here at Athens Link we got a new children's teacher this year-Miss Peyton! She is so great! Tonight we talked about what it looks like to love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind...Luke 10:27

We at Athens Link are getting so excited about seeing Iain and Norma soon! I had such a fun visit with Mercy the last time she was out here. We visited friends and even did farm chores! Here are a few pictures...

Yay friends!

We rode in the front of the four-wheeler! I almost needed to use my googles!

This is Abigail, Norine and Silas's little sister, who was telling us to hold on.

We found a comfy spot in the hen house during farm chores!

That's a lotta chickens.

Back to school in Scotland!

Hello everyone - Mercy here!

What a fun summer I had! It was so great going to America with Katie and Josh, and the best bit of all was seeing everyone in Athens Link - especially my best friend Courage! When we got back we had a whole week of Messy Church! We were all so busy getting ready for Messy Church, and we had a practise too which went really well. This Saturday will be our first proper Messy Church - if you are here in Dunfermline Scotland I hope you can come! And if you are in Athens Georgia - please pray for us!

All the boys and girls here went back to school last Tuesday. It was a special day for Anna because she went to school for the first time, and also for Jodie because she went up to high school. I hope everyone has a great year at school and that you all learn lots of important stuff. Courage - when do the boys and girls in Athens go back to school? I know some of them are home schooled, I'm sure they still have to work really hard there too!

We heard that Alex's Grandma Diann is not well and had a big operation. Alex - we prayed for her and for all your family on Sunday and we will keep praying!

I'm all excited because next week I'm off to Tanzania with Pastor Iain and Norma. They will be speaking at a women's conference - I think I will get lots of attention there! I'll do my best to write about what we're doing on my blog so keep checking in to see what's going on while we're there!

That's all from me for now - we'd love to hear what you have all been getting up to!

Mercy

Courage reflects on Scotland!

Courage here!

I am finally over my jet-lag and am safely back in the states from Scotland. I traveled with seventeen other Athens Link Family members. We set off from the USA on Friday June 3^rd and spent ten heavenly days in Dunfermline with the Scotland Link.

Reunited and feels so good!

OH YES! Mercy and I were ear to ear the whole week during the mega kingdom family reunion. From American football to mountainous “hill” hikes, I had a blast.

This was my first mission trip. What was the mission you say? BUILD BUILD BUILD relationships. They are soooo important to Father God and Jesus. Did you know that the great commission cannot happen without relationships? We need each other. We need community. And it seems to me that relationship between Scotland and Athens Link is really growing. All 18 of us separated among the congregation in Dunfermline. Our host homes were incredible cockle-doodle-doo. They welcomed us like family! Needless to say, Scotland Mission Trip’s mission was fully accomplished.

Here are some of my other highlights from the trip…

Visiting together:

cakes and fellowship!

but most of all...my FAVORITE-FAVORITE part was seeing...

YOU!

Operation Andrew!

Hello everyone! Mercy here... We are still missing all our friends from Athens Link! Courage, please tell them all we said hello. I will see you soon! Katie and Josh have said I can go to America with them next week when they go on holiday and I am so excited about it.

Here at Link Dunfermline we are getting ready for Impact World Tour which is coming to Dunfermline in November. It's going to be great as lots of people will get to hear about Jesus and how much He loves them. Even kids can get involved in getting ready. Operation Andrew is all about praying for your friends. The Bible says this: "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon... and he took him to Jesus." Just like Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, we can do the same for our friends. Ruth said that the boys and girls in Athens can still join in Operation Andrew even though they will not be in Dunfermline for Impact World Tour. Here is what you have to do -

PRAY - for three friends that don't know Jesus. Pray they will become friends with Jesus and that they'll know how much He loves them.

PLAY - invite your friends to play and be extra nice to them.

SAY - Invite your friends to Impact World Tour (or, if you live in Athens, to come to Athens Link with you!)

Why not start today by drawing a picture of your three friends and writing their names underneath? Then you can put it somewhere where you'll see it every day to help you remember to pray for them. Let us know how you are getting on!

Mercy X

Courage reporting from Scotland!

Howdy y'all! Courage here from Scotland. 17 of my friends from Athens Link came with me on my trip to see my best friend Mercy! We have been having a great time! I have been around some of the kindest people, have seen some awesome sites, and have learned lots of Scottish phrases that I will be using back in Athens! Diana has taken a lot of photos that she will share on here when we get back to Athens. I am so sad that our time is coming to a close!

Sorry for the briefness of this post; I have to go and iron my cape before the big fundraising dance tonight! Whereas the last fundraising dinner was at Chick-fil-A and I didn't go for obvious reasons, I think I'm safe at this one. There is supper before the dancing, and they are serving something called haggis.

I am loving our new dual blog; it is such a great way to stay in touch! And, I can't wait to share pictures and more stories from my time here!

Our new blog!

Hello! Mercy here...

Courage and I have had such a lot of fun this week while he has been in Scotland with the rest of the team from Athens Link. We have stayed so far at Katie and Josh's house with Noriene and Silus, at Daniel's house with Alex and at Ruth's house with Diana. All this time together has meant we could have plenty of long chats and we came up with a fantastic idea!

As you all know I write my Adventures of Mercy blog whenever I go on a mission trip anywhere, and Courage has even written some posts on it recently. That's where I hit on the idea that we could have our own special blog together and that would help us - and the boys and girls in both Link churches - to keep in touch! We'll let you know whenever we write a new post and you can even sign up to get an email telling you when we've written something new.

We're thinking up lots of things to blog about and you can give us your ideas too! I'm feeling a bit sad as tomorrow is Courage and the team's last day here but tonight we are going to the ceilidh at church so we're both very excited about that. I hope I can teach Courage how to do the Scottish dances!

Courage - it is your turn to write a post! And please ask Diana when we can have some photos on here...