McMurray Scotland-Ireland Mission Blog

 Prayers For The Gardiners Please In our last blog post, we talked alot about the Gardiners. 15 years ago they lived in Thousand Oaks, CA. Our son, Stephen, was a young missionary there and the Gardiners were welcoming and kind to he and his companions over about 9 months. We were sent to Ireland for our mission and within 2 weeks here in Dundalk, their daughter, Abby, was assigned to serve in our area. It was wonderful to get to know her and we marvelled at the coincidence (not) that brought us together. Abby's 18 month mission came to an end a few weeks ago and her parents, Craig and Kristi, and 2 siblings, Tim and Lucy, came over from Utah to pick Abby up and to tour around Ireland for a couple of weeks. We were able to meet them a few times and spend time getting to know them. They are a wonderful family. A few days ago, while the family was in Tralee, Craig was taken to hospital where it was learned that he had suffered a stroke. He was taken to Cork to a larger hospital for b...

  We Are All Connected Lucy, Tim, Abby (just released as full-time missionary), Kristi, Craig (Gardiner) from Orem, Utah; and I and Tina, then Noeleen O'Rourke, and Brendan Mooney. We all enjoyed an evening out in Dundalk for a meal altogether, and hearing about the Gardiner adventures as they've traveled in Scotland and Northern Ireland after picking up Abby upon completing her 18 month mission. Wait, the connections with the Gardiners don't stop - 15 yrs ago they were living in Thousand Oaks and hosted our son and his missionary companion many times during his mission, and we have done likewise with their daughter, Abby while she served here, but, there's more.  After last week's blog post, my sister Valerie, serving with her husband Scott in the Vancouver Canada Mission, sent me the below photograph of their granddaughter (my great niece) Addy, and her bestie at the time, Lucy Gardiner. Are you kidding me? Wow. Thanks Valerie for adding to the intrigue. When I sh...