SCOTLAND'S capital is coming to terms with the "heart-breaking" news that its summer festivals will not go ahead this year - costing the city hundreds of millions of pounds.

HOUSING bosses in Scotland’s capital have finally moved all homeless families with children out of unsuitable B&Bs after Airbnb properties and hotel rooms were left empty by the coronavirus lockdown.

NICOLA Sturgeon said she does not expect police to be “routinely patrolling office blocks” as sweeping new enforcement powers come into force to include workplaces flouting social distancing rules.

SCOTS have been urged to give up smoking and cut down their alcohol consumption in a bid to reduce “complications linked to conroavirus”.

The ingenuity of Scotland’s independent food sector, and its determination to keep feeding us in these testing circumstances, is remarkable. Restaurants and cafés have gone down the takeaway route, small artisan suppliers who lost overnight all their catering customers have rapidly reconfigured their business around home delivery. Farmers who previously struggled to attract supermarket shoppers have never been so busy. Farmer’s markets have adapted to sell delivered or collected vegetable b

This typical dish from Puglia, the region in the south east of Italy where you see the beautiful white trulli houses in the holiday brochures, is one of our customers’ favourite dishes from the menu in our Valvona & Crolla Caffè Bar in Edinburgh.

LEARNING from the hands of her grandmother in Italy, it was perhaps always going to be Giovanna Eusebi's destiny that she would go on to create culinary masterpieces of her own one day.

MARC Mazoyer is getting ready for the week ahead. He’s made soup, and a loaf of bread, and roasted a chicken and he’s thinking about what he’ll do with the food over the next few days. Some of the chicken can go into a dahl, and maybe a risotto, and he might make some quesadillas with it too. And the leftovers can go into a caesar salad. This is how Marc keeps physically well. But it’s how he keeps mentally well too.

Big Zuu is headed back out on tour - but not as we know it.

From surf towns in Portugal to small communities in Zambia, God is using sports to break down barriers and bring people together in fellowship with Him.

At the heart of missions lies a passion for justice. In every community in which OM is involved, working for justice for the oppressed and vulnerable is part of ministry.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

"In order to fulfil our mandate, there are several needs we must invest in," says Stephan Bauer.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM first looked to other organisations to provide practical aid but now couples relief and development with its core vision.

"If we are serious about planting churches among the least reached as how we do mission, we must always be willing to question, reconsider and reform our paradigms," says Shaun Rossi.

OM is known for action, not reflection; for pioneering, not reminiscing. Still, we are wise to celebrate milestones and learn from our past, whatever will serve us well for today and tomorrow.

"Today’s stark reality is that more than 2.8 billion people have not heard this message of hope and transformation—and 57,000 people are added to this number daily. When I heard this, I was deeply impacted, and resolved that I want to be part of changing that trajectory."

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

In a village in Serbia, OM workers see Roma believers reaching Roma, encouraging them to let God put a new song in their mouths.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

Believers travel by snowmobile or helicopter to share a message of great worth with indigenous reindeer herders and fishermen.

OM Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

"The messages teens hear are 'Enjoy life: no commitment, keep your choices open and choose comfort'. Is this the consequence of their own choices or of the generation that raised them? Probably both," shares Ewout.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update by Lawrence Tong, International DIrector

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong

According to Stephan Bauer, short-term mission teams are "less a problem to be solved, but more a tension to be managed, and the aim should be for STTs to have a credible impact on the ministry and be effective in mobilising long-term workers."

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International director

Inspired by the Good Shepherd who leaves the flock to look for the one, workers publish the Truth in Nivkh dialects though the people group is small.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong

OM Ministry Leader, Lenna Lidstone, discusses how to use Discovery Bible Studies to see vibrant communities of Jesus Followers among the least reached.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

In Arctic Russia, reindeer are the Nenets' life. Living among these people, ES longs for the Nenets to know Jesus, the true source of life.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong

“Enough is enough,” said one Edinburgh resident, about the scene of desolation in Princes Street Gardens. Following this year’s bigger-than-ever Christmas Market and Hogmanay celebrations, the mudbath left after the festive village was dismantled is disgraceful. I’m tempted to say it looks as if a herd of belted galloways has run amok, but that would be unfair. Cattle don’t make half as much midden as the city’s annual cash-cow.

On the potholed drive home from the pub the other night, a creature ran into the beam of our lights. Long, low and lean, for a moment it looked like an otter. One has occasionally been sighted in our village, though like Loch Ness’s fabled monster this is a source of some dispute. But in another second it was clear that this beast was not from the riverbank but the woods.

I dimly remember a time when the subject of keeping a house warm would have left me cold. In a previous existence, my brother-in law would visit in the depths of winter and complain about how chilly the place was. The problem was not our thermostat, however, but that he chose to sit in a bay window overlooking the Firth of Forth, through which the wind would find him in his short-sleeved shirt.

A young American dressed for the hills wandered past our cottage last week with the air of someone lost. Alan who, since we moved here, has found his calling as a human Google map, asked if she was looking for something. “Yeah,” she said, “a Diet Coke.” He told her that, despite our community’s many attractions, a shop wasn’t one of them. Pointing her in the other direction, towards a village two miles away, he said she’d find what she needed there.

There was a time when I would sit up late in bed, reading novels. As a reviewer, this was often for work, but that didn’t diminish the pleasure of ending the day in another world. Of late, however, I’ve hurried through ordinary books the way you rush the main course in expectation of pudding. The reason? I’ve discovered the joy of gardening catalogues, and of roses in particular. As a result, my evening ritual is extended to include a last look at roses that ramble over walls, or join hand

When I first moved to the country, I anticipated taking long sturdy walks every few days, filling my lungs with fresh air, and gradually – proudly – achieving the weathered complexion of a Norwegian fisherman. Such is the variation in outdoor complexions in rural parts, Farrow & Ball could start a new range: shepherd’s sunburn, builder’s brick red, farmer’s frozen snout.

One of the loveliest towns in Italy is the walled city of San Gimignano, an hour’s drive from Florence. When I first visited it was bleak midwinter and all but a few shops and cafes were shuttered against the sleet. Its claim to fame is a profusion of medieval towers, hence its hyperbolic label as the Manhattan of Tuscany. When I arrived these fortresses soared overhead, making shadowy streets even darker.

In search of peanuts for the birds, I stumbled across an agricultural shop in a nearby village. From the outside it was unspectacular, but opening the door was like stepping into an episode of The Archers. They did indeed have peanuts, in sacks the size of whisky barrels. I wouldn’t have been able to drag one as far as the till, and I wondered if other weaklings had ever secretly slashed them open and let nuts pour into their pockets, gloves and wellie boots, before staggering out like overstu

There is little to like about the present predicament, but one thing I don’t miss is checking my diary every evening for a reminder of what tomorrow will bring. Our social life is not what you’d call a whirl, so usually memory can be relied on for the occasional gatherings. Here in Hoolet, socialising is often impromptu, a random encounter leading to a casual evening drink a few hours later, or a last-minute supper in a kitchen, so soon after the invite that nobody could possibly forget.

Sunday, April 19, 2020.