Training so far

Training began officially on Tuesday, with a Welcome and Essential Information morning... all those thing you never thought would be useful - oh, and that you already knew! We learnt all about who would be what colour and why, and all about food supplies/sacristy resources/ethos/reception/social times/hospitality/wee sings/where things are... you get the jist!
We then had some department time, which basically meant time for me to wrestle with my computer to make it work - I failed on that task!

On Wednesday we had a session with Peter MacDonald (leader of the Iona Community) and Norman Shanks (convener of the Iona Committe) entitle 'A stop sign - how did I get here?' where we spent the morning discussing 'What Did Jesus Do?' which came out with many interesting points. We then, after tea and scones, went on to discuss how all of the things that Jesus did fit in to certain groups, and how we as a Resident group and as a wider community fit our work and our lives in to these groups. Some of these were: hospitalit, challenge, acceptance, relating, spiritual discipline, non-violence, and the list goes on...

Today, we started off in the common room with a briefing from Ian and Hilary about Pilgrimages, why we do them/when we do them/who does them/safety/equipment etc.... We then set off in a wee bit of sun and ended up getting soaked half way around - a good test of all of our new waterproofs! After a treck to Columbas Bay, flapjack and The Machair and a wet walk back, we were greeted with tea and scones in the refectory before drying ourselves off in time for a little bit of work time... And I have heard rumours that we are having haggis, neaps and tatties for dinner, and chocolate puddle pudding for desert, what a happy happy day :) It was lovely to get out of the common room and in to the wilderness today, and I can't wait to get going doing the pilgrimages more often (when I buy some better gloves!).

Anyway, hoping that you are all well and enjoying whatever life is throwing at you. Off to do some work now! Oh, pictures to follow at a later time!