As I was sitting in Calvary Chapel Point Loma today, I realized why I like it.

They're not fixated on growth. The bulletin contained no building plans, no exhortation to donation, no carnivally events with "Invite a friend!" pleas tacked on. They meet in an Adventist church, yet they haven't spoken once of finding their own facility in the three weeks I've attended. They seem content with ministering to the body they have in the most effective ways they can- from Bible studies, baptisms, and family missions trips, to coffee with pastries and fruit after service. No desperate need to legitimize themselves through numbers. So refreshing.

I just coast down Catalina to get there (and work my glutes up Catalina to get back). One greeter remembered my name from last week, and the college study leader's wife insisted I call her any time for a ride to their group. The church isn't perfect, not that any are, and I'm not in love with it yet, but from our short acquaintance, I do like it.

In other news, my Scotland study partners and I visited our country's cottage in Balboa Park's International Cottages collection. Unfortunately, no qualifying Scots were to be found- apparently what native members there were died, and, as Scotland's economy and standard of living is as good as ours, no one's immigrating here anymore, so only second-generationers are yet carrying the cottage flag.

Still, we got pictures of the place to use as visual aids for our presentation. Oh, and we had a neat conversation with a very German architect visiting with his distantly Scottish wife. He told us about how he had renovated an 1820s-era Scottish-inspired house in Vermont for her, gutting out the foundation and constructing an entirely new cellar. Before they left, he asked me if I were Scottish, and when I admitted to it, he said, "I could tell. Look at that Scottish blush!" As I turned redder, he told me, "Never lose it." I found our last name in some of the books in the cottage, delighting in the legitimation. One book said it could be traced to Ayrshire in the 16th century, and another defined it as denoting the apex of things, the "summit" or "cream." I really enjoyed that. I hope we get the "barr" of grades on this Scotland project.