Scott and Karen Daily

The summer of 2024 has flown by. Among the various events that have taken place was a very well attended 210th anniversary service for Muirkirk Parish church. It was great to speak not only about the past, and how God has used the church, but also how God is the God of hope for the future.

Another event was an invitation to preach at two churches in Shetland, the church at Scalloway on Mainland Shetland (pictured below), and Bridge End church on Burra. We were able to combine this with a trip to visit many friends on Stronsay in Orkney where we have served previously.

A praise to share is that our visas were renewed for two more years, after which we should be able to file for indefinite leave to remain. We continue to serve the two churches of Trinity in Cumnock and Muirkirk parish church. As always thank you for your continued support and prayer. For more frequent updates, you can follow us on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ScotlandDailys/

Hello, to be honest I had again forgotten all about this page until a recent email about it, as we normally make use of our facebook page and emails to update most people and this page is less convenient and less popular. But a short summary update for any who do still get their information for this page.

I suppose the biggest news from the last time I posted over a year ago was the birth of our son Alexander. A few months after his birth it was discovered he had glucoma in both eyes, and he needed a few operations to partly fix it, and now glasses (pictured below).

We continue to serve the two churches of Trinity in Cumnock and Muirkirk parish church. This past October we were able to make a trip back to the States, our first in over two years, for a brief visit with family and friends.

Again the best way to follow us is on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ScotlandDailys

I can remember a time back in the States when I thought several missionaries and churches I knew never seemed to update their blogs or pages. Well it seems I now fall in the category, I post things on Facebook quite often but I keep forgetting about this blog. In any case, here is a bit of an update on what is happening with us in the Fall of 2022. We are still serving in East Ayrshire. Each week I have the blessing of preaching at Cumnock Trinity and Muirkirk. I continue to do many funerals each month, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 a month.

This past week was the Cumnock Tryst, a festival of music run by Sir James MacMillian, who is an acclaimed conductor and composer, in fact one of the hymns sung during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was specially written by him. Each year on the final day of the festival there is a special church service held in one of the area churches, this year it was held in Trinity, and I was able to preach to a very large crowd. We were also blessed by some talented musicians from the United States who had performed for the festival and played during our service.

In terms of family news, we are getting closer to the due date for Alexander, our expected 5th son (and 7th child over all). Karen is due in mid November (around what would be Thanksgiving in the US). Both Karen and I are hoping to pass our UK driving test before the baby comes. We are kept busy with various church and family responsibilities, but we are blessed to be serving in an amazing area.

I realize that it has been awhile since we last posted here, time really does seem to have flown by. It feels like it was just getting to summer time and already it is the first Sunday of Advent. Most of our time is spent just taking care of the family. For example every school day the four boys have to get to school, which is involves a wee walk. During the walk we have to cross a couple bridges, one over the Glaisnock water (which flows behind our house) and the other the Lugar Water. The two actually meet not far from our house/the church. The picture below is taken from a bridge over the Glaisnock looking back toward the church.

Today was not only the first Sunday of Advent, celebrated at both churches, but also the first real snow we had here. Normally the weather in Scotland is actually more mild in the winter time then most parts of the US (a fact that I rather like). It is of course cooler in the summer (another fact I like), the way I always describe it is that you don’t get the “extremes” you get in Indiana or Minnesotta, neither the hot nor the cold.

We continue to enjoy our time serving the two churches here in East Ayrshire. Recently Karen started to help lead the Women’s Guild, one of the best known organisations within the Church of Scotland, which is set up (to quote them) to encourage women “to commit their lives to Jesus Christ and enables them to express their faith in worship, prayer and action.” Scott continues to preach and minister at both churches. One of the highlights of the past month was the well attended Remebrance Day services at both churches, along with short services at two war memorials.

We want to wish all who take the time to read our blog a very blessed Christmas time.

As things slowly start opening up here in Scotland we are starting to get to know the area and people better. Lord willing within the next few weeks even more people will be able to attend the two churches. I (Scott) have been preaching through the book of Daniel at both churches, starting at 10:30 at Cumnock Old Trinity, and then once that service is done traveling a lovely 16 or so mile drive to Muirkirk parish church for the service there at 12.

Now that school is out for summer break (the boys have been attending the local school which happens to be the largest school “campus” in Scotland), we have been enjoying the relatively warm weather. The only problem being that our current car only seats 7 and there are now 8 of us, which means not all of us can go anywhere together. We have ordered a part for the car that will turn it into an 8 seater, as this is cheaper then buying a new car. We have been able to visit a few playparks, castles, and beaches in the area, as well as just enjoy the area around our home in Cumnock.

We are back in Scotland! We arrived safely with all our many bits of luggage on the 20th of May. Now we are settling in the manse in Cumnock and “serving” our 10 days of isolation that all international travelers currently have to do. We have been able to see some of the lovely people of the church from a distance, but until our isolation time is up we can’t really get out and meet them or enjoy the lovely area. We are excited to start ministering with the two churches of Old Cumnock Trinity church and Muirkirk parish church. The people have already been a great blessing as they continue to provide furniture, food, and lots of toys.

Above is a picture of Old Cumnock Trinity from our manse (home).

The application process for our three-year visas to Scotland will be very expensive – around $27,000. Would you consider giving to help cover these expenses? If so, here a few ways to give:

*check payable and mailed to Clover Community Church, c/o Sandra Nelson, 54111 State Hwy 48, Hinckley, MN 55037. Include a note that it is for Scott Daily support.

*If you use PayPay and aren’t concerned about a tax-deductible receipt, you can give directly to us via PayPal (contact us for our email address if you don’t have it)

*If any of our Scotland/UK friends would be interested in helping out, contact us for our bank details.

A few more details about the visa cost: the visa application fee is £610 per person (8 of us – £4,880), and the health fee is £624 per person per year (3 years – £14,976; once we are in Scotland, however, we will be under their National Health Service and have little to no medical expenses for any services we need). The exchange rate of paying primarily in US dollars increases our cost; currently about $1.36 to the British Pound.

We hope to apply for our visas in February. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

We hope all of your have a wonderful Christmas and great start to the new year. To say this past year was unique is a massive understatement. But has always God has been good. Among the many blessings from Him we have received was the birth of our wee girl Hannah Grace, bringing my quiver of children up to 6 (hopefully they are cheaper by the half dozen).

On the same day as Hannah’s birth I also received word that I had been accepted as the new locum minister for the two churches of Cumnock Trinity and Muirkirk parish church. This will be a bit of a change from the areas I previously worked in as it is not on an island and is quite farther south. The area was once a fairly thriving mining region, but now has suffered from the closing of the mines. It is an area famous historically for ties to Christianity, especially the Covenanters, though of course now like most of Scotland many don’t know our Savior. I am excited to serve these two churches.

My official start date, as of the moment, will be 1 May, 2021. Our hope is to have everything in order and travel over sometime mid to late April. The challenge is to have the money in place, as we will have to get visas and pay the healthcare fee for all our every growing family and of course buy plane tickets. This time we will need to get a three year visa which is naturally more expensive, but worth it.

Colin, Declan, Scott (holding Ewan), Karen (holding Hannah), Liam (holding Mackenzie)

It seems past time for an update on the blog, but really there is not a lot to write about. We made it safely back to the United States near the end of May and have settled for now into the basement of Karen’s parents home in Minnesota. All our flights went well and after clearing a health check at the airport in Chicago we were able to pick up a van we are leasing and drive to MN for a period of isolation. After isolating for several weeks we then made a short trip to Indiana to see some of my family.

In terms of future plans, we are extremely hopeful that we will be able to serve on two islands in Scotland soon. We would appreciate prayers that the churches will be able to open (most churches in Scotland remain closed, some were able to open last Sunday). This would be a wonderful opportunity for me to serve as locum minister (interim pastor) for several churches on one island and one church on an neighboring island. The two islands are among the largest in Scotland, and so this would be a perfect mix of remote and yet provided services such as a hospital, several schools, and larger stores. I am waiting to say much more about which islands they are until we get more “official” confirmation, but the population of the islands is over 10 times that of the last island we worked on. We truly enjoyed our time on Stronsay, and we are really really hoping that we can move to this other island soon.

We are also hoping to visit some of the churches, friends, and family through out the United States, but are waiting a bit longer until it is hopefully even safer to do so. Certainly before we depart again for Scotland (whenever that might be) we will make some journeys in the US.

We will keep you posted when things are a bit clearer for us. Until then we would certainly appreciate your prayers that all goes smoothly soon and we can start the process of getting visas and the like.

-photo, our last site of Stronsay as we head out

Time has flown by here on Stronsay and we are nearing the end of our scheduled time here. Our two year visa is almost up and our plan is to head to the States in the middle of April. Naturally this could now all change given the ever changing travel restrictions. Our current plan is/was to the Monday after Easter and travel South through Scotland and then over to Northern Ireland for a short break. Then we are hoping to fly to the US by way of London. We don’t know how much of our plans will need to change at this point. Our original idea was to travel around a bit in the States after getting back, but that might have to be put on hold, we are just not sure about much at this point.

In the mean time we are still enjoying our time here on Stronsay, still seek to minister as much as we can at the church and to a lesser extent the community. Many events and gatherings are being cancelled and the general guidelines are to “self-isolate”, which is not much of a problem out here.

We will seek to keep all informed about our various plans as soon as we actually are able to know ourselves.