BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

These past two weeks have been filled with some unusual happenings. It wasn’t long after returning to Scotland Kellie and I discovered we had to pass the “Life in the UK” test before August 24th in order to apply for a different type of passport visa that gives us permanent residency. We called Glasgow- no appointments until the 28th. We called Edinburgh- no appointments until the 27th. Finally we called Dundee (over 100 miles away) and were able to register a test on Wednesday the 13th. With just a week to prepare we spent hours reading and studying census data, statistics, the government structure of Scotland, the UK, and the EU, how to rent a movie movie, how to get a job, EU regulations and benefits, etc.

We finally purchased a car. Our first car in 5 years!!! A 2004 seven seater MPV Volkswagen Touran with 8500 miles.  I want to give a special thank you to all who gave a bit extra to make this possible over the last 12 months.  It has been timely and a great blessing to have a car.

Monday we bought the car, Tuesday we picked it up, Wednesday we took a road trip to Dundee to take and subsequently pass (YEAH!) our “Life in the UK” tests. Friday we discovered someone in the midwest of America had stolen our credit card information and racked up over $2,300 in 24 hours. Sunday I preached, Monday Ethan and Emma started school, Thursday Owen fell off a bench and had to be taken to A&E (the ER) -so glad to have a car just in time! By Friday we had gathered all the letters, passport pictures, and forms in order to renew our ability to remain in Scotland and hopefully be granted permanent residency. This will save us the costs and effort of renewing our passport visas every 1-3 years. Saturday I aged (I am now 2 to the 5th power), and Sunday I preached.

(Owen, a good first experience in the ER)
(back to school for Ethan and Emma)
Life is good. This week we are doing a little remodeling in the basement of the church for our upcoming kids ministry launch. I would expect to be much more drained after these last two weeks, but instead I feel ready to take on the Autumn and the unknown challenges ahead.  Its great to be back!
Keep us in your prayers!

One of my favourite songs these days is the title track of Andy Ashworth’s 4 song LP “For Your Name.” I find Andy to be a fantastic song writer and worship leader and so I thought I would ask him about my favourite song.

Brian: What is the story behind the title track of your new LP “For Your Name”?

Andy: It was during my first year at Re:Hope and I was thinking for awhile about these two constant themes or values in the church. Becoming people of word and becoming a people of prayer. I had an idea to write this song for awhile and wrote down my thought in a notebook.

Some time went by and then one day during Easter Weekend, over a year ago now, I had been working on another song for hours and hours and was getting really nowhere. So, I picked up my notebook, read my previous song idea, and ended up writing the first verse in about 5 minutes while messing around with some chords. The rest quickly came together and I tried it out at church that weekend.

A few weeks later I added the bridge based on reading Habakkuk 3:2.

Brian: What is your song’s essential and crucial message?

Andy: “For Your Name” is a petition to God to keep us on track with him, to keep us in his Word, to keep us in prayer, and to keep us in a place to petition him to move in our generation.

This song was essentially inspired by the vision of our church and it reflects the prayers I kept hearing by various people in our church over a period of several months.

Brian: Thanks Andy for your time. Enjoy your Anti-natal classes!

(You can download or sample Andy Ashworth’s EP HERE.)