Iona

Dear friends,

As Chad mentioned earlier, we spent the last few days traveling to and from and on the Isle of Iona. Iona is where Christianity first reached Scotland through St. Columba. The celts call it a 'thin place', where the barrier between heaven and earth is thinner than other places, and I believe that it is.

The travel there is a bit rigorous as we took a train to a ferry to a bus to a ferry to the island, but once you step off the boat onto the island, you can feel a change. It's like time slows down and peace descends. We explored and prayed and ate good food while we were there. We spend time with God as a team and as individuals, we laughed and cried out to God together. It was glorious.

Each night, we debriefed outside and talking about our days in the sight of so much beauty was inspiring and so worshipful. The green fields and sheep the first night, the sand and rocks the second night, and the sea forever surrounding us. So gorgeous.

On Wednesday, I hiked up to the highest point on the island, a hill called Dun I (pronounced 'doon ee')' and sat in a cleft of the rock for about an hour or so, talking with and listening to God the whole time. Then later in the day, I walked down to the southern part of the island, found a wee spot of grass on the beach, a stretched out in the warm sun and rested and dozed, very aware of God's presence all around me.

As we enter back into our work with the Mission I am glad that God loves us so much that He calls us into both work and rest.

Thanks for reading!

Ben Mercer