a (not so) wee update
new beginnings
In September I moved to Dundee, Scotland, a city situated on the Tay River just off of Scotland’s eastern shore. I had to quarantine for a few days before starting at my placement but there has been lots of business since then. I’m partnered with the Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas office and have been placed at Menzieshill Parish Church (pronounced meen-giss-hill) in west Dundee. My placement will conclude at the end of July.
Jordan, Victoria, Helen, Teressa
I share a flat with three other American YAVs who are also serving Priority Area churches across Dundee. All three of them call the east coast home. Victoria, a North Carolina native, was my rock during the 18-month waiting process of getting here. She was one of the original four selected to serve in Scotland with me in 2020, so we’ve truly been weathering the storm together. Jordan and Helen were added to our group last spring. They grew up in New Jersey and Virginia respectively and both happen to be pastors’ kids! We are a tight-knit group and luckily there is a lot of laughter in this house.
My work community is pretty expansive but some of the key people are Bob Mallinson, my line manager and the head pastor at my placement; Naomi Nicolson, session clerk of Menzieshill and very dear friend; and Iain Wilson, community development worker from Bethany Christian Trust. Iain helps run the Cafe (a community outreach I’ll elaborate on later) each week and helped start a few other community outreach initiatives at our church; Rachel Mallison, Bob’s wife, helps run Connect Youth and Youth Alpha groups on Saturdays. My YAV site coordinators are the ever-lovely Pam Mellstrom and Naomi Dornan, who work for the Priority Areas office of the Church of Scotland.
what does being a YAV look like in scotland?
If you’re not familiar with the YAV program, it stands for Young Adult Volunteer and it is a program through the Presbyterian Mission Agency. The YAV motto is “a year of service for a lifetime of change.” With that in mind, you can imagine that working as a YAV can be quite varied. No site operates the same or has the same mission focus. One thing that drew me to the Scotland site, in particular, was the ability to be able to try my hand at many different things. I could still do work with pre-school-aged kids, which I know I love, but also explore what youth ministry looks like. I also work on food provision, helping address food insecurity, and walking alongside many folks who are current and recovering addicts. Those are just naming a few. Ultimately I’m here as a community support person and doing my best to be the body of Christ.
placement
The Priority Areas office—the office that oversees each of our placements—identifies a Priority Area as “a community where deprivation rates fall within the bottom 5% across all of the social and economic indicators. The Church currently designates 64 congregations as Priority Areas…Our goal [...] is to support and empower local people who are working to mitigate the effects of poverty, deprivation, and isolation in their communities.” Menzieshill Parish church is part of the PA supplementary list which is a separate group of 112 parishes, meaning that part of their congregations falls within the 5% most deprived areas.
“What does it look like when we make the poorest in our community a priority?”
One of the focuses of Menzieshill is from Ezekiel 47: “The river of God flowing from the people of God, bringing life wherever we go” and I think this pairs very well with the mission of PA: “We are committed to creating a Church in Priority Areas that is indivisible from its community, working with local people; sees local people as gifted, creative, resilient leaders; reaches out and stands with people in their most difficult situations; uses all ways possible to live the Gospel; seeks to be a family of church communities and encompasses the widest range of theology; is intolerant of and becomes prophetic about injustice.” In a recent Priority Area online event “The Big Conversation” we were asked, “What does it look like when we make the poorest in our community a priority?” This is work that Jesus was taking on during his ministry. When we make those people who have been pushed into some margin our priority, we allow light to come through. All of the superficial things fall away and you begin to realize that your struggles don’t just have to be your own – that whatever you may need, that which is is rightfully yours, is there, you just have to be willing to look for it and accept it.
what is my role within my placement?
I have many roles to fill at my placement, working with various outreaches and ministries within the Menzieshill community. Each of them will be detailed in the following section:
The Connect Cafe is an outreach program held every week on a Wednesday. It is an open space for folks to come in for a warm meal, cuppa, and conversation. Community development workers are there to help guide participants to any services they may need. The ultimate goal of the Cafe is to build connections that impact the wider community.
My main role in this initiative is simply to be present. In a more logistical way, I have various roles that change depending on the week. Some weeks I might be serving up soup, rolls, and toasties, Other weeks I’m taking coffee/tea orders. It’s been a fun challenge remembering everyone’s name but also what they take in their hot drinks. As I’ve become more comfortable with that flow and helped our volunteers feel confident in those positions, I’ve moved away from the serving line and out to the dining tables. I sit with people and ask about their weeks, listen for what they need, and help where I can. Some days are really heavy; others are light and fun, and the extent of our conversations may get no further than having a laugh guessing how old so-and-so might be.
Little Stars Playgroup is an open space for caregivers to bring children ages 0-5 to play and socialize with other children for a few hours, three times a week. Additionally, it acts as a good community-building space for caregivers.
My role in this program is also to be flexible, available, and ready to find where the gaps are on any given day. Typically I’m helping my colleague, Linda, set up toys before everyone arrives, put out crafts/tabletop activities for kids, and helping the kids learn to be problem solvers. After about an hour, a snack is prepared for both children and adults. Most days the caregivers take turns doing this, so I’m looking out for the children who are playing in another room. I also help with the teardown of toys, etc.
Made in Menzieshill is a self-reliant group (SRG) that meets once per week on Tuesday afternoons. Members meet to make crafts that are sold at various sales around the city through the course of the year. Each member pays one pound to help go towards supply costs. Items are then sold to help offset costs and make a small income. No one person is in charge of the group. Everyone is able to participate and make decisions.
Made in Menzieshill has a major focus on community and self-reliance and I’m there to be a part of that support network. I love crafts and learning new ones from others, but what I get the most out of is the conversations we have during these couple hours each week. The first couple of months focused on making our items for the Christmas sales, but since the new year, we’ve met and decided what new projects we might like to work on and ways the group might be able to make a more steady income throughout the year rather than primarily during the holidays.
Connect Youth is a youth project that was started at Menzieshill about ten years ago. Various activities are open for kids to participate in during the evening including crafts, Xbox, air hockey, table tennis, pool, football, and the music room. The intention is to give young people over the age of 11 a safe environment to be together with their friends on the weekend. We also have once-monthly faith and pizza nights.
Being that this youth club operates in a church, we do have several kids who may not call themselves Christians but just want to know more. In response to this, Connect Youth introduced a time in the early evening before the larger gather to meet for a meal and have interactive, engaging conversations about faith through a course called Youth Alpha. Both of these programs happen weekly on Saturday evenings.
Like many of my roles, each week looks a little bit different, but after helping with setup, I’m the adult present in one of the activity spaces. Given my skills and comfort level with teenagers, I prefer to be in the crafting/baking space where it’s often quieter and I get a chance to chat with the teens about their weeks. I’ve built some really meaningful connections already, but my hope is that I can continue to be someone that they can trust to share their stories with and remind them that they are valued and loved.
Other Work: Occasionally I help with the foodbank distribution site that runs out of our church, the AV desk during worship on Sundays, as well as attend session meetings, working on the church’s website, and help with social media marketing. Once in a while, I’m on the roster for helping with reading and prayers during worship. I’m also currently working on gathering some funding for new ways to keep people connected and engaged with the church as we slowly work our way out of the pandemic and its restrictions.
personal
In my limited free time, I get to spend time with the community that I’ve built here in Scotland doing various activities such as:
Hillwalking, Day trips/retreats & Free museums
As much as my flatmates and I are anti-voluntourism we also want to get to know the area where we live by doing things outside of work as well. Back in October, we went on a nice long hillwalk (hike) through Corrie Fee, an hour car ride north of Dundee on the edge of the Cairngorms. When our site coordinator, Pam, comes to visit us every few weeks we try to get out and go explore castles, nearby towns, beaches, etc. We are really lucky here in that most museums are free to see the permanent exhibits. Some museums have traveling exhibits that you pay a small fee to visit, but overall it’s pretty reasonable. In December, Pam and her best pal, Lorna, graciously hosted us for an overnight retreat in Falkirk and the second day took us to explore old town Edinburgh and the Christmas markets.
Lunch at the Community Center
On Tuesday afternoons, I have over an hour-long gap between work obligations, but it doesn’t usually make sense to go all the way home and back. The Menzieshill Community Hub is just down the street from my placement and has a lovely 2-pound meal deal at their cafe. Soup, sandwich, salad, coleslaw, and a drink is included. It’s filling and so worth the convenience. Plus, it’s situated a the perfect spot where I can get a nice view of the Tay river – definitely makes the cloudy, gray days a bit more interesting.
Bingeing Ted Lasso Together
When we arrived in Scotland, the second season of Ted Lasso was just concluding. I had seen the first few episodes of season one previously but hadn’t managed to get into it. To our luck, Helen had an Apple TV account so we started from S1:E1 and watched both seasons together as a house. The show, if you haven’t seen it, makes my heart swell. Despite what it might initially look like watching the first episode, it’s not so much about sports but actually building relationships and investing in the people around you. Ted Lasso, an American football coach by trade, knew nothing about soccer, but actually, his gift to the team was being there for his players and work colleagues. The other more personal connection is that Ted is also a Kansas transplant in Britain. Jason Sudeikis, a Kansas native himself, did a great job of keeping true to the Kansan within Ted (despite his accent).
I found the show inspiring as we watched this in the first few weeks of placement, because it made me realize that I didn’t have to know anything about the work that I was doing; I would learn along the way, and that I just needed to show up and be there for people.
dinner together
Our schedules when we first arrived were not very full, so we had lots of time to cook a full meal and sit down to enjoy it together in our dining area. This was a habit we created early on, so is a priority to us that we continue to at the very least share meals together. One of the YAV core tenets is “Intentional Christian community” and our dinner table is one of the places where we foster that the best. It’s important to take time after, often, long days to check in with one another. We each take a couple of turns cooking each week and rotate through the dinner time chores to make the process easier. I’ve been proud of all four of us for being willing to try new meals, creating a routine, and prioritizing the sacredness of shared meals because sometimes dinner may really be the first time we’ve seen each other all day.
Advocacy and Additional Non-Placement mission
We were really lucky that the UN’s Global Climate Summit, COP-26, was being held in Glasgow this year. The four of us made the journey together to join with the Faith Bloc during the march. We marched with the Church of Scotland, but it was so empowering to be united with other faith communities for one common cause: creation care. We had hoped to sit in on some of the discussions on the COP-26 campus, but unfortunately, all slots were full. It was a very rainy day, but we made the most of it and were even able to meet the Church of Scotland moderator, Lord Jim Wallace.
Soul Food: Young Adult Group
Jordan was charged by her placement church to think about beginning a group targeted towards young adults roughly in the post-college/pre-kids stage of life. We decided that because the pool of people Jordan knew in that demographic in her work was quite small, we agreed that it actually might be better to create something more Dundee-wide and bring together people from each of our placements. While it is being started by people who all identify as Christians, our hope is just that it be an open and welcoming group for anyone between 18-30ish to enjoy a meal together and share space, especially after all being pretty isolated in the last couple of years. We met for the first time in December as a group of 12 including our house of four. This month, due to restrictions, we decided it best to just keep it easy and pick up coffees to-go from one of our favorite places and head out for a walk along the river. We have some exciting plans for more ways our group can be involved in some advocacy work, but more on that at a later date.
Romanticizing Rainy Walks to the Grocery Store
One thing that I’ve loved here is not having to bother with having a car. Yes, they can be more convenient but I really enjoy taking public transit, and honestly, I walk so much more. The walk from the bus stop to the grocery store is about five minutes and on several occasions, it’s been drizzly and grey. To some of you, I’m sure that sounds absolutely miserable, but there is something to be said about the way the old stone buildings meet the sky. It’s so idyllic and something I’ve dreamed of for so long that I often have to remind myself that I’m actually not dreaming. This is my life now and I quite like it.
same same, but different
I wanted to take some time to mark some notable differences/observations between US and Scotland. Both generally and as well as in relation to the Church. For example, in the last few months, I’ve found myself using a lot of Scottish lingo that I didn’t think I would add to my vernacular quite so fast. I often use words like wee, cuppa, cannae, and aye. Questions like “what are you on about” or “are you having a laugh” fall out of my mouth like it’s nothing.
I often find that being outside for the sunset on the shorter days really helps me not feel so bad about the lack of sunshine during the winter.
Additionally, Dundee lovingly promotes that it is “the sunniest city in Scotland,” but let me tell you, that’s not saying much. It’s quite different here than in Kansas, in that it rains very frequently, but the type of rain is much different. Kansas gets big heavy drops and thunderstorms in the summer, Scotland gets steady, quiet drizzles year-round. I didn’t have a hard time adjusting to it though because, as many of you know, I lived in Seattle for nearly three years. The temperatures and weather patterns are very much the same. The biggest thing I’ve had to cope with here in terms of weather is just how short the days were in the summer. We were getting maybe 6 to 7 hours of daylight, but when it’s cloudy so often, it can be quite grim. The days are finally getting longer now though, I think I’ll be just fine.
Another major difference I’ve noticed here (at least in my circle of people here) is how unafraid people are to talk about mental health. I would say in the US, we only talk about it at its worst moments, and not as an ebb and flow, and even then it’s something that has such a negative stigma around it especially among men. In fact, I think I hear more men talk and ask about mental health here than I do women which is just such a shift from what I’m used to. I think the de-stigmatization of mental health is very important and something that should continue to be addressed.
Something else that has been striking to me is that poverty is less “visible” in Dundee than in most cities of its size in the US. You don’t see nearly as many people living outside. In Scotland—while they have their share of issues that need to be addressed—housing access is something it seems that they’ve done a much better job of offering, but having heard stories, there is still plenty of work to be done.
Lastly, before moving here, I had a very limited understanding of the Church of Scotland and just how wide the theological spectrum is within the Church here. My assumption that the Church of Scotland mirrored the Presbyterian Church (USA) was naïve. Because of that, worship experiences vary a lot as well. I grew up in a large, “traditional-looking” Presbyterian Church that is more on the liberal end of the theological spectrum and solely uses a hymn book on Sunday mornings. My placement church has a much more modern feel to it, with more theologically traditional values, and worship is led by a contemporary praise band.
so, now what?
This month each of us has been discerning where/what we are being called to after our YAV years. I don’t have any inkling about what I might decide just yet, so am hoping and praying for a bit more clarity. My options are to do another YAV year either in Scotland again or at another site in the program; stay in Scotland and try to find another job that might sponsor a new work visa for me, or come back to the US and begin working again.
While I may have not discerned what comes next, I’ve enjoyed plugging myself into a new context. I keep myself very very busy, but I’m building community among many different groups of people. Working on our mission of “making the poorest our priority” through community support work is very fulfilling and my hope is that it’s furthering the work of the Kingdom in a positive way.
Thank you all for your prayers and support of my time here in Dundee. To those of you who sent Christmas cards, thank you. Now that you all have an idea of what my YAV year looks like, my hope is to make these updates a bit more frequent and a lot less bulky.
Chat soon!
xx, t
p.s. thank you for your patience in receiving this update.
