‘What about Liana??’ #1: Building Community

I’ve been asked by many to post about what I’ve been keeping busy with these last few months. I don’t think blogging is something that comes naturally to me and I may have been procrastinating just a little from doing any posts thus far. However, I’ve finally worked myself up to it. Here we go.

There are four main things I’ve spent my time doing (aside from the things Jesse has already written about). In the interest of keeping these posts short I’m going to write about them one at a time.

When we arrived in St Andrews we were immediately drawn in to the community of people here. We had a wonderful stay with the amazing Watts family (Steve, Elissa, and Issac) our first week here and there were also many events held in September that allowed us to meet large numbers of people in a very short amount of time. The main one for me was a Saturday morning where I was able to meet many of the other wives who are here and learn about what goes on during the week in the community. I also began going to a Tuesday night small group of fellow St Mary’s women. This group quickly became a highlight of my week. Together we worked our way through the book ‘Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony’. This book provided us with much to discuss but my favorite part of Tuesdays was always sharing about our weeks. It has been so life giving to hear from and share with other women here – partly because many of our struggles and praises are similar, but also because everyone genuinely cares about one another.

Christmas Day walk to the East Sands with the Watts! Steve, Elissa and Isaac

I haven’t really been working since we arrived (more on that to come) so I’ve had the opportunity to visit with others during the day while Jesse is at the office. Going for walks through the town, grabbing a coffee or just going over to someone’s house to visit has been so great. I’ve never had this kind of free time during the week and I’ve so enjoyed spending it one on one with a number of wonderful women.

Lovely Ladies. Rachel Brewer and Andrea Allen.

The other main way we’ve gotten to know people is having meals together. I was so excited to meet some people who share my interest in and love of all things food and cooking. Seeing as how I’m usually thinking about either cooking or eating, it was wonderful for me to meet others who understand and share this passion. Also, having people to commiserate with when I couldn’t find Kosher salt (and a good many other ingredients) has been a great comfort.

As the new year approaches and I look back on these first four months I find it hard to believe that I met many of the people we now consider close friends such a short time ago. I am grateful.