Somewhere Unexpected

Sometimes God brings little blessings in the crazy of it all. After Venice, some other study abroad students and I planned a trip to Edinburgh for the weekend around the same time that God was throwing a lot of crazy curve balls at me. To be honest, I just went along with the Edinburgh plan with no real idea of what I wanted to do when I got there and no expectations. We were supposed to spend 4 days and 3 nights there but once again, just like the rest of the crazy happening, plans were changed. When we arrived at the bus stop on Thursday night, one of the girls realized she had booked the wrong tickets for everyone so we couldn't leave for Edinburgh until the next night. While we were disappointed and upset, it could've been much worse so we went back to East London for the night and had a redo the next day.

After an 8 hour overnight Megabus ride, we finally arrived in Scotland on Saturday. We spent the first day wandering the streets, exploring cute thrifty boutique shops, walking through the National Gallery, and taking a hop on-hop off bus tour to get a general overview of the city's sights. Our hostel was an old church converted into a story mural; all around the chapel were pictures of storefronts and each room was a different shop or function of the "city" such as "Bookstore" or "Barber Shop". On the first night, myself and two other girls took a nature trail back from dinner to our adorable hostel. I had been told Edinburgh was beautiful but just walking a simple trail with the river and changing colored leaves crunching beneath my feet was all I needed to remind myself of Wisconsin. This time last year I was in Door County with my family with similar sights; the only difference here in Edinburgh were the old, beautiful buildings surrounded by this gorgeous autumn nature.The feeling of the trail was familiar and comforting. (I later found out the smell of the city, particularly strong on that trail, is the wheat from all of the beer produced in the area. To me, it smelled like soggy Raisin Bran cereal but to each girl on the trip, the very specific smell had a different association.) As we walked back, I got a phone call from a person I admire a lot and hadn’t spoken to in awhile. It was someone I hadn't spoken to about my recent ventures and struggles but who God knew I needed to hear from. He reminded me of what life was like before this pain and was literally the perfect person I needed to hear from in that time and place. We talked for hours that night and as he was currently driving through Wisconsin, he told me it was snowing. I wasn't surprised but more nostalgic for home.

       

Our cozy, childlike converted church hostel

   

                        

    

By the next day it was clear the girls I came with and I had very different travel styles and ideas. They wanted to venture into Glasgow but given we had one less day than anticipated, I couldn't bear to leave beautiful Edinburgh only to get on yet another mode of transportation to another location, so I stayed back. We still had an entire city of Edinburgh to explore! I stayed back with doubts, however, and feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. But staying back ended up being the greatest choice I made on this trip, or rather God made for me. He had something greater in store I could’ve never seen coming.

I got up early with plans to check out some museums and hike up to Arthur’s Seat- though it was supposed to rain. I arrived at the Museum of Childhood earlier than it opened so I decided to find some place for breakfast. Wandering up the Royal Mile, waiting for the museum to open, God was calling me elsewhere. I walked about a block up the hill in front of a Radisson Hotel and God was telling me to go inside. I couldn't imagine why but when I looked down and right in front of me was a sign that said “Hillsong Edinburgh”. I'm not gonna lie, I had been pretty angry with God lately and, due to all the emotional stress, in no real mood for God or any of that on this morning. To be honest, I had forgotten it was Sunday and hadn’t been to church in a few weeks. I had no idea Hillsong had a location in Edinburgh. (The night before, I had just shared some life stuff with a friend at the Hillsong Bible College in Australia and asked her to pray for me, and now here I was outside Hillsong Edinburgh at the Radisson Hotel.) God told me to go inside the place, so I did, and found my way to the welcome table. I saw some people setting up but knew I was an hour and a half early so I told myself I would come back- with no accountability. I walked out of the hotel a few steps and God told me to go back inside. So he spoke and I listened. I figured there would be locals to give me suggestions for a breakfast place. I met three sweet girls who welcomed me and one gave me the suggestion for this cute vegan juice place to check out.

On the way to the juice bar, I walked through Victoria Street, the most photographed street in Edinburgh, known to have inspired J.K. Rowling to create her famous street in Harry Potter. I brought my breakfast back to Hillsong at the Radisson and found the girl I had met before. For you church-goers, you know there is a radical difference between showing up 5 minutes before service and potentially having no one to sit with versus arriving a bit early to find others to sit with. So walking back in there that second time was God’s way of showing me to friends I didn’t have an hour earlier. The next thing I know, one of the girls was sharing her life story with me and I was sharing mine with her. We agreed if we cried during the service, at least we would cry together. The message that Sunday was streamed from Hillsong London with a guest speaker from South Africa and was honestly the perfect message I needed to hear that day. After the service, I found myself ditching my original plans for the day and heading to Nando's with a bunch of the young adults from the church for lunch. Two hours later, we found ourselves chatting away as if we had known each other forever and I suddenly had new friends.

 

       


I eventually carried on with my original plans of seeing the museums I wanted to see. I still had some time to kill before the other girls returned, and the sun was setting, so I decided to climb up to Calton Hill. Right before I began hiking, another girl I met at Hillsong appeared. We had barely spoken two sentences to each other that morning but recognized each one another. Her friend was in town from London that weekend and she happened to be showing her around, so I tagged along and the three of us spent the evening together. So here, in the middle of the city, in a random tourist spot, two people who attended the same service just that morning, were now taking pictures and laughing and talking.

Upon returning to London, I got a message from two of those three friends I met saying they would be in London the following weekend and we ended up meeting up again. I feel like I have a whole other family in Edinburgh just waiting for me now, at the church, and among those people, who, within 5 short hours, managed to take me in and we learned about one another. I always knew Edinburgh was beautiful but the beauty I experienced that weekend went beyond the colors of leaves changing or historic buildings; it lied within the people and their stories and their welcoming arms to me. Just the day before, on that phone call, I had been sharing how I missed fall retreat, escaping the big city Chicago to peaceful Wisconsin, enjoying nature and worshiping the Lord. And here I was, across the ocean, escaping the big city London to peaceful Edinburgh, enjoying nature and worshiping the Lord. It was the retreat I really needed. So even in the midst of this "bad comedy" (as I like to call this chapter of my life with unexpected dilemmas bigger than your typical "homesickness"), God led me somewhere unexpected that day, and for that I am forever grateful. As many loved ones have told me since sharing this story, "maybe you need to go back", I think I will. I know I will come back to Edinburgh. The place that filled me with peace and open arms.