Nathaniel!

Hi there, this is just another quickie post to say.... if you don't already know.... Nathaniel Matthew MacDonald Tink has arrived. He came into this world at 5:59 pm on Tues 17th August. A very healthy 8 lb 4. He has already become very much part of the family and we feel like he has always been around! The girls adore him and we are now getting into a system of who picks him up next!
Life is returning to normal, with Jonathan getting back to preparation for sermons starting this sunday and for the school assemblies next week as well.
Jonathan has just gone off to the bus depot in Kyle to pick up our newly wed friends Hannah and Daniel who are coming for a few days on their honeymoon to Skye before they head off on their new adventure in Canada!
Well this was short and "sweet"? I must go now, but I will return. Thanks for keeping up to date with me, I will try to keep posting and who knows but I may even manage a pic or two of Nathaniel!
With love in Him, E. xx

Well just to let you know that all is going well. We had an excellent summer of camps and clubs and God was certainly with us. No baby was born during this time thankfully and now we just await his or her arrival. Patience has never been one of my strong points but it is all character building as my old Bible college matron used to say!!!
We will keep you informed as to what, when and such like info as and when it occurs!
Take care of yourselves. E. xx

Okey dokey! I am so sorry for leaving you so long! I have no excuse other than... nope not even that one would suffice! If you by some miracle are still around and checking up on this blog may I commend you for your loyalty to us!
So anyway enough of all that for I know you forgive me right?? What has life been like for you these past 4 months or so since I wrote? Life comes and goes doesn't it? We get up in the morning and by night I am asking myself "Where has that day gone?" I am though so glad to be reminded from time to time that each day is a gift from God. Somedays don't always feel like a gift as we speed around but then I am reminded of the health and strength God gives to enable this journey through life!
We are now just 3 weeks away from the due date of our new arrival. That seems unbelievable in itself. Where have those months gone? While I will be glad to get all that is ahead behind we are also aware of all that is to be done before that event occurs!(Hopefully!). We have come back this past week from being in Edinburgh at the FM convention and helping as we were able, next we head off to FM camp in Inverness to do the morning teaching for their junior camp. A group of just over 30. We very much enjoy these times of sharing with children the wonderful message of Jesus! Then when we get back to Skye we have a short week end after which we are due to go to Portree and Snizort (North end of Skye) for a club in each of those venues and also a youth focus week end. After that.... the baby is allowed to make it's appearance. If only we could always run to plan... but we are praying hard this all works out well. We are very glad to be having some FM help and some other help from Edinburgh for the clubs so Jonathan will not be totally on his own if all our plans fail! God's plan is best and so we leave it up to Him!
So summer holidays have begun here with a bit of a dreich... (google it) outlook.
This Saturday we are due to have an outreach to the young families of the Parish with a trip on the Misty Isle and a bbq at Loch Coruisk. The weather forecast says "NO", but we hope our storm calming God can do something with the outcome! However all will not be lost for the contingency 9is that how you spell it?) plan is in place with a scavenger hunt and bbq at the village hall here in Elgol. It would appear there are around 55 of us already booked. it would be great if some of those folks would follow on to coming into the church and of course even more importantly to faith in Christ. We need a burden for our neighbours in this land. We need to pray for them and seek opportunities to witness through life and word to them. So please pray that this week end will go according to plan.... His that is!
I am off for now as the girls have a wee friend over for a sleepover. It never stops round here.... sound familiar??? Take time with Him, I need to. Bye for now. E. xx

I have spent the last couple of days mulling around doing my housework while listening to Jonathan's mp3 player. I have kept one ear in and one out should the need arise for me to "listen" to the conversations going on. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Carolyn Mahaney who writes the blog girltalk with her 3 daughters. She has done an eight part seminar on Titus 2 and being a wife and mother. It has been good for me.... but.... now the mp3 player has gone and stuck and if I have to listen once more on being grateful to God for our salad... she is talking about self control, in this case it is towards diet. Anyway I don't know what I will do if I have to hear that again. I finally got passed it and managed to the end of that part... which is part 4 by the way. When it ended it went straight back to..."don't forget to thank God for your salad" Is there a message there for me or is it plain and simple that the technology is broken. I only figured out how to work it the day before yesterday! Life can look bleak can't it? Never mind I will get hubby on the job. He has been busy these last couple of days tiling the bathroom in preparation for a shower!!! You heard it, I said a shower!!! A bath is relaxing and all but one can't beat a shower in my estimations, humble as they are.
I think last time I wrote we were heading away for my Gran's special 100th birthday. It came and all went well. Including the telegram from Her Majesty!! It was a fantastic way to spend the night with all our family that you don't get to see apart from at "family Functions".
David and Wilma (my sis and brother in law) came for a night after that and David did a lot of work with Jonathan around the house and outside so that help was invaluable.
I am off today to get the swine flu jab.... may be grunting when I return. If you ask my family they will probably tell you that I always grunt at them!!!
Life goes on. Jonathan is excited at the prospects of having a family service in the Free Church in Sleat (pronounced Slate for all you like me who read it as it is spelled). He is quite nervous about it as it is his first time but I kow he will be fine! Well I will close for now as am off for coffee to a friends house before the dreaded needle!!! Bye for now. keep trusting in Him! E.x

Hi there everyone, I am back again! We are all doing well and enjoying life here in the winter! We have worked out the open fire goes well with the sawdust made from the chainsaw, (very The Good Life). We are back into the swing of all the extra curricular activities that we enjoy. We have met up with another homeschooling family in Skye and heard that there are lots of them out there we just need to find them! We have been to the beach this week .... even in February and Bethany was in the water in her pants, (not for long mind you), oh and we are having a baby! Wow that has been a full and involved paragraph. You see life in Skye is never dull! Our little person, God willing will make an appearance on (I don't think so) the 5th August... making me 16 weeks.. whoop whoop. We are very excited as a whole family although sometimes Mummy gets the collywobbles and thinks only selfishly about her sleeping patterns. That however does not seem to rate very highly in anyone elses moods!
As for life here, we are really enjoying these days. Jonthan has begun in the schools doing assemblies/ RE lesson once a fortnight in 3 schools and 2 nurseries. Here in Elgol and then also Broadford and Kyleakin. He is really enjoying this part of his work. He hasn't been out preaching just so much of late which has left him able to be here at our wee fellowship on a Sunday morning. That is great cos I am a technophobe and need him to set up the projector for the singing!
He begins next month in the Old folks home and we girls are hoping to go too.... just to make sure they let him out again!!
This weekend marks an auspicious.... is that how you spell it?.... occasion in our family. My grandmother is 100 years young. So on Saturday we all meet to bid her happy birthday... along with of course the Queen's card! My Gran is an amazing woman. One of those ladies who have had to work hard to get where she is and brought up a family single handedly due to being widowed young. A mighty fine job she has done too... put that in for you Mum! Today things are so different from her time. She has seen many changes over her lifetime. Through it all I know she has seen the constancy of God. He is her Saviour and friend and she has been a real warrior in my missionary life. In all that life brings for her now, she still wants to know how the "work" is going. Her favourite sentence in those times can be, "people are not gospel greedy". Unfortunately she is right. I was talking to a friend who has bee in the middle east doing "work" there and she told me of the opportunities that faced her to tell of her wonderful Saviour. More in a day than in a year in her local community. Oh we have just been praying at the prayer meeting for a desire for the things of God to come here. That we would seize the opportunities and that people would yearn to know about this Jesus that we love and serve. Please pray for that too. Well I am off now. I hope I will return sooner than the last time. Until then..... Shine the Light! E. xx

Hello there, how are you after all that "weather"? I can see why it was a pain for so many but personally we enjoyed the experiences. Nice to go out and play in for a while, nice to look out at once back inside beside a cosy fire and happy to not have to go too far. For Jonathan that was a different story and he met the black ice firsthand but all was well thankfully.
So these days we have been doing lots of snow experiments. Utilising what we have around us and testing it! Now I have to say that done our findings are inconclusive to actually anything of any importance to anyone but boy we had fun trying. We melted the snow and then strained it to see how dirty it was! We tasted it... just like the ice cubes in Pizza hut seemingly! We melted it in different wrappings and then we .... wait for it.... sculpted it and painted it! The delivery lady got to see it when she appeared yesterday at the door. She must think I am some kind on eejit but hey would she be far wrong???? Well we have also played some of the Christmas games that we all received and have enjoyed that although can see that to our shame Bethany's knowledge for the Disney pictionary was far above anything that we could muster! More Disney films this year!!! We have also done our fair share of just living. It has been a nice time of just being ourselves and being together.
Jonathan starts tomorrow going into the schools. This first time he is able to go with the local minister and see what is involved so that will be really good.
The girls have started swimming lessons and are very much enjoying that.
We are looking forward to soon meeting up with another homeschool family here on the Island. So all is well. Trust you are knowing a good time these days and experiencing much of Jesus. Yours E. xx

A New Year!

Happy New Year to you both my readers! Can you believe it 2010? It was inconceivable what I would be doing and where I would be living when we brought in the New Millenium! So much has changed in life since that day. We have 2 lovely lassies. We have been with a Missionary organisation, a church in Edinburgh and now as freelance Missionaries in the Isle of Skye. I could never have foretold my future if you had given me a piece of paper and a biro on that New year 10 years ago. So what about this year what does it hold? Surely 10 years is difficult to predict but 1? In all honesty I have no idea. I look at a new calendar and wonder what will fill its' slots. The only thing I know for sure is that all I do I want to be with Him. Moses spoke to God and said if Your presence God does not go with us then do not lead us up that Mountain. He knew the importance of going into the battles with the Lord on his side. Without doubt there may be battles ahead this year.... I want Him with me.
This week we are having a quieter week as we take down the decorations. It has been a full and busy time with us being at my Mum's and then having friends to stay. I am looking forward to playing some of the girls Christmas games and such like and spending some quality time before we get back to school.
Well on that note I am going to go and see what they are up to! I might be missing out on Uno Spin! Take care these days, not just physically but spiritually. What better time to start a new prayer time or Bible study than in the New Year. Lets make this decade count for Jesus. With love, E. xx