Our trip to Niddrie
'Let’s go to Niddrie!’ I shout. ‘I’ll come,’ answers Tim. ’But you organise it’. Hmm…..
What and where is Niddrie, or I should say Niddrie Community Church?
It is in the heart of the Niddrie Housing scheme in Edinburgh.
This church is the focal hub of the community and reaches out to people who live on the scheme. There are many different activities going on during the week for every section of the community to join in on, including a café, children’s activities, Men’s and Women’s ministries including: a monthly Bible studies for the men, and a Tuesday morning Bible study for the women. They also have a football team and lots of other exciting stuff. Everyone is always very welcome, no matter what their religion. They also have morning and evening meetings on a Sunday.
Click on the link below and check out all that the Niddrie Gang are doing up in Edinburgh:-
Why go to Niddrie?
We wanted to see how they do things and to encourage them in all the great work they are doing in their community. It would be a flying visit (we were only there 24 hours) but we were very keen to meet the Niddrie gang and to worship and pray with them.
And so, off we went to Scotland on a Saturday morning, meeting at Kings Cross to catch the 11:30am train to Edinburgh. A fairly uneventful journey, where we tried to get our first glimpse of Megan Markle’s wedding dress while being well fed with Susan’s French Fancies and Tim’s donuts.
Andy and Debbie (Assistant Pastor and his wife) hosted a barbecue at their house with many attending from Niddrie Community Church. It was a pleasure to meet so many people from the fellowship, including Ronnie, who showed up in his kilt and sporran, looking very suave. Relaxing around a log fire in the garden, out came the single malt whisky (men only!) and tea for the ladies.
After a comfortable night in fellowship members’ homes, we arrived at Church on Sunday morning ready for the prayer meeting. Andy preached and we sang God’s praises. We also prayed with members of the Church.
Church lunch followed including jelly and ice-cream, a blast from my past. Apparently, it is still very popular with the kids (and still gets everywhere, including a large blob on the floor). Some things never change. We had time to chat with Niddrie folk in the church café, who welcomed us warmly, and then it was on to Craigmillar Castle. A ruin of a building but having a good claim to fame – Mary Queen of Scots stayed there. The atmosphere was further enhanced by Ronnie doing a Scottish dance and giving us a rendition of ‘Scotland the Brave’ on his harmonica.
What can I say about the train journey home? I could mention broken down trains, broken pantographs, delays, reversing back up the track, Richard offering to fix the train air conditioning, Tim’s snoring and Virgin coffee. Suffice it to say that we all arrived home safely, albeit it was 3:00am when I got into bed.
Thank you for hosting us Niddrie, we had fun, it was great meeting you all and chatting, hearing about the great things you are doing, and of course having the opportunity to pray for you – we also were blessed and had a great adventure into the bargain.
Liz R